General Jack Ripper

Tank Hunter,
 
Thanks for these. I think having the latest and the greatest sensors gave the US the edge on detection time, but at the price of a small accuracy loss when rush shooting. Looks like the Chieftain guys weren't having a good day, particularly when you look at what that Chieftain gunner says at the other link regarding his CAT experience. The consistent German and Netherlands apparent sensor edge with the Leo 2 is evident in the equally consistent 4.1 second slower Leo 1. Nor is this delta a national difference, for the numbers also apply to a non German unit in both cases. I strongly suspect the German did a lot more live fire gunnery training than did the Canadians, and their poor showing was something of a NATO and national scandal. I would've been surprised, though, had German gunnery been poor, Historically, the Germans have been excellent gunners (see, for example, German naval gunnery at Jutland and scored here (p 756 et seq) by the British themselves as on par or better than theirs. Nor was that an isolated case. There's also Big Bertha, the Paris Gun, Anzio Annie. I'll stipulate to the Panzer aces of WW II. At heart, they're all about being meticulous about gunnery. I'd say the traditions, thorough crew training and firing experience showed up unmistakably in the stats. Besides, if having the GSFG and the East Germans across the border doesn't motivate you to excel, what will?
 
LOckAndLOad (How I wish you'd picked a handle easier to type),
 
I linked to Chieftain gunner because I had absolutely zero notion, less still knowledge, the Chieftain could be fired that fast, with at least part of the course being firing on the move. This is a tank which is firing two part ammo, after all. Also, depending on what year of the CAT you selected, the way teams got to the competition changed more and more to resemble typical crews than the best of the best which characterized the early years.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

Zveroboy1,
 
If the Eastern Front is the redheaded stepchild of the CM2 family, take heart that the child was ever born to begin with. Some of us have been trying to get a PTO game since the first CMx1 game, CMBO, came out. But we can't so much as get mating to occur. There are people who've done some amazing PTO mods, but it's hardly the same. We'd be thrilled to have something as simple as a Vehicle Pack, so we could go do the rest ourselves, but that isn't happening, either. If you want more Eastern Front love, then make the kind of argument which will get Steve's attention and magnanimity--greatly improved CMRT sales.
 
It probably doesn't help your cause, though, that the whole area of GPW conflict is presently akin to a pressure cooker with a marginally performing, worsening, safety valve. I could be wrong, possibly hugely so, but sales might be better if 1C, the Russian firm which created CM:Afghanistan, which BFC developed, had done CMRT. I say that because there is apparently a large Russian gaming community and having a Russian firm create it would theoretically have gotten the locals excited, generating a lot of sales from motivated buyers interested in the GPW. This is, of course, pure speculation, since I don't know how many copies of CMRT BFC has sold and expects to sell. Nor do I have even the remotest idea how big the Russian gaming community is and of those players, how many are GPW buffs, care about Op Bagration, and at what price point they would buy. Way too many unknowns, but what I do know is that Steve's not about to bet the firm on a hope. He, like investigative reporters, has to follow the money. Unless and until the European side of the gaming community begins to be a significant part of the gaming market, the reality is that BFC's game and module choices are going to be heavily skewed toward what the principal customers, Americans, want and have shown they're willing to pay for.
 
Also, it occurs to me that Op Bagration may not be floating the boat of the panzerphiles, if you will. CMRT doesn't have much because the German mech forces had been wiped out wholesale in many areas and were mere shells elsewhere. The Germans aren't on the strategic offense or teetering into the strategic defense. They are deep into it and trying desperately to hold things together. Mainly with infantry.
 
This sort of stands Panzerphile World™ on its head. In order to really be able to play with lots of tanks, one has to be Russian. A lot of gamers aren't interested in that (I know someone who always has to be the Germans, as a case in point), so this may be a further factor working against CMRT. There's heavy armor, but it comes with red stars and "Za Stalina" on the turrets.
 
As if that weren't enough, there's the whole Cold War thing. Russia was our ally during WW II but became our enemy after the war. And like it or not, to this day if you call the average 30-35+ American adult male a commie, there's a high likelihood you'll get rapped in the chops, for to us that is an insult and not a small one Thus, taking Russia in CMRT, I suspect, brings up strong negative associations of being a commie. True, calling someone a Nazi is also not going to go well, but the Germans are seen as having the cool toys (oh so many sizes and shapes, forget the logistics nightmare in the real war) and the cool camouflage, too. Russians have only a relative handful of AFV, gun and vehicle types, and they with very few exceptions come in either Russian green or whitewash over same.I guarantee you far more people in the US have heard of a Tiger tank than have heard of a T-34. And hit movies such as SPR and Fury have only made this even more true.
 
This split has been true for decades when it comes to WW II models as well. Model competition after model competition in the US will show German AFVs, guns and softskins to be the dominant category, with Tiger tanks of every stripe guaranteed to be prominently featured. I've been a student of Russian armor going back to high school, and I built the Tamiya SU-100 back when models came with rubber tracks and motors, but the meat of the market was the German stuff. I say this not just as a former modeler, but as someone who set up and ran a hobby shop; who knew and dealt directly with all the model builders in a good sized city. Anything German was hot, even if it was a staff car. I'd say the situation has begun to reverse itself somewhat in the last decade or so because Russian and other regional firms have put out a slew of Russian models on every conceivable subject. If you want a T-26 model of a chemical warfare variant that is armed with two big Flash Gordon style mustard gas rockets, you've got it, but there used to be almost nothing. 
 
Summing up, I believe the factors I've listed probably have exerted  a strong negative cumulative effect on CMRT sales and constitute a real and financially significant inertia which BFC has to contend with every time it seeks to do something Eastern Front related. We got Op Bagration because it allowed BFC to leverage a huge outlay in units, models, weapon characteristics, animations and more done for CMBN and CMFI to get us a new game faster than would otherwise have been the case. But I am dead certain that had the first Eastern Front  release been CM:Barbarossa, BFC would be a lot happier with the sales figures. And the CMers and the overall computer wargame market would be a lot happier with BFC. Part of the problem is simple ignorance. American school children were/are taught about the invasion of Russia, but unless it's a specialized history course, even college students (barring those in military academies) won't ever have heard of Operation Bagration. Had to look it up myself. Nor does it help there's been little mainstream stuff on it or, for that matter, much on the Eastern Front in English from the Russian side at all. When Ballantine Books published Jeffrey Juke's Kursk: The Clash of Armor in 1969 as part of the Ballantine Books Illustrated History of World War II, it was practically a revolutionary act, sad to say. The same was true of Douglas Orgill's  T-34: Russian Armor from the same sprawling series. It was published in 1970. These were probably the first times the American and British mass reading public got to see things from the Russian side of the fence, using Russian sources, in a context that was neither exclusively invasion (Barbarossa) nor besieged cities (Stalingrad, Leningrad), and wasn't the Battle of Berlin, either. Yet neither Jukes nor Orgill was  Russian.
 
Though I don't own currently own CMRT myself (resource constraints and successfully seduced by CMBS), I do hope BFC puts out a Module for it. BFC has said it intends to do a series of games for the Eastern Front. But the likelihood of that is very much tied to how this Eastern Front game does, despite what I perceive as a stack of obstacles in its way. My short term solution? Find a millionaire. Have that person buy lots of CMRT games, give them as gifts, sponsor tournaments and the like OR have said millionaire commission BFC to create the desired Eastern Front product, paying for same with a big fat check having enough zeroes following the first nonzero digit to make it worth BFC's while to make it and generate a nice profit, too. Regardless of any subsequent sales. A more practical and realistic approach would be to talk up the game someplace other than here, get people to play the CMRT Demo (the first E-crack's free) buy extra copies as gifts and do anything else you can think of to get people to buy CMRT. Good luck!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Alexey K,
 
Confound it! You've just revealed BFC's deep black CMBSOS. Combat Mission Black Sea: Operational-Strategic. Stratfor paid a fortune for it on a private commission to BFC, but with a secrecy clause, and now Steve is going to have to return his yacht and Charles is no longer going to have that exquisite Waterford crystal brain jar he's just gotten used to. But fear not, Wikileaks will soon have all the juicy details for us. Look what happened the last time it looked into Stratfor.  The link is real. Shall have to read the Stratfor gaming article. Looks pretty interesting.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

jomni,
 
Which M60 version, please? Makes a big difference in both general capabilities and in terms of comparison with the T-64. M60A3TTS, for example, had stabilized gun, LRF, ballistic computer and thermal sights.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

I may've posted this before, but if I didn't, you'll likely be glad I did. He was in the GPW from November of 1941, maybe earlier, and fought through the entire war.
 
http://www.nps.gov/nama/blogs/The-Nine-Lives-of-a-Soviet-Tank-Commander-Vasily-Bryukhovs-Service-During-World-War-Two.htm
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

When my brother was at NTC, one night there was a soldier, out cold in his sleeping bag. Then someone moved an M113 about ten feet in the dark without checking ahead. You know the rest. Which was how I learned about crunchies after hearing him first use the term and not understanding it. Some explanations can be done without, I've discovered. I was equally perplexed by "DATs" and "CDATs," but those terms, while not endearing to those referenced, at least didn't directly involve sudden large compressive forces on a hapless friendly.
 
In looking at my #89, I now find myself cringing a bit over my first sentence. I think what I find offputting is that I prefaced my lead thought with "sadly," and I wish I hadn't done that. To me, it seems almost inhuman when I look back at it. 
 
Codename Duchess,
 
A very good question. Monty Python would've gone to town with that training session. Something like.
 
Training Instructor
 
"Now see here, men. You've all done the Armour Course, You're real tank men now. Regret to inform you that something got left out of the training syllabus."
 
(Up pipes Private Watkins)
 
"Sergeant?"
 
Training Instructor

"Yes, Watkins, what is it?"
 
Private Watkins

(Freezes, can't talk)
 
Training Instructor
 
"As I was saying, you've learned you must shoot, move and communicate in order to fight your tank properly and kill the enemy, right?"
 
(Growling but low enthusiastic utterances from the men)
 
"Kill the enemy! Right!"
 
Training Instructor
 
"But sometimes, you must be clever in how you go about it. Understand?"
 
(Tank men look clueless)
 
"You must learn to squish and not be squeamish. Got it?
 
(Watkins again)
 
"What? Getting toothpaste out of a tube?"
 
Training Instructor
 
"Something like that."
 
Watkins
 
"Why ever would one be squeamish about toothpaste?"
 
Training Instructor
 
"Well,..."
 
END
 
I really would like to see Armata. Something that rumbles smartly down the road, a brilliantly conceived and executed steel, exotic alloy and composites tank that leaves observers speechless. Not one that looks that way, but is made of plywoodium, either. I want to see Armata, but the only place I want it in combat is on our (virtual) turf. There, we shall test its mettle (and metal) in vicious flurries of electrons and charge state changes!
 
I feel like Tantalus, and I'm tired of having this purported super tank dangled in front of me, yet always out of reach. Given that we seem to be able to get pictures of experimental tanks on the Poligon, pics which, given my former work, would've been practically priceless during the Cold War, it's frustrating to have so little on Armata. I almost wish I'd not seen the speculative or better informed renderings (not the SF style insanities), articles and vid. For they gnaw at me. At times. If patience is a virtue, right now I'm not terribly virtuous!  
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

This looks like serious work, and this is very clear from the high production values. Sky Mods will want to take notes, for some of what I'm seeing is breathtakingly beautiful. Who knew the Poligon could be an art piece? The treadhead stuff is great, and it's interesting to see a Russian encampment with the troops in tents, camo fencing around what look to be HQ or other sensitive elements, but what I like already, less than 2.5 minutes in, is seeing the tank crews themselves. Whatever this is, it has subtitles, but they're in Russian!  Also, I noticed something remarkable and rather cool. When the tank fires, the shock (pretty sure it's not the muzzle blast) on the chassis is so great it shakes a lot of dust off the tank, something akin to what a dog does. Clearly, we need a dust mod for this!  Russian tankers are tough. I see these guys driving through great clouds of dust, yet not a man is wearing goggles. Sure wish I could see all the footage that went into this.
 

 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Everyone,
 
The purpose of this thread is to provide a central location into which I can put information and the like which I deem significant and worth knowing about, as well as my own observations and opinions, subject to the usual BFC rules, as well as certain request and strictures coming from BFC. In this way, there should be no further thread proliferation and "real post" ranking issues. Other members are, of course, welcome to participate in what I post, but I ask that you be respectful. Argue against the ideas I present; don't attack me. As some may have noted, I have formal requests in to the Mods to kill two separate threads. If they choose to do so, that should further alleviate matters on the CMBS Forum as a whole.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
 
 

BLSTK,
 
I heard that, too, but the impression I got was that he fired on a bunch of people but kind of personalized the experience by singling out one victim. Besides, that wasn't the pilot but the narrator. Who knows if the pilot said a thing that was recorded? I could be wrong, and I hope I am, but to make an attack on a single man out in the middle of a field makes no sense at all. If a single man was the target, the pilot is an idiot, a criminal,  and wasted an enormous amount of ammo to get him. Narrators of the period were altogether too cheery. There might be blood everywhere and friendlies' guts hanging in the trees, but these guys would find a way to sound enthusiastic and crack wise ("ya gotta love those gutsy Marines") in doing so. Had they been covering the attacks that turned Hamburg into an inferno, we could've had something like this: "In Hamburg, Germany the city is ablaze from end to end, with no relief in sight as British bombers of the RAF continue to exact hellish vengeance on the Nazis. Best firestorm ever!" I'm only half joking.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Bulletpoint,
 
Not exactly. Absent the opportunity to view high quality gun camera footage frame by frame, I'd be very hesitant to place much stock in parts of the narration. We can't see who was in the field or how many there were, but the pilot isn't going to go shoot up some Italian farmer plowing away. Given the amount of firing we saw, and it was a lot, it seems to me there's a distinct possibility, though not stated, infantry was caught moving in the open. Shooting up German vehicles parked practically at the house is fair game, as is bombing the house, for enemy occupation negates the prohibition. There may've been something with those other houses that was, well, off. There are distinct differences between the way civilian life looks from the air and the way military life looks. That may've been what underlay the attacks we saw. It may've been, as the movie line goes, "too quiet," therefore suspicious. There may've been intel the Germans were doing something like this, too. I can assure you, though, US pilots didn't go whizzing about shooting people and things willy nilly. All other considerations aside, every time you pulled the trigger, it activated the gun camera. The intel types and the CO went over that footage with a gimlet eye, and woe betide the pilot who blazed away and couldn't explain why. I was going to post a couple of pertinent vids, but my data rate just imploded. Can't get the vids to load at all. Not enough bandwidth, apparently.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

weapon2010,
 
 
Combat Missioners? Had to happen sooner or later, I suppose. CM does, in may ways, have religious attributes, not least of which is the fervor of its adherents. There is ritual purification (hitting the toilet/head/lavatory before beginning). There are sacrifices (beer, chips, etc.) and propitiation (promises to mow lawn, clean gutters and such, plus agreeing to go to dinner with her mother) of a separate, jealous deity. Confession ("My tanks were getting shot up, and I forgot to walk the dog!") Sometimes even absolution. ("I forgive you, but you have to take me shopping and out to dinner") Neither let us forget proselytizing. We'll tell anyone who'll listen about CM. Even those who may not want to know!
 
What's that? CM missioners aren't clergy? They're not?! You say they're people who play CM? Gotta go!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

This is a vid I found via a Ukraine War search, and while it doesn't show any combat, it shows a great many militarily interesting things: a heavily camouflaged CP with CO in it (him in cammies with what I believe to be latest digital camo helmet cover), complete with panoramic photo of area to front, range card, fire sector markers and such, full-on fighting trenches, AFV fighting positions, MTLBs with tall pintles with MGs atop them, trucks towing mortars, a possible T-64, BMP-1s and a 2S1. HD footage of wonderful clarity. Sky is dark gray, and there's a brooding feel, too. As best I can tell, this is two parts making one program. What I find especially notable is how well these AFVs blend with the background, despite monotone paint jobs. Also, other than a little wind noise, when the T-64BV? (has remote controlled rooftop MG actively moving about) tanks are on the move in the second vid, there is no stupid music playing, only engines and environmental sounds, including birds. Likewise with the BMPs. Maybe someone can take advantage of that for sound mods? These tanks are pretty quiet on the move, but neither are they racing about. The BMPs are noisier than the tanks, and their tracks squeak. A further point of interest is that when the CP displaces, right behind the Komandir's MTLB is another one. With a MANPADS guy standing in the open hatch ready to go while the MTLB is on the move!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c35kRXK7pM#t=29
 

 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Just last night, I was watching a bunch of real world goodies pertinent to CMBS and had excellent audio. A short time ago, I watched TV programs online. That was fine, too. But in looking at an array of things on YT just now, nothing has audio. It's all got the dread "X" on the speaker image. I thoroughly checked at 3:30 AM (3:42 AM, 03/14/15 where I am presently) to make sure my sound was on and volume adequate. 
 
T-90 (in Russian)  A tremendous vid, may I add? Not a sound. 
 

 
Dad used to crack wise about easy college courses, such as Basket Weaving and Canoe Tilting, rather than Engineering. Guess what? The audio there doesn't work, either.
 
Making Willow Baskets
 

 
Kelly's Heroes Showdown with a Tiger scene
 

 
I don't know what's going on or why, but I absolutely hate this and am concerned this is some insane new YT policy. If so, someone needs to replace YT. Stat.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Emoticons are fine, for those so inclined, but the only one I've ever used was entirely accidental, wholly unwanted by me and occurred on this Forum because I was tired and forgot to deselect the blasted check box. Respectfully request you make traditional writing the default setting and Enable Emoticons a user selectable option.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
 
 

Stagler,
 
So it really is a documentary? Are there more? If so, I'd love to see them. I was unsure, since I don't speak Russian, whether or not it was, but it sure looked like a documentary to me. Was very impressed, despite being able to pick up only the odd word here and there.  I noticed some BMD-4s were shown briefly, and at the very end,a BTR-82A.
 
I thought it was funny when they gave him some Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs") things to do like bore swabbing, tank washing and such, likely for humor. To say he wasn't a good fit for the tank is understating it considerably. Don't mind telling you I feared for the LWR when I saw him using it to support himself while the tank rolled and pitched on the move.
 
Speaking of movement, the amount of nose pitch, thus, the time to get the gun tube back down after firing could, based on what I saw, directly affect ROF. Granted, it's not like the automatic cycling of a T-62 gun to max elevation after firing, in order to reload, but the recoil forces appear to create something like that, though not as severe. By way of contrast, notice how little hull movement there is at all in the Abrams tanks firing here. I suspect a lot of what we're seeing is the sheer effect of all that extra mass that the T-90S doesn't have.
 

 
I was fascinated to watch all those men busily sewing on fresh collar liners, exactly as Suvorov/Rezun (T-55 company commander before going into intel) and other Russian veterans have described. Something else which really struck me is that nowhere can't I recall seeing so much as a single soldier smoking, even at chow. Has there been some sort of crackdown which prohibits smoking altogether, or is this MOD image management?
 
Badwolf66,
 
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.
 
Kieme(ITA),
 
With you on that!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Thewood1,
 
Sometimes I go on a bit of a tear, but other days I'm wrecked and post nothing. I do take your point and shall see what I can do about it. If you keep track of such things, you'll see I've been quite active in many threads which are highly pertinent to the game, not least the one on Russian spotting, as well as the extensive A-10 thread. If you're going to ding me on one end, please acknowledge my contributions on the other.
 
Also, I think we disagree over what is and isn't relevant. If a full T-90 documentary isn't relevant to CMBS, then what is? Yours is the only complaint I've had on that score. How can you complain that I put in material on the XM25, considering it's featured (check the manual if you don't believe me) in the game for the US? And I happen to believe a Grad bombardment is relevant when Mariupol has been in the news, was and remains under attack, and very much remains an objective for Putin's proxies. And that's without considering Grad weapon effects. Smashed Ukrainian armor and softskins shown worldwide after a kind of Grad ambush tell a tale. After the fact. But the video I provided shows the mechanism, in action, of what created such a result.
 
As I said, I'll see what I can do. Were the GDF active the way it used  to be, I would've put the YT alarm there, but let's face it, the eyes are here. If you recall, I specifically asked the Mods to kill the whole YT thread. What they do or don't do thereafter is not within my control at all. 
 
Update
 
I count 6 threads of mine of 21 total. There'd be 5, but the combat training ground post has risen from the dead after being a page or more back.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

Nidan1,
 
In the T-90 doc, you'll see the right color camouflage in use. The green in this Luhansk training ground vid would be great in the spring. Clearly, the CO needs to fire the martial equivalent of his window dresser! Either that, or there's a budget crunch. Could you tell whether that was a Russian officer? He sure had command presence and impressive military bearing.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

I've read everything you all have said and respond as follows:
 
Mods,
 
I hereby formally request that you delete both the YT alarm thread and this one, which I believe has also served its purpose.
 
RabidOtters,
 
I directly stated, and you quoted it, that I had been deselecting emoticons, but because it has to be done manually, so far as I know, every time, I missed doing that just once and wound up with an unexpected emoticon when all I wanted was text. My view is that text ought to be the default, with emoticons the user selectable aspect, but, as they say, it's not going over well. I'm still getting used to the way the new Forums operate from a technical standpoint. In the earlier one, you had to enable emoticons. In this one, it's the reverse, and it's a pain to have to be ever vigilant.  Frankly, given my various issues, it's hard enough to get out coherent posts which don't have typos, strange word breaks, repeated phrases and such. There was a time in my life where such matters were radically uncommon for me, but I've been through a lot, and it shows.
 
Michael Emrys,
 
Point taken. The trick there, though, lies in remembering to do it when either exhausted, not in good shape or both apply. 
 
agusto,
 
I tried the biggrin link, but it didn't work. I've been having major internet data rate and connectivity issues, though, so maybe that's the explanation? I do have AdBlock installed and operational. This must be so, for various sites keep noticing it and advising me to turn it off. It's possible what you suggest may be in there, but I had no idea, didn't know I needed it and never looked for it. My focus lay in getting it, installing it and, with the help of a Mac Power User, properly configuring the settings.
 
LukeFF,
 
I've asked you very nicely and on several-numerous occasions to please stop sniping at me. You never ever have anything positive to say if it involves me, seem to have no self-censorship setting when it comes to me and what I have to say, but being de facto Moriarty from "Kelly's Heroes" with me isn't the way you operate on the Forums in your interactions with other members. Consequently, it's quite clear to me that you are conducting an ongoing ad hominem attack, for you are doing considerably more than challenging my ideas. You are being rude, insulting  and doing everything you can to put me down and minimize me as a person. You are a grown man who has borne and doubtless bears considerable responsibility. Given that, I'm sure you can manage to restrain your online poisonous tongue in your interactions with me. Please do so. Also, for someone who publicly stated he had me on Ignore, you sure seem have a lot to say about the person you're ignoring!
 
Additional Discussion & Summation
 
I get that we are in what academics call a Post Literate society. I grew up in a Literate one in which you communicated with words, not something more nearly resembling  hieroglyphs, let alone the dancing variety. I understand that a lot of the commonly used expressions in text and subsequently online are the result of the formerly dreadfully expensive per character cell phone data transmission rates (as seen in the girl who texted her family into a $20,000 phone bill), and the desire to set the users of leetspeak apart. Let me be candid. I have a really bad time with taking in and processing, for example, the handle of LOckAndLOad. Things like that short out my brain, and the handle is hard to type, too. For someone who's not all that dexterous to begin with, is recovering from a brain injury and frequently has days in which what's intended to be said comes out not exactly that way, the net effect of leetspeak is like trying to hear and work through variable intensity jamming. Bright, attention getting emoticons add to that jamming intensity/brain processing load because they draw my eyes away from the text. But what really worries me are the animated ones, with that Gatling gun in #17 above being especially apposite. It's distinctive, cool and clever, but it is my bane, precisely because it has all the attributes which make it impossible to ignore in the first place: big, bright, visually and positionally changing. When it's in my FOV, even peripherally, it is not merely distracting but directly interferes with my ability to take in the primary information I'm reading. I fervently hope they're going to be few and far between, particularly if that size.
 
Finally, I'd like to offer a related thought I heard expressed on the show "Royal Pains" regarding adults in our Post Literate society. In one episode, Evan R. Lawson, the brother of the show's main character, Hank Lawson, Jr., was at an outdoor chi chi community event in the Hamptons. Evan is a very stylish and trendy guy, who's maybe 30 or a bit less, and when he heard there'd be a gathering later at a restaurant of some young adults and high school seniors, up he piped (am doing this phonetically) "Text me the deets." At this point, he got the arched brow of disapproval from his spouse, Paige, the highly intelligent, beautiful, poised daughter of a general and to the manor born, as it were. When he said to her in response "It's short for the "details." That's how all the kids say it," to which she replied, gently but with wifely bite "They do; you don't."

I find it odd, given the average age here, that grown men are using, though fortunately to a much lesser degree, the same means of expression as kids are in elementary school. Evidently, I need to go find leetspeak, eMoteekons & emOgeez 4 duMeez™ #Rumeedial essmezz so I can get with the program! Writing those was painful, for it runs entirely against a lifetime of being meticulous going the other direction.

Regards,

John Kettler 

agusto,
 
I appreciate the suggestion and the link, but since I run Safari, I'm going to have to find the equivalent of what you provided.
 
LukeFF,
 
You have just conclusively proven the very points I made about you above. This time not only have you gone after me because of my carefully thought through, time consuming replies and how I made them, but you then compounded that by disrespectfully employing an intimate name for me.  At the rate you're going, in terms of ever more obnoxious intrusiveness, I expect you'll be supervising my bowel movements ere long! Stop acting like a boor and leave me in peace. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

The Jumbo certainly was in CMBO.
 
In the main I think that we have to avoid comparing Allied uparmoured tanks with German modifications of French vehicles, and expecting BFC to provide us with all the vehicles we wish we could have straight away. The Germans had four years to adapt French vehicles, and therefore, they were available in fairly large numbers, and in a wide variety by June '44. With both the US and Britain changes had to be made pretty quickly, and sometimes in an ad-hoc way as they went. I think that CMBO reflected that situation pretty well. And I see no reason to doubt that future upgrades, modules etc will do likewise. Fighting in the autumn, winter of '44 and the spring of '45 will be a lot of fun, and I'm sure BFC will do a great job for us.

Appreciate this information and the vid, but concur with Oakheart on characterization of AK-12. Maybe it's the paint scheme, too, but to me, it looks butt ugly (and the weapon's butt does look ugly, too), elevating the AK-47 to the level of visual art by comparison. I'm not saying the AN-12 (also the name of an Antonov C-130 clone) isn't a tough reliable weapon. To get through State trials it would have to be, but I think soldiers prefer weapons that do their jobs well and look good. If both did well on the weapon end, I'd want the AEK-971, which not only gets the military job done but is scary looking (intimidation's always good) and has clean cool lines as well. And let's face it, if FMS figure in, sex appeal, if you will, is apart of the marketing equation. Aesthetics most definitely do figure in, and I now show this was an issue which concerned catapult designers in ancient Greece.
 
Philon, circa 250 BCE,  Construction of War Engines
Referring to a new type of catapult called the wedge engine, he has this to say, and it's very much marketing related, as is his prior listing of features and benefits for his innovative and more powerful version of a well-established key weapon:
 
"Finally, in appearance it is no less imposing than the others..."
 
Cited in Campbell's Greek and Roman Military Writers: Selected Readings, p184.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Ranger33,
 
Your reply cracked me up, yet makes a lot of sense, too. Wonder how Random can be fixed at the force selection logic level. What I got is awkward and potentially deadly, whereas your force makes sense, but the opposition's doesn't. That's not the same, because I'm talking about a hink in own force selection. So far, I've yet to encounter any Russian defenders. Attack scenario, which presumably explains why I have not merely a nasty main force, but heavy fire support, too. Why I'm schlepping a Company HQ into battle when there's no Infantry Company. One of my Abrams is the Tank Battalion CO's, who's evidently leading from the front.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Lee McLaughlin,
 
If you like, you can play part of the Petsamo-Kirkenes Strategic Operation, where you can have
 
(Fair Use)
 
General Meretskov also personally requested a fifth armoured unit from STAVKA, voicing the opinion that this should include a regiment of heavy KV-1 tanks to break through the German defensive positions. STAVKA approved the request and assigned: 

• 73 Guards Heavy Tank Regiment 
 o 21 KV-1 tanks 

to the Karelian Front.
 
The above is taken from a first rate two part military analysis reported here.
 
(Breaks away to check some more)
 
Regret to inform you you're screwed. The KV-1s listed are KV-85s, as described in James Gebhardt's The Petsamo-Kirkenes Strategic Operation, p. 20. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

I was doing some research when I fell into the endless diversion to be found in a sidebar. Turns out this was a lot more than a diversion. More like a mind expander. I took the test as soon as I came across it and found it demanding, forcing me to search the dim recesses of memory to resurrect words encountered, in some cases, decades ago. Some were easy, some required serious efforts at recall, while some I attacked via logical exclusion. I managed to get 20/21, was undone by a word I'd never seen before, but had I not worked as hard as I did, it would've been far less than that. Try it for yourself.
 
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/inspired/1241586-test-your-knowledge-how-many-of-these-words-do-you-know/
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
 
 

slysniper,
 
In one the four vids, forget which one, that ChrisND did showing off the APS, he rolled a platoon of T-90AMs into hull defilade position dead front of a pretty exposed, full frontal aspect, Abrams platoon on a low hill. Range? 750 meters. The T-90s saw the Abrams force first and opened fire. Several US tanks died outright, while others were badly hurt. The Russian force never came under fire, I believe. Sure opened my eyes!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler