dan/california

I will let your burning tanks testify to my awesomeness, lets do a PBEM starting a a week after release. We could even do an AAR. A brave man would would let c3k pick the scenario for the AAR, and alter it as he saw fit......

Given the repeated failures to take the Donetsk Airport, despite repeated set piece attacks, it seems rather optimistic to assume anything of true military use will emerge from the current area of Russian control in Ukraine. I also think you are gravely underestimating the amount of friction even token amounts of opposition can impose on an advance. I mostly agree the Russians could march to the Dneiper in two WEEKS, although Steve is making a coherent case against even that. To say they could do it in two DAYS is the kind of magical thinking that sunk Hitler. PUTIN said it would take two weeks, and he is not noted for pessimism on such subjects.

The story of my life, alas.

When their blurb includes pictures from an Abram's thermal imager in 100 meter increments I will consider getting impressed. When it includes the above after its been worn in the field for a week I might actually BE impressed.

I It is less work to give the other side fewer units and the player less artillery. Because if you know exactly where they are, the absolutely surgical control you have of pre battle arty means they ARE going away.

My guess is looking pretty good. Chris just said we "We pinky swear we will make January, we really pinky swear it". I think that makes my guess of Feb 1 look rather fabulous.

My guess for the free game is looking pretty good, that Feb 1 by the way........

You will fit right in around here, for better or worse........

So you are really more or less agreeing that it would be hard to stop the Russians from reaching the Dneiper without significant NATO support, but it gets vastly trickier from there. Which side of Kiev has the main center of government?

I just watched The first Ukrainian mission, Its a desperate counter attack to push the Russians back up E95. At least I know someone did their homework.....

I am just following the main road from Kiev to Moscow on Google Earth. I just don't see a single spot that would truly inconvenience a major armored push in good, dry weather. The forest blocks are all very broken up and there no large watercourses on the route. All the rivers, and there are several in Northwestern Ukraine seem to parallel this road. I am referring to M3/E391 to the E101, to the E95. I just don't see any thing on the entire route to hang a defensive position on that couldn't be flanked in a hour. The Russians are not known for making it complicated when simple and very hard will suffice. I am just trying to start thinking through some scenarios for the Initial Ukrainian defense that end better for the Ukrainians than their suicidal defense of hill 347.

Steve, do you have any input on viable defensive terrain short of the Dneiper? Is there any mention of wet conditions in the backstory? And last but not least how do you tell marsh from sand in a Google Earth shot of a river crossing?

No enemy would shoot at them. Why would they solve our biggest problem for us?

Just to clarify, was that just the FACS team in that track that got sniped? or was the battalion CO in there as well?

Your usual excellent stuff!

How long can Bil last If Pnzrldr can in fact turn the flank on 347 and has LOF all the way to the Power Station? He just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Abrams can kill things the entire length of the map.

A couple of hours on google earth seem to show something resembling defensible bridges in the following places. 1) Terny 2) Ulyanivka 3) Tuchne 4) Romny 5) Sokyrynynsti 6) Veselivka 7) Poltova/ Tereshky I apologize for butchering the names The defensibility of all these points really depend on how marshy the river banks are. In some cases there are multiple bridges which could make one big scenario or several small ones. I assume flow a bank conditions vary a LOT by time of year, but a wet summer sank the Germans in 1914, so its not a completely crazy assumption. A drought puts Russian tanks on the outskirts of Kiev in a week, near as I can tell. Are their any dams, canals or something that could be used to intentionally flood meaningful areas?

Defensible terrain on the main road between Kiev and Moscow is notable by its absence. Kiev is on a major river obviously, but there are very few choke points between there and the Russian border. A very nice multilane highway almost straight to Moscow, as well. Clearly this is different in mud season, but in high summer where are the obvious points to slow the Russians down?

Can you just cut and paste what you just wrote every time it comes up, and then lock the thread. There is just nothing left to say.

Everyone on that godforsaken peace of dirt deserved the MOH, but both the senior people present and the higher level officers involved deserved a very nasty note in the file for getting caught that way though. The fact that the officer in command died heroically made some of the aftermath simpler.

Did that just ruin someones day? Or their career?

Anything Asian would be a whole new game family, it would require models, TO&E, and terrain from scratch just for starters.

If you assume complete NATO air superiority you don't really have game, because The Russian logistics would be toast. The assumption leads to the best tactical game is that Russians SAMs if not the Russian air force are capable of a real fight. I have no access whatever to the kind of classified information need too evaluate that assumption. I would argue that implies minimal fixed wing support for both sides as well.

Your usual excellent write up, gets across that its a hard business. The Russians in the last picture seem likely to regret that....

Bradleys, and BMP-3s have real offensive punch, and are somewhat survivable if they have APS. Even they should smoke, duck, and run like He#% if they are at risk of a main gun round and should be treated with care generally. They are also vulnerable to the each others auto-cannon. Virtually everything else is a rolling bomb screaming " KILL ME, KILL ME". They can all generate large secondary explosions when hit, so get your pixeltruppen clear once unloaded.