[Japanese Army Mods]

So as I noted in a previous thread, CW Airborne light infantry make the best approximation to the IJA weapons-wise: the SMLE is reasonably close to their late war service rifle, the Bren is very close to the Nambu LMG, the Vickers (crudely) approximates an HMG and the 50mm mortar can stand in for the "knee mortar". The only sticky wicket is the Sten guns.

The smaller Brit squad size doesn't bother me, since I'd think 14 man IJA squads would be divvied up into smaller fighting sections anyway, especially in the jungle. Or you can just pretend they're depleted.

Also, by using modded Red Devils, I believe you can then have them fight regular British troops, although I haven't checked which models and textures are shared. Only problem is, they will talk like Brits.

Of the uniform textures available, the German M1943 seems to most closely resemble the IJA standard uniform tunic. I used MJKerner's nice Hermann Goering desert tan. The webbing is all wrong though -- looks like the Japanese mostly wore their belts crossed in front. I am assuming here that the German uniforms and K98 rifle would be model-swapped in to replace the British Airborne defaults.

The German jackboots can then be further modded to do that bandaged leg thing (whatever it's called).

The British airborne helmet looks pretty decent already as a Japanese infantry helmet (maybe lose the chinstrap) and would look even better with some retexturing to make the mesh broader. And recolouring.

And then there's the small remaining matter of those face mods. Oh, and voices (if I remember my Battle comics correctly though, most of what they said was either "Banzai!" or "Aieeee!")

In searching for source images, I found that Googling "Japanese soldier" or "Japanese infantry" seems to bring up more photos of soldiers committing atrocities than of troops in actual combat, and the combat photos are heavily from 1930s Manchuria/China.

Here's one reasonable shot from the Pacific theatre (New Guinea, 1943). Poor young kids look scared to death.

IJA 5th Division, Malaya

[Japanese Army Mods]

So this mashup is the result of a bit of mucking about with Photoshop for an hour or two -- my skills are very limited as you can see.

And before anyone gets excited -- no actual mod exists yet and I am not committing to doing one on any specific timetable. My skills at modding uniforms, kit and faces are even worse than my Photoshop skills, nor did I ever figure out that model swapping thing (paging Ryujin or Mord!). If any of you care to take a swing at any of this stuff, that would be super!

I really just slapped this up here to get a discussion going, and maybe inspire a subcommunity. First though, let's please be clear about a couple of things to avoid rehashing old arguments and derailing the thread.

1. Read their lips: BFC will never do a PTO CM game no matter how much we ask. They've been very very clear on this. So please let's not bring that up again.

2. Same thing with flamethrowers -- the game engine will have fires when they're dang good and ready. Yes, Virginia, you can do perfectly good PTO battles without flamethrowers, LVTs or Marines.

3. The CM editor is perfectly capable of representing pretty much every form of Pacific terrain (palm trees can be model swapped in from CMSF) except grass huts, bamboo thickets and volcanic caves. And the game will definitely run these kinds of maps so long as they don't get too big.

[Tactics for the British]

Yeah ... that's APPROXIMATELY what the time limit is.

Fixed that for ya.

[Sorry Battlefront]

Clutch popping, burn outs and parallel parking that is elite Syrian driving at lts best.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

[Tactics for the British]

Well in that case wouldn't it be better to have a VP bonus contingent on securing Objective X by a given time? I wonder how many assaults were called off owing solely to the timetable being missed by a half hour (sure, if you're half a day late, that could be a problem).

[Sorry Battlefront]

Or perhaps with less than elite/veteran drivers buttoned up in the heat of battle these kinds of hijinx aren't as unrealistic as you all assume. Check out these Keystone Kops bumper-BMP moves by the Syrian army....

This cameraman has some stones, sitting in front of 3 actively shooting BMP using a very strange form of shoot and scoot (turn your ass to the enemy? -- maybe CMSF pathing isn't so wrong after all). They finally notice him at the very end of the clip....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLB93R3ZRl4

[new flavour object feature?]

The "+" is available in Cemetery objects...

[Dead soldiers]

If you're desperate to have these you could always start a few small units in minefields with AI orders to run, or else have units start on top of each other creating an immediate massacre.

This morning.... the fighting... was hand-to-hand...

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

No, but I suspect Sunnis who aren't proven Baathists (i.e. Career solders) have been largely confined to base camps, with little access to heavy weapons and perhaps their rifles too. Very likely a reliable mechanized unit has also been posted to each facility, working closely with military intel "commissars" to detect and quash the first sign of rebellion.

Under these conditions organized revolt is likely impossible. The most common act would be simple and spontaneous desertion when the opportunity presents itself. There are several documented cases of conscripts being hunted down and massacred while attempting to desert or flee across the borders.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Cut two zeroes off that figure and you probably have the correct number of foreign volunteers, including rank amateurs. Even A'stan under the Taliban didn't host more than about 12,000 foreign jijadis.

If you look at the Russian news clips you find them clearly repeating the regime's line.

No surprise; Assad is Russia's last "client state" in the old Cold War sense, and the naval facility at Tartus is clearly of value to them. Plus there is the old "Third Rome" idea, where (Orthodox) Russia views itself as the heir to Byzantium and protector of other Eastern Christian peoples, whether beleaguered by bloodthirsty Mohammedan heathen or Catholic pope-worshipping schismatics (Croats).

[Flavour Objects]

Given enough of a will and some basic skill with transparent alpha channels, you could fabricate a chute out of the haystack (draped on a bush or sumfink), and cobble together a crashed glider out of bus shelters (the wings -- sink the feet in a Shallow Ford) and small sheds (fuselage). But don't expect BFC to do that for ya.

[CW At first glance.]

(my rendition of the Bruce McCall classic)

[CW At first glance.]

Hmm, just had a (Windows) crash to disk while playing. I was goofing around in RT with just a squad or two of Canucks under a 3 mortar barrage on a fairly simple little map -- it crashed about the fifth replay. I have no savegame to bring arumpapumpum.

Looks like you guys still have a little work to do on the stability issues.

[plan B for d-day?]

Agreed. I'd argue that the naval actions around Greece and Crete (Cape Matapan, etc.) were even more important, ringing down the curtain decisively on 500 years of naval surface warfare. Air power trumps naval power. Although it took Pearl Harbor and the sinking of King George V/Repulse to truly bring that lesson home.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Thanks. Just looking at this map gives you a good idea why built-up neighbourhoods are such a tough nut to crack, particularly for a Soviet-modeled army trained to rely on AFVs for most of its firepower. And the FSA has relatively few AT weapons as well.

The regime has only prevailed in Baba Amr by finally concentrating enough reliable forces (at the expense of garrisoning other areas) to complete the siege and seal off all supply routes (e.g. tunnels). The artillery bombardment was pure terror; it had little to no effect on the rebels.

One interesting finding is that the regime army seems to be relatively infantry-poor; it cannot rely on its majority of Sunni conscripts for this kind of fighting. It doesn't have the reliable manpower to flood city after city with infantry working systematically house-to-house when facing any kind of resistance (even snipers).

This causes me to doubt very much the regime can repeat this process in more than one rebellious area at a time.

OK, I have a cute litte 5 year old girl trying to make it impossible to type so I will play with her. More later....

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

I'm still working on my Baba Amr scenario and map. Here are some work in progress screens.

View south from the intersection of the two main commercial boulevards. As previously noted, I repurposed my Ramadi JOKER THREE residential map and added more 3-4 story buildings. I am also using the "Syrope" mod to more accurately reflect the terrain of Homs.

Close up of the same intersection, with regime troops looking down the commercial boulevard I just built. I haven't yet "roughed up" this map to reflect the brutalization of this area-- the final version will have some buildings rubbled and shot up, and lots of trash in the streets.

[What is left to do once CW is released?]

BFC indicated they'd add industrial buildings in a later module. That would certainly seem appropriate for a Market Garden module. Arnhem and Nijmegen were pretty built up in spots; it would also help with the summer/fall 1944 city fights (Paris Liberation, Metz, Aachen, etc.)

This add would open up a lot of new possibilities for scenario design / MOUT and breathe some extra life into the game. Given that CMSF had flat-roofed buildings and CMBN barns are an example of "high bay" structures, these wouldn't seem that hard for Charles to put in. The textures are mainly grimy brick.

Let me quote myself from another thread (*ahem*):

What about a flat-roofed industrial building type? (accessible roofs a la CMSF, grimy brick construction and high bays -- basically a "barn" variant). The Caen area was somewhat more developed industrially than the US Basse Normandie sector; we must also start thinking about the Breakout, Falaise and Leclerc's Liberation drive for/into Paris.

A nice to have would be a black iron "fire escape" balcony type.... Doesn't have to be an exterior stair although this would rockn if Charles is feeling bored (yeah, right!). You might also want a "long window" that doesn't include a door; prewar factories were big on natural daylight to save lighting costs.

Railway rolling stock would be way cool too for railway station / marshaling yard fights.

A (no climbing no LOS nightmare) smokestack flavour object would also look awesome! (thinking it would be a kind of tree so it would cast a shadow and absorb some fire)

A few cover-providing industrial flavour objects off the top of my head might include: large industrial vat (wood and cast iron), drill press or lathe, burnt out civilian lorry, large stack of railroad ties or lumber, kiln/furnace (basically a large brick fireplace with a metal hatch).

...And while I'm thinking about European urban areas, an iron railing (a low stone or brick wall topped by a spiked rail that men can't hop across without breaching) seems like a pretty ubiquitous feature.

The other most common city feature missing at present would be a solid flavour object representing a flight of steps 1-2 meters up to a townhouse. Good solid cover for men fighting in the streets. Making these steps climbable would be even better! -- so mapmakers can sink the ground floors of certain buildings into half basements and let troops enter the second floor directly (hint: you can already "fake" this with a Bridge object!). But that's a wishlist feature.

For the older districts of Gay Paree, a collonaded balcony type would also provide an interesting building facade with tactical properties -- at first floor, instead of posts reaching to the ground you have thick stone pillars and arches (providing solid cover).

Finally, a "T" and "L" angled roof would be very helpful for putting together bigger buildings.

[Some thoughts about the Churchill]

I can believe the Churchill could clamber over certain bocage lines as illustrated (in fact, I'm sure that painting is intended to illustrate a specific incident. However, unless battlefront are going to code the Churchill's actually climbing the bank and exposing their bellies (as opposed to just smashing through the bocage the way that Rhino's do) then I don't think that Churchill's should be able to bust bocage as it would give them a tactical edge without the attendant disadvantage of increased vulnerability during the maneouver.

Pretty sure I saw a Stuart ("Honey" in this case, I suppose) crossing low bocage in one of the videos. Either that or it was an artificial embankment.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Syrian TV shot of the silent ruins of Baba Amr. According to the regime, all that destruction was the work of sinister "armed gangs" who evidently spent their time demolishing buildings in their own strongholds just for fun.... 'cuz you know armed gangs have nothing better to do.

Syrian tank crew killed after bailing out of their T72. When or where is unknown.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5HuBig-6ow

Footage from the regime side -- snipers in action from the university high rises east of Baba Amr.

The Hebrew caption on the video makes me wonder: are some Israelis hoping Assad (the devil they know) prevails? Or speaking of reelpolitik, is it possible that Israel sees a strategic opportunity here in all this instability? If Syria, Lebanon and Egypt (re)lapse into Balkans-style sectarian strife and sectarian ethnic cleansing -- Salafist Sunni Arabs against everyone else -- then minority populations (Christians, Druse, some Shia Arabs) will carve out enclaves for themselves that will create a patchwork of buffer client states of Israel (perhaps with tacit Turkish support).

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Reliable news and footage from Baba Amr is now fragmentary as foreigners (correspondents and doctors) have fled or been killed, as have the rebel fighters. Only about 4000 of the 50,000 peacetime residents are said to remain. However, there are reports that all males over age 12 are being detained. I'd be delighted to hear this is not the case guys, but I see no reason to believe that it is not.

It's not like Assad is going to sign death warrants at his desk or anything; there is no Wansee conference for this. Killing detainees will be done for callous logistical reasons and then simply become routine.

Ddetention facilities are likely already overcrowded and the mukhabarat and military intelligence teams lack the resources or inclination to "investigate" each case in a systematic way, assemble evidence, cross check. Instead, soldiers will try to extract what intel they can on rebels (give us names!) through crude torture -- most victims will of course name names, indicating their own complicity. This will make it easy to rationalize executing them to make room for the next bunch. Who wants to guard, feed and provide medical care for them once their usefulness is gone? And what officer wants to take the risk of releasing a "known" enemy back into the populace? And what happens when they start showing their torture scars to Al Jazeera? No, mass shooting is the simplest answer and even if some of them never took up arms it's their own fault anyway for letting their neighbours do so. Allah will sort 'em out...

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

The regime won't -- can't -- stop at a "few thou". As we speak every (Sunni) male remaining in Baba Amr is being trucked away by the 4th Mechanized Division, which is essentially an Alawite militia with tanks.

I expect that that on the sectarian militia pattern pretty much all these men will be shot and buried in mass graves, many after being savagely beaten and tortured in custody. The rationalization will be easy enough; it's too much trouble to keep them, much less make any serious attempt to sort the "guilty" from the "not so guilty".

Given enough time, they will attempt to repeat the process elsewhere in Homs, followed by Ar Rastan, Hama, Idlib, Halfaya and other rebellious cities.

Same thing happened in Saddam's Iraq from 1991-1994. About 150,000 corpses -- mainly Shiite -- have been uncovered, and the list of the "missing" from that period is about 3x that.

Once an army gets started on Einsatzgruppe work, it's the easiest thing in the world to continue. Human beings simply vanish in greater and greater numbers.....

....Unless the killers get interrupted, like the Serbs in Bosnia, the Sudanese Janjaweed or the Interhamwe Hutus, or face a determined opposition in guerrilla-friendly terrain capable of creating denied areas of refuge, like the Iraqi Kurds (and they needed a Western-enforced no-fly zone to survive).

Eventually, after killing about 50,000 men or so in this manner the regime might be able to "cow" the bigger urban centers of Damascus and Aleppo. The rebels will withdraw into the hill country near the completely porous mountain borders, where they will wage a long term insurgency, fed by Saudi financed arms. This movement will start off fragmented (as it is now), but will likely become increasingly Salafi / "Greater Sunnistan" / AQ influenced over time as the brutal fight drags on and the West continues to sit on its arse. This movement in turn will at minimum "re-destabilize" Iraq's (Sunni) Anbar, Lebanon and the West Bank (Hamas has already tossed over Iran and Assad in favour of the FSA), and possibly also cause troubles in Jordan, the Kurdish region and poorer areas of Turkey's Anatolian heartland.

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

More selected clips from the siege of Baba Amr and Homs.

The 25th day of shelling in Baba Amr. Note the eerie silence, except for the shells.

http://www.youtube.com/user/UgaritNewsEnglish#p/u/0/KYiEK5xGNHg

High quality BBC footage showing regime tanks and infantry advancing along city streets (first 30 secs only)

Combat footage purporting to be a Feb 24 FSA attack on "60 troops" holed up in a Baath Party HQ (more likely a police post) in al Hamadiya, Homs. Two destroyed BMPs are in front of the building. They basically hose the building down for most of the video... the most interesting part is the end starting around ~5:45

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=lLlVbnpDk-I

The same vehicles burning and cooking off -- looks like they were destroyed in a night attack and the siege of the building (previous clip) went on into next day. Another night clip captures a loudspeaker giving the garrison "10 minutes to surrender".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPLP1FB0_nU&feature=related

Regime rooftop OP under MG fire by rebels (camera is fixed for entire vid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=_PfAZ-3rby0

FSA technical fires a DShK HMG. Also, I'm now seeing a lot more RPGs in rebel hands in the background than a couple of weeks ago (although I suppose that could be faked for the benefit of the Assad forces). The rebels claim (unconfirmed) they are now getting French Mistrals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyVTTJCBWVo&feature=related

Same technical (?) visible starting at 2:00 here. Note the sandbags.

http://www.youtube.com/user/UgaritNewsEnglish#p/u/2/pY2qcxt3ZX8

T72 in action in Bab Tadmur district of Homs (a BMP is already in position and firing). Numerous adhan broadcasts create an eerie cacophony in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/user/UgaritNewsEnglish#p/u/3/IzFChF279K4

Another cameraman with more ballz than sense, downrange of a tank shooting.

From the BBC

Mr Assad's security forces have been predictably resilient. A regime built around the Alawite sect has stacked its officer corps with co-religionists, fellow tribesmen, and family members.

The 4th Mechanised Division, which recently scrambled to regain control of Damascus' suburbs, is drawn entirely from that sect. So too is the Republican Guard and influential air force intelligence. The Shabiha, an Alawite militia, has also been a useful auxiliary.

In short, Syria's military has been turned into a ruthless confessional militia that is likely to see little future in a post-Assad Syria.

The country's demography means that only Sunni conscripts can fill up the rank-and-file. Although the regime has sought to limit their role in combat, a steady trickle of defections has been unavoidable.

[I would say the odds of a war with iran just doubled, more or less!]

Only Persians have any hope of sorting out the ills that presently beset Persia. And foreigners have no hope whatsoever of determining what form that sorting out takes.

That pithy wisdom dispensed, the anti-intellectual rural populist claque of Guardians who presently run the country backed by the SS-like paramilitary organization for advancement of amoral undereducated thugs known as the Revolutionary Guard is going to prove exceedingly hard to displace. The best that can be hoped is that younger, pragmatic elements within both groups evolve into something more predictable and businesslike, like the Inquisition slowly giving way to the Jesuits. The alternative, I fear, is the mutual evisceration of two 3000 year old civilizations: Iran and Israel.

is going to be extremely hard to remove from power

[Red v Red for real in Syria]

Oh yes, nobody disagrees with that.

Best quote I ever heard on that was Howard Stern cutting off Robin when she started to read yet another piece on Palestinian "peace talks," saying "Y'know Robin 30 years from now someone will be sitting in that same chair reading that exact news item..."

But that's cold comfort to the poor innocent families who are getting their houses and water supplies caved in right now by randomly aimed BM21 rockets....

Well with all that fine humanitarian sentiment sincerely expressed, I'm off to the tropics for vacay. No CM mapmaking for 2 weeks, but I finally get to read "the Gun", along with Dan Yergin's latest and a biography of James K Polk. Good beach reading.

[How to make credible fields without bocage?]

I haven't studied the Mortain battlefield, but going on you photos alone I'd hazard a guess that you're out of the dense bocage country at this point and into flatter, more fertile countryside bounded by conventional hedgerows (Low Bocage) like you'd see in England. The pattern of the fields is far less chaotic than the hills of Basse Normandie; neat square fields (as opposed to medieval "strips") may also be an indicator of land centuriation from Roman times.... in other words this was desirable farmland back then. Also, you can see in the 1947 imagery where the orchard trees have been removed in favour of croplands. And now virtually all the hedgerow is gone.