chris talpas

You have to hand it to President Zelensky, he is quite determined and persuasive. Much like people are pleasantly surprised at the unity shown amongst democratric nations against Russia, who've instituted broad and punishing sanctions. The corporate world is showing significant initiative in instituting measures as well. No doubt driven in part by a fear by the general public who are quite supportive of the Ukraine's cause. Many are surprised at how this president, given his 'entertainer' background, would rise to Churchillian stature. Zenensky's atypical behaviour -he didn't go running to protect his butt, has not only inspired the Ukranian people but the rest of the world as well. That the Ukrainian people are continuing to resist and shown no signs of surrender against significant odds, tells me that they are a people worth fighting for. Forgive me for this politically incorrect statement -but these Ukrainanians are no Afghans. How much blood and treasure did NATO spend in Afghanistan and for what? Not only the US, but many of the Alliance's nations served there, bled and died. Let us remember that when we see these brave Ukrainians begging for help. How can we be creative without crossing into direct Blue on Red conflict?

Perhaps they originally used the same advisor giving suggestions to Putin

Canada certainly has recent experience in this with China and the 'two Michaels" who were arrested and imprisoned in retaliation for the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou who was wanted by the U.S. Coincidently they were released and sent home the same day Wanzhou cut a plea deal with the U.S. They spent 1024 days in detention

@The_Capt Thanks for your comments on the above post and you make good counters on the difficulty of air resupply. Wondering if the Russians could also press into service any of their civilian air cargo fleet now that they don't have a whole lot of places to fly?

Some interesting analysis -a lot has been mentioned already in this thread, but adds some additional points on command and control and limits on manpower that can be supported by Russian logistics and their need to capture major airports.

Interesting talk by the former head of MI6 on the crisis providing some historical background, the larger geopolitical situation and looking at impact of sanctions on past conflicts. It is just over 30 minutes in length.

I agree that Haiduk has been showing more restraint. Not meant as a big criticism of you but I'm not sure how forgiving I would appear in the heat of the moment but would hope to show more of the Haiduk behavior. As I had posted earlier in the thread, I hope the end result of this is eventual regime change in Russia and their reintegration with the world community. We'll leave it there

I'm not sure how 'chilled' I would be if I were in Ukraine now rather than in safety in the west.

Interesting analysis on how Russian civil aviation is set to implode due to sanctions looking at aircraft leases, maintenance facility access and eventually spare parts. Chris

An interesting panel discussion on the current Russian Military Campaign in Ukraine put on by Center for Strategic & International Studies: I thought it had a lot of good analysis and interchange between the panel. The panel itself was pretty impressive. Chris

Long time lurker who harkens back to the original beyond overlord days. Thank you Steve and BFCElvis for letting this thread go on, and your reasonable moderation policy. Thank you as well Steve for the insightful commentary; I find it a very useful and informed source of information -Your background in Soviet and Russian military history and the time spent beforehand in scoping out the backstory around CMBS which has turned out to be prescient. Thank you as well for the countless hours of enjoyment I've had over the years playing your creations! To the contributers -thank you as well for the information and commentary. It makes for a good sanity check against the other sources of information that bounce around out there. To Haiduk -I wish you all the best for success and safety in defending against this onslaught driven by one man whose actions right now do not seem rationale To the people of Ukraine: Slava Ukraini! To the people of the rest of the world -keep pressure on your governments to continue to help Ukraine with meaningul aid and punish Russia till they withdraw. Finally to the people of Russia: I hope that Vladamir Putin's days as your leader are short and that you have a real democratic opening. I think the west bears no ill will to Russian people. I think most of the world would welcome a democratic and economically thriving Russia. Chris

How about operations with persistent destructable buildings and vehicles? Enjoyed that aspect when I played Close Combat 2 years ago. Chris

Thank you very much John. That did the trick. Chris

Not sure if I am doing something wrong but I was fiddling around with the scenario editor using Canadian Club and was trying to add an additional vehicle for the Canadians. While in 'units', I cannot purchase either single vehicles or specialist teams for Blue (the purchase button at the bottom of the screen is not present). It is like this for Reinforcements as well. Strangely, the purchase button shows up for Red forces both for purchasing units and reinforcements. Formations however works as it should. I've tried loading in a few other battles and run into the same problem. I have all the modules installed and have no problem playing the battles. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. Edit: Just tried it in a new battle (just starting scenario editor and not loading anything into it) and I am able to purchase teams and vehicles once one formation has been purchase. Seems to be specific to already made battles. Thanks, Chris

I mourn the loss of a truly great man. His sense of personal integrity and putting the interests of the nation above petty partisanship will be sorely missed. My condolences to his family and many friends. Chris

Would adding independent buildings and some urban maps be possible as an add-in at some future date similar to the vehicle pack or battle pack that was sold for CMBN? Chris

That certainly could be the case. As St. Paul said "For now we see through a glass darkly.." neb·u·lous adjective adjective: nebulous (of a concept or idea) unclear, vague, or ill-defined. "nebulous concepts like quality of life" synonyms: vague, ill-defined, unclear, hazy, uncertain, indefinite, indeterminate, imprecise, unformed, muddled, confused, ambiguous "nebulous ideas"

I personally prefer nebulous shipping dates with quality products released rather than firm shipping dates with buggy releases requiring endless patches. Chris

Bil, I think you are simply the victim of a scenario that has a serious force imbalance. You are not fighting at just a disadvantage, you are facing overwhelming opposition. Personally as someone who has loved your many beta battles, it would have been far more enjoyable to watch you from a position similar to C3K after you wiped out his tanks in Market Garden. Watching the interplay between you two as he engaged in nearly wreaklous heroics which actually succeeded in thwarting you which was reminescent of the 1st Airborne amazing resistance to the German counterattack. See saw battles are so much more enjoyable. I truly appreciate all the effort that you put into making these battles so enjoyable to follow (and make us all want to buy the game). Whatever the outcome, there is no shame in losing against a stacked deck. Chris

I think Bill's aggressive attacks are driven by his temporal superiority of forces. Before the reinforcement, he is superior, however unless he destroys a substantial number now he will be ultimately be at a disadvantage numerically and in danger of being flanked (or attacked from multiple directions). Chris

It would appear that he is a victim of his own popularity. Serves him right for making such an entertaining AAR. I'm generally a lurker but have been thoroughly enjoying your efforts! Chris

I would like to second that request. Chris

With respect to reverse engineering project to decoding the .btt files, would there be any willingness on Battlefront's part to simply add a "Save as" functionality whereby an unencrypted file is output? Key assumption is that some form of output file exists in memory that is then sent through the encryption algorithm. It certainly opens up the option of cheating, but perhaps the community could live with that until there is demonstrable support. There would probably still be a need to elucidate the structure of the data file, but at least you wouldn't be fighting against the encryption. Figuring out the meaning of a plain text message is orders of magnitude easier than making sense of cypher text. With all its limitations, CC2's operational layer really added to my gaming experience. In terms of this project being on a mobile device, that doesn't do a lot for me. Chris

The Canadians were there too. 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricias received a Presidential Unit Citation for their action at Kapyong.

The Canadian Battlefields in Normandy: A Visitors Guide, 3rd Edition , ISBN 978-0-9783441-4-6, Terry Copp and Mike Bechthold, softcover, full colour photos, 18 maps, 128pp. (newer version) Brief description: For those who plan to visit Normandy or just wish they could! This book contains full touring information, solid history, never-before-seen 1944 colour photographs, original maps and colour air photos of Normandy today. The Canadian Battlefields in Normandy: A Visitor's Guide, 3rd Edition is based on Terry Copp’s 1994 guide to the battlefields in Normandy. This new and revised guide is based on ten years of experience in leading battlefield tours. Much has changed since the last edition and this guide offers up-to-date information on the new airborne museum at Pegasus Bridge, the Juno Centre at Courseulles-sur-Mer, the Canadian Battlefields Foundation’s battlefield viewing areas or belvederes at Point 67–Verrières Ridge and St. Lambert-sur-Dives as well as many other developments of the past decade. There have also been changes in the road network and Mike Bechthold has drawn new maps that will help you find your way.