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Rokossovski

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Everything posted by Rokossovski

  1. Drat, I should have done it that way. It would have been so much easier than it was to sew those little uniforms and then train the badgers to fly jetpacks so I could snap the photo with my iphone. Oh well, lessons learned I suppose. (Okay, a more talented person than I am could have drawn it. But it was AI).
  2. Why not both? Fortunately, the next module will permit us to test the viability of exactly that combination. Coming 2nd Quarter of 2024:
  3. Do you know what the biggest threat to Ukrainian civilians is? . . . Russians.
  4. Two thoughts: (1) The discussion of how the Ukrainians have leveraged Western (and presumably some home-grown) ISR information to overcome the Russian's advantage in traditional mass has reinforced my view that Putin's choice to try to consume Ukraine in two bites (2014, and then 2022) doomed his effort. The 2014 attacks and subsequent low-boil conflict prompted the Ukrainians to improve and rethink their defenses, and it must have fostered close working relationships with Western intelligence services. Ukraine had almost eight years of conflict in the Donbass in which to field-test the use of Western ISR on the battlefield, to develop protocols for sharing that information up and down the chain, and for even low-level commanders to become accustomed to working with such information. I don't have any specific insight into how far along that process had advanced by February 2022, but the results suggest that the time was not wasted. The year-plus since that time would appear to have advanced the process further. Western nations have a lot of ISR assets to share with allies, but absent the sort of relationships, protocols, and practical experience that Ukraine had years to develop after 2014, I'm not sure those assets could be put to such full use. (2) I'm also wondering about the limits of Western ISR assets in less conventional conflicts (i.e., Afganistan, against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, etc.) or with partners with whom information sharing could be complicated by concerns about the penetration of the command structure by elements hostile to our efforts. A conflict such as this one in Ukraine could be a best-case scenario for the power of ISR, much as the 1991 Gulf War could be seen as a best-case scenario for air power. In short, I'm wondering if we should be on guard against expecting its evident importance in this conflict as necessarily translating into it being quite so central in future conflicts that have different contours. Side note: I haven't chimed in for several months on this mega-thread, but I've been following it closely. I really appreciate the great analysis folks from around the world and from so many backgrounds have been contributing. Thank you!
  5. Caught the BMP by surprise. No one expects the Spanish Instalaza.
  6. Yeah, I just had the same thought. I was looking at the map and wondering if the Ukrainians were thinking of trying to pinch off that salient at . . . Izyum. Then I remembered having more than once used cardboard and hexagons to game out the "Battle of the Izyum Salient" from the Great Patriotic Special Military Operation. If this turns into a replay of that fight . . .
  7. The ones that want to foster an image of being forward-thinking will rename their institutions "Think-UGVs"
  8. (In the above quote The MonkeyKing was paraphrasing an argument from someone else, so, to be clear, my below comments are not intended to criticize The MonkeyKing in any way.) I've been seeing similar arguments elsewhere as well: that there is nothing on hand to replace the tank, so therefore the tank is not obsolete. When I read such arguments I think back to a book I ran across years ago in a university library. It was an English translation of a German book on tactics, published in 1914 just before the outbreak of hostilities. (I would provide a cite, but this was decades ago and of course pre-internet). The book's author described the history over the 19th century of increasing dispersion of infantry on the attack in reaction to increases in defensive firepower. The author stated that in his view further dispersion was not longer possible while maintaining command over forces, and so "therefore infantry attacks will be successfully made under current [1914] conditions without further changes." [Not a real quote, this was decades ago, but that was the thrust of what he concluded]. In other words, the author was stating that there was no available alternative to massed infantry attacks into the teeth of machine-gun fire, and therefore such attacks would continue to be completed successfully. With the benefit of hindsight, we know that the absence of a ready alternative to flinging infantry into machine-gun fire would not make such attacks any less foolish or costly. It would be the same reasoning behind the old quip that "something must be done. This is something. Therefore this must be done." The correct answer (that the 1914 author did not have the foresight to grasp) is that until alternatives to massed infantry attacks could be devised then attacks would generally not succeed. He failed to consider the possibility that in 1914 the correct answer to the question of "how do you successfully attack into machine-gun fire" was "you don't." Along the same lines it's possible that the statements "(1) we have no ready alternative to tank" and "(2) the tank is obsolete" could both be true. I'm not actually sure that the tank has reached that point, and, even if so, it is also possible that an alternative will be devised. My objection is to the misconception that whether there is or is not a ready alternative to the tank has any bearing on whether it is obsolete. [For the purposes of this post I am defining "obsolete" to mean "no longer capable of reliably performing its duties in a reasonably cost-effective manner" or something similar. Tanks are plainly still being produced and used, and so under some common definitions they are technically not "obsolete"].
  9. At the very least it would make a great static flavor object. It would actually fit with agricultural settings -- and I would enjoy the resulting "towing" screenshots.
  10. Nord Stream 2 was suspended by the German government on February 22 in response to Russia's recognition of its puppet "Donetsk and Luhansk Republics." Nord Stream 2 AG then filed for bankruptcy on March 1. It is not pumping gas. My understanding is that Nord Stream 1 remains in operation.
  11. There appear to be multiple places by that name in Ukraine. What appears to be the biggest such town is located near Sumy. Trostianets - Wikipedia. That location would also be more consistent with where we have been seeing fighting up to now. [Ninja'd by kraze]
  12. When combined with the reports of progress in cease-fire talks, the Russian moves to menace Odessa from the sea and the reports of multiple Ukrainian counter-offensives suggest the possibility that the timing of some of these actions may be driven by a desire for immediate leverage in the talks rather than being the product of purely military calculations. In particular, the timing of Ukrainian counter-offensives could be especially important in this struggle -- I hope that they are well-timed rather than being initiated prematurely as a result of political calculations.
  13. I have decided to quit my job in order to devote myself full-time to reading this thread.
  14. @Vic4 I don't have a quarrel with your view, and I appreciate your effort to (as you put it) "tread very lightly," but any discussion of partisan U.S. politics is sure to swiftly derail this thread. I urge everyone to tiptoe way from the topic of "Russo-Sympathy." Don't even respond to this post. Please just drop it. (Ninja'd by Steve)
  15. So now its been three and half weeks since the patch was made available, but there is still no patch for Steam. Could BFC inquire with Slitherine to determine what is holding it up? My experience (not, admittedly in the field of gaming software) is that when a matter involves multiple entities progress can be blocked by strange misunderstandings. Often a phone call or an e-mail to the right person can do wonders.
  16. I saw the Kirtorf video by the way Megalon. Excellent as always. You deserve a bigger audience.
  17. Hmmmm . . . . Still no Steam update. Automatic patching was one of the things I was hoping would be improved with using Steam.
  18. These maps are truly great. Thank you for continuing to post them!
  19. You may call me: "Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, Scotland, France and Ireland, and Defender of the Faith."
  20. Indeed. Its important to keep one's head when around this fellow.
  21. Another great map! The care taken with this map really shines through. Superb!
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