laxx

** bump **

hi mom, How's life ? being at the eastern front is no fun at all, i get shot at by PPsh-waving partisans, and "Urrahh"-screaming, alcohol-induced ivans. Thanks for the sweater you sent me for Christmas, it is a welcomed relief from the bitter cold. I am sorry I didn't send any thing home. Please send my love to the folks at home. They are always on my mind. ASNF [ January 09, 2003, 03:18 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

aha.... the possibilities are endless for Gamey tactics..fall off the bridge and attack!

ehh..what's the tripod mod ?

LOL!

hahaha....very funny and very true. I remember two daze ago, i was chatting with my colleagues and one of them tells me that he was a tanky during national service about 13 yrs ago (we all do 2 years min here in singapore), and i get all excited and start quizzing him on what tanks we have ( amx-13 modified with 75mnm, and centurions modded), and i start quizzing him how would he do do a hull down tactic and i asked him about reverse slope defense (i am currently obsessed with RSD) and blah blah blah and he got embarrassed coz he was just a gunner. And after the conversation, I spent lunch hour finding out more about british centurion tanks, and wondering if the centurion would bog like the Panzer VI in Tiger Tiger! and why on earth would we have Centurion in a Jungle terrain, or if the tracks are modded wider so it won't get immobile. [ January 08, 2003, 10:56 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

interesting article. iraq has 6 elite division and 10 regular divison, making it a total of about 100,000 men for the defense of baghdad. ---- Two-layer defense for Baghdad By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES Iraqi military forces are setting up a two-layer defense ring around Baghdad in preparation for U.S. military action, according to U.S. intelligence officials. Planning of the defense perimeters has been under way since November and involves the deployment of units from the regular Iraqi army and the Republican Guard in an outer ring around the Iraqi capital. A closer defense ring is being set up using troops and forces belonging to the Special Republican Guard. Those units are assigned with leadership protection, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Iraqi military believes that U.S. and allied forces will break through the first ring but be held back by the inner ring's better-trained and better-equipped Special Republican Guard, the officials said. Baghdad's deployments indicate that a key element of the Iraqi war strategy is to draw U.S. and allied forces toward the capital, where urban fighting could prove difficult and lead to high military and civilian casualties, the officials said. Disclosure of the Iraqi defense preparations coincided with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's Army Day speech in which he declared that his country was prepared for war and said U.N. arms inspectors are U.S. spies. "The enemy will be defeated disgracefully," Saddam said in a taped speech broadcast on Iraqi television. "When the enemy comes as an aggressor, the victory will go to the people of right when they are inside their homeland." President Bush responded by saying that it doesn't look like Saddam wants to comply with the U.N. Security Council's demand to surrender any weapons of mass destruction, "but he's got time." The U.N. inspectors' first report is due Jan. 27. Administration officials have said Mr. Bush will review the report before deciding whether to pursue war with Iraq. The establishment of two defense perimeters is one of several recent signs of Iraqi military preparations. In September, two Republican Guard units were moved from bases to less vulnerable sites in Iraq. Other signs include construction of earthen barriers, the dispersal of ammunition and the movement of surface-to-air missile batteries. Military experts said the Iraqis plan to trap U.S. and allied forces, which under current plans would begin a ground invasion after extended bombing raids. The double perimeter may be designed to draw U.S. and allied forces toward Baghdad and then conduct artillery attacks on them using shells filled with chemical and biological weapons. The attacks would make it difficult for the United States to retaliate with tactical nuclear weapons without causing large-scale civilian casualties. Retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis said the dual defense rings would serve two purposes: keep foreign troops from reaching the capital and prevent defecting Iraqi forces from attacking the city. "If there is penetration of the outer ring, that will be overcome to a certain degree by better defenses dug by the Golden Division," a Special Republican Guard unit that has orders to protect Saddam and high-value targets such as chemical and biological weapons, Col. Maginnis said. "I don't put a lot of credence to the outer ring," Col. Maginnis aid. "But it's the inner ring and the paramilitary forces scattered around the city that are going to be the real problem." Col. Maginnis said he believes that the Iraqi military's loyalty is questionable. "I believe that given the right circumstances, most Iraqi forces will collapse," he said. "We have to get behind the scene and contact the commanders covertly." Anthony Cordesman, a military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said urban warfare in Iraq would be a dangerous trap for U.S. forces. "Extended urban warfare would create major military and civilian casualties on both sides, and greatly increase civilian casualties and collateral damage," Mr. Cordesman said in a recent report. "The situation would be particularly serious if Iraqi forces throughout the country maintained control of all urban areas and rallied to Saddam for nationalistic or other reasons." Col. Maginnis said Iraq's military has been working on defensive positions for years and skillfully uses decoy forces that are designed to make U.S. air power waste limited precision-guided bombs and missiles on wooden silhouettes of tanks or other weapons. "Unless we have up-to-the-minute data and are watching very closely the movement of decoys, we're not going to know where his guns are," Col. Maginnis said of the Iraqi leader. Mr. Cordesman estimated that Iraq has six Republican Guard divisions, each with 6,400 to 8,000 troops. They include four Special Republican Guard brigades of several thousand troops each. The regular army has about 10 divisions with 5,600 to 7,000 troops each, including three armored divisions and three mechanized infantry divisions, Mr. Cordesman said. Former U.N. arms inspector Scott Ritter said the battle for "Greater Baghdad" would begin as U.S. ground forces approach the cities of Baiji in the north, Ramadi in the west and Suweira-Kut to the south of the city. All are fortified with Iraqi forces. "These positions represent the geographic reach of Greater Baghdad, and it is here that Saddam's plan of urban-oriented defense would probably begin," Mr. Ritter said. At Baiji, about 800 Iraqi Special Republican Guard forces have been building up ground and air defenses at an underground complex in the Jabal Makhul mountains. One of Saddam's presidential palaces is located in the complex. According to Mr. Ritter, any military operation against Baghdad will require knocking out the Baiji defenses. "As long as the Iraqis hold Jabal Makhul, any invasion force coming from the north will have to move westward, into the desert, to bypass the defenders, thus extending lines of communication and complicating logistical support," Mr. Ritter wrote in a recent journal article. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030107-205279.htm

tools4fools: 22:00 and reading and not in patpong ? watts the matter with ya ? too much r & r ? anyway, going down to bkk in 2 weeks time laxx

coe, Seems like the choices are: - charge aka bum rush - hide, wait for reinforcements may i suggest that if your troops have molotovs or grenades, then see if you can try to ambush the russian tanks. I killed a Tiger once with a squad + hq troops, rare but possible. laxx

['nzn]: care to clarify repeated attempts to compare soviet-german situation in the 40s to todays us-iraq situation ? if you re-read my initial post, i am asking about military tactics to in built-up areas anf not implying that "stalin was doin some bad thing to the world trying to fend off hitlers invasion in russia". sheesh....lighten up.

*** off topic *** somehow, when i read the above posts on pan-arab vs US perception, i can't help but think of Singapore. Things has somehow gotten tense over the last 2 weeks with our relationship with our neighbour Malaysia. first it was the issue of the disputed rock Pedra Branca, that got the populace of malaysia into a frenzy, some of them tried to reach the island to protest. Our gunboat turned them off. malaysia freaked at that. then someone notices that Tim Huxley, a noted SE-Asia military "expert" from Hull University wrote a book on how the tiny island of Singapore would take a pre-emptive strike at Malaysia (5 times the population, 30 times the size!) and win if the water supply from Malaysia to Singapore got threatened. You can read the dooms-day scenario here from a frenzied malaysian website here: http://www.usj.com.my/bulletin/upload/showthread.php?threadid=3115 Well, now Malaysia are calling for increased vigilance and somehow I think the defcon in SE-Asia moved up a notch. By granting the US docking rights in Singapore, we are tainted with the same brush: that Singapore is the puppet of the US and the Jews. Some of the malaysian press went as far as accusing Singapore of being the Jewish state of SE-Asia.

coldmeter: agree with you about the radio 81mm, if you have bought target refernce point (TRP), it cuts the time down further. It varies depending if you have LOS or not. I remember playing a home-made scenario with the 81mm only having 26 seconds of wait time!

holien: heh as lucky as my squad + 1 hq killing a tiger with molotovs or grenade or mines. congrats, this scenario isn't about winning its about how much can you hold off the germans. i agree with you on that *ahem* Hill. that is a killer.

I like this AAR because it is funny (like "died bravely", "Uphappy Crew") and written like a novel. Any plans to put into a PDF file for Newbie downloads ?

Life Cycle of a CMBB player: Elation Phase - Like going on a first Date with a beautiful girl. After 1 to 2 weeks of teenage angst, the game arrives in the mailbox. Infatuation Phase - Like "huh" to the 8 levels of Morale. Usually sets in the first week after installation. Game play usually comprises of a platoon of Sturmtiger/King Tigers/Flammepanzers against a pithy russian squad or T-26, or a company of IS-2/KV-85 tanks against some Volkstrum squad, paunchy and Unfit and has only half the ammo in their mauser rifles. Also starts downloading Mods Frustration Phase - Like "Where the hell is the god mode ?" or "Why does the dang infantry auto-sneak when fired upon by HMGs." Game play is CD supplied scenarios. Gets into heated debates on CMBB authencity and accuracy. Insists that frontal assault at 200meters against HMG is realistic because he watched John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima and that's what they did in WWII. Learning Phase - Like "What's the best way to kill a KV-1 with 1941 German Tanks" . Game play is back to basics, self-created scenarios for testing and learning. Books and reference materials are researched. Learns the meaning of grog and peng threads. Starts to watch and critique old movies for equipment authencity, whether the German Tiger tank is acually a Tiger or some spare T-55/56 disguised as one. Pre-Grognard Phase - Like "Why are there no T-44 tanks ?" or "Why aren't horses/calvary moded, please fix or do somefink". Gets into debates with other grognard wannabees, usually centred around To&E. Gameplay is TCP/IP or PBEM. Post detailed AARs. Starts quoting book titles and Authors. Has a forum thread with his name on it. Self-actualisation Phase - You and the CMBB are one or is that you are one with the game. You actually memorised the whole CMBB To&E from 1941 to 1945, including the various blast value of the AFVs. You doan really participate in the forums anymore, except to smack down some smart ass faux-grognard-wannabee and show whose the boss. Is able to critique HMG tripods. Usually gets invited to test CM betas. Doesn't smile alot. What game play ? You design scenarios! I can't continue, I'm still stuck at the Learning Phase, maybe some of you guys can furnish the other phase. For the humor impaired, yes! I am making fun of you! Bwahahahaha. [ January 06, 2003, 07:47 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

you know what's really scary ? It's scary when after a hard day's work and I go outside for a smoke and all i can think of is which scenarios I won, which ones were tough, and what tactics i deployed. I can still vividly remember the tactics of totenkopf, tiger tiger, Winter Wonderland and not forgeting all those scenarios I can't pronounce! I tried to explain to my wife the deal with reverse slope defense and she thinks I am nuts. I think I am suffering from CMBB-Immersive post-traumatic stress disorder. [ January 06, 2003, 03:41 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Momishuli, interesting point. but i doab think US will carpet bomb Iraq, CNN will make sure it does not happen.

v.Nice, MasterGoodale, ParaBellum! Keep up the AARs and get them coming. It will be a battle studied from generations on, the dos and doans case study....

i think designing scenarios to please everyone is very hard. well, tigger tigger is an actual historic scenarios, so i guess the success expectation must be levelled.

Interesting. I was fooling around with a reverse slope defense as germans (dug-in foxholes), and russian tanks (various types) poring over the slope. Well, on more than one occasion, the tanks actually flopped downslope quickly towards the foxholes and it incurred injuries to a squad. What is not clear is whether the tank actually went over the foxholes (because my units are scaled +4). But the injuries to the squad were real. [ January 04, 2003, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: laxx ]

Jonny said "it would be neat if you could have ss vs heer, with commies as a "distraction". um....sounds like Dune II to me....

Great work! However, the clenched teeth is quite scary, too much of red dragon, in my opinion. laxx

Robert said "Pretty much since the end of WWII the USA has been looked upon as the big guy on campus helping those that might have benifitted us in 1 way or another." I think we must qualify what the "us" who might have benefitted from the USA. Imagine, my island country of Singapore (who incidentally is friendly to everybody, heck, we even invited chiam herzog to train our conscription army), smack in the midst of 250 million people who is sympathetic to Iraq.It does not help us when the USA takes an unitary stand against real or perceived threats.

The AI is quite an interesting Turing Beast. In one scenario, it refused to budge from it's overwhelming numerical superiority to capture the Victory Location ( I spoke to Rune,the designer, who said that the AI can't cope in certain complex conditions). Another similar scenario is Winter Wonderland, without giving anything away, doan play as Russians, as the AI can't cope. However, on the other hand. I played a homemade scenario yesterday where I was trying out reverse slop tactic as Germans. After the killing the first 2 approaching Russian Tanks, the game sort of stalemate for about 5 turns, I was thinking to myself, what a useless AI, but in the next turn, the Russians did a 4-5 Tank rush towards the slope together with 2 human waves at the same time. I was impressed. Not bad for an AI that never learns.

In my opinion (IMO), Iraq has been active in several front in Political, Diplomacy, and Military build-up. On Diplomacy, it is clear that Saddam wants to stall and obfuscate the UN process (the UN disarmament declaration comes to mind), playing the Russians and French against the US. Also, as someone earlier pointed out, play the leadership role of the arab world (ala Nasser) which was recently rebuffed when Saddam did a televised apology to Kuwait. Politically. I believe Saddam has "secured" rights of abode in Libya for the families of Generals and selected Baath and other loyal party members. I do believe he has successfully held on to his position thru terror via his security apparatus. It is unclear whether the masses will support Saddam when the great satan attacks their own country; I am thinking of how Stalin evoked the emotions of the populus to protect the Rodina (motherland), of coss, the pysche of the Russia and Iraq people are different, Iraq might be more forgiving to "liberators". Military - I think the above messages sum up the general consensus, draw the US into a urban city fighting with a toll on civilian casualties and like CNN of 1991, get the alleged atrocities beamed world-wide. [ December 30, 2002, 09:28 PM: Message edited by: laxx ]