LongLeftFlank
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Posts posted by LongLeftFlank
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I hear Oliver Stone will be consulting to the BFC team on the ballistics of shooting around corners
Back... and to the left....
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And if you're up for a more literary diversion, German filmmaker and novelist Alexander Kluge's "The Battle" (Schlachtbeschreibung) It's a very good read, but I think it's out of print in English.
It's a very interesting novel structure, with the narrative created by stringing together various snippets of memoirs, contemporary press releases, sermons by clergymen back home, etc., to assemble a compelling thesis on how the Germans got into the whole mess.
Some of these snippets may be fictional. Know anything more about this, Andreas, or anyone?
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Oy mate, is that a roll of tenpence coins pressing into my back or are you just happy to see me?
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So, in light of the above, I'd take it that all the postwar complaining about "Hitler forced us to stand and die in untenable positions" is just the Wehrmacht excuse factory ignoring the role of the despised Russian muzhiks in engineering all those encirclements and defeats. Or did the Germans really make things worse for themselves some/most of the time?Originally posted by JasonC:The goal was never geographic really, it was to destroy some portion of the German army by cutting it off from the rest....
They generally had success or failure largely based on German readiness and reserves, and secondarily on how sensible the depth of "bites" was at the planning level. If they went for bites that proved too large, the Germans would hold the jaws apart and both sides would find themselves in pretty much straight ahead fighting. If they got them small enough their close and eat something, but if too small that might be one infantry division or corps and not change the campaign all that much. The first mistake - too large - was much more common.
It could still work out. The mech guys brawled the arriving German reserves and in the meantime the rifle forces were mopping up the German infantry and expanding the initial break ins. The mech fighting had the net effect of keeping the German reserves from doing much to help the latter. Which then typically withdrew as best it could, with losses. The panzer forces held the way open long enough for them to get out, most of the time - but often leaving lots of equipment behind etc. And in the cases where they caught the Germans with weak reserves, the Russian mech just plain won the mobile fight, closed the trap exactly as planned, and an army or more died.
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Great stuff, JasonC, and thanks also Andreas.
Speaking hypothetically, was there anything the Germans could have done militarily (suing for peace was another matter) to stop or even blunt this Soviet offensive juggernaut after mid-1943? In other words, was Bagration or some similar annihilation battle not bound to happen in 1944, if not around Minsk, then elsewhere?
Sure, I get that this is all hypothetical, that Hitler was still a loon, that many core Wehrmacht doctrines hadn't kept up with the times or the enemy, and that in macro terms Overlord was coming no matter how the Germans did in the East (and if not, then an atomic Gotterdamerung was on tap for late '45).
But what if, say, the Germans had (drawing on some themes from prior threads, for which I also thank you):
(a) Pulled DAK from Africa intact to create the cadre for a new panzer army
(
Accelerated full mobilization, and speeded absorption of Luftwaffe and navy cadres (say, 20 net new infantry (VG) divisions above what they actually mobilized by early 1944).© Pulled the exposed armies from Crimea and the Leningrad/Baltic to shorten the front and get behind water/swamps. After the fall of Kiev and the Dnieper line, conduct a general withdrawal to _______________?, a more favorable line from which to blunt and halt Red Army winter offensives.
(d) Doctrinally, rather than throwing away PDs in "overscoped" counterattacks as soon as they detrained, paired them with new model VG divisions to beef up their infantry strength/staying power and deployed them in a linebacker/ counterpunch role.
(e) Since we're talking about Nazis here, in addition to "scorched earth", forced removal of as much of the male population as possible from areas being evacuated to deny the Red Army its recruiting base. Their most likely fate: slavery and starvation, just another grim chapter in the Holocaust. But a serious military effect?
(g) ___________________
What might have been the net impact, if any? What might the Russians have done in the winter of 1943-44 faced with a more "drawn-in", reinforced and flexible German defense?
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I'd respectfully challenge that assumption. I think you'll find that most American gamers grew up with a German tank fetish like everyone else. Suspect the reasons for this are:Originally posted by Redwolf:You cannot market a tank game in America if it doesn't have American tanks in it, very simple.
a. As we know, Tigers, Panthers and Jagd---s made a pretty strong impression on the GIs (Tommies and Ivans too), and those who cared to tell war stories passed that on to their kids postwar
b. Also, don't underestimate the influence of Tamiya, whose distinct preference for German AFV model kits (aircraft are another matter) shaped a whole generation of US kids.
[Conspiracy theory] And by exposing geeky Boomer kids to the heady fumes of Testor's model cement, turned them into crazed peacenik acid-heads instead of future Skunk Works engineers, thereby paving the way for Japanese technical dominance in the 1980s. Banzai!!!! [/End Conspiracy theory]
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I'm sure this has been discussed under the CMC forum or somewhere, but I'll take a crude shot.
If I understand aright, you've artificially divided your battlefield into a chessboard grid of individual battles (squares). The ability for outcomes in one square to affect neighboring battles must either be:
(a) ignored
(
abstracted in some manner, or © handled via a CMC type system (which is in effect, a different "meta-game")
If it's a deep thrust along a mountain road or some other kind of restrictive terrain in which your flanks are assumed to be reasonably protected (i.e. the grid is one square wide), then your model works fine. Each battle only depends on the outcome of the previous one.
A grid might even work for a WWI or Kursk style assault on prepared positions in depth, in which the axes of attack are well defined for each unit and units aren't expected to have the stamina or mobility to outflank the neighboring defenders. They simply struggle onward to their Day 1 objectives and stop.
Otherwise, using the grid system, you'd need to fight all your active battles in parallel, turn by turn. Whenever one battle concluded in a given turn, the victor would be able to schedule some or all remaining units to enter neighboring battles as reinforcements (perhaps outflanking the opponent). These units wouldn't have had a chance to rest or refit, so you'd need to manually "tweak" their remaining ammo, casualties, damage, fatigue, etc. Very time consuming unless CMSF allows a way to "snapshot and clone" a force at the end of a battle.
A much cruder alternative might be to set up some kind of Wolfram cellular automaton (JasonC, where are you when we need you?), wherein battles are fought row by row (groups of 8 if it's chessboard), and then the OB and axes of attack for each new row of battles is determined by the outcomes of battles in the 3 adjacent squares of the previous row.
Or something like that.
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Hmmm, I like to be down and jiggy with the latest internet jive talk, but I haven't run across this particular usage of "Sock Puppet" before.
Is this a Dorosh innovation? Someone needs to update the Wikipedia entry.
All your sock puppets are belong to us!
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42 next month, and my dad bought me AH's Blitzkrieg when I was 10.
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Oh, and Pinetree, re your sigline, that isn't the first time Microsoft's ad agency has been a little more clever than it quite intended:
A notorious 1997 TV ad for Internet Explorer used as its score Mozart's Requiem, in which the chorus intones:
Confutatis
Maledictus
Flammis acribus addictis.*
'Where do you want to go today?' , is the cheery line displayed on the TV screen.
* The Latin translates to: 'The damned and accursed shall be consigned to the flames of Hell.'
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This is what discussion threads look like on the surface of Jupiter.
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"A Marine Corps of One"
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"Intellectual terrorism" is a bit over the top, Michael, although your subsequent cautionary point is accurate.Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:Because its impossible to believe that he might have bravely met his end, right? I'm all for the fact he's gone - nice closure for the families of his many victims - but demonizing for the sake of demonizing is intellectual terrorism IMO. And dangerous; forgetting that your enemies are brave, smart and willing to die for a cause they deeply believe in rarely yields dividends. [/QB]
But as a brother soldier, you might cut LTCW some slack. He's serving in a force that is actively at war with Zarqawi (who is one of the few enemies to have declared himself, and THAT's the main problem in this war). It is an ancient (e.g. Iliad), normal and psychologically needful custom to demean and dehumanize one's enemy, and to rejoice in his death. That doesn't necessarily mean one takes him for granted (although it might mean that, as you say).
Zarqawi was no Yamamoto. As for his bravery and other talents, which he might have put to far holier and more productive ends in life, let him now account to Allah for the choices he has made. And congrats to the US military for speeding up the meeting.
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... Do they also hold their MGs precariously on the tops of their feet? And do adorable baby Soviet infantry in fuzzy gray camouflage eventually appear once daylight returns to the Karelia front?
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Due to a combination of RL and personal preference, I've tended to favour single sitting tiny/small <500 pt paradrop, patrol and partisan QBs vs the AI, where victory rides on good use of infantry tactics, recce and terrain, not on armour and artillery. I favour night/low viz and iron man rules, plus a chess clock to keep the games short and tense. Pacific WWII or 'Nam would be the dream evolution for me, personally.
I'm looking forward to seeing how CMSF refines the fine details of infantry combat, as well as how much smarter the AI gets. I'll probably still play small QBs where Marines are forced to leave most of their heavy stuff behind and go in squad on squad.
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In 3 years as full time "Mister Mom", my brother -- the lucky so-and-so -- has had leisure to finish the entire Morrowind and Dungeon Siege series, as well as advancing 2 characters over 70th level on Evercrack).
I have completely failed to interest him in CM -- "too much thinking and weak graphics" -- he says.
I in turn deride his preferred genre as "Hit It With A Stick (And Win A Bigger Stick)"
His response was to name a character HIWAS AWABS in my honour....
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(Briefly scans EXTREMELY deep and muddy rut on dead end trail leading to bottomless swamp, passes bog check, reverses the heck out of there)
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Hmm, John, I've been a consultant for 10 years now, but if you can find a way to tie use of the word "surely" to a "specific probability range" that is endorsed by the US intelligence community, I shall bow down in shock and awe at your superior wankery-skills.
(Knocking myself off my own grammatical high horse BTW, "surely" is an adverb, not an adjective as I stated above -- incorrectly
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While I don't expect non-native English speakers, particularly engineers, to write (or edit) flawless King's English in this day and age, this piece definitely crosses well into AYBABTU, throwing the credibility of the entire article into question.
Warning flags: general use of passive voice ("it has been known that") and biased adjectives ("clearly", "surely", "apparently"). If the author has sources and data to substantiate his assertions, he needs to quote them, not layer on weasel words. No sale, sorry.
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Especially if it's a Syrian government contract...Originally posted by Midnight Warrior:There is also blind speculation 6:
They have hauled in a fat government contract and are up to their eyes in alligators trying to get that out the door before they return to servicing us. And if that is the case that might not be all bad for us.
Code more quickly, infidel dogs, or by the false teeth of the Prophet, we will show you a different kind of "skinning".
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Name that film....
Patrick Swayze: "Wait a minute. I thought there were a billion screaming Chinamen."
WHOOOSH!!!!!
Powers Boothe: "There were."
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I am shocked, shocked that anyone should intimate such a thing.
My mum is kicking herself for not putting everything into oil stocks the moment those two got elected.
Just spent a half hour in a gas line at Costco (haven't done that since 1977). And overhearing the conversations at the pumps, the GOP could be in for a nasty surprise in November. Gerrymandering or no. A lot of drive-thru-megachurch "Red" America is perfectly willing to vote Democrat if they get pissed enough.
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"The next three days will be terrible...."
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I'd point out also that white US social attitudes and policy towards Indians, even at the time, were a lot more conflicted than that shown by Germany toward Jews, or by Hutus towards Tutsi. US opponent Tecumseth became a widely admired folk hero -- the Saladin of his day. The honesty, loyalty and self-reliance of Indians was as celebrated (though just as stereotyped) as their courage and savagery (e.g. James Fenimore Cooper through Frederic Remington). The Wounded Knee slaughter was decried as a scandal and a national shame in its own day, and not just among Boston Brahmin Transcendentalists. Chief Seattle's speech (the original, not the crunchy 1970s fabricated one) survives because it was widely published in white US newspapers.
Again, romantic images of Indians didn't match actual attitudes on the ground: at best condescending (church sponsored Indian schools), at worst lethal (pestilential internment camps).
But hardly the picture of a US Final Solution, or a Manifest Destiny gleefully built on heaps of Indian skulls.
Accelerated full mobilization, and speeded absorption of Luftwaffe and navy cadres (say, 20 net new infantry (VG) divisions above what they actually mobilized by early 1944).
Question re the Glantz canon
in Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin
Posted
I recently decided it was long past time that I read Glantz. I've recently picked up "Stumbling Colossus" and "Colossus Reborn" and am already into them. I take it the forthcoming third book in his trilogy will cover the late war.
Question: in the opinion of the Wise Ones (you know who you are), should I also pick up "When Titans Clashed"? Does it provide distinctive information, or is it an earlier work whose core theses are being revised and expanded by the Colossus trilogy?
Thanks in advance....