Michael Emrys

For a long time, playing as the US, I would group the company mortars (60mm) together and use them as on-call artillery. However, for the last year or so I have been keeping them up on or near the front because that gets quicker and more accurate fire from them. The trick there though is keeping them alive by protecting them from counter fire. So, there are trade-offs and how to use them is a judgement call based on whether there is terrain where they can shoot from but not to be easily shot at.
Michael

Populations do all sorts of massively irrational things. I don't need to look across oceans to find recent examples, I'm sad to say...

Michael

Populations do all sorts of massively irrational things. I don't need to look across oceans to find recent examples, I'm sad to say...

Michael

Aragorn, if you were any more "in the mood", you'd be leaving an oil slick.

Michael

That would be complicated by whether or not the vehicle is or could become under fire. When crews had to bail out of a bogged vehicle, their first concern was self-preservation, and nothing attracts fire like a stationary vehicle. So on exiting the vehicle, they would usually hightail it for friendly lines and leave the machine for mechanics with recovery vehicles who had the responsibility to get it running again. Tank crews were—or were at least supposed to be—highly trained specialists whose lives were not to be needlessly cast aside.
Michael

That would be complicated by whether or not the vehicle is or could become under fire. When crews had to bail out of a bogged vehicle, their first concern was self-preservation, and nothing attracts fire like a stationary vehicle. So on exiting the vehicle, they would usually hightail it for friendly lines and leave the machine for mechanics with recovery vehicles who had the responsibility to get it running again. Tank crews were—or were at least supposed to be—highly trained specialists whose lives were not to be needlessly cast aside.
Michael

Did you ever read Red Army by Ralph Peters? It came out in the late '80s, which is when I read it. It covered some of the same ground and I found it to be in many ways the most plausible book in this genre at the time. Of course a great deal has changed since then, but if we are talking about a Fulda Gap scenario, it would be well to study this.
Michael

But tend to be very indecisive in choosing a direction to move.
Michael

You're certainly right there. There must have been multiple millions of pages of planning documents generated by that and all the other possible battlefields for a NATO/Warpac confrontation.
Michael

It's the difference between high explosive and low explosive. A high explosive like TNT propagates very, very quickly, while a propellent like cordite propagates more slowly. So the high explosive reaches its maximum expansion more or less instantaneously, whereas the propellent develops its pressure gradually as the projectile is accelerated down the barrel. The high explosive exceeds the limits of the tube's elasticity and it shatters. At least, that's how I understand it.
Michael

I find that less objectionable personally. It was historically not uncommon on the scale of CM for a lot of baggage (to include vehicles) to be left behind the firing line. These may have been a solid part of the TO&E (or "otherwise acquired") of the unit, but if not actually required for the mission that day, there was no reason to expose them to danger.
Michael

An even better example was GDW's Fall of France. I always wanted to try the sane option where the charge into Belgium was not obligatory to see if the Germans would still win anyway, but the damn game took so long to set up and play, and took up so much room in my apartment that I never got around to it.
Michael

Never in all my games. If I start seeing it now, I will blame you two.

Michael

An even better example was GDW's Fall of France. I always wanted to try the sane option where the charge into Belgium was not obligatory to see if the Germans would still win anyway, but the damn game took so long to set up and play, and took up so much room in my apartment that I never got around to it.
Michael

Oh, there is a chance, just as there is a chance that it will start to rain $50 gold pieces tomorrow. But speaking for myself, I am not ready yet to run outside with a bushel basket to gather them up.
No, I think they do about as well as a private company without access to lots of classified data can do. What I am saying is that modeling anything as complex as combat is inherently shot through with imponderables and difficulties. Even trying to model wars that have long histories of examination and analysis is a tricky proposition. I've seen many models of WW II battles or campaigns, whose first draft seemed quite reasonable, produce wildly inaccurate outcomes when playtested. Fortunately in this case there was a historical record it could be compared to and necessary adjustments made. In a case of a future, even a near future battle with weapons and tactics not even tested in battle, there is no reality to compare the model to, so no way to check whether it holds water or not. That by definition means that it is not a reliable predictor of future outcomes. Not being reliable, it is of no interest to me.
Michael

All the time. Aside from creating special use teams like scouts or AT guys, just using the Split Squad command allows me to spread my troops out, making them less lucrative targets for artillery or mortars. That also allows me to use a favorite tactic if I am having to cross open ground. That is to used bounding overwatch. One team will start off using Quick and dash about 24 meters before stopping to pause for 10 seconds. The second team, after waiting 10 seconds, starts off to do the same thing. The third team, after waiting 20 seconds, starts their first leg. Keep repeating this until the turn has expired or all troops have reached their final destination. The advantages of moving this way are twofold. The spotting cycle in CM is usually around 7 seconds. So if your guys are lying down in tall grass for 10, the enemy units that might have noticed them running will forget about them and switch their attention elsewhere, which can make their fire less effective. The second advantage is that while one of your teams is up and running, the other two are able to spot and return fire on any enemy units that may have opened up on the runners. Even if they don't create any casualties, that tends to suppress the enemy and make his fire less effective.
Michael

Wow, I'll have to give this a try. Let's see...maybe the first ten chapters of my autobiography...

Michael

SFAIK that is precisely correct.
Michael

Wow, I'll have to give this a try. Let's see...maybe the first ten chapters of my autobiography...

Michael

That's how I played in CMx1, where split squads suffered a distinct firepower and morale disadvantage, but that no longer seems to be the case in CMx2.
Michael

That would be the point at which BFC and I would part company. I am really not into the idea of gaming someone's fanciful imaginings about the future. Trying to model current military capabilities is already borderline. If you have no reliable history to check your game against, it tends to fly off in all directions with no validity whatsoever.
Michael

Wow, I'll have to give this a try. Let's see...maybe the first ten chapters of my autobiography...

Michael

This is the kind of attitude I just don't get. Sure, it is a bit frustrating that the game is a little late, but why make a big deal of it? Who in hell is going to slit their wrists just because CMSF2 is late? Are you locked in a padded cell with nothing else to do? Have you no social life that you regularly involve yourself in? I don't mean to sound unsympathetic if that is the case and I genuinely hope that it is not. But it is edging awfully close to leaving that impression. I have to tell you that if you are depending on BFC to bring you happiness, you are leaning on a broken reed. It is what it is and can provide a nice complement to a satisfying life for certain kinds of personalities—of which I am one—but it is far from being the whole party that is life.
Michael

The difference being that I am nearly 75 years old, have had something resembling a full life, and don't have my shorts in a twist because SF2 is a week late.

Michael

I think he did one several years back about how the South won the Civil War with the help of AK-47 rifles supplied by time-traveling South Africans.
Michael