Hakko Ichiu
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Posts posted by Hakko Ichiu
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About the stuck M1: if a crew is going to abandon and destroy its tank, don't they toss thermite grenades down the barrel and into the engine block and crew compartments? I believe tanks carry several thermite grenades for exactly this purpose
About the Merkava: The primary design goal of the Merkava was crew survivability, hence the low silhouette and high armor thickness/slope and the trade-off in power to weight ratio. Israeli tank crews are considered on a par with fighter pilots -- they sign up for a much longer hitch then regular leg infantry.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Dan Weaver:
That's incredibly cheesy, Fionn. I can't believe you faced 9 Jumbos in one game. That's like all the Jumbos in an entire division...the opposing commander must have really kissed some ass to score those! "Give me all the heavy tanks, please!"
Dan<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's why computer-selected forces are such a beautiful think. Like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GI Tom:
Also, my wife just got me "Blood, Tears and Folly, An Objective Look at World War II" by Len Deighton. I have only just begun, but it looks to be very promising.
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Tom,
Please post a report on the book when you're done. It is on the discount rack at my local B&N, and I am considering buying it.
I'm currently reading Featherston's "Battle for Mortain." It describes how the 30th Inf. Division (a NC National Guard unit, go Heels!) held off the 2nd SS Panzers, among others. Lots of interesting info on life at the sharp end to be gleaned in this one.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MadBot:
1.03 is MUCH harder for a variety of reasons...AINT IT GREAT!
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MadBot, you fiend. This is just part of your plot to take over the world by making CM self-aware. But we are on to your little game. When you wake up to find a wet fish draped across your motherboard, you will know we have struck. And by then it will be too late.
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fred:
Armyheer?
The german army today is the "Bundeswehr"...
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Actually, the Bundeswehr (lit. "Defense of the Republic") is the entire German military. IIRC, the German Army is the Bundesheer. Luftwaffe is still the Luftwaffe, btw.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Los:
Just a little (what should be freaking obvious) observation re: drinking in Armies being rife. When you get any group of 18-25 year olds together or for that matter any group of guys, drinking will be rife. It's hardly the sole purvue of the military.
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I wasn't implying that drinking was solely a military phenomenon. But some people seem to think that because soldiers have discipline, they don't drink and that conversely, if soldiers drink there must be a serious discipline problem. This is clearly an erroneous conclusion, unless the drinking routinely takes place while on duty.
I think Wellington would have been worried if his soldiers didn't drink.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Joe Shaw:
Do they baste great, or just less killing?
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ROFLMAO, you sick, sick puppy.
Have any PBEM slots open? I've had two games go on vacation. If you're up for it, we can discuss parameters by e-mail.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
[This message has been edited by Hakko Ichiu (edited 07-28-2000).]
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by maxm2:
{snip}
I believe the latter part of the war was under two Republican presidents, one of whom made Clinton look like a naughty kid....
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I don't want this thread to explode into a political lockup, but lets just say that the above statement is a value judgement rather than an objective relation of fact.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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From everything I've heard and read, drinking comes with the territory for soldiers, with the possible exceptions of Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Taliban et al. For instance, in Nelson's navy, once the crew got into the spirit locker, you knew the jig was up. More recently, every GI in France hoped to stumble onto a nice cellar of Cognac somewhere along the way; their Wehrmacht counterparts were equally culpable (see, e.g., Featherston, "Batttle for Mortain")
The issue of the current quality/state of readiness of America's armed forces is a complex one, and deserves better than a load of "yah boo sucks nyah nyah nyah", even if our current Fearless Leader may deserve less...
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by dumbo:
"Egyptian has re-armed at the expense of the American taxpayer. "
I think you can also say
Israel has re-armed at the expense of the American taxpayer.
I beleive the split is 20 billion a year in aid to Eqypt and 25 billion to Israel if I recall correctly.
cheers
_dumbo<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
True, but Israel is a democracy and a long-time ally of the United States that has provided vital logistic, intelligence and technological support to the US. Egypt is a dictatorshipa and a former Soviet client.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bastables:
The SAS was created out of the Long range Desert patrol group headed by the indomitable post war Fuzzy wuzzy killer, Major Stirling. (snip...)
The SAS’s training and constant experience in’ front line security’ insured an integral role in the Malay emergency and the subsequent confrontation with Indonesia.
(snip...)
Front line security is a SAS role. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
If you go back and check the original anecdote, you'll see that it concerned Australian SAS. A small but important distinction.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
The idea that the Aborigines being ‘natives’ and therefore held some sort of home ground advantage on the basis of their ingrained knowledge of the 'land' and native special powers is quite ludicrous and demeaning to what they achieved during that exercise. The Aborigines are about as ‘Mystic Bushmen’ as any formerly successful small-scale culture is after being forced into modernity, alcoholism, low life expectancy, high incidence in crime statistics and the margins of white society, bugger all.
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Hey, if Crocodile Dundee could do it...
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Disaster:
I realize that this is the plan that has always been raised for a successful defense of Israel, but my suspicions are that this hides a weakness more than it boasts of resources it can assemble. That is, in order to fend off against a possible coalition of armies, it HAS to mobilize most of its fighting age people.
Before you strike this as a fallacy, let me first say that Israel is vulnerable to protracted conflict, a cost of which cannot be borne by a society that is totally mobilized. If everyone is mobilized, most of the effective work force cannot be used for industry to keep the economy going. The longer a conflict or state of war exists, the more resources are used, even if no actual heavy fighting takes place. Sure, everyone who can raise a rifle is an advantage. But industry has to supply the bullets.
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This is just a description of the strategic reality facing Israel and Israel has to plan accordingly. Hence the focus on technological superiority. The entire population has to be mobilized because Israel has only 4 million people (including potentially hostile, non-com Israeli Arabs) while the Arab world has two orders of magnitude more manpower on which to draw. Many people who don't pay close attention to the Middle East don't realize how tiny Israel is compared to its declared and potential enemies.
There is no doubt that Israel relies on beating or at least halting its enemies quickly, and depends on the US for a rapid re-supply if the situation gets that bad.
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For that reason Israel has supported its domestic arms industry. But that industry is more devoted to exports of high technology rather than its initial purpose of extending Israel's warfighting ability.
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Israel makes abundant use of its own arms. And you can be pretty sure that they have a lot of stuff they are not advertising to the Ecuadorians.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
At the same time, Israel's past and present enemies have all modernized their forces, and some even have similar technologies. Professionalism, also, is not just the preserve of Israel. Of its neighbours, Egypt and Turkey are more than able to hurt Israel. Of course both are allies, for that reason. This Israel has done because it can't afford to face a combined Arab Legion again. But we are talking hypothetical conflicts here. Hence the discussion is titled "Best Armies in the World".
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I would hardly call Egypt an 'ally' of Israel's. The peace between them is cool and growing colder by the minute. The Egyptian press, which is government control, constantly agitates against Israel, Zionism, and Jews in general. Sadat made peace with Israel because it suited his purposes; Mubarak maintains peace for the same reason. In the meantime, Egyptian has re-armed at the expense of the American taxpayer. Those forces could be turned against Israel at a moments notice.
Turkey is rather different. It is not part of the Arab world and hasn't been since it came into the modern age. It shares clear strategic interests with Israel, e.g., Syria and Iraq, and has a more modern economy that is benefiting immensely from cordial relations with Israel.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by IDF:
The Golani Brigade are just part of the regular infantry fighting units. The three fighting units are the Golani, Givati and Tzanchanim (paratroopers). The Golani is based in the north, Givati south and Tzanchanim in the centre section of Israel.
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You sound like you know what you're talking about, so I'll take your word for it regarding current force structure in the IDF. I know a couple of people who served in Golani, however, and they had their jump boots, and considered themselves part of an elite unit. One of them subsequently transferred to a reserve unit of the Tsayeret when he finished his hitch.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>The Tzaeret Matkal are pretty good. But the most elite unit is the shyaetet 13. They are the equivalent of the Navy seals, the only difference is that they **** all over the seals. Basic training for this unit is 2 years!!!! and you must committ to the army for at least 5 years. As opposed to regular service of 3 years.
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Unfortunately, it seems that many of them are now suffering the aftereffects of training in the virulently toxic Kishon river. The water there changes color according to which factory is dumping what toxin into it. Disgraceful.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>One of the main problems with the IDF in general is the lack of discipline, this is one of its weaknesses besides the fact that it is run by a communist governement who supports the enemy more than their own people!!!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I agree with you, but let's not go there in this thread, as it will draw a lot of fire, all of it OT.
Kol ha'Kavod
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I devised a little test scenario to see if the Arty spotter in a hole could be used to blow a bridge. After a lot of fiddling I found out a few things:
-- High bridges are tough. I had two elite 240mm spotters with max ammo fire their entire barrage at a TRP on a High bridge with zero effect. Lots of nice explosions though.
-- You can't put TRPs on water. I had to put a little island in the middle of the river, run the bridge over it, and put the TRP on the island.
-- Bridges contain high amounts of Vitamin D and are extremely difficult to hit with rickets.
-- Wooden bridges are pretty vulnerable to high calibre HE.
This led to my proto-Remagen scenario:
Allies -- 4 Jeep MGs
Axis -- 1 Elite Arty Spotter (various calibres)with 1 salvo. One TRP.
The Jeeps start at one end of the map, at the terminus of a dirt road, while the spotter is on a high bluff at the other end of the map. In between is a wide river. Crossing the river is a double wooden bridge. In the middle of the bridge is the German TRP.
The spotter has one chance to destroy the bridge before the jeeps race over it. Time to target for the arty is always 27 seconds, which gives the Germans the chance to fire their salvo shortly before the jeeps arrive.
I ran this little encounter several times with each of the following arty calibres: 150mm, 210mm, 240mm.
Results were:
150mm -- Destroyed 0 Partial Destruction 0 Unscathed 5
210mm -- Destroyed 0 Partial 4 Unscathed 1
240mm -- Destroyed 7 Partial 1 Unscathed 2
2 x 210mm -- Destroyed 9 Partial 1 Unscathed 0
So, one could do a bridge demolition scenario by giving the Germans the necessary arty assets with 1 salvo. Then they have a percentage chance to blow the bridge, and they can wait for the Allies to get on the bridge or not. The scenario designer can fine tune this by putting the arty as a reinforcement.
I may try to put together a Remagen scenario on this basis -- using the movie rather than what actually happened as my basis.
Any takers?
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
[This message has been edited by Hakko Ichiu (edited 07-26-2000).]
[This message has been edited by Hakko Ichiu (edited 07-26-2000).]
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by aka_tom_w:
YES but....
I understand that the LACK of a radio is waht is being modeled after the crew bails out.
They may be scouts and trained recon specialists but, assuming they bailed out without a radio they are as useless as ever other crew.
I think it is fair to assume that ALL crews that bail out of vehicles do so with only pistols and NO radios or rifles or submachine guns or anything.
So therefore even crews from recon vehicles would not be able to get the word back if they were out of the command radius of the nearest CO.
That all makes sense to me.
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You mean they don't have cell phones????
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Disaster@work:
As we all know, Israel has fought a number of wars the latter half of the 20th century. Therefore, it would safe to assume that the level of experience for many commanders is high. However, the Israeli army suffers from its conscript status of much of its forces. That is, many people who are forced to fight rather than ones who choose it as a profession. While this would probably lead to a general improvement in basic skills for the population at large, for the standing army this constant rotation of people who would rather be doing something else can't be good.
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One thing to remember is the regular reserve commitment for all eligible Israeli citizens under (IIRC) 35. The reserves are kept pretty sharp at all times and a complete call up of reserves can be done in 72 hours with critical assets ready within 24 -- at least that's the plan w/in the IDF.
As to the "conscript status", you have to remember that Israel has been at war since its creation. Israeli soldiers may be draftees, but they're fighting for their country and their lives against an enemy from whom they can expect no quarter. Also, success in the military is highly correlated with success in greater Israeli society, so young Israelis, esp. men, have a high incentive to perform well during their service.
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Also, most of the Israeli army is engaged in policing, not in warfighting. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Don't know about most, but the Intifada and the mess in Lebanon have definitely taken a considerable toll of Israeli morale.
Even so, I'd still take the IDF against any of its likely adversaries, and I'd say that an elite IDF unit like the Golani or the Sayeret Matkal could hold its own against pretty much anyone.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Disaster@work:
I found this possibility provocative so I looked it up in the Geneva conventions. Quote:
Article 40.-Quarter
It is prohibited to order that there shall be no survivors, to threaten an adversary therewith or to conduct hostilities on this basis.
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Sorry to appear Clintonesque, but there is a definite semantic difference between not accepting surrender and ordering that there be no survivors. One can always allow combatants to run away, either before or after telling them to drop their weapons.
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When discussing literature, the word masterpiece connotes some level of quality. I've read enough of Mein Kampf to say that that description doesn't apply. I think the word you are looking for, Fionn, is magnum opus.
And, if you are using the alternative definition of masterpiece as 'one's greatest achievement', I think Hitler's actions in other fields overshadow his literary efforts. This, of course, is to leave aside any moral component of greatness.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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Bad boy, Charles! Back to your cubicle! Back I say!
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael emrys:
Just to fill out my biography:
So I went off wargaming for that and other reasons for a few years until I found that hobby shop in Mountain View in 1972. I was living on a commune in the mountains, and now whenever I smell woodsmoke I immediately think of Panzerblitz.
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Commune, eh? Are you sure it was wood smoke?
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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Why not design a scenario where the side that has to blow the bridge has an elite spotter for a really big gun locked in a pit with no LOS anywhere. He also has a TRP locked to the center of the bridge. The spotter can call fire to the TRP and only the TRP with any hope of success. It would take some experimentation to figure out the amount of ammo he would need to blow the bridge, but the effect would not be dissimilar to blowing a big bridge w/HE charges.
BTW, just watched The Bridge at Remagen last night. Great flick.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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I'm still waiting for Hasbro/Microprose to put together an all-singing-all-dancing sequel to Master of Magic. I may have a long wait though. But I'm not actively looking for a tactical wargame, that's for sure.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>
Word back from Charles is that he is going to reduce the ability for a crew to spot enemy units. The new range will be something like 25-50m only. This means that if you do what you are supposed to do with a crew, which is move it to the rear, you will have NO problems. But if you try to move the crew through enemy territory on a scouting mission, it will most likely only spot an enemy unit just as that unit wiped it out. So at best you might spot one enemy squad or MG before losing your expensive crew.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
What about crews of recon vehicles? Are they truck drivers first or scouts? I would think it less gamey to use the crew of an M8 for scouting (esp. if it was part of a recon unit). After all that is what they were trained to do.
Of course it may be much more of a coding problem to differentiate between crew types.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by fiftymicrolitres:
Btw, I did buy the 25 yr old Macallan's. Pocketbook says ouch!!!! I'm going to crack it this weekend, and then I'll post a review in the tipples thread.
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I can't even find the 25 yr. old around here (ah, the joys of living in an ABC state), but the 18 yr. old Macallan is $95 a bottle. I shudder to think what the 25 would cost. I'll wait until the next time I'm in Scotland to get my bottle.
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
Strategy Manual
in Combat Mission Archive #2 (2000)
Posted
There are many strategy manuals on the market already, some have been out for a while, e.g.:
Sun-Tzu
von Clausewitz
Liddel-Hart
Rommel
Guderian
von Mellethin
I think the U.S. government has even got into the game; checkout call.army.mil .
Dang, one of them smiley critters got out of its cage...
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Ethan
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Das also war des Pudels Kern! -- Goethe
[This message has been edited by Hakko Ichiu (edited 08-01-2000).]