Bil Hardenberger

My model of the current state of play is that we are in an abortive WWI space. Multi-ethnic, archaic imperial state Russia (think Austria Hungary) thought its "unlimited" alliance with China (Kaiser-ine Germany) would allow it to settle scores with Ukraine (Serbia) in a world where a long war/big war hadn't happened in decades and was so unthinkable and ill thought. But this time, the Kaiser balked and the Third Balkan war became a dragged out proxy conflict as everyone else tooled up for something bigger. That's where we are now. Waiting to see which way the balance tips.
 

Thanks Miguel I’ll do that.
Also, feel free to pass this along if you guys think someone might be a good fit. 

Good luck with the search @Bil Hardenberger I suggest you make a posting on this list as well:
SimulatingWar@groups.io
 

@Vacillator  The skill-set could be flexible...   ...sadly the citizenship and security clearance requirements are not. 
 

We are looking for a wargame developer at Quantico Virginia. If you have US citizenship (or a green card), a Secret clearance, and are in any way interested, please read the below, and PM me with any questions. 
Bil
Link to job posting Job Description
At BAE Systems, we promote a strong, collaborative culture and provide our employees with the tools and skills they need to succeed. We are all about trust, camaraderie and a shared ambition to lead the world in defense technologies and national security services. We offer flexible work environment to support the balance in your life and keep you performing at your best. Be a part of a company that is part of the community, driven to improve our future, protect our freedom – and what matters.

We are seeking a Wargame Developer in support of a government contract for wargaming. 
Position located in Quantico, VA.
Responsibilities include:
Conducting research and developing wargame scenario products, including orders of battle, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace, and system capabilities Assisting Game Designers by developing, adapting, and refining wargame mechanics and rules Developing and producing wargame components, including physical maps, unit tokens, and references materials Developing, operating, maintaining, and archiving simulations databases in support of wargames and events, with government-provided Model & Simulation tools Troubleshooting issues with input, retrieval, or modification of simulations databases Test M&S, terrain data, and scripts Operate M&S tools during wargame execution Develop a Program of Instruction for M&S tools Using the developed Program of Instruction, provide operator training and over the shoulder training to government players Provide data for government and other contractor analysts
Required Education, Experience, & Skills •Qualified candidates must have a current and active Secret clearance, with the ability to obtain a TS/SCI
•BA/BS in related field
•Must have experience with Model & Simulation tools
•Must have more than 12 years of related work experience
•Ability to work in collaborative team/staff environments
•Strong interpersonal skills.
•Knowledge of military affairs and/or foreign policy.
•MS Office, especially ability to build professional PowerPoint presentations
Preferred Education, Experience, & Skills
•Experience in wargaming
•Experience in Department of Defense M&S
•Background and understanding of military operations and future concepts, especially for the Marine Corps.

About BAE Systems Intelligence & Security
BAE Systems Intelligence & Security, based in McLean, Virginia, designs and delivers advanced defense, intelligence, and security solutions that support the important missions of our customers. Our pride and dedication shows in everything we do—from intelligence analysis, cyber operations and IT expertise to systems development, systems integration, and operations and maintenance services. Knowing that our work enables the U.S. military and government to recognize, manage and defeat threats inspires us to push ourselves and our technologies to new levels. That’s BAE Systems. That’s Inspired Work. Equal Opportunity Employer/Females/Minorities/Veterans/Disabled/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity/Gender Expression. To see Inspired Work in action, visit www.baesystems.com and follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/baesystemsintel.

Just in case you were wondering if a: the US was in for the long term and b: if they were going to keep letting Elon Musk **** things up:
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/federal-contracting/starlink-competitor-touts-pentagon-partnership-blasts-musk

And the last time he talked about pulling Starlink out was during the last big Ukrainian offensive. Musk's sympathies are pretty clear.

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

I know the reason why we don't get snow/winter - it is because they have penciled in a module called Northern Storm featuring Finland, Sweden and Norway
I know, pipe dream...
CW is becoming my favourite modern CM game so any new things to play with is most welcome.

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Does this mean... The balloon has gone up? 
. 
... 

I like how the Pentagon has decided not to shoot it down...   and determined it has "limited intelligence value".  Too funny.
CNN Story

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Hi, new poster
Swingfire antitank missile system, fitted to the FV102 Striker and FV438 (based on FV432 APC). Will be interested to see how this will be implemented in game. Quote from Wikipedia:
"The name refers to its ability to make a rapid turn of up to ninety degrees after firing to bring it onto the line of the sighting mechanism. This means that the launcher vehicle could be concealed and the operator, using a portable sight, placed at a distance in a more advantageous firing position."
It would be exellent if you can replicate this ability in game.
Anyhow just glad to see British forces being added so quickly.
Thanks

Expression of gratitude to Battlefront team.
Like other players of Battlefront's Combat Mission series, I have my own wish list, of things I'd like to see that I think would make the game better. Now at the age of 72 and wargaming as my primary hobby for 64 years, I have learned that such expressions of "I'd like to see it done this way", appear to be an inevitable response to any set of rules and any game. Tiresome sometimes. To rules writers, game coders and games masters, such feedback can be a bit discouraging. So at this time I want to say:
I am VERY HAPPY playing the WWII Combat Missions series 'as is'. It is afterall - a game.  From my perspective it is a perfect follow-up or replacement for miniature wargaming. To me this is what it feels and looks like. Except it looks better than minis, I can field larger armies, and I don't have to learn a 60+ page book of rules!
When we gamers sometimes appear to gripe about this or that feature no implemented - we might as ourselves, "How long have I been playing these games." For me the answer is "Continuously since the release of series one - Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin, CM Afrika Korps etc." So I must have been enjoying it as is. No? So many years of fun.
And I LOVE having an easy to use Scenario Editor. I probably spend more time tinkering with map making, or tweaking graphics than actually playing. I have yet to play through all of CMBN's over 300 sceanrios in my collection.
In conclusion. THANK YOU Battlefront for many years of happy gaming, for your many hours of coding work, your responses to the community. Given my wonky ticker, I don't knwo if I'll be around to enjoy engine 5. I hope so.
Dr. Wilhelm C.T. Oudshoorn BA, DDS (a.k.a. WimO, a.k.a. Kandu)
 

Well that is a loaded question to be honest.  Bil H will no doubt chime in but a few factors came into play as I recall:
- Resources.  We can take a really good shot at BAOR and not cripple ourselves in development for years - along with the other BFC titles.  The core team is pretty small and we were looking for a quick, but solid, follow up to the main game.  Germany would have been a lot more work, as would  any other NATO nations, and the French were just a non-starter.  Those modules will take much longer, particularly in vehicle modelling and artwork.  BAOR had a lot of new vehicle models but much more manageable in the timelines for a first DLC.
- Locale.  The Northern Plain was actually where the most likely Soviet Main effort was going to fall.  Hate to admit it but Fulda was a bit of a sideshow in the overall Soviet plan.  It made sense game wise simply because the largest market for the game is the US, and we had a lot of details on this fight - US research is a dream as they put everything out there, Canadians are a nightmare.  That said we really wanted to do the northern plains from the start and historically that is BAOR or the Germans.
- Expertise.  We had experts on both UK and Canadian orbats right out the gate, which made research a lot easier.  I joined in 1988 and had a lot of my old battlebox stuff to pull from and some old timers I still know from up the day.  On the UK side we had similar expertise.
- Timeframe.  Late 70s, early 80s is really the “tipping point” of the Cold War.  It was when the doctrine and equipment of both sides was pretty balanced, each offsetting the others strengths and weaknesses.  Before this you get the nuclear armies, which were just nuts. And after you get the  western advantage leaning into overmatch and then we start to look a lot like CMSF or BS.
- Straight up cool factor.  So how would the UK done against the Soviets?  Canadians are fun because they mix European and US kit.  You wanna know how a squadron of Leo’s would have done…well let’s find out.  Not saying the other nations are not interesting but when you add everything up it just made more sense to do BAOR next and they would be fun to play.
As to “how will they play”…totally honest…no freakin idea.  We also had no idea on the main game.  It wasn’t until I played those first few scenarios while we were early in did we see that we were onto something.  BFC doesn’t balance for gameplay or market. They literally plug in the data from research and then throw it at each other in game. The balance is almost entirely emergent.  When we do up scenarios and campaigns there is always a level of balancing that goes on but this is macro stuff like force size and enablers.  For CMCW we were amazed at how little balancing we had to do. I designed the campaigns and scenarios based on doctrine on both sides and basically how they would have gone into a fight with each other.  The fact that these led to tightly balanced fights that require deep understanding of what each side can do was all pretty much emergent design.

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Looks like they just stuck the new turret on an old T-72 hull... without bothering to refurbish it first.
At that rate of fire they would need resupply in about.. oh another 30 seconds of firing... there is probably one minute of firing in that two minute video... and it only carries 1.5 minutes of ammo for those twin 30s. Typical Russian design... prioritizing mass over precision.
Bil

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Not really strange, as USAEUR no longer has Sheridans in 1979, which is the beginning timeframe of the base game. 

Hate to disappoint, but sorry, no winter or snow in this module. I could get into the reasons for this, but would hate to bore you all... basically, we can only demand so much of Battlefront's operations before Steve tells us to EFF off.   
Bil

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Wow, dark.  I mean sure, technically could happen.  I mean the West would have to entirely abandon Ukraine in order for them to be pulled back into Russian orbit at this point.  And if that happens, well we may as well all start learning Mandrin because we are doomed for the next real fight.
The Donbas was not an "industrial heartland": https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10663-021-09521-w  In fact Russia walked away from the actual industrial centers of Ukraine around Kyiv.
Ukraine doesn't enter NATO and EU, well ok, not a great idea on our part but not a deal breaker.  Nor does this preclude bilateral agreements, which is what has gotten them to this point anyway.  Nor does this preclude western investment or reconstruction, particularly in the center and west of Ukraine.  Lord knows we would never pour trillions into a nation still in a state of conflict - The_Capt says sarcastically eyeing Iraq and Afghanistan, and unlike those two gong shows Ukraine is far more internally cohesive and actually bordered by NATO nations.
Of course heading into Western elections in '24, the big one being US, having Ukraine burning, abandoned and drifting towards Russia after spending billions is not a really good thing.
So sure, this darkest timeline is out there but lets call it the "natural 1" and realize that a whole lot has to go wrong before we get there.  Did you guys think war was without risk?  That we are in one we can actually lose?  Maybe that is the issue because all the rest were "over there" and of course we couldn't lose.  
Of course we can lose.  You may have noticed that we are about one bad day away from a nuclear exchange between great powers.  I mean it would have to be a really bad and unlucky day but that damned midnight clock isn't joking. https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/
But just because we can lose does not mean we will.  Particularly if we hold it together and stop jumping at every setback like it was the end of days.