Sgt Joch

Hi, as mentioned above, units will ONLY execute the orders you give them. The only time they move on their own is if they perceive an imminent threat, are under fire and suffer a severe morale hit. As mentioned above, you highlighted all the units which the game interprets as giving the same order to every unit. A common mistake when first playing the game, but you quickly get used to it. Note that you can show all movement paths for all units with the alt+p hotkey which allows you to do a quick check before you hit GO.

Depends. Russia would likely use larger units in the event of an all out war with the USA, but the chances of that happening in the next 20 years is basically nil.
What you are more likely to see in the next 10-20 years, would be the same kind of low intensity warfare you saw in Ukraine, either in Eastern Europe or Central Asia. The military involvement of US/NATO forces, if any, would probably be limited to training local forces and providing advisors and special forces unit. So yes, trying to figure out now the best way to defeat a Russian Battalion Tactical Group operating independently makes sense.
 
Grau in the “Russian way of war” also views the BTG as the basic tactical unit employed by the Russians (see page 37):
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot Spots/Documents/Russia/2017-07-The-Russian-Way-of-War-Grau-Bartles.pdf

I don't know where it better to post, so let be here.
The accident happened during maneuvers in Russia - AT-5 Konkurs ATGM, launched from BMP-2 hit T-90A. There is no photos in proper quality, so hard to say the tank was penetrated in side turret or no, or ERA block was activated, but you can see the tank cought fire and probably significantly damaged. Also I wonder either was Shtora turned on or no.

Anything is of course possible, but the water supply issues in Crimea is IMHO way down the list of priorities for Moscow. The Donbas War has been out of the headlines for 5 years now and the Kremlin wants to keep it that way.
The highest priority for Moscow in Europe seems to be finishing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project which will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine and supply Western Europe with natural gas directly without having to worry about Ukrainian “transit fees” or potential gas slow down or shut down. The U.S., in a rare display of bi-partisan unity, have been putting in place potentially crippling sanctions to try to stop it, but Merkel, German politicians and many EU governments want the pipeline finished so they can get cheap Russian gas. The Kremlin will not do anything, like another war, that could put the project in jeopardy.

The leadership bonus is supposed to affect firepower. I do recall reading that in one of the early manuals for SF1 or maybe CMBN?. In terms of what it does, my understanding is that it gets more men shooting in the right direction and at the right targets, which will of course increase how much damage they inflict.
edit: found it, under the heading  "Leaders" in your game manual: "Leaders...direct fire to be more effective". (ref: Game Engine Manual v 4.00, p. 68)

The leadership bonus is supposed to affect firepower. I do recall reading that in one of the early manuals for SF1 or maybe CMBN?. In terms of what it does, my understanding is that it gets more men shooting in the right direction and at the right targets, which will of course increase how much damage they inflict.
edit: found it, under the heading  "Leaders" in your game manual: "Leaders...direct fire to be more effective". (ref: Game Engine Manual v 4.00, p. 68)

I see this issue in current BF beta build and have made a report.
This is not, as far as I can tell, a terrain deformation issue as it happens on perfectly flat ground.  However, perhaps there is still some imperceptible deformation underneath the trenches that is then generating shadows on some systems?

Re-posting this as I know he was a well known figure among the early Combat Mission titles.  I remember his scenarios well from those early days of CM.  RIP "Wild" Bill Wilder.
"It is with a sad heart that I need to report the passing of Bill Wilder. For those of you that know my history, Bill Wilder was one of the first gamers to join me when I founded Matrix Games. Our first project together was the Steel Panthers World At War game. I had just recently chatted with him and it was just like old times. I will greatly miss him.
Bill's obituary can be found here and you may leave a message to his family. Leaf Cremation - Here
Bill Wilder services will be held on September 6, 2020, at 3:00 pm EST at The Church at Green Acres Baptist Church, Smyrna, GA. The service will also be online at - Here" ~ David Heath

Yup. Unfortunately there are a handful of mentally unstable/disturbed people out there who have literally dedicated their lives to trashing BFC and Combat Mission at every turn. The reasons vary, but most of it boils down to stupid people being mad that they were matter of factly told off instead of being coddled and treated specially. This disenfranchised mob tends to conglomerate, and you get the hate groups/groupthink you are seeing. 
This is one of the main reasons I was always against CM moving to Steam. Granted, my logic is not the most sound, and it is a personal opinion, but I just didn't want these people having another avenue to complain about the same old things. Now that CM is on Steam though, and the overhead is being taken care of by Slitherine, I do not think its a bad thing for BFC. The outrage mob will scream about the game the next few days, but it won't last. Give it a week or two and you'll start to see more sane opinions come forward as the dust settles. The misinformation, such as spotting being a diceroll, certainly annoys me in particular, but that's the internet for you. 
Its also important to point out that with CM published on Steam by Slitherine, there isn't anything to worry about. They will handle the community outreach on Steam as well as advertising. If, at the end of the day CM doesn't perform on Steam, then it won't be the fault of BFC, or even Slitherine for that matter. And we are a very long ways off from drawing any drastic conclusions like that. 

Personally I never put much stock in STEAM reviews since they always seem to be all over the map for any game. So far CMSF2 has mostly positive reviews which is really the best you could ask for.

Well "close" on a modern battlefield is always relative. The ideal position is in a relatively hidden/hull down/protected on the sides position where the AFV is relatively secure, but in a good shooting/overwatch position where it can engage threats immediately as they are spotted by the enemy.

Depends. Russia would likely use larger units in the event of an all out war with the USA, but the chances of that happening in the next 20 years is basically nil.
What you are more likely to see in the next 10-20 years, would be the same kind of low intensity warfare you saw in Ukraine, either in Eastern Europe or Central Asia. The military involvement of US/NATO forces, if any, would probably be limited to training local forces and providing advisors and special forces unit. So yes, trying to figure out now the best way to defeat a Russian Battalion Tactical Group operating independently makes sense.
 
Grau in the “Russian way of war” also views the BTG as the basic tactical unit employed by the Russians (see page 37):
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot Spots/Documents/Russia/2017-07-The-Russian-Way-of-War-Grau-Bartles.pdf

Thing with Combat Mission I've learned is it punishes impatience and rewards thoughtful planning. My very first game I played I thought I could just wing it and successfully rush into a city and take over...that was a bad mistake. Lost most of my armor and my team was wiped out. You have to be careful with how you approach a situation.
Also, if battles were so easy to conquer, why does it take on average 250,000 bullets for every enemy killed IRL: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-forced-to-import-bullets-from-israel-as-troops-use-250000-for-every-rebel-killed-314944.html
It's not easy. War is freaking hard. And Combat Mission does a good job exhibiting that difficulty.

Testers here are highly resistant to anecdote-based complaints due to repeated instances of following up on anecdotes with time-intensive controlled tests and finding either a non-issue, or results nearly opposite to that claimed in the anecdote (i.e. something claimed as happening all the time is actually statistically rare).  Users are very prone to confirmation bias regarding failures and negative events.  If the failure or negative event involves something where probability is a factor (like artillery casualties), not an always / never event, you really should try to set up a test to confirm.
But that is just general commentary.  On air bursts vs. trucks, I did setup a quick 155mm (point, heavy, quick) vs. mounted platoon in 32x32ish square test and the results did not diverge significantly from same test with "general" fusing.  Trucks and troops in trucks are certainly not immune to air bursts.  However, it does feel off in several ways:
Neither airbursts nor ground bursts seem to deliver sub-system (radio, engine, wheels) damage to trucks even when they are causing casualties to passengers.  Trucks appear to either be fine or KO'd with nothing in between.  The distance threshold for a hit to be likely to KO a truck seems to be the same for air bursts and ground bursts, maybe a little tighter for air bursts.  Might be a bug in this, or maybe any sub-system damage results in immediate KO? (If the latter, then trucks are definitely not taking sub-system damage as would be expected.) Because air bursts never directly strike trucks, all air burst KOs appear to be without damage.  Trucks won't blow up / burn from air burst KOs.  Also noticed that sometimes the KO would happen a turn or so later, further giving the "no effect" feel. Troops in trucks appear to have higher protection vs. artillery bursts compared to troops in the open on the ground.  But if their trucks are KO'd and they exit, they go down much faster to air bursts than to general.  

As a retired Light Infantry Platoon Sergeant and Sniper with 28 years of service to include several combat tours, this has got to be one of the more interesting threads I've read on a gaming site in eons. There have been some great points made by several people, and it has been very interesting to read all the differing views and opinions, as well as the shared ones. I also have enjoyed how it all relates to CM. Great stuff!
Some general points of consideration regarding combat and firefights that I would like to make in relation to this topic:
1) Most times in a firefight, there is so much noise that it's very hard to hear near misses. You might know you are being shot at by dirt and debris being chipped at you by near misses, but many times you won't hear it due to the multiple, loud weapons being fired, Soldiers and Leaders shouting out orders, and information on the enemy. It's chaotic and loud.
2) As far as U.S. Infantry training goes, when enemy fire is received, the SOP is to take cover and return fire. Almost always 'take cover' means fall prone, and then seek to improve your 'cover' position. For example, you are prone and returning fire, but there is a nice fat tree five feet to your left that would make better cover. You do what you can to move to it, usually by crawling. 
3) Usually, when a firefight starts, there is an initial round of firing, people hit the dirt, and then people start yelling. For the trained U.S. Infantry, that means enemy identification. As an example, it might sound like this "Contact 1100, 3oo meters, squad size". The direction is important obviously, as it alerts the formation to the general direction of contact as well as the distance. The element size is purely an initial estimate to give leaders an idea what they are up against. Of course this whole contact statement gets echoed back down the formation so that teams and squads at the back of the formation know whats going on. Also, it gets refined as the firefight goes on. As you can see, this equals lots and lots of yelling. Add in to that calls for medics, special weapons teams to deploy, new enemy sightings on the flanks or, Heaven forbid, in the rear, and one can quickly see how chaotic it can get. And then there are all the weapons firing and explosions. Like I said, chaos. 
4) Now, all that said, the mark of an experienced and/or well trained unit will handle that chaos much better. That is why SOP's are tantamount to success. When bullets start flying, Warfighters have to react without thinking, for best success. LOTS of time is spent training and practicing on initial contact with the enemy. It is the basic building block for all other Infantry training and operations. How your unit reacts to initial contact can make or break your unit.
5) I must absolutely agree with those above that said you shoot what you can see, and you suppress what you cannot see but suspect might be there. Also, as a trained and experienced sniper, I will always be of the mindset that well placed, accurate single shots are more effective at taking a target out then suppressive fire. But, suppressive fire has it's place. When an Infantry platoon is conducting a standard platoon attack on an objective, and you are in the Assault Element, you definitely want that suppressive fire to be hosing the objective before your assault begins, and then following in front of you as you assault across the obj. When the enemy is keeping their heads down from the barrage of M240 and M249 fire as well as some 40mm grenade fire mixed in, a trained designated marksman or sniper can more easily pick off specific targets on the obj, especially as the assault element is moving across. When all this is executed by an experienced unit, it is a thing of beauty. 
 
Anyhow, some general thoughts. I could talk about this topic for hours and days, but hopefully I've made some salient points. 
 
Cheers!

re: precision rounds, they do work, I use them frequently, but it's not a magic bullet like a Javelin. It also matters who is calling in the strike, a FO in a FIST vehicle targeting using a Drone has a much higher chance of getting it directly on the target than a regular HQ unit.

3. Afrika Korps: 1940-43 
WWII North Africa
Operation Torch, American North Africa Invasion Libya, Egypt, and Tunis 1942-43

In my experience, the "3d model quality" setting is the one that has the biggest impact on FPS.
 
You have to experiment with different settings to find the sweet spot. All the settings from "Balanced" to "Best" use the same LODs, the only difference is the distance at which it draws them.
 
 

ok I posted the missing "Mech Airbone Battalion" in QB as a bug report. However I don't know how long a fix will take. R2V is the priority right now.

ok I posted the missing "Mech Airbone Battalion" in QB as a bug report. However I don't know how long a fix will take. R2V is the priority right now.

I think it has already been listed as a bug, but I will check.

yes, the Mech Airborne Battalion which has the BMP-3 seems to have been left out of QBs, it is in the editor though.

Javelins are not using in current positional warfare. When US has agreed to supply Javelins, there was a condition - missiles can be used only in case of separatists offensive or direct Russian invasion. In current time all missiles shared among special teams in SOF and air-assault units, but stored out of JFO zone.
In 2018 one or two missiles were launched for demonstration to Poroshenko.

Also Javelins were showed in that year on military parade.

Meanwhile, soldiers were joking on frontline %) 

Let's not forget that since CMSF came out in mid-2007, BFC has released 7 base games, 6 modules (7 after R2V), 3 game upgrades, 2 battle packs, 1 vehicle pack as well as numerous free patches. That works out to something new roughly every 7-8 months. I don't think anyone can accuse them of slacking off
 

Let's not forget that since CMSF came out in mid-2007, BFC has released 7 base games, 6 modules (7 after R2V), 3 game upgrades, 2 battle packs, 1 vehicle pack as well as numerous free patches. That works out to something new roughly every 7-8 months. I don't think anyone can accuse them of slacking off