LongLeftFlank

Oh, I think I get you clearly enough. I just find your thinking rooted in Cold War / European Great Power analogues that simply aren't appropriate to contemporary Asia, even the backward bits, excepting the Norks and the peripheral Islamic flashpoints. And please notice, Cold War never went hot, cuz nukes. That wasn't an accident. Since Confucian fundamentalism isn't on the menu in China, you'd need to believe in a fascist Han ethnic supremacism to trigger the kinds of aggressive escalations you posit. Sure, that isn't impossible, although not a very natural thing for Chinese, but it would take quite some doing: pandemic plus global depression, probably. Plus a similarly cold and brutal set of actions by the West.

... Btw, sorry Lucas, I am being a little shrill. Not trying to go all JasonC on your blueskying ideas here, all in fun I hope. On the other hand, especially now that I live and work in Asia, I have big trouble seeing faceless hordes of... well, Asiatics. And Americans shouldn't either.

"Attention! Your attention, please! A newsflash has this moment arrived from the Malabar front. Our forces in South India have won a glorious victory. I am authorized to say that the action we are now reporting may well bring the war within measurable distance of its end." Sorry, all this is fantasy. There is no analogy between 1914 Europe, with 1000 years of dynastic intermarriage, irridentism and revanchism creating huge wealthy provinces claimed by multiple neighbors (Poland, Alsace, Savoy), and marginal Chinese claims on additional patches of mountain wastes. Even if border wars do occur, a la Indo Pak or Iran Iraq, they do not result in full mobilization, blitzkrieg, grand battles of annihilation followed by capture of the capital and 50 BRPs / 7 bonus armies for control of Eastasia (or was it Eurasia?). Still less do they trigger WW3, or Armageddon. They result in border adjustments followed either by brutal ethnic cleansing and recolonisation, or decades of guerrilla warfare abetted by the resentful loser a la Kashmir. Or withdrawal of the bloodied aggressor. Meanwhile the West goes 'tsk tsk', and sends guns and Hans Blix. India basically wiped out the frontline Pakistani army in their 1971 war. The roads to Islamabad and Karachi were wide open (the former defended only by an air force maintenance unit led by the father of a university roommate). Except the Indians realized what would happen to them if they actually (re)occupied Pakistan, and happily let the UN broker a cease fire.

It's ok, Elon Musk will sort out time travel too. Or is it Google? They're evidently already going to solve death, so us grogs can keep gaming and arguing in perpetuum mobile. http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2017/04/john-gray-dear-google-please-solve-death

But human civilization has moved on from (a) existential struggle for pasturage/ farmland (the legendary fertile black soil of Bhutan, lol?); to (b) mercantilist struggle for raw resources to fuel smokestack industries; to (c) competition to export to global consumer markets. This last is not seized by armoured columns; rather the reverse. I used to believe that WW3 would start in Siberia, with China prying away the resources from aging, declining Russia. But here again, they find it easier to just buy what they need. And if the price goes up, there are plenty of other willing providers. Mad Max/ZeroHedge fever dreams aside, humans are getting better and better at digging stuff out of the ground for cheaper and cheaper.

1. I carefully exempted navies and low intensity proxy wars from my assessment. Sea conflicts, and China funding insurgents to give itself leverage over neighbors are both highly plausible (as a Philippines resident I worry more about an NPA resurgence than about Moro headchoppers). I also fully expect a second, though brief, Korean war and give a Taiwan invasion attempt a 50/50. None of these are existential threats to superpowers that trigger WW3. 2. Generals and the MIC only get budgets for new toys by conjuring plausible potential threats. Preparation for war doesn't always lead to it absent other drivers. 3. Unlike other places and times, the underlying conditions for mechanized land warfare on roughly equal terms between advanced armies do not exist in East Asia, save in Korea. Chinese invade India? For what purpose are these forces unleashed? There are no land hungry peasants to give lebensraum, no oil, no sympathetic minorities to rescue, no ancient irridentist claims. The Chinese can and are building their Co-Prosperity Sphere without remilitarizing their generally unmartial, inward-focused society. And there are no other candidates. Indo-Pak, that's different, but also CMSF material.

My own six yuan (aka, the "Six Nos") on this topic (fwiw). 1. NOT MUCH NEW. A 'land war in Asia' is frankly not going to offer up notably more interesting wargaming, tactics or exotic equipment than you can get today in Ukraine or the Mideast. 2. INCONCEIVABLE! Outside the Korean peninsula, as discussed above, no modern mechanized forces will be clashing in Oriental Asia in any foreseeable future. A Taiwan invasion will be repelled in the water or not at all; America will not start WW3 to eject the PLA. And to me, Chinese adventurism in Central Asia (CM: SILK ROAD) sounds like modules for CMBS /CMSF, not its own game. Social breakdown (likely triggered by pandemic) followed by civil war in China, with foreign intervention -- basically turning the clock back to 1900 -- is about as plausible as I can think of, but that still seems pretty far fetched. Why not just do a TWILIGHT 2000 mod set for CMBS (you'd need horses I suppose)? or else just go full WORLD WAR Z? 3. PAPER TIGERS. Budgetary scaremongering aside, there is no serious mandate in any Asian nation to build a land army capable of doing anything more than controlling its own population and secondarily, deterring theoretical invaders long enough to revert to guerrilla warfare. This is the CMSF conundrum: BLUE kicks RED's arse on any level playing field. And we know most CM players want mostly mech fights, not asymetrical. 4. BAD LEADERSHIP. Since about 1985, the core competencies of all Asian army officer corps, other than Japan and the Koreas, and (partly) Vietnam, have been: (1) golf course development, and (2) land (s)peculation. Warfighting comes a distant third. Skimming enlistee pay, hiring out troops as laborers, selecting NCOs as henchmen not for competence, etc. all hollow out the force beneath them. And as for readiness, ha! Also, such combat experience as they've had has been in hazardous, unproductive and unprofitable counterinsurgency ops. And that's just the poorer states (Burma, Cambodia, Philippines), who don't field or fund tank divisions. 5. DEMOGRAPHICS. East Asia is no longer the spawning ground of screaming yellow hordes, sorry white boys (neither is Russia, btw, unless you count Chechens). The countries who can afford to field modern mech are also middle class dominated, declining birthrate societies. While the prolific countries can't even secure their own territory using peasant light infantry. 6. DEMILITARIZED SOCIETIES. The hardy, heroic 8th Route Army veterans of yore are dead or in dotage, so are the NVA 308th dac cong. With the possible exception of Vietnam, social views across Asia have (quietly) reverted to traditional suspicion of soldiers as dissolute, oafish bandits, not selfless guardians of the nation and people. Almost nobody without a family connection (and guanxi) puts their (only) kid in the military. Simply put, a military career is no longer considered honorable, useful, or a route to social advancement in Asia, except for the very poor. And peasants may be hardy but are lousy material for a high tech force.

Los!

Local citizens driving unawares into firefights, and then not taking not so gentle hints to turn around, was very common. The following happened in the historical July 14th engagement, at OP AG CENTER, 400m east of the DEVIL SIX position. http://jarheadjournal.blogspot.com/2005/04/july-14th.html Around 1230, we received a call over the radio that an Army convoy was to be moving past our location on its way back to Junction City. Just as the convoy moved out our line of sight an IED went off where the convoy should have been. As soon as the bomb went off, all civilian traffic, pedestrian and vehicle, stopped and got out of the area. One of my squad members told me there was a car speeding around the corner and heading for the stopped convoy. I told him to give him a warning shot in the windshield. The driver didn’t stop and I shouted, “Light him up!” He and I fired several rounds into the car. It stopped in front of the soccer stadium across the street and the driver got out holding his side and staggered off the street. As soon as he stepped onto the sidewalk, gunfire erupted around us. We were taking fire from all directions and immediately called in the QRF. The abandoned car was actually mistaken for a VBIED, which is what held up the QRF from reaching DEVIL SIX for so long (in the scenario). http://jarheadjournal.blogspot.com/2005/04/ The QRF formed up in a defensive formation and stopped all traffic until the second VBIED could be dealt with. Two Marines attempted to blow it up with the Mk-19 (40mm automatic grenade launcher) with no success. While this was going on, a vehicle turned onto the MSR and moved toward our lines and was not slowing. I gave him a warning burst and still, he kept moving toward us. I put the next burst into his hood and he got the message and reversed his course in one hell of a hurry....

Well, what with Uber, the regular taxi guys gotta take fares where they can.

Moon: Squabble? They're all dead! Harvey "Blind" Pew: Oh, must have been more of a tiff then. ("Yellowbeard")

Welcome! We are a small and occasionally eccentric CM subgroup, but for the most part we are big on faithful MilHist and standing 'in the boots' of the tactical commanders. There are no bloodthirsty 11 year olds or teen stormfront groupies here. Provide me an email via the PM system and I will send you the JOKER THREE and WICKED WEDNESDAY historical Ramadi Marines scenarios, plus the basic mods for my monster map.

Wish someone would share it with me then. ? I am not now and never have been in the gaming business. I have designed CMSF and occasionally CMBN scenarios and mash-up mods sporadically as a hobbyist. I indeed played the Talonsoft games back in the day, but never did any design work. No experience with Matrix. Of course I also have no memory of what happens during the nights of the full moon....

KING HENRY V: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. ANCIENT PISTOL: Not 'til I've had a 'fag and a brew-up, mate.

Ah, got it, apologies. I was referring to related issues in the links. So in 4.0 you've observed whole platoons breaking and fleeing together? Even subunits that are less hard hit, with fewer casualties and Pins?

Cheers for the links. I agree that infantry should not normally be 'bailing out' of perfectly good foxholes. My theory is that it's because CM fortifications are a type of vehicle, so infantry apply passenger "bail out" logic instead of more sensibly hunkering down in place. OTOH, I generally approve of making non-Fanatic infantry somewhat more 'brittle' to encourage (pour encourager!) players and scenario designers to employ more realistic tactics, such as multiple waves, rather than continuing to push initial assault troops forward like chessmen, with the reinforcements "snowballing" on. Once the initial wave guys have started to hit "Rattled", they should only be ordered forward again in extreme need, and doing that should indeed bear a risk of panic and rout -- not necessarily headlong flight but going to ground and staying there. Husbanding ones forces should be more than just body count and remaining ammo. Even elite troops will rarely be gung ho to keep pushing inland once they've scaled the cliffs and spiked the guns per their original orders, even if the opportunity presents itself. Yes, of course there are often exceptions to that, but they're almost never within the ability of formation commanders to direct. My two pesos....

T his is part of the issue. The CMSF trenches are true "terrain", with units in them physically shielded by terra firma against flat trajectory incoming (against plunging HE fire though, they are prefab mass graves, but that's another story). Starting with CMBN, in game terms entrenchments are effectively immobile vehicles (also why they get spotted so much quicker in concealment terrain vs unfortified units. Bunkers were always this way). So occupants basically use the crew/passenger "bail out" TacAI logic instead of sensibly hunkering down. The logic where units abandon buildings has stayed fairly consistent since CMBN. I don't have a solution to propose for the issue, but I think this is the root cause.

Quick update: took in the great playtest feedback (cheers all) and overhauled 2 of the AI plans to reduce banzai charges and massacres. In addition to the rescue situation, WICKED WEDNESDAY is distinctly challenging owing to the shortage of dismount infantry in the QRFs. Systematic house clearing is not an option for you. Instead make the most of your guntrucks to suppress the enemy, while understanding their vulnerabilities (gunners, tires).

Burn baby burn!

David Holbrook, "Flesh Wounds", quoted in John Keegan's "Six Armies in Normandy": "Tanks burn in a way that has its own grotesque poignancy. The flames are explosively fierce and yet are tightly contained in the hollow steel shell: so, the smoke rushed out with tumbling fury.... From the turret, black smoke alternating with intense flame thunders forth in a monstrous jet. But then from time to time the smoke is forced into huge expelled puffs by the exploding shells within. Each black puff, from the circular turret hatch becomes with grotesque perfection a rolling smoke ring... A burning tank, because of this, looked like a monster, a dying dragon, vomiting up the life within it in black gouts.... a red and white glower would roll in the eyes of the dead monster, the hatch holes, through which the crew had entered, never to emerge again." BFC, please fix or sumfink ?

Well noted. Like all the other people who frequent this board, I nitpick because I care lol....

Talk to a vet but my limited experience with winters in arid highlands is still fairly hot in daytime, but freezing at night.

Rockin'! So with a temperature of 1 Celsius you really are aiming for that Stalingrad feel...?

As is my wont to do, I took a night off from Iraq and tried modding up some Asiatic / mestizo looking faces by mashing up the old CMBN Japan face mods with Mord's Faces of Syria CMSF mod. As you can see, my core competency is mapping, not modding. They mostly end up look more Horn of Africa than Malay Archipelago -- the CMSF wireframe is very lantern-jawed, not a natural fit for Asiatic features. The noses are also a mess; they look like zombies with sunburn. I may just pull some proper Malay faces off the web. Nothing too fancy, just fit for purpose. The jungle terrain (mix of overgrown palm grove and wild forest) looks better than expected. I suspect there's still too much LOS though. I did like this shot though. I wouldn't care to meet the bloke in the foreground, living or undead. These guys are supposed to be Abu Sayyaf, so lots to do on their clothing too. And where do Spies pick up A4s and M16s? (ASG uses almost exclusively the same weapons as the AFP, not Bloc/Norinco arms). Like good zombies, they police up the bodies of some US soldiers and Marines I unkindly colocated with a VBIED at start to ensure they play no further role in the proceedings. Every now and then one actually survives though.....

Give the IED covering fire, or perhaps a vanguard of suicidal technicals? There's a fairly well known insurgent film of a (huge but failed) truck bomb attack on COP Hotel in Ramadi, where they tried to suppress the rooftop M240 position with spraying fire from the Saddam mosque rooftop. It didn't work, but you can see all the short RPK rounds thoroughly peppering an intervening structure.