Elmar Bijlsma

Finally some good news for the Russians. They lost an asset that Ukrainian farmers won't tow away.
They are getting better at this!

Finally some good news for the Russians. They lost an asset that Ukrainian farmers won't tow away.
They are getting better at this!

For over two decades, Steve has found time to mix it up with us grognards. Far from taking away from development, I think it only improves the end product.
Who do you want to make your wargames for you: someone that watches CNN and thinks himself up to date, or someone voraciously doomscrolling and discussing events here?

Finally some good news for the Russians. They lost an asset that Ukrainian farmers won't tow away.
They are getting better at this!

For over two decades, Steve has found time to mix it up with us grognards. Far from taking away from development, I think it only improves the end product.
Who do you want to make your wargames for you: someone that watches CNN and thinks himself up to date, or someone voraciously doomscrolling and discussing events here?

For over two decades, Steve has found time to mix it up with us grognards. Far from taking away from development, I think it only improves the end product.
Who do you want to make your wargames for you: someone that watches CNN and thinks himself up to date, or someone voraciously doomscrolling and discussing events here?

Romanivka was not captured by Russian troops. Throughout the battle for Kyiv, a humanitarian corridor was organized there, which allowed the evacuation of civilians from Irpin Bucha and Gostomel. I myself evacuated along this route on 03/05/22, when the Russians entered Irpin and street fighting began. This route was under heavy artillery fire for about 3 weeks.

So, according to this article, the (in)famous BMPT-72 has been seen heading towards Ukraine. If they actually end up fighting in Ukraine; it will be interesting to see their performance, not so much from a tactical perspective (its esentially an BMP2M with the armor of a T72) , but from a doctrinal one. There has been a lot of discussion, also in this thread, about the end of the MBT, with the usual conclusion beinbg that while they will not disappear, they must evolve, as well as all the doctrine surrounding them. Considering that this vehicle is esentially halfway between an MBT and an IFV, some lessons (that will depend of how the Russians end up using them of course), could be drawn about the future of armor.

At this stage it is not a situation that requires irrationality to stay put. It's far from a pocket yet.
As for ceding initiative, is initiative that thing where Russian armour advance along an ATGM lined road? I wouldn't want initiative like that. I wouldn't call it anything as grand as a trap, but sure, make them work and bleed for it. The decision to stay and fight or pull back can be made at a later date.
Who else is there that Russian commanders need to care about other than Putin and what he needs? The generals will cause the Azov battalion to drown in the blood of Russian soldiers, if Putin orders it. There are no other considerations.

Stricktly speaking, the "motherland" of Azov is Kharkiv. And their base is small Urzuf town between Berdiansk and Mariupol. But yes, since summer-autumn of 2014 and especially 2015, Azov and Mariupol area are almost "synonyms"

Remember how everybody thought that Brexit was a terrible thing that was helped in no small part by russians?
Wonder how many russian FSB guys went to jail when putin realized UK can do whatever it wants with its NLAWs and sanctions without asking another 20 countries if it can.

There's a video doing the rounds that seems to show Ukrainians killing RU soldiers.
Not going post it here as no-one needs to see that gruesome ****. But those of you that have seen it: did you see the shoulder patch Ukrainian flag on one the soldiers involved? Upside down. What a curious mistake to make if you are a patriotic Ukrainian.
It's not even that my conscience needs it to be a false flag. If they are murdering Russian soldiers, I am okay with it at this point. I wish they didn't and I don't think it is smart. But my heart isn't exactly weeping for those "poor Russian conscripts". Unlike the Geneva convention, my conscience does value reciprocity. Act like beasts, get put down like beasts.

There's a video doing the rounds that seems to show Ukrainians killing RU soldiers.
Not going post it here as no-one needs to see that gruesome ****. But those of you that have seen it: did you see the shoulder patch Ukrainian flag on one the soldiers involved? Upside down. What a curious mistake to make if you are a patriotic Ukrainian.
It's not even that my conscience needs it to be a false flag. If they are murdering Russian soldiers, I am okay with it at this point. I wish they didn't and I don't think it is smart. But my heart isn't exactly weeping for those "poor Russian conscripts". Unlike the Geneva convention, my conscience does value reciprocity. Act like beasts, get put down like beasts.

Haha, finally:

There were fighters of Georgian Legion. Their commander, which 3 months spent in Russian captivity in 2008,  lost several comrades in Irpin' and saw during the clashed all, what we all have seen just now, told he and his unit will never take Russians prisoners alive. Especilly Kadyrov's fighters.    
I understand, such guys like HRW and rose-heared millenials will resent. But here is not fantasy world of white unicorns. Here is war of annihilation against us. After Bucha and many other places, which we will se soon, there will be too hard for commanders to keep sodiers from such really terrible actions.  
PS: some people in Ukraine believe that our flag have to be upside down ) This is long hystorical and even esoteric discussion in our society. 

There's a video doing the rounds that seems to show Ukrainians killing RU soldiers.
Not going post it here as no-one needs to see that gruesome ****. But those of you that have seen it: did you see the shoulder patch Ukrainian flag on one the soldiers involved? Upside down. What a curious mistake to make if you are a patriotic Ukrainian.
It's not even that my conscience needs it to be a false flag. If they are murdering Russian soldiers, I am okay with it at this point. I wish they didn't and I don't think it is smart. But my heart isn't exactly weeping for those "poor Russian conscripts". Unlike the Geneva convention, my conscience does value reciprocity. Act like beasts, get put down like beasts.

There's a video doing the rounds that seems to show Ukrainians killing RU soldiers.
Not going post it here as no-one needs to see that gruesome ****. But those of you that have seen it: did you see the shoulder patch Ukrainian flag on one the soldiers involved? Upside down. What a curious mistake to make if you are a patriotic Ukrainian.
It's not even that my conscience needs it to be a false flag. If they are murdering Russian soldiers, I am okay with it at this point. I wish they didn't and I don't think it is smart. But my heart isn't exactly weeping for those "poor Russian conscripts". Unlike the Geneva convention, my conscience does value reciprocity. Act like beasts, get put down like beasts.

It's not quite as simple as she's making out.
They didn't give it to him, it's not a hand out. It's not charity. It's business, and for a critical resource that frankly, without it, makes making and doing things in Europe a good deal more expensive and awkward.
Those billions paid for gas etc to heat homes, run power and importantly support industry, manufacturing, science and research.
Sure he's getting money, but he has pretty high costs and that money loses significant use if he can't buy whizzbang Western tech or products (civ or mil).
I'm not saying it's a good thing (it absolutely ISN'T) but that's the blunt reality.
Think of it like this - Russia's gas is powering and heating the societies and industries that are now ****ing with his invasion in all sorts of delightfully maddening ways. Hell, his gas helps make the damn NLaws, Javelins and Panzerfausts that are slaughtering his tanks.
 

Guys, his (Kraze that is) country is under attack. And even experts from the BBC are convinced at least 80% of the Russians are behind Putin and his war. Is this really the time and place to show how enlighted and wise you are? Let Kraze utter his anger and ignore it, if you like. But please stop this nonsical discussion about the Russian nation not being part of and responsible for the crimes commited in it's name.

Everyone is hung up about small gradations in what will or won't trigger Putin. I think this is totally wrong unless NATO cuts Ukrainian support to the point they have to take a bad deal immediately. As long as Ukraine is winning Putin is getting more desperate. He has staked his regimes prestige, and probably its survival on winning this war. If he loses it he IS going to be desperate. All the hemming and hawing about giving the Ukrainians this system but not that one just moves the moment WHEN Putin gets desperate back and forth. What I have not seen is any reason to think that Putin desperate later is going to be any different from Putin desperate sooner. Later just lets him wreck even more of Ukraine and create even more refugees, thus I am for absolutely maximal support for the Ukrainians.

Alright, enough lurking, long past time to dust off my old forum account and say "hi" and thank all of you contributing this gem of a thread, which is keeping me well ahead of the mainstream media.
 
Can we just admire the huge leap in technology? No, not ATGM or drone tech. Pah! Who cares about that? No, the all important meme-tech. It has come leaps and bounds since The Great Meme War. The other day I was in the car with my brother in law, who barely even acknowledges the existence of the internet, when my 6 y.o. nephew pipes up. "Look, a tractor!" and I decide to be a smartass and deny it is a tractor. "It cannot be a tractor, it isn't towing a Russian tank behind it" and it even got a laugh from my brother in law. The memes of Russian ineptitude, and SOF-like abilities of Ukrainian farmers even reached him. I was surprised.
 
Of course, this war isn't all fun and games. I for one deeply lament Steve deciding to put actually making games on the back burner. Not that I can blame him, his new profit making scheme sounds very lucrative:  Cold calling autocrats the world over.
"Hello Mr Maduro, I am calling to let you know we are going to be making a game set in Venezuala"
-Please don't. Here's 5 million dollars to **** off.
"For 5 million more, we will change the setting to Colombia"
 
Well done, Steve, that is now two countries you have plunged into chaos. If you ever make a game set in the modern Netherlands, I am gonna start packing.

From Galeev's latest, the banality of evil....
Just watch this video clip and study the body language. Putin comes across as neither sick nor insane, quite intelligent and self aware in fact.
What also comes across is an arrogant bully, accustomed to having yes-men around him. So, functionally indistinguishable from malice....
 

Sometimes Twitter is a cesspool. Sometimes it is not.
"I am the very model of a Russian Major General
My standing in the battlefield is growing quite untenable
My forces, though equipped and given orders unequivocal
Did not expect the fight to be remotely this reciprocal
 
I used to have a tank brigade but now I have lost several
My fresh assaults are faltering with battleplans extemporal
I can't recover vehicles but farmers in a tractor can
It's all becoming rather reminiscent of Afghanistan
 
My ordnance is the best but only half my missiles make it there
I would have thought by now that we would be controllers of the air
But at the rate the snipers work my time here is ephemeral
I am the very model of a Russian Major General"
 

I am not an unreasonable guy. Behold! The compromise solution: Mech riding Elementals.