Wicky

https://fullfact.org/health/satellites-wuhan-sulphur-dioxide-coronavirus/
These aren’t satellite images and they don’t show evidence of mass cremations in Wuhan

https://www.euronews.com/2020/02/13/debunked-this-images-doesn-t-show-extent-of-corpse-burning-in-wuhan
In short, this looks like just another more example of the difficulty of separating rumours and misinformation in a subject as sensitive as the coronavirus. Many take advantage of the traditional opacity of the Chinese authorities to multiply the most gruesome speculations.
The World Health Organization itself or the major social networks and Internet platforms have created special pages to try to stop false rumours about COVID-19.

The respectable FactCheck.org considers NeonNettle to be a highly unreliable conspiracy site.

😉

Yes, these photos have been around forever online. Nothing new or unusual, despite what you may think.

I've got an idea.  Let's NOT trust scientists & doctors who ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. Let's trust Fox news, who've done a stellar job of brainwashing people into being very unsafe (recent poll showed only 38% of Fox watchers thought virus was serious).  Let's trust the average Joe.  Like we do on climate change in america, where the scientists are all liars but folks making money off fossil fuels somehow have no reason to lie.  Oh, and basic biology is not based on evolution,  just ask the average joe.  And the earth is 6000 years old.  Just ask Joe.  And average Joe wants to know who is to blame for this!  F--k average joe, he is an idiot.
This is not complicated to understand -- we must slow the infection RATE.  Italy has over 4000 dead w 627 dying in a single day this week and US is around a week behind them in getting our infection started.  No one in this thread so far has mentioned "flattening the curve", which is the most basic requirement for understanding what is happening:  The death rate for covid is less than 1%.  UNTIL YOU RUN OUT OF VENTILATORS THEN IT'S 3-5%.  That's 10 million in america alone.  We must keep the number of life-threatening cases below the number of respirators we have available, or 1% becomes 5%.  Italian doctors have to decide who to save because they have more dying folks than life saving machines.
But here I see mostly conspiracy theory and unsubstantiated internet drive (w some welcome and notable exceptions).  
By the way, do y'all know where the Spanish Flu actually started?  Kansas, USA, army base had the first verified case, though where it actually 'started' is unknown.
 

JFC Kettler could you just once not spread your conspiracy bull**** all over the place.  Goddamn man.

You might enjoy this article: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2020/03/on-toilet-paper.html
 

One thing that I also noticed is that over the past several days I haven't received any robo calls or calls from telemarketers. Maybe they shut down those call centers because of the virus...😀

Challenge for politicians (and us all) is keeping the patient (country) alive and functioning 6–9–12 months (poss. longer...) while on lockdown undergoing treatment during World War Flu...
20/03/20 Restriction to continue ‘most of a year’
Policies to limit the spread of coronavirus would need to be in place for "at least most of a year" to prevent intensive care units being overwhelmed, according to official scientific advice to the government.
The documents, prepared by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said alternating between more and less strict measures could "plausibly be effective at keeping the number of critical care cases within capacity".

 
Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID- 19 mortality and healthcare demand
Here is a link to the full text of the Imperial College study of the future course of the infection in the UK and US under various scenarios for government actions.
According to reports, this study has been exceptionally influential on the US and UK governments very recently.
The study simulates the future of the disease with a very detailed and complex model.  Each individual is modeled and different sorts of interactions in schools, at work, and socially are done.  Census data is used to assign simulated individuals to various groupings that interact with each other in different ways.
The conclusions are sobering.  They say there are two basic options.
Option A is suppression with strong lockdown measures.  They conclude this can succeed and keep the disease from spreading to most of the population.  But lockdown measures have to be maintained until an effective vaccine is ready.  When the lockdown is relaxed, the virus comes back.
Option B is mitigation.  The curve is flattened.  Peak health care demand is reduced by 2/3 and deaths by half.  But hundreds of thousands still die and healthcare systems are overwhelmed many times over.
So, crippling economic and social damaged for at least 12-18 months or huge numbers of deaths.

Are you guys F'n kidding me?  You really fall for this clap trap?  Good lord.  The panic and hoarding is a sad over reaction, but the ostrich head in the sand attitude is far worse and more dangerous.  That guy basically spun a web of no real facts and you accepted at face value that yep , all is good this is normal?  wtf??  Sorry, wrong.  This is a serious highly infectious and much deadlier disease.  What next?  The pandemic of 1918 was just another cold season?
At least you guys are consistent in where you go for source material.  Won't be surprised at all to hear you watch Seam Hannity, except now he says he always took this seriously.
In the public discussion of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in early 2020, Wodarg gained notoriety as an interviewee in video clips typically published on rightwing video channels. There he presented his thesis that SARS-CoV-2 was only one of many similar viruses which usually go undetected as part of an ordinary seasonal period of respiratory infections (casually called flu or cold), and that the worldwide activities to stop the pandemic were only a "hype" caused basically by selective perception of researchers.[4] He detailed his thesis in publications on his personal website.[5] His comments on the COVID 19 pandemic caused criticism from German scientists. Various German media examined Wodarg's claims for accuracy and concluded that his statements would largely contradict the verifiable facts, some statements were neither refutable nor verifiable, but on closer examination proved to be misleading.

That is some logic.  If everyone gets the virus at once, the hospitals get inundated, respirators are already in short supply - result LOTS more people die.  Health care workers that would be needed to treat folks are sick.  The mortality rate for Corona virus is well above that of the flu even by conservative estimates.  In Italy the mortality rate for older folks is close to 19% (overall rate is estimated at around 8%)  Flu rate is around .1%.  Might want to spend a little more time reading up on real facts.  The panic etc is in good part due to our leaders spreading false information and our response coming so late.  
The social distancing that is being encouraged has one major goal - to spread the infection rate over time to allow the health care community to manage the influx - that's it.  It won't stop the virus, but it might keep our healthcare system from collapsing and therefore keep more people alive.  The alternative and the result of what you are proposing is every country becomes Italy - the comparable death rate in the US if we go though that is about 18,000 people in the space of 6 weeks. (had to correct that, googled the wrong info)

Maybe 1st Battalion sh*t in them... 😛

I'm playing CMBN and having lots of fun.  You are not having fun w CMBN, STTP, we hear you -- but does that mean you don't play CM games anymore?  And if I hit this bug I'll be pissed. 
But this thread is about what that new person should buy -- and that person hasn't posted once on this thread since the first page.  So maybe this should all move to a bug thread?  the new guy probably thinks these games are crap by now, which they certainly are not, which is why we are all here.

DUCK!

Not exactly a good ambassador for the Netherlands, is he.
The BIG PICTURE for you guys is BFC remains solvent and prospering sufficiently to keep putting out the products they want to put out. In the '80s the struggling Harley Davidson landed a contract to cast artillery shell bodies for the Pentagon, which allowed the company to remain alive for another 40 years. BFC is getting business. That's a good thing. They're not about to go the way of Brøderbund and THQ.

Oh dear. Despite Steve and Elvis being polite and helpful. a certain someone still spits his dummy out.

I pass regularly in the middle of this battlefield and you also probably if you came to Normandy because it is on the road between Caen and Falaise.
I love this scenario I take this opportunity to take you there with me
seen from canadian line





Metallic wire mesh seen on this view is called "american wire mesh"
This is the grid that was placed on the runway of temporary aerodrome  in 1944
it is still in use today to close the fields in many place in Normandy!!

Le Noyer

now there is a 4 lanes !



watching toward Tilly La Campagne




watching toward Verriere




Le Noyer


Seen fron Tilly la Campagne

the railway becoming a road
I really have to go wash my car !!!!



Here are the monuments crossed during this little report
the Trotteval farm back from the position of the sherman in the scenario

Verriere



Tilly la campagne devant le Noyer

really a great sccenario with a  lots of suspense
Merci Jon 'JonS' Sowden
if you don't play
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battles-for-normandy/le-noyer/
 

You're right, but...
...there are a lot of real whingers on this forum.
As I was saying recently to an ex-boss of mine, sometimes you can tell how well you're doing, not by the volume of complaints, but how trivial many of the complaints become.

In my CMSF 2 BETA AAR against @Baneman I used quick move for my unconventional fighters to attempt to redeploy to a position several hundred meters away... they got tired and then exhausted very quickly, then they became easy targets (bottom of the post at that link)... that ended their deployment and really took them out of the fight.  Not all formations are created equally.. some are more fit, some carry less gear than others, but all will tire eventually, some much sooner than others.
Use quick move as much as you want, but keep a close eye on your unit's condition.. when it starts to deteriorate it can go downhill very fast.  
Bil

Oh no here comes another Simon infodump lol...
The biggest bottleneck was manpower which Germany's industry was sharing with the Army. The Heer took priority and the entire reason why production didn't fall and even increased during the war was simply because the Nazis turned to ruthless forced labor to keep the civilian economy functional and work sub-human untermensch to death at the same. 
There was a lot going around that Speer had worked some kind of miracle in the armaments industry, but this was only partly true. He did inject some rationality into the system of armaments production that Fritz Todt and Goering had been badly mismanaging but ultimately it was his partnership with Himmler that yielded his success in squeezing the German economy to its absolute maximum. The upshot of this partnership not only allowed Germany to maintain and even increase armaments production during the war, but also enabled Germans to maintain a much better standard of living than the occupied territories in spite of all the bombing right up until the nation's infrastructure finally began to collapse as the frontline overtook it. 
The downshot which of course the Nazis weren't likely to care about was the horrifying death toll and misery being inflicted upon the rest of Europe while Nazi forced requisitions of labor and food literally exported the war's ruinous effects on other civilian economies. Aside from the moral outrage of such actions the Nazis may not have saved themselves as much trouble as they believed either. In 1943 the French coal industry collapsed requiring Germany to export its own coal supplies to keep the French rail and energy network functioning. Shutdown of transport would paralyze the movements of military formations and if the electrical grid failed work on the Atlantic Wall would halt. Famine broke out in Italy the same year and badly undermined what little support was left for Mussolini's regime, the Allied invasion was the straw that broke that camel's back even though it was more like a falling tree...
If what happened in France was any indication than allowing Russian troops to retreat would've invited defeat and annihilation. French and British troops were allowed to retreat in 1940 and this led to mass routs all the time. Generals kept informing Weygand and London that they were conducting "tactical withdrawals" of course...right on through Paris and beyond. Paris was the center of the rail network by the way and giving it up would ensure German victory by freezing military transport and cutting off the French forces still holding the Maginot Line. The same was true of Moscow. Fighting from beyond it would be pointless, so the Stalinist authorities ordered men to stand where they were and fight. Horrifying yes but I simply cannot find anything to indicate that these measures weren't the chief reason why the Soviet Union survived 1941.
Other explanations like German supply problems and the weather could only partly explain the failure of Barbarossa and definitely played a role. Remember the most frustrating fact of all...Stalin's mismanagement was most likely why the situation got as desperate as it did and why the Red Army was so unprepared for the invasion. Yes the consequences of these actions inflicted many disasters and injustices upon Red Army troops. Many times Generals were right to request a retreat and men accused of desertion were in fact following orders to reposition or were just lost etc. It was hard to say, so the Stalinists took no chances and as distasteful and horrifying as it was it's hard to argue that the measures the Communists took to ensure the Soviet Union's survival weren't...well...effective. 
 Stalinist measures most definitely got in the way of the war's prosecution after the first year, but crucially Stalin came around to that fact as the war went on. Though it'd be untrue to say that he had come to trust his Generals and relaxed Communist influence over the military entirely. Certainly the desperate measures of 1941 were not borne out of any strategic insight or sound military rationality. Moscow was afraid of losing control, but that's just a sign of how seriously Soviet authorities took the threat they were facing. By comparison France never took the threat it faced from Germany seriously, and look where that got us all. 
It's crucial to understand that in both Europe and Eurasia there was a great and visceral fear of a man on horseback or a military man gone self-proclaimed Dictator. Since Francisco Franco, Miklos Horthy, and Philippe Petain all became that very nightmare it's harder than one thinks to accuse the Communists of having been irrationally paranoid...
God I should go get a beer. You know you all don't need to read my crap if you don't want to lol. 

I prefer historical accuracy and rather lean towards how BF/CM is handling things. In alot of tactical wargames infantry is reduced to "nice to have them around but not really threatening or battle decisive" when tanks are present aswell. Drive them up to the inf and blast them into pieces. In CM on the other hand you need to excercise the combined arms approach and thus protect your tanks from infantry and locating infantry can be difficult depending on conditions and environment aswell.  
Having enemy infantry swarming your tank was one of the worst situations a tank crew could find itself in. Some tanks came with close defense system such as dedicated mgs or firing ports but AFAIK they never prove to be an effective deterrent and even less a proper replacement for infantry support. There is a reason why some German tanks installed sohisticated solutions like  the "Nahverteidigungswaffe" which tried to protect their heavy tanks from infantry attacks by launching explosives, its quiet interesting to see it in action in CM. If infantry swarming them wouldn´t be a threat to their Tigers/Kingtigers they wouldn´t bother with it.
In the beginning the effectiveness of grenades also wondered me but when someone on these forums came up with the explanation that it represents an abstraction of the various close infantry attack tactics that were used against tanks and that the generic grenade counter/throw also represents an abstraction of various dedicated or DIY AT ordnance such as dedicated/improvised mines, charges, liquids, throwables it started to make sense to me. If true putting an explanation into the manual could avoid alot of the confusion. 
Interesting are also the results. I had Medium Tanks such as the T-34 knocked out after 1-2 grenade/close infantry attacks and I had T-34 that survived 12 of them and kept me constantly on the run. Something gave me the impression that there might be some hidden values running under the "grenade count" hood but on the other hand I don´t want to know in order to keep the "magic" which makes every close infantry attack exciting about what might happen. 
What for me is left to debate is if effect on enemy tanks is achieved too fast, if despite mobility killing them they had the means to completely knock out heavier tanks that fast or at all, force the crew outside, and if so many infantrymen would have the knowledge, guts, and equipment to undertake such an endeavour. Pretty sure there are some of these that can be at least partially answered with "not really" but I guess some of this might be tied to 1) current engine limitations 2) limited development resources, and balancing 1) and 2) out with the other aspects of the game in order to still offer the best historical accuracy possible.
But nevertheless I still think CM has one  of the - if not the - most authentic Infantry vs tanks warfare representations.
There are even ideas to go farer as somebody mentioned the idea to allow infantry to use their explosive ordnance/close infantry attack ability from buildings which I think is not that bad of an idea but might end up absolutely over the top with infantry occupied build-up areas becoming apocalyptic for tanks to drive through and on the other hand would neglect the exposure of infantry as they wouldn´t have to leave the safety of the building for that. Perhaps thats was the decision-making reason why the ability is denied from interiors.

There is another forum thread going that generally claims WW2 tanks are overpowered.  To include the claim that tanks are overpowered vs infantry close assault.  I thought it might be interesting for anybody following this thread was not aware of the other thread.  See link below.