Sgt Joch

The SNAR-10 and ARK-1 were the ones snapped near Torez a few days ago. These are older types, but that one photo does not prove the Russians do not have more modern equipment in country. The speculation is that these vehicles were supplied to the Rebels by the Russian, but are manned by Russian specialists.

I disagree, the situation is too complex to be reduced to simple catchphrases. However, it is really BFC's decision whether to allow political discussions or not.

That is not really a fair comment, that is like saying you will not buy a 2014 Porsche 911.....because it is a 50 year old design.

no politics please, we all know where that will end up.

regarding the Ukrainian T-72s "in storage", abandoned and left to rust might be a more accurate description. I don't know how many are still serviceable. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2572149/Stunning-images-huge-abandoned-tank-graveyard-Ukraine-machines-come-retirement-tensions-Russia-continue-escalate.html

my understanding is that the T-64 was a better tank than the early T-72s, but was more expensive to make and maintain, so the Russians decided to use the T-72s as the standard tank. The Ukrainians still use it and the Russians appear to have a certain number in storage.

Hopefully this won't turn into a political debate. We really don't care how the B3s wound up in that current part of the world. We just want to make sure they are modeled correctly.

Certain current events taking place in Eastern Ukraine currently. No T-90s AFAIK, but Russian T-72B3s have been knocked out by Ukrainian forces.

That is one of those topics which are ultra classified. Every one is presumed to be working on such a capability, but no one knows what can actually be done. You already have some real world examples, i.e stuxnet: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet You also had reports of insurgents hacking into drone video feeds: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/17/skygrabber-american-drones-hacked In theory, you could hack into an opposing forces computer network and completely paralyse them, i.e. knock out comunications, data links, targeting info, identify friendly forces as enemy, etc.

just an update, the new 14.9.2 Beta drivers seem to solve the pinkish shadow issue.

Yes, I was completely frozen out of my CMRT game for 3 days testing the patch by the DRM! :mad: I could not unlicense/re-license/re-instal, etc. All the while PBEM turns were piling up. :eek: I considered reformatting my Hard Drive and re-installing Windows, but thought that was a bit drastic. I don't think you guys would have appreciated that.

So by that standard, Winston Churchill is guilty of the "deliberate murder" of 3 million Bengalis? Stalin was guilty of enough "deliberate murders", i.e. the purges, Gulags, etc., without coming up with some arbitrary yardstick to increase the total. It's not a question of defending Communism, but of dispelling historical misconceptions, the myth that Stalin deliberately caused the Ukraine famine is one, the myth that Stalin deliberately stopped the Soviet Army in front of Warsaw in 1944 to allow the Nazis to crush the Polish uprisng is another. Of course, die hard anti-communists have no interest in historical facts if it ruins a good story.

Ok, now that everyone has had a chance to show how tough they are, how about actually discussing some history? 1. famine in the U.S.A. This is based on a study by a Russian author that 7 million americans died of starvation during the Great Depression. Although conditions were bad because of the poor harvets, "Dust Bowls" and general economic conditions and no doubt people did die of malnutrition or starvation, most historians think the 7 million figure is an outlier. 2. famine in the Ukraine. Depending on who you read, between 2 and 10 million (more likely 2-4 million) Ukrainians died of starvation in the early 30s. The popular view is that Stalin deliberately caused the famine to break the will of the Ukrainians. However, the reality is a bit more complicated. It was a result of many factors: 1) Russia put in place collective farms in the late 20s which caused a disruption of agricultural production, some say as high as 30%; 2) the climate in the early 30s caused a series of bad harvests, which again lowered food production. This was the same climate which caused "Dust Bowls" in the USA; and 3) faced with food shortages in the cities which were their main sources of political support, the Communist regime reacted with a hamfisted "requisition" system, basically stealing food from the peasants to feed the urban population. Now no doubt Stalin knew of the situation and does not appear to have done much to help out, but it does not appear that he actually set out to deliberately starve out the Ukrainians.

I would love to see North Africa 1940-43 as well. I have quite a few books on the theater. It did not work that well in CMAK, but I think CMSF shows that CMx2 handles desert warfare quite well.

On the supply issue, Tooze in "Wages of Destruction" makes an interesting point, namely that the German Army, under ideal circumstances, wanted to have at least one dedicated railway line per Army. In Russia, they had to make do with one dedicated railway line per Army Group, i.e. 3 lines instead of 10. In practice, this meant that the first phase of the offensive would peter out 500 km from the start line. 500 km being the absolute limit at which truck borne transports could keep the spearheads supplied from the depots in Poland over what passed as "roads" in Russia and this only in dry weather. Compared to that, the campaign in France, over an excellent, paved, all-weather, road network was a picnic.

hmm, from a current PBEM game... order 1 of my 2 Stugs to "target light" suspected enemy MG nest... commander pops out, starts hosing down the area... enemy MG starts firing back... lucky shot from the enemy kills the driver?!?!... crew panics..dismounts from Stug!!!! gunner gets shot running away!?!? the remaining 2 crew member are now hunkered down behind a tree still "panicked". Feature or bug? This game never ceases to surprise me.

surprisingly, the front line infantry divisions in Army Group Center were at full strength on june 22, some even had extra men or extra equipment (i.e 78th Sturm division).

The patch is being worked on, we have tested various builds, but have run into some technical issues. Hopefully, it won't take much longer.

There are few scenarios involving Canadians. I have been planning to make some scenarios for the Ortona map, but did not get around to it yet. Here is a good read on the Canadians in Italy: http://www.cmp-cpm.forces.gc.ca/dhh-dhp/his/oh-ho/detail-eng.asp?BfBookLang=1&BfId=25

very interesting, I like these little tidbits: i.e. effectiveness of air power, artillery, AT guns: shooting on the move: mechanical reliability: fuel supply:

Obviously true, but as I understand it, Hitler felt that, politically, he had to go on the offensive, if only to reassure his allies. For those who have read "The Wages of Destruction", it was apparently obvious to Hitler and the top Nazis that they had to knock Russia out of the war in 1941 or 1942, otherwise the war was lost. Hitler knew what the army was going up against since Model had made a point of cornering Hitler and giving him a detailed briefing complete with aerial recon photos of the Russian defences.

well of course the fact that the Germans were outnumbered in tanks, men, artillery and aircraft and were attacking a larger enemy force with deep prepared defences and with no element of surprise probably had something to do with it as well. A few hundred "Uber" tanks were not going to make a difference.

True, the time delay is too short. However, if you read Doubler, "Busting the Bocage", p.32, one of the technique which seems to have been fairly standard was to place 2 x 24lb demo charges 8 feet apart and 18" off the ground directly on the offending shrubbery. That blew a hole which was generally big enough to allow a Sherman to pass. No mention of the time required, but it does not sound very time consuming since no digging is involved.

I read a lot of military history. I have had on my list for a long time and finally just got around to reading Tooze's "The Wages of Destruction" on the Nazi economy. I have to say this is one of the most fascinating and illuminating book on WW2 which I have read in a long time. I would highly recommend it to any WW2 history buff. It is a long book, but written in a very readable style. A real page turner.

Don't forget there is a random time element built in to spotting. In tests I had run on CMRT, you could have a time difference of up to 2-3 minutes in spotting under the same conditions, so you have to run many tests to factor that out. Just because a HQ spots quicker one time does not mean he always will.