LongLeftFlank

Unless the Caliphate has the maintenance and logistics train to keep these vehicles operating as anything more than sweltering steel bunkers the question is of borderline interest.

I have a partially completed master map of the 137th Infantry front mid July '44 on the Vire right bank, Le Carillon - La Meauffe. I'll try to send it along to SBurke at some point and let him find it a loving home.

Great thread here, both the original topic and the morphed topic on casualty thresholds. Note that the above describes jungle fighting -- Pacific, Vietnam, very well indeed. Combined arms options are far more limited and the grunts have to go in with Thompsons and grenades. And BFC hates this kind of setting, yet here we are all saying that's the very kind of close quarters infantry slugfest players aim at.

Brilliant! You may have just brought me out of CM hypersleep.

Maybe someone proposed this elsewhere, but what about a Desert/Arid/Steppe/Alpine "pack" as a bolt on to CMBS, not a new game? No new scenarios (community will do updates of our own faves), but: 1. Mideast/Himalayas terrain/bldg/doodad set, mostly texture work (maybe based on hi res mods done subsequently?) 2. 2008 "Bloc Client" Army TOE (which also does duty for Syria Saddam's Iraq and other old Bloc pattern armies). Mostly port from CMSF/Marines 3. Reskins and Arabic/Pashto language sets for Uncons, plus common gear like truck DShk and SMLEs not available to the CMBS uncons 4. "Bootstraps" of some of the best maps from the CMSF series, for use in QB/design 5. Needful tweaks for arid weather effects/dust, mudbrick vs cinder/cement, fires, etc. 6. Maybe a few "vintage" vehicles such as Humvee guntrucks, unarmoured Humvees, M113s, export M1s and Leopards, etc. which are unlikely to appear in CMBS otherwise but which were/remain common in ME/proxy armies This pack and its content can now grow with CMBS. And with further modding the community can do asymetrical warfare to our heart's content, everywhere from Afgantsy to Balkans to Indo-Pak to Africa to Korea II. And recreate our fave CMSF fights as well (at least for NATO forces included in CMBS, at least). Seriously, does BFC really expect to do a second full-on "Third World Cauldron" game in our lifetimes, given their other ambitions and expertise? Leaving nonQB content to users also relieves BFC of the huge portover and retesting burden (including scens and campaigns that weren't so great-- face it there were some), and also avoids cannibalizing CMSF. And since this is only a "pack", there's no obligation to convert or provide new versions/substitutes for every weapon (yes some people will gripe ("no Shilka?! Augh!!!!) but these folks probably won't buy the pack and serve the community anyway. The subgroup that wants this will want it and will want to share their effortsz

Zaloga is a wargamer too, I believe. I wonder if he's lurked here, or even posted under alias?

Well said, Wigs. ISIS skills in infiltration and appearing where least expected (plus their fanaticism) are also reminiscent of the 1942 era Japanese army, although I wouldn't wish to push that analogy too far.

Nice piece, thanks

Yes, but I have a lot of CM to get through, provided my RRSP can keep me in modules until age 95 or so. I'll probably need them to invent bionic eyes tho, at some point.

For those who worry that (historically authentic) wargaming is a hobby with an aging, declining player base, there may be hope! (Financial Times blog, nothing racy, although I do have a geeky crush on Izabella K). Come on you apes! Do you want to live forever?

The General BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON “Good-morning, good-morning!” the General said When we met him last week on our way to the line. Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead, And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine. “He's a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both by his plan of attack

One observation from someone like yourself who prefers hIstorically faithful DIY to actually playing others' scenarios: Of the half dozen scenarios I have released in my (alas truncated) CM2 career, the one that got more DLs than all the rest combined is a Tiny sized platoon recon action for CMBN. So if you're looking for audience, the demand is for "manageable force" fights vs the AI that are playable in a single sitting. Even though the true magic of BFC's game system is to put you authentically in the boots of a battalion or regimental CO, the majority of players -- grogs included -- are generally looking for a gaming experience. No disrespect to them, just how it is. I think only CoPlay will ever change that.

Great feedback, thanks. (P.S. I'm in Bangkok, Soi Cowboy not far away, no spouse, it's Saturday night and... Yeah, I'm browsing a CM chat board. No flame like an old flame I guess.)

Yup, my main takeaway from our test game was that I needed to add about 3x the number of snipers and maybe a few small IEDs. I also need to max out the pop density settings (BU AFVs spot inf in buildings wayyyy too easily, but that's a chronic problem with the game engine in general) But I never got round to those changes as you know. SPOILER. * * * * Basically the only way for Red to win -- as in the real fighting -- is to strip off and break the already understrength Blue infantry dismounts, so the piles of tanks and BMPS are vulnerable to the very limited number of RPG shots.

I did a semihistorical scenario OPERATION WARHORSE based on the fall of Baba Amr district in Homs in 2012 to a 4th Mech Division tank battalion. No AI plan though: H2H only. Vicious urban street combat! You should probably add more FSA snipers and RPG teams to balance better for RED. Repository link http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=2525

... One key point in the famous essay "Why Arab Armies Lose Wars" is that like most non-Western armies, they lack a skilled and dedicated NCO corps. That would promote discipline and unit cohesion in combat, and let them hold the field long enough to learn that the ISIS forces are largely small infantry cells of hastily trained kids directed by a core of specialists, and are easy enough to trap and kill using elementary tactics and teamwork. Noncoms in conscript armies are actually the lowest of the low; the conscripts who re-up because they are too dumb or poor to get better jobs outside. The cleverer sort become henchmen to officers and share in their corruption, but any competence at soldiering is purely incidental; it's not what they are rewarded for.

Good piece, Wiggum, and still current a year later. One point: commentators shouldnt overestimate the risks of bad IA behaviour generating 'popular support' for ISIS. Most Iraqi Sunnis understand the da'ish are murderous, unpredictable fanatics -- and also prone to conscripting their young sons -- and are understandably terrified of living under their rule.

(duplicate)

The Baathist insurgents in Ramadi nearly managed just such a massacre against an IA column on Oct 2, 2005. Fortunately the US tankers of 2/69 were there to pull their nuts out... From the blog of a US Marine adviser to the IA: "Oct 2, 2005, At 2200, an escort of three or four M1A1 main battle tanks rolled up out of the darkness to meet our IA convoy of about three Nissan guntrucks and ten Leyland troop trucks.... About 15 minutes after their departure, all hell opened up in downtown Ramadi. At about 2230 3-2-1 [iA] and 2-69 had been hit with a complex attack, resulting in about (3) KIA and (35) WIA." "I was the 2-69 Platoon Leader that led the convoy to roughly the GOV CENTER on the night of 02 October. Call sign Dealer Blue 1. I was in communication with you, Panther X-Ray, Blade X-Ray (3/7 Marines), and coordinating my platoon fight all at the same time. Chaos does not even begin to describe it." "One detail: it was a hell of a lot more than 2 or 3 IEDs that went off. My lead track was the first to get hit, then me and the IA truck in front of me took a massive IED. Upon the 2nd hit the convoy went down and we started receiving small arms and RPG fire. Also, they began setting off prepositioned IEDs as groups of IA began to move out of the street. I always enjoyed working with the Drifter (IA with USMC "MTT" advisers) guys on our raids into the Mulaab."

You catch me on a rare look-in. Yes, the map remains largely applicable although I believe the shattered city blocks north of the long besieged Anbar Government Center were demolished and turned into a public park. My Ramadi map is built along a main route, Highway 10, which the US forces dubbed MSR Michigan. There's a reason for that. The American battles for Ramadi in 2004-2006 were essentially fought around keeping the central government flag flying in Anbar's capital for PR purposes. This required keeping Route Michigan nominally open for convoys. All other military actions in Ramadi -- cordon and knock, the "Ramadi Inn", guntrucks, SEAL snipers, etc., can be best understood in relation to that overriding mission. Many brave Marines and GIs left buddies, blood or souls in that town; it's left its stamp on US military history and one day I hope the full story is told. As to current events, it is easy to envision an Iraqi Army armoured column rolling down Route Michigan and then finding itself trapped and under furious assault on all sides by RPGs and VBIEDs striking from the dense residential clusters each side in an awful throwback to the French debacles in Indochina. The IAs huddle in their AFVs, but their big guns can't locate the targets; the rockets keep hammering in, vehicles burst into flames and darkness falls as ammo runs low.... Unlike the Americans, they don't know how to do QRFs.... the relief column stalls. Massacre! Kind of like the Baba Amr scenario SBurke and I played a bit of back in 2012, just with the Uncon force ***vastly*** better armed. But that scenario is for someone else to build, not me. Unless we watch it on the news.

And the Pogues nail it. Remember!

Yes, now is the time for all Pacific War vets on the forum to stand up and be counted to show BFC just what a lucrative market veteran nonagenarian videowargamers can be!

I'm all about historical, so anything that lets me recreate and understand asymetricsl fights like Iraq and Syria wins my vote. Great post by SLIm above

In 2012 I put a bunch of time into a CMBN PTO beach landing scenario (Makin Atoll with fanatic Brits modded as rikusentai), with some pretty reasonable looking jungle and IJA mods chipped in by others. But I dont think it got more than a hundred downloads (partly because engine 2.0 made engine 1.0 mods unusable a few months later). So based on that bland reception, it seems PTO is probably too 'niche', but it's readily doable as a mod for those with time (not me these days, alas).

First visit back in some time and.... Holy Aunt Rhody! http://www.rferl.org/content/how-to-guide-russian-trolling-trolls/26919999.html