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Sgt Joch

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Everything posted by Sgt Joch

  1. Whoa, that 1st mission is tough! I have tried several different approaches, but I see Paper Tiger anticipated all of them…
  2. https://www.politico.eu/article/energy-infrastructure-target-attack-ukraine-russia-war/ Another article that apparently the Biden Admin is asking Ukraine to stop targeting Russian Oil infrastructure. Since the whole focus now is on the election, the cynic in me thinks Biden is worried that if this causes Oil prices to go up, it will increase the chances Trump gets elected.
  3. Bogging in CMx2 has always been on the light side. I worked on a scenario for the last CMFB module and set the ground conditions as “muddy” to force players to stay on the roads, but even when the AI moved AFVs cross country, there was very little bogging. To minimize chances of bogging, 1) check the off-road rating; 2) check the ground conditions and 3) watch your speed. The faster you go off-road, the greater the chances of bogging.
  4. Read it pretty much every time it comes out. Best source out there on the ongoing air war. Tom Cooper is primarily an aviation expert.
  5. “Road to Bastogne” was designed for H2H.
  6. Don’t know if this was posted before. Apparently, Russia imported U.S. $1.7 Billion of computer chips in 2023. Obviously a big help for there war effort and sign that sanctions are still too porous. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/russia-buys-chips-from-intel-amd-and-others-to-fuel-war-efforts-the-country-bought-dollar17-billion-in-2023 p.s. I was going to Tomshardware to get more info on the new Nvidia 40XX Super GPUs, but seems you can’t get away from war news.
  7. Hi, so as to what the Russians seem to be targeting, Tom Cooper came up with some plausible conclusions based on available facts (see above). Last winter, the Russians seemed to be targeting the Ukrainian energy grid and this year, they seem to be targeting UKR defence industries, command facilities and UKR air bases. https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/ukraine-war-4-january-2024-q-and?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 The problem in trying to make sense of what is actually going on is that the Ukrainians, quite rightly, keep a tight lid on what info is released and, of course, tend to highlight the Russian strikes which cause civilian casualties.
  8. Short answer, no. Tom Cooper had an interesting write up on this. The F-16/AIM120 combo is out ranged by the SU35/MIG31/R37 combo. You also have to remember the F16 Ukraine is getting are upgraded A models which while competent are not as deadly as the latest models in the U.S. inventory. https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/its-the-range-stupid-part-1?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 Way too much emphasis has been placed on the F16 and aircraft in general. One important feature of this war is the way in which SAMs dominate the air battlefield and shape all air operations. Both Ukrainian and Russian air forces are very skittish about coming into range of the other sides SAMs since that is almost guaranteed death. More Patriot batteries would be a lot more useful to Ukraine than 40 year old F16s.
  9. Yes, it’s too bad the expansion pack is dead, there was a lot of interesting stuff in there, although I understand BFC’s decision. Now CMBS itself is not dead, the game still works fine. There are some mistakes since a lot of stuff had to be guessed at, but on the whole it is pretty accurate. Now in terms of simulating the current war, that can actually be done as well, you can build immense minefields, fortified lines, play around with morale/command capacity, give both sides lots of UAVs, etc. You can also easily upgrade UKR forces. The scenario editor is flexible enough that you can easily add U.S. weapons to UKR units. I have done various quick and dirty scenarios and UKR forces with Abrams, Bradleys, U.S. artillery and drones are VERY capable. Unfortunately, any U.S. vehicle you add to UKR forces will still show up as U.S. and speak English, but that is a minor point. Hopefully, that could be addressed by modders. All CMx2 games are ultimately sandbox games and you can do a lot with them.
  10. Well any private U.S. citizen who conspires to kill or maim citizens of a foreign country with whom the U.S. is at peace (i.e. Russia and which would include Russian soldiers in Ukraine)is guilty of a criminal offence and is passible of a sentence of up to life under the U.S. neutrality act. I presume other countries have similar laws. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/956 Now if anyone actually wants to fight for Ukraine, the answer is simple, move to Ukraine and volunteer to serve in their army. A lot of foreigners have already done the same thing. https://ildu.com.ua
  11. The big difference between WW2 and now is that in 1942, the U.S. public realized beating Germany and Japan was not a given and were willing to make the personal sacrifices necessary to win the war including rationing, higher taxes and seeing their boys, brothers, friends go to war and possibly be killed or maimed. Now, most western citizens will "support" Ukraine, but only as long as it does not cost anything: no inflation, higher taxes, restrictions on consumer goods and god forbid, losing a single service man/woman/non-binary/whatever. That makes it very hard for western politicians who are forever on the tightrope of trying to provide support while trying to argue the support actually does not cost anything.
  12. sanctions can be effective IF properly applied. WW2 is not a good example, increased German production was a bit of an illusion. As Tooze pointed out, it was achieved in part by a reallocation of production, i.e. fighter AC and AFVs at the expense of other stuff and general lowering of quality, i.e. partly completed ACs booked as produced and general shoddiness. Speer "cooked the books" to make it appear as though production was increasing much faster than it actually was. The current problem is that the sanctions against Russia are also a bit of an illusion. EU, US, Canada and a few other countries have sanctions in place, but most of the world, including major economies like China and India have no sanctions in place, so even though in theory U.S. technology cannot be supplied to Russia, there are many ways it can get there indirectly/illegally, no matter what parties are saying. For example, China has officially said it would "respect" U.S. sanctions, but you have increasing anecdotal evidence that Chinese made parts are appearing in Russian weapons.
  13. that is what the article says, unless you had trouble comprehending it... Going from "we will back Ukraine with whatever it wants" to time to think about trading land for a Korea-style ceasefire is a pretty big shift. There is a reason why they decided to quietly drop this during the holidays when no one is really paying attention. The only real question is whether this is a trial balloon to test the waters or a real shift in policy. Given all the other "stories" being leaked: "blame game" of who was responsible for the "failed" counter offensive, secret U.S.-Russia negotiations, "openness" of Putin to a ceasefire, etc. It is clear someone in the Biden WH is nervous about where this war is going and is looking for an off-ramp before 2024 really heats up.
  14. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/12/27/biden-endgame-ukraine-00133211 Biden admin getting ready to bail?
  15. Well if you want to simplify things to the extreme: -Ukraine can fight the war how it wants if it wants to do it without western support; or -Ukraine has to adhere to certain basic rules if it wants western support. Remember there are two objectives as far as the West is concerned: 1) helping Ukraine to defend itself; and 2) preventing this regional conflict from spinning into WW3. I would argue goal 2 is more important than goal 1 to the West.
  16. Well, 30-60-90 Abrams while nice would not be a “magic bullet”. As we know from CM and other conflicts, they can be immobilized by say mines and can be killed by ATGMs, direct tank fire to sides/rear. Even if they do manage to break through Russian lines, if they are alone because infantry is pinned by artillery fire, they will eventually have to fall back. As the Germans found out at Kursk, “Uber” tanks alone do not guarantee victory.
  17. quite a good summary. I have for the past several months been ploughing through a fascinating 2,000 page book on Operation Barbarossa by two french authors. The book came out in 2019 and is based on the latest research from German and Russian archives. It of course gives a good summary of the pre-invasion political maneuvering and of the military ops in summer 41-winter 42, but what is fascinating is the extent of the atrocities committed by both sides which was in fact worse than what I had previously read. Barbarossa, Jean Lopez, Lasha Otkhmezuri | Livre de Poche Regular German army units were from the start regularly involved in civilian massacres, executing prisoners, wiping out villages, killing jews. SS units and of course, the einsatzgruppens were even worse. Russian army units were slightly better, but not by much. Anti-semitism was of course a problem throughout Europe at that time, but was worse in Eastern Europe and especially in the Baltic states and Ukraine where the Germans had no problem recruiting locals to kill Jewish civilians.
  18. As I recall, this is not a bug but WAD. I would have to recheck the relevant threads in the beta forum, but the intent was to somewhat reflect the limitations of air power in that era which was still closer to WW2 in terms of targeting and weapons. maybe @The_Capt can chime in.
  19. "Dawn Patrol" has been modified for the tournament. Everything, including mines, can now be moved around.
  20. As I recall, what factors determine off road capability are kept deliberately "fuzzy" by BFC. The "Off Road" rating has more to do with the tank suspension design which is why the Panther has an excellent rating while the Sherman and T-34 only have an average rating even though the last two were more mechanically reliable than the Panther. I had run some tests a few years back, racing all three across a "muddy" map and the chances of bogging did not vary that much. Overall chances of mechanical breakdown are factored in, but as someone pointed out (maybe Steve), the chances of an AFV breaking down while moving less than 1 km in a 1 hour period (typical CM scenario) are fairly low. Mechanical breakdowns/fuel shortages are best handled by the scenario designer when choosing the number of AFVs available. That said, the chances of "bogging/immobilising" is a way to keep players aware of the fact that even tracked vehicles cannot go everywhere. In RL, tankers are very careful of where they go since even a small mechanical issue can immobilize the tank. I am always reminded of Anzio. The Germans had assembled a formidable collection of AFVs to wipe out the beachhead, but conditions were very muddy so the tankers were very reluctant to go off-road and stayed on the roads. Unfortunately, all the roads leading to the beachhead were copiously covered by allied AT assets so the big attack never came off.
  21. As I recall, the original issue was that the TacAI is too accurate, I can recall early versions of CMBN where the AI would fire their Thompson SMGs like a mortar and hit targets 300+ meters away. Various tweaks were tried to get the AI to act more human like, but hey, it is an AI...That is why you have the current system with the hard range stop and reducing the accuracy of SMG fire. It works pretty well most of the time since SMGs are not a main infantry weapon. Where you have a problem is with units that are equipped just with SMGs, like Russian SMG squads, which are probably more effective than they should be at short-range, although there is not much than can be done without totally nerfing SMGs. I ran a quick test a while ago and at 150 meters, SMGs had to fire 200 rounds for each casualty they caused. This may also be of interest:
  22. So, I have been reading the official U.S. Army history on the Vietnam War. Like all U.S. official histories, it is well researched and goes into a lot of detail on tactical battles. Anyway, I just finished the chapter on the Dak To Battles in November 1967. One thing I found interesting is there there are 8 photos taken of soldiers from the U.S. Army 4th infantry division and 173d Airborne Brigade taken during the operation, either in jungle patrols or during the fighting around Hill 875. One thing you notice right away is that no one in any of the photos is wearing a flak vest. The history also has no reference or discussion whatsoever as to why the vest was discarded. It certainly was not a supply issue since the U.S. had vast stockpiles of any piece of equipment as the history often points out. It seems to be one of those things which was such common knowledge that no one feels the need to discuss it. Here is the link: https://history.army.mil/html/books/091/91-15-1/cmhPub_91-15-1.pdf (photos are on pages 154 to 180)
  23. I also do not think it is relevant to focus on squad size. A squad is not supposed to fight in isolation. If a point unit runs into a superior enemy force, SOP should be to retreat and bring up other forces to deal with the threat. For example in Vietnam, you had several situations where a U.S. infantry platoon on point ran into a NVA company/battalion. Typically, the platoon would retreat/go defensive, call in artillery/air strikes and bring up the rest of the company/battalion/other battalions, as required to deal with the threat.
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