gunnergoz

When it comes to war gaming and historical simulation, there is a fertile ground for inner conflict for us hobbyists whom fate brings a tad too close to the intersection between entertainment and reality. I just wish you BFC guys were a little less...prescient.

As a lifelong student of military history and avid wargamer since the 1960's, I have to say that the announcement months ago of BFC's upcoming wargame based on a hypothetical ground conflict in Ukraine left me feeling...strange. On the one hand, I'd love to play it. On the other hand...there is reality. As many of you know, I have for the past 14 years been married to a wonderful Ukrainian lady and have family and friends who live there today. I've been there several times, including Crimea. For the first time, my game mindset had to encounter my real-life mindset, and it ain't pretty folks. For people like me and my family, the stakes involved in the real Ukraine/Russia crisis are very high indeed. And today I have seen four videos of Ukrainian army troops leaving their barracks in their obsolescent vehicles & AFV's or loading their tanks on trains...and on the other side, videos of massive Russian army convoys backing up on roads outside of Krasnodar, waiting to cross the Strait of Kerch into Crimea...convoys which include numerous "Grad" unguided rocket launchers which are only useful if you plan to turn, say, a city into a parking lot. So all games and kidding aside, folks, here's my heart-felt hope that BFC's war on the Steppes war game remains just that, a fantasy that never comes to pass.

CM: (deleted) What I deleted was what I thought was the Russian equivalent of "S.o.B" but it turns out worse than that. I hear it all the time on Russian dash cam videos and when I finally asked my Ukrainian wife about it, she refused to tell me what it means. I ended up googling it and...nevermind.

Still kicking around, but busy. Mostly with following events in Ukraine, where my wife's family still lives. Looking forward to the new East Front game of course.

Given the size of many modern Americans, if one of our re-enactors tries tried sitting down on the drum magazine of his 1928 Thompson, he might well have to have the weapon surgically removed afterwards...

I drove through this area when traveling to Sevastopol once. It is well worth visiting.

Great! I'm jealous! And I hope you post some links here when you get back. Bon voyage!

The quirky but interesting site English Russia often runs photo collections of a military or historical nature. This is a nice recent collection of photos from the Russian tank museum at Kubinka. Definitely on my bucket list. http://englishrussia.com/2013/10/08/in-the-biggest-museum-of-tanks/ NOTE: Some people have complained about suspicious links on this site. FWIW I never click any such sucker links, only go to this site for the photos. I don't see any such links on this set of pages, however.

I noticed this site and it's wonderful original color photos of US & Allied forces in Italy in WW2. I realize such a link might otherwise be grist for the General Forum but I posted here, figuring some modder might use them for reference. I find it amazing how much the CM:FI at times reminds me of some of these photographed scenes. http://www.vintag.es/2013/07/color-photos-of-italian-campaign-of.html

Mmmm, Aachen...bring your M-12's.

Well, I like it. I'm going to find a way to play it when I take a shower. All that foot stomping is bound to dry me off faster.

Here's some really neat video of the Lanc doing simulated dam busting runs...

Nice find, John, thanks for sharing it.

Huh. A special day for what Congress is doing all the time.

Oh Great, John, now we have to shoot you...

Not wishing to be left behind in the race for advanced technology on the modern battlefield, Russian Army Orthodox Chaplains have come up with the latest: a parachute deliverable inflatable field chapel, complete with parachute-qualified chaplains. Now their army has a prayer.

Who wouldn't want one of these to drive around the old living room and back yard? http://gizmodo.com/5976803/incredibly-detailed-tiny-rc-tank-even-sounds-like-the-real-thing A gas powered metal model tank is just what I need to keep me feeling like a kid again. Too bad I'll have to turn over a bank or two to afford it...

Any way to use engineers as port repair units as they were historically used at times? I'm familiar with the historic fact that some level 10 ports like Antwerp took months to return to normal in WW2, but others, particularly if they were equivalent to level 5 to begin with, should be subject to somewhat speedier repair, one would think. If this is not in Gold now, can it be modded in? Is there a Gold wiki, BTW? Modding hints? I'd like to mod garrison units for instance, because they are way too expensive now IMO.

Thanks, perhaps I'll try one of those scenarios. Too bad about the counters; my old eyes don't handle subtle color variations as well as they used to.

Bump? How about high-contrast colors for the NATO counters? I have trouble telling one side from the other because the greys look to my eyes very similar to the light blues.

Thanks. Are there any other mods out there? Alternate tile sets for the map, for instance?

Re: OP; I do like the game but it is heavily biased towards quickly attaining your map objectives and so it is mainly about attack, attack, attack. The engine may have some promise. But I do so very much hate the bobblehead unit symbols and little tanks, coming from the old "NATO counters are king" crowd. The mods that remove the bobbleheads from the main game work well, but so far no way to remove them from the DLC game.

I'm looking at buying the game and am particularly curious about mods available for it: for instance are NATO counters available? Or an alternate map graphics set? And if so, where can they be downloaded from? There's not much going on in this forum compared to other BFC games so maybe I missed the memo and this stuff is all at another site.

I already have my Russian, er, Ukrainian bombshell, thank you. But they do have a pretty deep female gene pool over there, I'll say that.

I'm sure the NSA is having a lot of fun chasing down everyone posting in this thread. (Hi, Mom!)