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SelfLoadingRifle

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  1. Upvote
    SelfLoadingRifle got a reaction from IICptMillerII in Fire suppression from small arms discussion   
    Apropos the subject of suppressive fire...
    Firstly, what a fascinating thread.  For what it's worth, here are my thoughts...
    1) I'm getting a strong sense of deja-vu here, particularly as I seem to recall once reading that pre 1914, accepted military thinking was that the new-fangled Vickers gun was clunky, inaccurate and definitely no match for the magazine rifle plus an acceptable standard of musketry.  To be fair though, this didn't apply to the Germans who at that stage were way ahead of the curve in all matters Maxim compared to us Brits.
    2)  With regard to the new all singing all dancing M27 rifle...  Yes, improved accuracy is always a plus and yes, with the M27 I'm sure this could be achieved on a gallery range, with  firing points every hundred yards, ditto flags to show how the wind is blowing, beautifully mown grass, an inexhaustible supply of tea (coffee for our American cousins) plus a NAAFI wagon.  It would be a completely different story though when you are trying to win a firefight where the enemy is shooting back at you and is exposing himself briefly if at all.  It's even worse when you are assaulting up hill, doing the fire & manoeuvre thing, you are knackered, out of breath and the sweat is trickling into your eyes.  Under those conditions, getting the rounds down is what matters.   Having a sooper dooper Gucci rifle that can shoot the pips out of a playing card at 300 will make no difference at all.
    3) An eyebrow was definitely raised at some of the arguments that stated that accuracy of fire trumped volume of fire.  What these arguments seemed to be saying was that the highly accurate Bren gun was better at putting down suppressive fire than the MG34 or the MG42.  Er… Yes!  Quite!!  I would have loved to have seen someone try and run that one past my old man who served in the 8th Army.
    SLR
  2. Like
    SelfLoadingRifle got a reaction from A Canadian Cat - was IanL in Fire suppression from small arms discussion   
    Apropos the subject of suppressive fire...
    Firstly, what a fascinating thread.  For what it's worth, here are my thoughts...
    1) I'm getting a strong sense of deja-vu here, particularly as I seem to recall once reading that pre 1914, accepted military thinking was that the new-fangled Vickers gun was clunky, inaccurate and definitely no match for the magazine rifle plus an acceptable standard of musketry.  To be fair though, this didn't apply to the Germans who at that stage were way ahead of the curve in all matters Maxim compared to us Brits.
    2)  With regard to the new all singing all dancing M27 rifle...  Yes, improved accuracy is always a plus and yes, with the M27 I'm sure this could be achieved on a gallery range, with  firing points every hundred yards, ditto flags to show how the wind is blowing, beautifully mown grass, an inexhaustible supply of tea (coffee for our American cousins) plus a NAAFI wagon.  It would be a completely different story though when you are trying to win a firefight where the enemy is shooting back at you and is exposing himself briefly if at all.  It's even worse when you are assaulting up hill, doing the fire & manoeuvre thing, you are knackered, out of breath and the sweat is trickling into your eyes.  Under those conditions, getting the rounds down is what matters.   Having a sooper dooper Gucci rifle that can shoot the pips out of a playing card at 300 will make no difference at all.
    3) An eyebrow was definitely raised at some of the arguments that stated that accuracy of fire trumped volume of fire.  What these arguments seemed to be saying was that the highly accurate Bren gun was better at putting down suppressive fire than the MG34 or the MG42.  Er… Yes!  Quite!!  I would have loved to have seen someone try and run that one past my old man who served in the 8th Army.
    SLR
  3. Like
    SelfLoadingRifle got a reaction from Zveroboy1 in Russia and the Ukraine revisited   
    A friend of mine once said.  "Richard, when you return to England, you will find that part of your soul has become Russian."  A wise remark indeed, as I am finding out in unexpected ways.  Recently, I completed a major upgrade of CMBS.  I bought the new battle pack, and then embarked on a major project.  I downloaded and installed almost all of Kieme's mods.
    The next thing I did was to explore the  Korsun 2017 map.  Suddenly, I found myself back out there again, so much so that I could even smell it.  It is always the small touches that hit home the hardest.  The skyline (courtesy of Kieme's background) was dominated by a line of giant electricity pylons. Elsewhere, the horizon was broken by a collection of dirty looking factory chimneys.  In yet another direction, an oddly shaped water tower loomed.  These features are ubiquitous, and form a part of virtually every landscape.  
    What really brought me back was how accurately the artwork depicted the general decay.  The paintwork of the buildings was faded with cracked and crumbling rendering.  Properties were surrounded by hideous concrete walls formed from prefabricated sections and the soulless 70s vintage apartment blocks were everywhere.  All of this is so, so Slavic and so, so right but you have to have lived in a place like that to truly appreciate it.
    One area that Kieme could look at is some of the brickwork.  Many buildings survive that were built by German POWs and the quality of the bricklaying is truly, horrifyingly and jaw-droppingly awful.  It would be a nice touch to see this depicted.  Also, woodland areas should have assorted crisp (chip) packets, coke cans, discarded portable barbeques and empty vodka bottles modded into them to capture that truly Slavic atmosphere.  It might actually be an idea to produce the blackened remains of a bonfire as a feature as these are absolutely everywhere, particularly near tracks which run next to rivers.
    I have yet to see a village accurately depicted though.  Villages, particularly those near cities, contain many Dachas.  Dacha is a synonym for country house/man cave.  Most well-off families possess them and at weekends, half of the city drives out to the dacha.  Russian villages, particularly those in dacha-land, are truly ramshackle in a way that you simply wouldn't believe. Prefabricated concrete walls are everywhere.  Corrugated iron (used for all sorts of things including roofs) is an important feature, as is the ubiquitous picket fence.  Sometimes the juxtapositions are truly startling.  Decaying wooden Hansel and Gretel style gingerbread houses rub shoulders with ultra modern swanky mansions.  Some houses are rendered and some are not, consisting of bare cinder blocks.  The architecture is often surprising and sometimes downright alarming.  I have even seen a retro-gothic mini-castle, complete with turrets and battlements, plus a villa roofed with bright blue tiles that was actually painful to look at.  Almost anything goes.  The only thing that should be absent is any sense of planning.
    Perhaps I am nit-picking though.  All I can do is what many others on this forum have done before me which is to thank Kieme for his wonderful artwork.
    SLR 
     
     
  4. Like
    SelfLoadingRifle got a reaction from Sgt.Squarehead in PLEEEASE RELEASE ME, LET ME GO...   
    Herewith a song for that nice Mr Steve, in the hope that it will soften his heart and put us all out of our misery!!!
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch_Fz2Np-Z4
     
  5. Upvote
    SelfLoadingRifle got a reaction from George MC in Ambush - no spoilers   
    I played Ukrainian and also ran out of time. 
     
    GREAT SCENARIO THOUGH!
     
    SLR
     
    P.S.  Can we have more scenarios of this sort of size please?
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