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Nidan1

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Posts posted by Nidan1

  1. Well that would resolve the whole spotting issue in game. You'd just sit there watching an empty landscape wondering what it was you were supposed to shoot at and finally say "screw it" and fire a nuke.

    Nukes are so 21st Century....photon torpedos would be my choice, lets see an APS counter one of those babys.

  2. I received an email today from Twitch indicationg that some unauthorized access may have happened on my account. The email recommended that I change passwords on other accounts linked to my email address as a safeguard.

     

    I know a lot of members here visit Twitch TV to watch ChrisND's weekly stream. This is just a heads up.

  3.  

    "It amuses me that despite being effectively just as "good" as the Sherman that it gets remembered as some sort of wondertank while the Sherman is panned as a rolling deathtrap.  Losses of both vehicles in Soviet use are entirely comparable, and the T-34/85 vs M4A3E8 fights in Korea all indicate the advantage is with the better crew rather than one of those tank being better." 

     

    I think in a nutshell, your last sentence probably says it all about which tank of all the ones discussed here would do the best in combat. Of course any crew would need a decent machine to work with, but if you look at what the Israelis did to the Syrians on the Golan Heights with Super Shermans and Centurians in 1973, and what the US did to the Iraqi Republican Guard in Gulf War 1 with early M1 tanks, the tanks with better crews and in most cases better tactics and training inflicted heavy losses even when outnumbered.

  4. We can stray off the reservation from time to time.

     

     

    The French Revolution inaugurated the national levee en masse in modern times. However the British acquired their 19th century empire with a largely volunteer army. The tendency toward universal conscription accelerated with WW1 and thereafter. With national conscripted armies you get mutinies but rarely revolutions. The conscript considers himself a citizen.

     

    In the US you see a metastasizing of government on all levels. Unionized Police forces are acquiring heavy weapons. And the cops are now highly payed and endowed with lavish pensions. Are we seeing a caste in larval form? Presidents- not just the present one- haves arrogated to themselves unusual powers as the middle class shrinks. Elite sectors seek to disarm the rest of us.

     

    After the 2nd century Roman citizens gradually lost the right to bear arms. A two tier judicial system (honestiores and humiliores- look them up) emerged that bore down on the middle class and below. Emperors competed to overpay (bribe) the legionaries.

     

    So, yes, I see dangers.

     

    Sorry for the controversy. ;)

    Unfortunately we have a form of governing in place that today is inherently corrupt. Our representatives do not put their full energy into serving all of their constituents, but rather seek to please wealthy donors, lobbyists and special interest groups which can afford to put big bucks into the politicians coffers.

    There is no rush to reform any of these situations because the pols do not want to cut off the major sources of their funding.

     

    Therefore our so-called Lawmakers spend their energy and influence to please small sections of the population, while the issues raised by the majority of Americans are ignored, or worse pay lip service. The framers recognized how this situation could lead to a paralyzed government and they chose to compromise on the seperation of powers. Madison was concerned with how legislators would be seduced by the power and influence of small groups with big purses. He called it "the violence of Factions"

     

    Could this kind of governing lead to a situation where the populace is so fed up with the way things are done or not done, that they would turn their backs while a military takeover took place. You would want to think that it is unlikely.

  5. Regarding the draft. It can be a double edged sword. The Viet-Nam experience and aftermath was not something the military or public in general wants to repeat. On the other hand some sort of univesal service would be useful, especially in light of how society and some of the institutions have evolved.

     

     

     

    We recently hired a few new people-after years of downsizing. Some were ex-military who served in recent conflicts. Given a preference I would hire more. They just seem to be more togther and actually show up on time and are overall easier to train and manage. Yes I know you have screw ups in the military that will not amount to anything once they get out, but you can often weed that out in the interviewing and hiring process. The fact they went through something that held you accountable, responsible for your actions and other intangible factors that seem to be lacking in many of todays youth, raised in such a permissive and non-accountable environment. That is someting very foreign to my generation. There are tons of articles about the new genearation and the issues they are causing in the workforce. if you are lucky enough to land a job with the new, hip social media companies that will cater the ways of the Millennial Generation, then more power to you-but I can assure that in time most will be out of business once they run out of other's people money to burn through.

     

    Perhaps something long the lines of universal service, but 2 distinct forces-one a volunteer component with looser rules of deployment and usage and the conscripted component who would only be deployed to clearly defined areas of national interest. I would give the volunteer component higher pay and other perks to make it more attractive.

     

    We should also just copy the British and raise a few Gurkha Batallions.

    Contrary to the general understanding, a very small percentage of men who served in Vietnam were draftees. In fact a draftee was more likely not to be sent to Vietnam because  2 years did not allow enough time for training and then the one year or 13 month tour in Vietnam.

     

    Also I would not be too quick to dismiss the younger generation because they are the ones volunteering for the military and fighting our wars. The make up of the US military today also ensures that older, more settled men and women can serve on a combat deployment. Most large formations are filled out by reserve and National Guard components, made up mostly of older (not 18 and 19 year olds) people who have a standing in civilian life as well as a career in the military. There is no doubt however that serving in the military provides a person with skills and experience that are invaluable in the civilian workforce.

     

    I dont think there are enough Gurkhas to go around ;)

  6.  

     

     

    A bit O/T: Russia's philosophy implies that conscription constitutes a net benefit toward socializing young males. The downside with draftees is that you sacrifice a selective force composed of highly motivated soldiers. Is the trade-off justified? The Roman legions became a professional army under Marius in the 1st century B.C. In the short term this worked magnificently. However over the centuries the army became a disruptive element giving rise to usurpers and ambitious generals. Caesar followed Sulla. Soldiering became a caste distinct from the citizenry. Is conscription a 'good thing'? Debate.

    Staying O/T...this is an interesting observation and may require its own thread. Does a professional miltary lead to the danger of it becoming a dangerous entity involved in the politics of its parent nation? I remember growing up in the 50's& 60s, all young men had the spectre of the draft hanging over them, either serve your two years, go to college and avoid it for awhile, or get married right away and have kids. We all went through it so it was a shared male experience that tied society together in a way, no matter what part of the country you lived in. Also from the end of WW2 and the Korean War to Vietnam, most families in America had someone in the military, whether drafted or not, and could relate to the "Service" as something that was part of the American experience, for males anyway. Today the all volunteer force in America has proven itself to be competent and professional through many years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and other smaller conflicts like the Balkans and Somalia. What is lost IMO is the connection between the society at large and those we send into harms way to fight threats and project our view of how the world should be. (which can be debated as good or bad). Our system of government makes it a lot harder for military coups to happen as did in Roman times or in many other countries in the world. But as Americans continue to see our military as the only entity that functions with any competent consistency, would the people support a "Seven Days in May" type scenario in the future?

  7.  

    "I can't speak for the rest of the people here (though I believe many will agree) that I deem what you said in your #4 to be extremely ill advised, thoughtless and uncool. To in essence say "I hope there's a war in which T-90s fight Leo 2s and win, just so it shuts up the Leo 2 fanboys" makes you look both heartless and clueless. Pixel war is one thing, the real kind, horrible beyond belief. Even for the winners. We have combat veterans here. They can tell you."

     

    Non of us want WW3 John but haven't you noticed that most times you may read comments on Youtube concerning tanks it could be any tank the Leo 2 always comes up as "The Best" yet it hasn't even been tested in any theatre of war concerning tank on tank combat as of yet.

    It irritates me sometimes that they blindly worship something which could turn out to be a total failure.

    Maybe I worded it wrong but you know what I mean.

     

     

    I would wager that most of those comments professing "worship" for a tank of all things are posted by 12 year olds.

  8. If this game highlights anything, it is the ability of man portable weapons like the Javelin and others to turn these bad ass tanks into so much burning junk. Only countries with deep pockets and high industrial output would be able to sustain the high materiel losses that would occur in a showdown between two or more modern land armies.

     

    Look at the 1973 battles beteween Israel, Egypt and Syria, or Gulf War 1 and 2. The destruction of armor and aircraft happened at high rates and very quickly. Hopefully we will never see large scale armored conflicts ever again.

  9. But you mean the first picture, right?

    I have looked at some more pictures and I think, the tanks on the second picture might be T-72B1s

    You are probably correct about that ID. B2s and B3s would have the Sosna-U gun sight mounted on the left top of the turret. The way that one tanker is lounging in that area of the turret would seem to indicate that there is no sight mounted there.

     

    There is a great deal of talk that the Russians have supplied the rebel forces with T-72B3s, but I dont think there is concrete evidence of that yet.

  10. OK, I ended up with a minor defeat. Did not encounter any large AT weapons other than an AT-14 located in the far east corner of the map. The RPG team in the town where the Stryker force started out was a surprise. I was kinda expecting something along those lines and I had the lead Stryker stop and send out some infantry to snoop around a bit. Just has the last grunt disgorged from the vehicle a rocket went right into the open rear door and took out the Stryker. The infantry squad took one casualty and then managed to take out the AT team.

     

    The New Checkpoint was overrun really early. An infantry team managed to slip away from there and hide near the river embankment, he was valuable later on in giving me some eyes on the units around the New Checkpoint when the Stryker group assaulted it. The main checkpoint was also attacked from the open ground and from Kharayk W, but the enemy never advanced, but seemed content to stay away and take pot shots. I used the mortar wagon to drop some rounds into the town as well as the surrounding flat area. I managed to get one BMP with infantry into the Main Checkpoint to reinforce it. I assaulted the New Checkpoint with infantry and managed to retake most of it, but I was not given credit for it because there were straggling enemy units in the vicinity.

     

    This was a fast paced, fun to play scenario. The units on the map and later on seem adequate for a decent battle. I will have to try it again to see what AI plan I get the next time.

     

  11. As far as I know arriving emails, updates, malware attack notifications, etc. do not cause CM to drop back to the desktop. Anyway it has never happened to me running Windows with a PC connected to the internet via a cable modem.

     

    Turning off the internet while playing CM is not something I ever do, especially when I am waiting for PBEM turns via my email or dropbox. Disconnecting and reconnecting to the net seems like a waste of time.

  12. Bouncing of the bottom of the page....

     

     

     

    Nidan is teaching me how to play Black Sea.  Actually he is showing me what it looks like to have the entire horizon shaded by the pyres of burning armored vehicles.  Beautiful.

     

    speedbump

     

    I notice the conspicuous absence of any update reflecting the spanking your tank heavy American  force took from my hardy panzergrenadiers. Outnumbered three to one they prevented you from taking your objectives, while inflicting heavy casualties. A lesson you wont soon forget I'm sure.

  13. Better uses for dogs? In a war where millions of human lives were thrown away like trash?

     

    Amazing how people will praise a soldier for sacrificing himself in battle, but if a dog dies to destroy an enemy tank, oh, it's a tragedy...

    You're obviously not a dog lover :mellow: . You miss read my intentions, I was highlighting the desperation of the Soviets using dogs against tanks in WW2. I was not praising, nor favoring animals over humans. Maybe if they had spent their time and effort developing a weapon like the Panzerfaust or the Bazooka.....hmmmmm we will never know.

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