benpark

That didn't make it from my wish-list to the Ready for Prime Time list. The Reitwein map was made for the possibility.

George's level of detail is fantastic. I can't wait to sit in one go and get at the campaigns.

If you double-click the unit, the entire formation is selected. That may be it. You just need to click once to select the individual tank, and tell it where to go independent of the parent formation.

Born ginger, born whatever people may be is what they are. How people live their lives in relations with others after that is the measure.

Lyman does appear to be far less useful from a defensive standpoint going west to east. The Ukrainians used it as a force-limiting funnel (along with the forests) between the Oskil and the waterways near Terny to the east during the battles there a month ago. There's no direct road route into the town of Lyman between those features, so it would be tough to supply for an extended defense. Given the state of Russian engineering, even worse. I'm not sure what the Russians have jumbled up in that area as of the last few days, but it seems like yet another bad place to be with those Ukrainian crossing arrows moving across the river.

There's going to be a lot of heavy equipment left on the western side that can't be pulled out by ferry. All easily used and ammo'ed up by the Ukrainian forces. Another useless attempt to stave off disaster along a bad position near a river in order to hold a city for political gain.

Absolutely support them. Their games are great. I prefer the more hands-on approach that CM brings, but Graviteam does Company/Platoon command very well.

Thank ya much.

Artkin, do you have a good save for those? I can throw it to the bug-tracker, if so.

Those graphics look like 3rd party asset stuff, so there isn't much to see there that has been created from the ground-up that I can see. The Unity store has packs of assets that developers can buy (trees, bushes, etc)- I expect this engine is similar. That saves some time on art, but games end up with very similar styles, due to the abdication of that aspect of creative control. A tree is a tree is a tree, but when I open games now, I'm seeing a lot of the same ones across titles. A game should have its own look, as far as my preference goes. This individual has more work ahead than they comprehend, I believe. They may come up with an approach to the coding to make a facsimile of CMx2, but there's far more work to be done to get any parity. This is a massive undertaking- even with an existing engine, forget about starting from scratch. There's a vast amount to be done that isn't in that video. The overall code to make the knock-off, the pathfinding, basic UI, AI behaviors, terrain systems and interactions, ballistic calculations- all the stuff people refine in their brains every time they play the game- all of that requires a massive time and effort sink by developers. We discuss a lot of that here, so people can understand some of the insanity of fixing things that seem "minor". Everything impacts something else with any adjustments, so things can go off in weird directions when making something. Does it allow for modding? Steve and Charles baked this into the DNA of the game. That hooks oddballs that like to dissemble things, and remake them. It gives community and an extended life to the game. Also- updates. BFC keeps all games in patch-parity. Will this game have those aspects in its DNA, as well? Then, there's the rest of the content. A map editor is necessary for any CM-engine parity. That's like designing a game-within-a-game, again- from scratch. Using someone else's ideas as a template can only get one so far here. There's also the other stuff that BFC includes that people expect- campaigns, maps, scenarios, and quick battles. I can tell you from experience, that time sink is no joke. Years of work, if you want to make something of quality from the ground up. The "it's easy!" attitude is somewhat perplexing, but maybe the guy has unlimited time, unlimited talent, and the resources to keep doing this for as long as it takes. I'll root for anyone taking the challenge of making historical simulations on, so maybe it transpires- but I believe this road stretches far deeper into the forest than this person realizes (to do it right, anyway).

That's some interesting, weird stuff. I do get a strange, physical sensation of pain in my click-hand when looking at 95% it. If BFC ever lets me take a crack at Stalingrad, I'll be all over that.

Epic. The "drone view" is the signature look for the history books from this war.

The ol' Crimea pinch-

If the Nathan Russer assessment is correct, coupled with the UAWarData map (taken with a grain of salt) over the past few updates, it looks like there might be either the start of a pullback from Izium, or a move to attempt to solidify the Russian positions for a switch to defense in light of the flank attacks. I'm sure they don't want to lose Izium, but staying there may be a bad choice. Trying to get into the Russian intent - The movement by the Russian BTG's in the south in two areas (either side of Horlivka) looks to be where some action may now be brewing (maybe ready for the 9th?). The issue would be that this attack would be the bottom pincer, with no top one (if the Izium direction is stalled, and possibly under counter-attack). Both of these attack directions are astride the M-03 highway, and look to have to rely on more constricted roads for such an attack, so they may try to do a mini-pincer if this is indeed an attack towards the highway. Then, the dream may be up the M-03. Their northern counterparts have their work cut out for them, and would need to redirect their octopus-tentacle attack routes to one that makes sense. This is all dependent on things the Russians lack, however (fresh forces, coordination, good reconnaissance, etc, etc). If both the north and south Russian attack directions had been coordinated, this could potentially have been a problem for the Ukrainians. The command-and-control displayed by the Russians isn't there, nor is any defined plan that seems anything but reactive thus far, with no hope in sight given the leadership drain. The Ukrainian 3rd and 4th Separate Tank Brigades pictured around Sloviansk at the center are in a good position to react, or act. Any information about their status as offensive-capable units? Have they been in combat long?

That wasn't on the original wish list. Mike did an extra! I'll have to have a look at those. I can log it to see about getting them them hooked up for a future patch. In the meantime, they could get user - ModTagged to see them in-game.

The level of devastation to the city would be far less than in 1945. Clearer routes of advance may help the Soviet side in the initial assault due to the lack of rubble and prepared roadblocks. I would imagine there would also be a greater reluctance to sustain civilian casualties by the NATO forces, so it may be that the defense is less a 1945-style, tenacious "urban island" fight for city blocks - but more brief holding actions by NATO forces. That may center around particularly suitable structures for defense other than apartment complexes (train stations/KaDeWe/Zoo) or industrial areas (to the north end of the city in the West). Maybe there would be some pitched fights for the somewhat more open areas such as the Tiergarten and the outskirts (Teufelsberg and western park areas) as NATO forces in West Germany geared up for whatever was coming their way. There wouldn't be much chance of easily reinforcing the NATO Berlin garrisons, so I don't think this would have been too long of a fight if the Soviets attacked with overwhelming forces and intent.

AND the fact that they could engineer up a pontoon bridge, unnoticed for a week apparently. The Russian intelligence game is proving to be very, very behind.

That pontoon bridge is very interesting. Both in location - just in front of an area of the forested band that looks to be clear enough for vehicular passage and directly threatening Russian supply lines, and in the implicit message that the Ukrainian forces in the area aren't looking to merely absorb Russian attacks in the area still.

Most of these destroyed/abandoned Russian tanks must have advanced to at least where they now molder within the photographs and videos we are seeing - nearly every video has Ukrainian civilians and/or military personnel surrounding them. That leads one to think about the number of retreats or counter-attacks there have been over the course of this offensive to make so many "trophy" photographs and videos.

Impeccable taste, indeed. BAT!! Toast of London, if you need more of the genius that is Matt Berry. Sorry for the interruption. I thought I was alone in my interests.

Any files shared between titles (the German equipment, in this case) generally carry over with few exceptions so you should be good there. The only reason why they wouldn't could be something like a patch fixing a typo in the original file name, etc. Very rare to see that.

I was just reading an account of what was happening in Rubizhne from the Russian perspective. The comments about the fatigue related to manpower drain are of particular interest. The ability of the Ukrainian forces to utilize the local terrain with expertise when the enemy can't coordinate attacks effectively is nicely illustrated here:

There is a quite small vision/pistol use vision slit to the rear, if I recall. Very limited visibility, which could be part of the lack of action from the rear MG due to the spotting issue. That would indeed remove the TC (if they move to the rear MG) from more active spotting to the front and sides, where obvious threats would be situated. Unless the tank is surrounded, thus the rear-facing MG. That rear MG seems to have been popular up until the next iteration (the IS-2, inclusive). Could be some multiple weapon issue, but it does fire in a way that could indicate it is due to limited vision. I'll log it, just in case.

Once/if the Ukrainians can get over to the offensive in a given area, the Russian low-morale and organization factors should be even more crucial. I can envision a scenario where large amounts of Russian units could be induced to panic and lose all cohesion if subjected to their own medicine. It's one thing to have the momentum of being on the attack (as ruinous as this one is) and the apparent Russian motivational aspect of the promise of ill-gotten gains, and another to be at the receiving end of serious punishment on a larger scale than we have seen the Ukrainians deal out thus far. The right combination (the new artillery should provide some of that) could conceivably send the right Russian units reeling and opening up un-fillable gaps (due to the shortages in manpower, tanks, etc), and set off a chain-reaction from there. This Russian army seems like a very brittle force, with little in the way of deep reconnaissance to alert them of Ukrainian intent. I'd be looking for the right area to try to set that off - some of these fought-out units that have been fed back into the grinder with no rest and refit seem good candidates, or units heavy with foreign fighters (if there are indeed many). The motivational equation seems like it has a lot more area to play out still. The question in my (and others here) mind is - What do the Ukrainians have to deal this offensive punishment with, and when is the right time? The Russians are still apparently on the attack, so maybe an earlier opportunity will arise. How much of these new units of recently trained recruits are in the field currently? I might discount that newly trained force as somewhat unready in many cases, but I expect these units to be motivated beyond any comparison in recent historical memory.

Taking all of the southern coastal access to the Black Sea also opens the undersea oil fields to the Russians, and further cripples the Ukrainian economy. The island location mentioned in this article should be familiar from the opening days of the war: https://oil-gas.com.ua/news/The-Black-Seas-oil-and-gas-potential-the-reality-and-prospects-of-drilling-a-unique-ultra-deep-well-on-Zmiiny-Island More grift for the grifting.