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JulianJ

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  1. Like
    JulianJ reacted to LongLeftFlank in China vs Taiwan please?   
    "ADLERTAG, mein Herren. The destruction of the English air force on the ground."
    Now, as then, much easier said than done.  Actual suppression of actual defenses on a nationwide scale takes weeks; it simply doesn't happen in a single 'decapitating strike (Grosser Schlag).  And while the PLAAF has come a ways since the early 2000s when MiG-19s were still its mainstay, its ability to mount weeks of high intensity combat operations across the Straits where the primary threat is (well dispersed) SAMs, not enemy warplanes is.... untested.
    Remember, the entire point of this is not to clear the skies, it's to pave the way for invasion. Taiwan is rugged and full of caves. Taiwan is also rather good at making sophisticated AA/antiship/AT missiles and firing systems in bulk, and their average reservist is more than competent to operate same.
    Effectively, Xi would be betting his own life, and very likely the future of CPC rule in China, upon the abilities of a recently 'rejuvenated' force that hasn't fought a serious war since 1979. And, let's face it, does not attract modern China's best and brightest to its officer corps (although there are undoubtedly exceptions).
    ...so that this same untested force could then launch an even more complex and risky amphibious/airborne assault across the Strait in multidivision strength. Only once PLA mech forces are ashore in force does Taiwanese resistance crumble as the result becomes obvious; you can expect the ROC armed forces to fight ably until then.
    And that all presupposes the nonintervention of the US and its allies (whose staffs have been studying this air/sea/land battlespace nonstop since 1949). Because in the time it takes to secure (more or less) air superiority and (try to) knock out the antiship defenses, you've given Team USA time to think and react. 
    My own opinions, of course. Nobody really knows for sure. But to me, victory through air power remains an illusion.
    ****
    Now, grab Penghu in a lightning operation and suddenly  Taiwan itself becomes a lot less defensible; it's now PLN shore based missiles that control that part of the Strait from the natural harbour at Magong (the Japanese used it as a fleet base).
    .... And you've now presented the US with a fait accompli (a) start WW3 over an island nobody's heard of (b) garrison Taiwan with Allied 'imperialist' forces and watch the global economy go to hell, or (c) accept the proposed cease fire and eventual reunion of Taiwan with the Motherland later, one way or another.  And Xi has a victory under his belt, not a debacle.
  2. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Zveroboy1 in Zveroboy's Aleppo Buildings Texture Pack + Bonus Urban Map   
    So I had been planning on making this post for a while but I haven't really had time to do it properly until now. I wanted to showcase some examples of how I tried to incorporate real architectural elements into the mod to make it as true to life as possible. All the photos below are from Syria.
    First all of I wanted to talk a bit about mosques. Some of you probably saw the in game picture of the mosque with a greyish silvery looking dome and might have asked yourself "but Zveroboy aren't the domes of mosques all colourful with flashy teals, greens or gold?" And of course you would be right, some are just like that. But actually in Syria in particular plenty of mosques have this silvery or greyish looking dome as you can see in the photos below. But I included two alternative dome textures that you can use if you don't like the default colour.
    The first picture is actually located in New Aleppo, just 100 m to the west of the area I mapped, alongside that large avenue in the southern part of the map.

    Aleppo mosque details :

    A school I based an extra building on :

    A roll down door :

    Balcony and facade details :

    Window :

    Doors :
    (Almost all the door textures are based on real Syrian doors)


    That's all.
  3. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Zveroboy1 in Zveroboy's Aleppo Buildings Texture Pack + Bonus Urban Map   
    Yes the areas in between blocks of buildings are super maze like.
    I thought long and hard about how to best represent them in the editor. Not sure I took the right decision but from looking at satellite images and photos it soon became obvious to me that first it wasn't simply regular back alleys and that there shouldn't be unobstructed lines of fires across them.



    And secondly that vehicles had no way of getting there. So with that out of the way, the next decision was about infantry movement. I didn't really like the notion of making it so infantry could cross laterally and from buildings to buildings parallel to the roads unhindered everywhere. That didn't seem right. Then again not being able to cross anywhere wasn't going to work either because even though it is not easy to tell with these pictures, it is an area that is often accessible with gates as shown in the second photo.
    So in the end I opted more something that's not uniform everywhere and which is a bit messy and chaotic which I think might be about right for an urban setting. But yes it means that if you want to avoid streets and go from building to building you have to get down to ground level with the camera and check for doors and gaps in walls etc.
    Anyway this is probably not particularly interesting to anyone except me lol but maybe people might like seeing what the place actually looks like before they turn it to rubble.
  4. Like
    JulianJ reacted to MikeyD in Turkish Leopard 2A4 mod preview   
    I've just quickly thrown together a German tanker's uniforms using Turkish army camou scheme. Things are sooooo much easier when you've got the layered Photoshop files!
  5. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Zveroboy1 in Special Effects Mix   
    Nice, glad I could help. At one point I thought maybe I was just tripping and imagining things.. This is going to give me a little sanity boost.🙏
  6. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Sgt.Squarehead in CMSF2 Campaign : To Al-Hell and back - Operation ORPHEUS   
    Well I'm bloody sure I wouldn't have fired a missile at those ranges! 
    This is a constant gripe with CM, TBH I'm not sure the rules are as consistent as you suggest.
  7. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Lucky_Strike in Going to TankFest Bovington, at Weekend 17/18 September   
    ... or the lovely Avon lady ...

  8. Upvote
    JulianJ got a reaction from Bulletpoint in ODDITIES AND WEIRDNESS OF THE CM2 SYSTEM   
    @MikeyD I know you are close to the management, so I hope you can convey what I intended (and I think Erwin did too - though I can't speak for him) was that the game would be better if some of the anomalies could be attended too. If they can't because of technical issues, then I think we would understand if we were told, but to be ignored is frusrating, especially as CM has one of the most loyal and supportive player communities.
  9. Upvote
    JulianJ got a reaction from Bulletpoint in ODDITIES AND WEIRDNESS OF THE CM2 SYSTEM   
    Thanks Erwin for bringing up some of these issues. I don't know how hard they are to correct, I'm not a programmer.
    I love CM, but I often seethe as things seem not to be realistic at all. You mention many spotting issues, which do really bug me. There's nothing like spending minutes micromanaging a sniper or ATGM team into the ideal position , to find they can't see anything.  It makes no sense. The lack of communication between teams sharing the same Action Sq is very annoying. 
    I find 19 and 23 particularly annoying,
    On 19 there is a very long thread somewhere which presents very good research that HE is damaging to armoured vehicles, and that near misses can cause a lot of damage. I've absolutely pounded vehicle areas with everything, inc. 122mm-155mm to negligible apparent effect, including direct hits.
    23: even today, we get smartphone camera footage from Jihadis which looks like they were hiding (or possibly not!) within 100-200 m of tanks with thermal imagers and not detected. Obviously in WW2 tanks were blind. I've been in a couple in museums and looked through the commander's periscopes. The vision is very limited, and that's in a well-lighted area. Goodness knows what you would see when bumping around with smoke and dust everywhere.
    I know no game can be perfect, and we have many disagreements, particularly where information is contested, like WW2, but I find it very frustrating when things that are so obviously wrong destroy the suspension of disbelief and reduce the enjoyment of the game. 
    Erwin concentrates a lot on the LOS stuff.  I don't know how difficult it is to model but I was on one of my walks in southern Britain a while ago and I crested a rise with a town below. With my binoculars I could see everything for 1-2 km around. I imagined calling in artillery and air strikes on particular locations.  CM doesn't seem to model this correctly. Given the huge depth of expertise of the combined "membership" it is rather irritating to me that Steve and Charles don't seem to take much notice of this. I feel they could say: OK we can work on X but we can't fix Y, sorry. I think we would accept that approach.
  10. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Erwin in ODDITIES AND WEIRDNESS OF THE CM2 SYSTEM   
    Note: Some of the items are only pertinent to modern titles and other items are relevant to all titles.
    Re CMSF2 (so far): 1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  Folks have opined that it's because one of the riflemen has a "Thermal Imager" attached to his rifle and that is why they spot so well.  However, if that is accurately simulated in CM2 then why don't all RL units have thermal imagers and scrap the expensive and heavy laser designators and other high-tech optics that seem so inferior in the game?
    2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.  Again... apologists say that in RL they often cannot see what their buddy can see.  However, since the Thermal Imager is so much more effective, wouldn't they simply borrow the rifle with the Thermal Imager so they could see for themselves and then line up their super dooper optical gear on the target so they could finally see it?
    3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
    4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position. (Not sure if this has been fixed in CMCW.)
    5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
    6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
    7)  UK HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
    😎 Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
    9)  Some vehicles carry ammo that seems to be available for resupply.  But, the crew cannot ACQUIRE any, and/or neither can any other unit mount the vehicle to ACQUIRE any.  Eg: The M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
    10) LOS/LOF issues.  While CM2 is supposed to be WYSIWYG it often doesn't work that way.  One can get down to level one and eyeball a situation.  But, what one sees from a location often is not what a unit will see at that same location.  Eg: The AI can see pixel-wide gaps in what human examination considers completely blocked LOS.  A related issue is that one can eyeball a situation like a road in town and there is no obstruction down a street to target a building.  But one finds that when one places a unit in that location, it cannot see or shoot at the building.  
    11) Another LOS/LOF issue.  Frequently we find that a crew served weapon can see and target an enemy only to discover that it's only the 3rd ammo loader who can see the enemy, not the main gun/gunner.  However, it is usually impossible to move the MG or gun a few inches to a position where it can see and fire the primary weapon at the enemy.  
    12)  Finding Hulldown positions is often problematic.  Some folks seem to like the "Hulldown Assist routine" available in the game.  But, often it simply leave the vehicle with no LOS to the desired target and one has to waste another turn (in WEGO obviously) manually moving the waypoints to get a hull-down position.  So, one may as well do it manually from the start.  The additional problem is that it is common that vehicles go from having "No LOS' to "Partial Hull Down" with no "Hulldown" option being able to be located in between.  One can spend many minutes dicking around with moving waypoints the shortest possible distance in this, that or the other direction to find a hull-done position (relative to the desired target), but one can only find either "No LOS" or "Partial Hulldown" positions.  It's unclear if this is an issue with the map, (maybe the terrain is strange), or the LOS routine.
    13) Some vehicles like Bradleys when targeted vs a building don't use the desired weapon - their cannon - but instead fire their missiles - which often makes no sense.  (Target Light makes em use their MG's.)  BMP's are similar vs buildings: Sometimes they use their ATGM's, sometimes their cannon, and sometimes their MG - even if one orders TARGET LIGHT.  There is no indication as to why the AI chooses a particular weapons system.
    14) SMOKE and buildings...  Smoke acts as if there are no obstructions or walls and will drift through a building as it is made of wire.  This is actually very helpful when one is attempting to assault a multi-room building.  But, doesn't reflect RL.
    15) When one orders a SMOKE artillery strike and run out of SMOKE, the battery obviously still has all its HE rounds.  However, if you first order HE, when all shells are gone the battery has no SMOKE rounds left - they seem to have been used up as HE.
    16) Some SNIPER teams in CMSF2 carry 50 cal rounds, even though they possess no weapon that can use 50 cal rounds.  
    17) Park your vehicle directly behind a small tree and any enemy fire that comes from that direction will hit the virtually indestructible tree and the vehicle may be 100% unaffected.  Unless the enemy gun/tank moves, it can exhaust all its ammo in this way.  AI controlled guns especially can be made useless by this trick.  It seems that trees are better armor and provide better protection vs AT rounds than steel. 
    18) Attempting to resupply a squad one may split off a two-man team to mount a vehicle, get the ammo, then debark and run to where its squad is.  That takes two turns.  However, the teams may not recombine.  A turn later when one again moves both parts of the squad to the same spot, they may still not recombine.  To get the teams to recombine one has to split the larger squad team into two and then move all three teams to the same spot.  Only then will the teams recombine to the full squad and complete ammo resupply.  
    19) Heavy HE barrage does not seem to damage vehicle/armor subsystems as much as expected.
    20) Some vehicles like the WW2 era 8 wheeled German Rad recon vehicles are supposed to be able to move as fast in reverse as forwards, but in the game move in reverse much slower.  In the game, it may be that all reverse speeds are identical or % of the forward speed.
    21) Crewing oddities.  BMP's usually benefit re spotting from an extra man or two in the vehicle in addition to the crew in addition to enabling the vehicle to "Open Up".  A BMP cannot "open up" if it only carries its 2-man crew.  If the BMP has lost a crewman, and there are no other inf being carried, it cannot TARGET - it becomes merely a transport vehicle.  However, sometimes, leaving an extra two-man team in the BMP will enable it to "open up" and TARGET and other times it won't.  Adding a two man crew from another vehicle to the BMP will still not enable this BMP to TARGET anything and the BMP still cannot "open up".  The extra crew are treated as mere passengers.  It's all irregular and unpredictable.  
    22) Guns in CM2 aim for the center of mass.  So, even when at short range, the gun will aim for the hull even though it may have more chance of killing or damaging the target by aiming at a different part.  If the turret is less well armored than (say) the hull that can mean that a hull-down tank may be more vulnerable than out in the open, as the turret will be the target. 
    23) Tanks can spot inf ridiculously quickly given what we know of tank's poor vision when buttoned up, or in poor visibility, like in smoke etc.
    24) Inf is unable to detect a tank that is  a few meters away on the other side of a wall, or in poor visibility.
    25) WW2 jeeps and trucks have bulletproof windshields. Often making the driver much harder to kill than he should be.
    26) Some vehicles have onboard mortars that do not need to dismount to fire.  However, if one does dismount, deploy and fire, and then remount the mortars in order to move to another location, when one tries to access the mortars for firing, some if not all of the mortar HT's may say "Destroyed", while other mortar HT's are able to accept mortar fire orders normally.  Witnessed in a CMBN game.  Saved game file available.
    27)  Special sniper ammo like "50cal" and "338 Lapua Magnum" etc. is not available for resupply.
     
  11. Like
    JulianJ got a reaction from THH149 in About to be overrun at the 2 Fahrbahns   
    I'm on my third playthrough. 1st as US, put the M60s hull down on the flanks and slaughtered the Ruskies at long range. 
    2nd as the Red storm I held off at long range with the T72s and blasted the linear road target with mortars and rockets. Then sent in one aircraft.  It seems only one MANPAD had survived and it missed. My tanks killed everything eventually, including the TOW 113s. Although I had wiped out the US force with negligible casualties (2 BMPs and a damaged tank, lost all the foot scouts though), I was just too slow in getting to the road so got a Russian Minor Defeat. 
    Game 3 I am not doing so well as the Soviets. Although I felt I used the arty and air better, there was less effect and got one plane shot down.  Minor variations in deployment of the armour (or bad luck in not spotting the M150s immediately) means I am down a few tanks with both M150s and 2-3 M60s still active. 16 minutes left on the clock.
    I don't think there is much wrong with the game design, but the TacAI of my own troops is frustrating me. BMPs don't seem to fire their 73mm. I can't seem to shell places where I think US troops are hiding; they have wasted a few ATGMs on buildings though. The long delay in bringing down artillery does hamper my attacks.  The two ground attack aircraft use their cannons mostly and depart the scene with most of their bombs and missiles onboard - they seem to spend about 5 minutes between attacks coming round.  So it is difficult to bring the full firepower of my Evil Commie B'staads to bear on the Lackey Capitalist running dogs of the US army.
  12. Like
    JulianJ got a reaction from Artkin in Is there a reason there has not been any Pacific campaigns   
    Hmmm....CM Taiwan does seem to follow in the tradition of SF and CMBS....although for the poor Taiwaese sake, BF's horrible record of prediction doesn't come to fruition in this case!
  13. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Billythegoat in Is there a reason there has not been any Pacific campaigns   
    Korean War  would be great , mostly WW2 stuff , as far as infantry is concerned , would need vehicle and some arty upgrades for the US/S. Korean side. Communist forces and maps would be the build. I think Black Sea could mod out a " what if" of a modern Korean conflict. Hey you could kill 2 birds with one stone, mostly, map wise. 
  14. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Erwin in Is there a reason there has not been any Pacific campaigns   
    Also, now that things are heating up with Taiwan, a China vs Taiwan mod would be timely for CMBS.
  15. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Erwin in Old guy down in computer aisle   
    Probably all us old-timers prefer to actually OWN content.  I ordered many dozens of CD's rather than downloading MP files to a player.  Don't like the pressure to basically rent everything and own nothing.  One gets the sense that all this electronic internet stuff could all go down one day and people will wake up owning nothing.  At least with a generator one can make one's music and games work and not dependent on internet connection. 
    Even now am listening to a news piece about ATM's or CC technology going down and people stranded unable to pay for anything.  Expect to see that happening with increasing frequency now we're in the cyberwar, hacking/ransomware world.
  16. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Artkin in Old guy down in computer aisle   
    The hard drive will go INSIDE the laptop. It has an available space inside that comes empty.
    My 2c...
    Laptops are still trash... PC prices are WAY TOO HIGH. If you want to play CM, you can run it on a 10-15 year old computer with little to no hardware.
    I'm not even kidding.
  17. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Sgt Joch in Best western movie ever?   
    guilty pleasure.
    standard story, but well told and well acted.
     
  18. Like
    JulianJ reacted to StieliAlpha in Best western movie ever?   
    Soldier Blue
    Little Big Man
    Dances with Wolves
  19. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Erwin in Best western movie ever?   
    Searchers was good.  I'd like to see that again.   Have to look at Open Range.  Was hoping it would be free on Netflix.  $3.99 on Amazon prime.
    The Unforgiven and Outlaw Josey Wales.  (Clint seems to have done a lot.)
  20. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Aragorn2002 in Best western movie ever?   
    O yes. 4.10 to Yuma comes next. 
  21. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Erwin in Best western movie ever?   
    Seriously, you discount The Good The Bad and The Ugly, or Once Upon a Time in The West???      
  22. Like
    JulianJ reacted to Mace in Not dead yet   
    Mr. Emrys - good to see you're not dead mate!   Well not until you add me as a beneficiary to your will. 😋
  23. Like
    JulianJ reacted to SimpleSimon in Which WWII Tank Would You Fight In?   
    Statistically the Sherman. Grand scheme you'll probably be fine but even if you're unlucky, the Sherman is the only tank of the war with wet stowage for its ammunition and an escape hatch beneath the hull. Very important for evacuating the vehicle under fire. 
    The Sherman's sheer mass went a long way into enabling crew survival by making it easier to evacuate and taking hits from shaped charges a bit better than smaller tanks. Mainly due to greater volume between ammunition and fuel stowage. If you're a tank crewman there isn't a lot of certainty, but one thing that's bound to happen to you? Your tank will be shot out from under you at one point or another. Whether you can get out of it easily enough to fight another day is the big priority for me. 
  24. Upvote
    JulianJ reacted to Warts 'n' all in Really Good War Movies (CM Scenario Inspiration)   
    Ah, yer can't whack a bit ov good ol' rhyming slang, as Del Boy would say.
  25. Like
    JulianJ got a reaction from Probus in Really Good War Movies (CM Scenario Inspiration)   
    I'd like to add this to the list: it's on Youtube for free - the 2019 Russian Film "Tankers".  It's not a masterpiece, but I enjoyed it. I think you have to suspend your "military geekness" and not mind the Pz IVs are not 1942 variants (they seem to be full size vismods, not cleverly-done 1/6 R/C tanks, which I thought at first). 

    I won't say anything about the plot for the sake of spoilers, but I thought the characters are well-drawn; because there is a female Russian tank repair engineer there is a romantic element which adds some light and shade to the often all-male war film type.
    The main tank is a real KV1.  Loved that. It seems surprisingly roomy inside 😄. Lots of T34s. There's a lot of the mundane aspect of tank warfare: bogging down in a stream and mechanical issues which make a change from many other films. Several scenes take place while the crew are re-ammunitioning the tank which I found a clever use of drama and realism.
     
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