Sublime

Also Game of Thrones > Lord of the Rings. Mucho. I demand to be recast as a dothraki or king joffrey. (a whitewalker killing a dragon would be better but alas, my shorads suck)

Well its really simple isnt it.If the feeling that the way things BFC is doing is unacceptable than perhaps take your business elsewhere. If you think youre being totally ignored why continue to wail and gnash your teeth towards...a source youre complaining about ignoring you? Sorry seen this about 5 times on these boards. In a day, a week, a month, whenever Steve or someone will pop in with stuff and more than half of the sourest people here will be gushing all over steve. Oh its great to character assasinate them now - but 2 weeks from now after your 5 page question, to which steve gives a one word answer; you.ll be doing verbal somersaults "hooray for steve! thx for answering me i feel so awesome!!' Some more who get frustrated and leave ( psh I just have it happen for no reason here ) will meander back here eventually. At the end of the day the nicer worded posts made good points but were made by intelligent people who.ve seen BFCs way of doing business for awile now and Im shocked theyre shocked. Also at the end of the day some of the outright Kettlerian conspiracy theories make me wonder if some posters work at a troll farm in Russia somewhere and are using important agitprop equipment to peruse online message boards. *(and also spread bat**** crazy rumors)

oh just wait for the first screens. everyone will be equating BFC to a ponzi scheme, saying BFC is ripling everyone off selling the same game ( like theyre forced to buy it)

No. Because the Oplots are bugged and have consistently had bug issues since the game was released. No player in his right mind takes Oplots into a PBEM. Russia isnt at a disadvamtage. True they dont get to use some IRL advantages they have but neither does the US. Russia does get T90AMs which are not in service nor will they be. They get APS which is proliferated way more than I think should be, though I dont think the US should have it AT ALL and I wont pbem with APS in it. I just think T90As should be mor erare and pricier and AMs triple.. Russians get more of an advantage than IMO they would real life with CAS. US shorads suck and the game doesnt simulate the bigger picture where Russian CAS besides the first few days or week would probably be sparse except for alpha strike type support for key areas. I think itd be more fair if you could set an air superiority meter either way. that way you could simulate the us doctrine of relyong on the usaf to keep enemy aircraft away, or make it a situation where it stays as is. as of now it actually kinda favors russians air power wise... just because said airpower wouldnt be there in a lot of the situations it is in, or wouldnt be able to loiter as long, and finally because all you can do on map is use a stinger. Also IRL the USAF has a major advantage of being able to drop accurate ordinance from altitides shorads cant hit. Yes yes I know all abput Russias other excellent SAMS. Im just saying the game also forces a lot of US fixed wing to take fire from units theyd be flying too high to hit back at. I could go on and on but.. So do I truly feel Russia got the short end? No. I feel if anything BFC was generous.I pretty much played exclysively as Russia in PBEMs for most of my time in BS and the Russians competently handled can and will defeat the US. Even on bad days they will cause casualties and are not push overs. True the US forces in game are better but this is about what Id expect in real life, you certainly get more troops for the same amt of points for the Russians The Ukrainians first off should have javelins.Im dead certain we.d give them to them in the game scenario. Also less than lethal aid - NVGs and radios etc I also think should be buffed to reflect US support. I think the Oplot should be fixed but made insanely costly and rare and tbh Id prefer if they were replaced with T80s. Though ISTR reading recently Ukraine sold off almost all of theirs - not sure. I feel otherwisr the Ukrainians are modelled about right, I iust think their bugs have an outsize on their gamrplay

Also Id like to add BFC has an EXCELLENT track record of support and discussion with the community. If its anyones fault they dont divulge more bones its OURS. Dont believe me? Look at the absolute whining and crap that happemed when they released ALPHA FB screen shots. They were working hard on a product and got sh*t all over for tossing us a bone. Accussed of being swindlers etc. Real life happens, IT IS THE SAME CODERS WHOEVER SAID THAT ABSOLUTELY HAS THEIR HEAD UP THEIR ASS, and who knows if someone fell ill, had a family crisis etc. We also all dont know anything about how simple or not simple things are. Also in my experience when people start really bitching and it reaches its zenith because BFC is radio silent we suddenly get hit with a few releases pretty soon after. Then all the same people suddenly cant stop gushing to everyone about the great game, or they conveniently forhet their boycotts, tin foil hat conspiracies, etc and never acknowledge they were wrong or apologize - no suddenly you just see posts about their in game experiences meaning they went ahead and bought the game. Im sorry but the level of inanity and rudeness has gotten to a new level this last year or two and it just isnt right. if yiu dont like CM or BFC go fu*k off and play something else. no one is making you stay and post here. FFS at least BFC isnt doing microtransactions, or worse doing microtransactions and becausw theyre a US company making every US unit from BS to FI. OP as FU*K (looking at you wargaming, WoT, WoWs cept theyre from Russia.. soo) Finally pointing out repeatedly they have a deal with the NZ military is bad how? Any other war game company would see that as an utter honor especially considering this is a FOREIGN military too! BFC worked with the US Army before Shock Force and noone was claiming the developers now worked at DARPA and *****y coder replacements have come in under disguise to keep us poised and waiting for updates thatll never happen, spending their time abd money just trolling us. I mean obviously IT MUST BE THAT because BFC doesnt answer EVERY SINGLE QUESTION I POST. (btw they havent been mia either, I saw a post by Steve this am. However out of respect for one of my friends the thread is about Im not going to name it in the hopes ypu dont bring your dumbass **** there)

i cant help myself. my god dude how long you been around here? 3 years? Id say BFC coming from a 2 man operation in the late 90s to now is the opposite of not knowing how to run a business. They never sold out at all. The same designers have been here since CMBO. I remember because Ive been on these boards since fall 99 and its the same team. smh.

tbh i think strong arguments have been made so far that - the Ukrainian side got the short end of the stick with bugs rtc. the Russians actually ended up with better armor than theyd have irl - think moatly T72 B3s for 95% of games versus T90AMs.

RIP Stuka what happened to dalem " i pissed my dog off so he.d get mad and show his teeth"? RIP nidan?? omg hes gone? god what a shame

sigh. politics. that said i think hes going to be remembered as an absolute embarrassment, if hes lucky and if not and unlucky will be remembered as a near treasonous criminal IMO. but lets just leave out the politics again IMO nothing destroys or gets threads locked quicker than US politics besides of course racism or other PC issues that BFC doesnt want to have to deal with. ( i dont blame em )

An excellent idea. That way the fictitious stuff that the in game combo provides can be readily made and BFC doesnt break its tradition of generally staying away *cof SF, BS cof cof* fictional conflicts. You could even provide a reason for it by saying the end of war for Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary deserves its own module. All these AOs had troops from West, East, and Germans...

They are. CMFB will cover to wars end on the West, and the next module for RT will cover to Berlin in the East; what Id like and think perhaps may be easier to produce for BFC (with most of rhe TO&E, animations etc) is a mash up - take all the end of war Western Allied units, and either lump in some Wehrmacht formations ( with minor alterations to symbolism and animations, or perhaps just leave the Germans out of it as combatants, OR make German units un cons as a 3rd faction for Werewolf anti communist attacks) and then take all the end of war same for the Soviets and create a bunch of WW3 1945 scenarios and some campaigns. Russia vs the Western Allies. I dont know if Id want to see that more than say WW3 1978 or 85, but I do know that ( from the perspective of someone who knows nothing about making games ) it seems itd be easier to produce as BFC already will have done most of the work for the equipment etc..

lol nice

Yeah. Im grateful theyre online at least

http://web.archive.org/web/20110131163348/http://www.gustavhasford.com/ just found this site. It has Hasfords works on it free including the excellent Vietnam grunt novel The Short Timers. It ranks up there along with Matterhorn, The 13th Valley, Fields of Fire etcas fiction written by combat vet grunts..

Yeah Ive never seen friendly units killed by just bullets. Blue on blue suppression some sure but.... casualties? Hmm. Ill take your word for it though but this seems almost certainly something that was changed? (Maybe 4.0?)

No. Thats what they say in New England.

Offensively Ive found theyre more trouble than theyre worth. If I REALLY want a flame unit for offense Ill take a flame tank. Otherwise theyre cumbersome units and dont do the job as well as direct HE from tanks, mortars, arty prep and small arms fire. Especially offensively people rush too much and dont utilize the tools at hand. A great example is the Sherman tanks or any tanks coax and other mgs ( though the sherman with the .50 really shines ) IRL yes you wouldnt necesarrily want to burn through say 3k or 5k of bullets in a couple hours. However because of the nature of the game what happens after the immediate battle isnt as important, especially ammo wise. So what Im getting at is basically you can have a couple tanks target light on something and spend a good 10 minutes just spraying it with machine gun fire. Also factor in the game doesnt do friendly fire from rifle or small arms bullets - so basically you just keep those tank MGs spraying at whatever you want to suppress and or kill right up until your men storm said building. Frankly at the end of the day theyre a cool addition and were there but arent worth it at all. Unlike say sharpshooter teams where you find a good spot and let them work FT teams are micromanagement intensive. You habe to be sure theyre in that 32m firing range. You have to babysit them, the TacAi prioritizes shooting at them..(just like IRL they were bullet magnets, or like when reading about the PTO and banxai charges US troops always said everyone basically eviscerated anyone running with a katana first because the psychological fear of the weapon) Also O/T but I thought Id ask - a couple of years ago I noticed tanks that hit AT mines going slow wouldnt even be immobilized - theyd just take track damage. I never heard if this was resolved?

You nailed it. If its an infantry flame team you can really do two things - 1. Use them to destroy or route pinned enemy troops. This only works really during the "mopping up" phase of battles and really doesnt seem to work especially better than bullets and explosives. 2. Use them in ambush. This is really difficult because of the 30m range. Basically its the same as trying to ambush with a Pzfaust 30 except the team isnt half as mobile. Im just using the faust as an example, flame teams have heavy equipment and draw fire like mad. That said I have had some great Aha moments with them just like using mines etc. 3 out of 5 times my mines do minimal if any damage but sometimes.. Just like Id place mines outside buildings on the door tile and especially out the back door I do the same with flame teams. So the first row of buildings into a town will have light infantry elements to spot and harass the enemy the huge bulk will be in the 2nd row of buildings or outside larger firsy row buildings. This is where you can destroy a platoon attack - have your team sitting on the back steps of a building to shoot flame at enemy infantry entering the other side. The true success of the weapon in this role isnt that itll kill 10 men, you.ll be lucky with 8 enemy casualties, but that immediate platoon those troops are part of is gonna have lower morale than bad tempered impoverished kids on Christmas edit: This isnt your older brothers flamethrowers from Close Combat 2 and 3 - the ambush team of doom with fire streaking out causing catastrophic tank explosions.

@DerKommissar I think in a moment of idiocy my brain combined HSU with the Red Star when I posted and recollected pictures of Soviet officers or Politicians in dress out fits. Plus Ill be the first to admit I dont know a whole lot abt the SU ranks and medals system just a working knowledge..

Speaking of Hero of the SU what exactly warranted this award? Yes obviously some great act of heroism but its not equivalent to a MoH or VC for US and Britain respectively as you see Russian Field Marshalls being awarded it. And Stalin had one - Im going to check but does anyone know what he got his for? Or what supposedly for more like? EDIT: on a list of recipients which has why they were awarded it, for Stalin there is only an award date. I think he got it just for breathing. Also noted that they gave them out to foreigners and Soviet citizens for almost anything. One of Trotskys assasains got one after 20 years in Mexican prison. Cosmonauts got one for each space flight. Brezhnez apparently got a few just for birthday presents. It seems that the medal steadily declined in importance or meaning over time... It also seems that whilst some men truly won that title other people got it under somewhat... silly circumstances for the highest award in the nation. For example you dont see Medal of Honor or Victoria Cross recipients whose claim to fame was say setting a record for a long distance flight ( one was awarded to a Soviet woman for doing a long solo flight in 38) nor would you see ( as much as trump would love for it to happen) a US president getting one for his 70, 72, and 75th birthdays...( Trump would probably have a parade for himself. and would probably present it to himself. sorry i coudnt resist the two trump comments)

JK Ive read accounts from Loza on iremember.ru never had the chance to read his book. Distinctly remember his accounts were among the better on the site and distinctly remember his stories (on the site, when I read them) were in a LL unit - shermans though. His account on the site was anecdotal to a short period he only discussed a period of the war and a story or two - not his entire experience IIRC.

First, no DMS thanks though, I cannot read Cyrillic ( I only speak 2 languages) and Id rather keep this as a 'light' debate. I DO believe there were blocking detachments. Do I think they had Maxims as an entire 2nd line from Finland to the Caucauses? Of course not. I do think where heavy fighting was occurring these detachments were set up, after all they WOULD also work against Germans. In the rear, especially the earlier years, I see it more like roving vands of NKVD arresting and or executing presumed deserters - similar to Nazi activities towards their own late war. I dont believe Maxim blocking detachments were common but I simply have heard so many references to these detachments Im wary of simply dismissing them. DerKommisar you make good points about the penal battalions and I think itd be more like checkpoints, etc as DMS said. However I can see blocking detachments being used say In attacks, especially with a clear line between the front area and what would be considered the rear. A ravine a mile behind the lines, a river, tree line. I honestly wish JasonC would show up and give us info from his sources. sigh. Besides material Ive read I do have 3 extremely strong arguments for this - General Order No 227 " Not One Step Back" Stalins own words - " The R Army is the only army in the world where running away is more dangerous than attacking" (paraphrased) Penal Battalions. These very much so existed in the East, and as wasteful to resources as it was they were used and guarded etc. Now TBF I have NOT read this in Russian sources however German sources claim penal battalions were used to clear minefields and make heavy weapons expose themselves. Im kind of doubtful about this, however that doesnt mean Im under any illusions that these men werent sent on suicide missions and often terribly equipped.

*cough cough* igla missile man... my go to for that BMP commamd spot

As an edit Id like for the sake of argument present this reddit site that JK found. And I must admit nornally I skip JKs stuff but this was a fantastic read and basically strongly makes the argument that Pavlovs House was largely a propaganda created legend. There were other way more insanely tough battles and according to the articles author Pavlovs House was in a relatively quiet sector of the front in Stalingrad. Again this isnt a condemnation of the Russian soldier but his government - you.ll note towards the end of the article that a Lt who was in Pavlovs House wondered where half the legends and stories etc had come from and this was only at a reunion in the late 40s. Also the Soviets claimed the house was marked as a fortress on. Paulus' map. However German records show many buildings or note ferocious battles over many places in Stalingrad. But not Pavlovs House. Basically Pavlovs House, the article argues, was created to showcase a multi ethnic geoup of Soviet soldoers heroically defending a building, and as an added bonus they werent all dead within a month of the battle. EDIT: Take Budapest! Kamen Kevinkin Germany 1945 Dagmar Barnouw Endkampf Stephen Fritz Death of the Wehrmacht Robert Citino Where the Iron Crosses Grow Robert Forzyck Voices From Stalingrad Jonathon Bastable Battleground Prussia Prit Buttar SS Dirlewanger Brigade - The Black Hunters Christian Ingrao Now do I have specific quotes? Certainly Endkampf, Battleground Prussia, and W. T. Iron Crosses Grow ( all about Crimea) certainly have relevant info. Am I going to dig up page numbers? No. So why put up a list? Especially since its only a fraction of what I own or have read? Just to hopefully show you that I have IMO a good diversity of books on the WW2 Ost Front and that you.re not just talking to some moron who watched WW2 From Space on the history channel and thinks hes an expert.

I'll post a lost of several Ost Front books in my library to just show the variety of what I have ( and I lost a sizable portion of said collection) Alexander Werths book from the time is very illuminating about the higher level of the Soviets from.someone who was there at the time albeit as a western corrrespondent. Ivan's War is another good book but concenyrated more on front line troops. 800 Days on the Eastern Front by Litvin Absolute War by C Bellamy The Soviet Soldier 1941 to 1945 by Rio My Just War by Temkin ( RA soldier) Why Stalins Soldiers Fought by Reese These are books that I have or read and some had to google for authors name. NOTE this isnt nearly a quarter of my collection and omits the many German accounts and many Western accounts... of course Bellamy, Werth, Reese, are Western. Id also like to note for our Russian friends here that this isnt a condemnation of Russian soldiers or Russia, rather an observation (though IMO the practice sickens me) of what happened to liberated Soviet troops by the Soviet regime.