Erwin

Blazing 88's,
Haven't see you post in quite some time. Welcome back. Didn't know that story, so thanks for sharing. Was going to say something about those deadly bolt out of the blue engine off attacks,   but you got there first. Weirdly, they don't get much coverage in the show. Their ultra low altitude attacks (certainly exaggerated as to how low for the sake of getting the action in frame) look crazy, but I've seen wargame footage from the late 1930s in which sacks of flour were used by the Army Air Corps to simulate bombs and trucks got nailed. Of course, the frag effects from an impacting sack of flour are minuscule compared to even a 50 kg bomb, of which Wiki says it can carry 6. That's a pretty respectable bomb load. Would further observe the Wiki for the Night Witches shows havoc caused by them far greater than what the series depicts. They blew up tactical bridges, destroyed trains, savaged supply and ammo depots, wrecked transport vehicles and armor, etc. By US standards, 8 episodes aren't much of a season, but that's still better than the UK's Inspector Banks, for which we got 6! How I hope for another season of Night Swallows!
Michael Emrys,
Good to know and standing by!
Regards,
John Kettler
 

Vergeltungswaffe,
If you troops aren't semi-starved, pretty much the norm in the Red Army, and the guy is bull strong, you might find someone who can shoot an ATR freehand. Get a load of this.
 
Regards,
John Kettler

There's a pic in Zaloga's Armored Thunderbolt of a Panther whose barrel was apparently shot away leaving around two feet sticking out past the mantlet. I know of a case where a T-34/76 took a muzzle hit, so the crew spent the night using a hacksaw to cut off the splayed part,  tested the gun with a string from a distance, and when the gun fired properly instead of blowing up, off they went the next morning to resume the fight, albeit with an L/whatever minus gun barrel! That story was on IRemember.ru back when we Anglophones could use it effectively.
Regards,
John Kettler

Have always loved this sort of thing, but just imagine were this to be done US EOD style. Other than the EOD and maybe HAZMAT and ATF teams,  no one would be allowed within, say, a mile of the proceedings before the all clear is given. Would imagine the explosive ordnance wouldn't be removed but blown in place, spoiling the tank restoration plans permanently! Can anyone translate the song?

P.S.

Discovered this is on the wrong game forum. Mods, please move to CMRT. Thanks!
Regards,
John Kettler

They are modeling their cool new Hugo Boss outfits - available in any color so long as it's sexy black or "cool as ice" green.  Helmut is accessorizing beautifully with his Nikon binoculars and peaked cap.  Perfect fashion statement for a morning stroll through Poland.

Us "players" greatly appreciate the time you modders and designer put in as most of us players hate doing that stuff.   But, always suspected you guys don't play so much.  (That's our job.)  B4 you start feeling sorry for us players.  Remember, someone has to do it.

This TV series is overall well done, thought provoking, moving, even entrancing at times. The show is called Night Swallows and is in Russian with English subtitles here in the US. The Germans called the members of Stalin's secretly assembled Night Aviation Bomber Regiment die Nacht Hexxen (Night Witches) because of the misery and bedevilment the unprecedented in the Red Air Force female crews inflicted. The Germans dubbed their fragile looking Polikarpov Po-2/U-2 (no, not that kind) biplanes "sewing machines" because of their characteristic engine sounds. Reading a proper book on these amazing ladies (unless you consider flying 1000 missions unremarkable) has long been on my to do list, and watching this has reminded me afresh. Courage, cowardice, devotion to duty, shirking same, careerism, loyalty and betrayal are all on display. The show is about Russia at war, the Party at war, the Russian people at war, the clash between Communism and deep Russian Orthodox religious beliefs. Above all, it is about these young women, operating in a man's world, doing the riskiest of flying, yet remaining women with hopes and dreams, triumphs and tragedies, strength and fragility,  throughout. And overarching it all are  Russia herself and the Russian soul.  There are some wonderful toys (way too many Landser armed with MP38/40s, a common problem in western war dramas, too) and also "forest brothers" AKA Spetsnaz! 

Should say, too, that I got to see a real Po-2 in Night Swallow configuration at Paul Allen's Flying Heritage & Armor Museum in Everett, Washington a few years back. That museum also has the only flying Il-2 on the planet. Amazon Prime offers a free 30-day trial. Might want to jump on that!

Image Credit: Flickr via Wikimedia Commons
 
Regards,
John Kettler

MOS:96B2P,
Message received and have skimmed the OP. Color me dazzled by what you're doing. What an ingenious concept! Shall have to read this when my splitting headache abates!  Also, why, if there are pits for the 120 mm mortar ammo, the why aren't the mortars dug in, too?
Regards,
John Kettler
 

Am behind again, I see. Found this fascinating slideshow on the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemming connection. Unfortunately, it's in PITA format and surrounded by all manner of extraneous junk. Even so, it's pretty good.
http://www.directexpose.com/monticello-plantation-thomas-jefferson-mystery/
Regards,
John Kettler

Erwin,
I thought it was for super fast delivery and member deals, but did you know it also delivers groceries in insulated bags? Was inSprouts recently and watched one of the clerks assembling an order, in fact. Music is another big part of Prime. In fact, it was being pinged about not using the music that led to my learning about the movies and TV shows.
Regards,
John Kettler
 

After joining Amazon Prime in a failed effort (driver delivered time but to unknown address) to get a desperately needed Mac keyboard the next day, I subsequently discovered the service included movies, which is how I found ARNHEM. This is a well done documentary featuring some heavy hitters like Kershaw, Beatty and Carruthers. It makes extensive use of a situation map, combat walks (with the narrator pointing clearly as to who was where from a given location), aerial recon images, aerial attack and jump and glider assault footage, ground combat film and stills (from both sides) and much more in a story told day by day, with the primary emphasis on the battle, as opposed to a heavy front end on the grand strategy and nitty gritty of the planning. At times, it gets down to the actions of a single company. Some of whats presented as visuals was familiar to me, but much else was not. About the only real gripes I have is some History Channel grade image disconnects, such as the narration describing all the German armor wrecked at Falaise, but a photo of a ruined truck, a King Tiger which is an exact match for the Becker Special 105 SPH on a Lorraine Schlepper chassis, etc. There are similar annoyances you can find for yourselves, but also some grog goodies you may not have ever seen Overall, though, I think this is a really good military documentary, one which covers an enormous amount of ground in under an hour. Believe Amazon offers a 30 day free trial Prime, which has other war piggery on it, too.

Regards,
John Kettler

The OP  title is done in all caps.
Erwin,
If I could help, I would, but I've never used Strykers, nor have had the XM25, so have nothing useful to offer. Nor can I say, other than myself--presently unable to play any CM--who is and isn't playing CMBS, though I find it hard to believe Sublime, probably the leading gamer on using ther Russians inCMBS, wouldn't be still playing. Would if I could. Believe me on that score!
Regards,
John Kettler

It's almost like the designer visited and used these pics to design the map.  Amazing similarity.

+1
I already mentioned to MOS that his concepts would be brilliant for CMSF as the larger maps and more open terrain make mobility in an insurgent environment critically important and revitalize this sort of CM2 game.  Would look forward to a campaign version.  (Actually, MOS's new concepts would greatly enliven any of the titles.)
Onto Beta 5 next. The scenario gets better and better!

If so, consider. this an appetite whetter.  Colin. Farrant posted this on the FB CoC Forum, and I thought it was pretty cool.   It's reminicsent of the war photography magic some of the modders work on the various unofficial screenshot threads.


Regards,
John. Kettler

MOS's new design for a CMBS TOC scenario (see CMBS forums) finally approaches giving us a virtual operational layer to CM2 with "real time INTEL" requiring players to adjust plans and allocate assets and resources on the fly. 
After so many years of playing CM2 all scenarios started to feel the same to me.  So, MOS's innovative ideas are very welcome and have revived my passion for playing CMBS.  Hope that other designers are inspired to use his brilliant ideas in the other game families to get more out of the CM2 system.

A related issue with a squad picking up a spare Javelin for use by another team is that no matter how I split the squad, the Javelin seems to stay with the least appropriate team.  Eg.  It never stays with the AT team.  The Javelin always stays with the 2-man Scout team, or the Assault team (it would be preferable to have it stay with the support section).

Am finding this all rather brilliant.  Starting 4th test game now with visible improvements in every version I have played, and as yet no major issues.
I was getting burned out on CM2 as all the game families started to feel like I was playing the same scenario over and over and over again - just with different uniforms and vehicles.  Karl's innovative ideas to add many more tactical and operational decisions are reviving an aging game system and bringing the gameplay fun back - almost as if this is a new game system.  Am enjoying this scenario more than I have any CM2 game in years. 

Presumably they were designed for a war which featured static front lines and required overcoming trench defenses.  One can see that if you could park one above a trench line it would be devastating.  Of course they were preparing for the previous war - kinda like what we are doing these days heh.

I like Stummels and also Wespes etc.  But, you have to have long range LOS to targets just like with any other halftrack and that makes em hard to use in the relatively short LOS CM2 maps.  It's the challenge of using a vehicle with a pretty big HE gun but with paper armor that makes em fun.

Scenario is awe inspiring.  Re mods, it would be cool to dirty up some of them like the raised gate seen above and RR end of track buffer etc.

This clock sounds like the death knell the Russians broadcast during Stalingrad.  "Tick, tick, tick - every 7 seconds a German dies in Stalingrad".

Yes, some of MOS's ideas are quite brilliant and never been accomplished b4.  Hopefully will inspire a whole new way to design scenarios/campaigns that feature multiple "realistic" complex sub-missions.

DerKommmisar,

You.  rattled me!  Thought you. were  saying the link again didn't work, but then I noticed you'd  quoted Andy. Loved  "Bones". in OST (not   am. Ost). And the epithet for the Untermensch  of. that  episode about good intentions with disastrous consequences. was  "you filthy Zaon pig!"
Regards,
John Kettler
 

Well, if. you beleve what "Deep Throat" (and.then some) QAnon has been  saying   and showing on 8Chan  in  a  bunch of posts  (some of the 960 to date, to a readership of 22 million +),  Kim Jong un is yesterdays's news  and there will be one Korea, which won't come  with a  red star!  KJu has already  formally posed for the offical photo after the joint  SK/NK   talks,  and  he  looks beaten.  Consequently, I shan't lie awake nights worrying WW III is going to happen there. The ground combat would,   though,   make  for an interesting CM game.  Urban sprawl has probably changed  things considerably,  but the  problem  with SK back in the. late 1970s. and early 80s when I worked on the K-TOW (Korean-TOW). analyses at Hughes, was that there wasn't any. real defrensible. terrain until the  Han River,  and stopping the  gigantic NK armored  force from  crossing it in strength was  essential to holding SK.  K-TOW  was  built around a force. of Hughes 500  helicopters armed  with 4 x  TOW each. We  did sensitivity studies (no, not the snowflake kind!) in Operations Analysis to determine,  for  example,  what the utility was of going  to the major expense  of mast mounted sights, as opposed to cheaper roof or the baseline chin mounts.   The. last required  unmasking the entire  fuselage in  order to engage!
Regards,
John  Kettler