General Jack Ripper

Reading up on this stuff (for work purposes) I was shocked to discover NOTHING back then worked properly. Tanks, rifles, mgs, ATGMs, aircraft, etc. It all seemed to be built to the level of quality of a 1979 Chevrolet Chevette. Sgt York was just the most notorious example. Everyone knows M60A2 was a disaster, its less well known that M60A3 fire control system was made by the same folks who made M60A2 fire control system (with all that implies), that the tank was shipped to Europe with few spare parts. On receipt of the tank crews had to go from one end of the vehicle to the other fixing manufacturing defects along the way. Even M163 Vulcan AA vehicle had a surprisingly poor reputation in the field.  I'm reminded of a line by former Secretary of State Rumsfeld (1975-77) "First we'll field it, then we'll fix it." When you read the backstories of the equipment and doctrine of the time the US doesn't quite come off as the unbeatable überforce of legend.

Just when I thought this year was gonna suck.

Just when I thought this year was gonna suck.

I'm not much of a fan of Vietnam based scenarios, but THIS I would want to try out.
Sounds inventive and fun. PM deets please?

Just when I thought this year was gonna suck.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!
Oh man, stop doing this to me.

Music for the thread:
 

Music for the thread:
 

I never get tired of war, but I do occasionally get tired of Combat Mission.
Got a campaign going in Hearts of Iron 4, playing a co-op with a buddy in Total War: Atilla, have another campaign with a buddy and my younger brother in Stellaris, I got sucked into the rather fantastical time sink of Conqueror's Blade, I play Airport Madness 3D when I need to kill fifteen minutes, I'm still in the middle of single-player games in Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Battlestar Galactica Deadlock, Darkest Dungeon, DiRT Rally 2.0, Kerbal Space Program, Motorsport Manager, Prison Architect, Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific, Star Wars Empire at War, Take Command - 2nd Manassas, Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail, Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon, and Xenonauts.
Needless to say, I start a lot of games I don't finish, then a year later I remember I have a save game waiting and I'll fire it back up again.

I took a driver safety training course with At&t way back in the 80s and that was the intructors advice. You should always be looking as far ahead as visibility allows (while also constantly checking all your mirrors). It was an interesting class that also taught braking is the last thing to do to avoid an accident. When you brake you have given up control of the vehicle.  It ended up saving my life in avoiding a head on collision on the GW parkway in Virginia a few years later. 

Just in the past few months
Elite Dangerous, Cyberpunk, Falcon 4 BMS, Europa Universalis 4, Divinity Original Sin 1 & 2,  Outer Wilds, Outer Worlds, Borderlands 3, Super Mega Baseball 3, Football Manager, F1 2020, Warhammer 2, Frost Punk, Black Mesa, GTA 5,  Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts, Prey, Hitman 2 and probably several more that escape me at the mo.
So yeah, I don't do much gaming these days

It sounds like folks are choosing other wargames for R&R.  My go to's have been either Grigsby's massive grand strategic WITPAE, or something from the Silent Hunter series of sub sims.  Both about as far from CM as one can get.

What is this emotion I'm feeling?
It's a strange mix of optimism and excitement?
There's just some thing about a giant infrared spotlight that just appeals to me on a fundamental level.
Aww, geez.
My one remaining heart string has been strummed.
My one last feeling has been felt.
Please just hurry up and take my money.

Let's break this down then ...
 
 
 
So you're not an expert on aircraft, you're definitely sure you saw five engines turning and one not turning from several miles away while being distracted by a neighbour snow blowing.  Meanwhile all of the other evidence on the flight track, C/S and aircraft registration correlates.  This evidence shows the airframe to be a four engined C-30.
As to the covert stuff ... don't you think they'd maybe land at night?
As has been pointed out ad nauseum on this thread 'six engined C-130s' are four engined C-130s with with underwing fuel tanks between the inboard and outboard engines on both wings.

DC3's got six engines if you drink too much. The vibrations cause the optical illusions. 

'8' Engined PAF C-130 4153

Well spotted.
PS - Apparently this is quite a widesprea phenomenon:
https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/66628/what-military-aircraft-has-six-propeller-engines
But the response is always the same. 

One of these:
Flying backwards, maybe? 
TBH this one has ten engines. 

Wow..... that's amazing technology and engineering.  Especially considering it was designed and built decades ago.  I would think it might go through the fuel quick with all those engines running.   

Some comedian will tell us they're convinced they saw one with twelve.

Just when I thought this year was gonna suck.

I know this is an old post, but one thing to note is that decaying pine needles are HIGHLY corrosive, so natural pine forests really don't have much tall undergrowth.
One major bone I have to pick with map makers is their pathological tendency to "fill" empty space to such an extent that a simple terrain feature like a copse of trees becomes as dense and complicated as an urban center.

I don't know what that means.

Yes.  I often assign Slow to the soldiers riding a tank no matter the movement command of the tank.  If the AI stops the tank before the destination it is generally because something bad has happened.  With Slow the soldiers dismount and begin to crawl away from the tank.  The turn ends and I can now intervene and give the soldiers appropriate orders.  IMO they are more likely to survive until I can intervene if they are on Slow (so prone and crawling away from the tank that is probably drawing fire).   

I don't want to engender a political debate, but I can answer this question with my previous post:
I firmly believe this to be true. You can go all the way back to the Assyrian Empire and blame everyone for every bad thing that ever happened throughout history, or you can do the mature and reasonable thing, and engage in a bit of historical relativism.
To be clear, I address this topic from the Historical Scholarship angle, not trying to state a Political point.