rocketman

Good.

I have a much more powerful PC now as well and will try it again before sending it to you. My conclusion back then was that the calculations done by the game when turn 1 is processed causes the crash, probably because all the fortification/mine/wire units are converted to being an immovable part of the map, and pillboxes sink into the terrain. I even made a smaller empty map with just a ton of fortifications etc and it crashed as well. I recall Steve mentioned a while back that there will be improvements to how the engine uses modern hardware, maybe that will do the trick even if it isn't a bug per se.
Edit: I can try with current 4.04 version and later 4.05 patch.

I call BS on this and frankly it is dehumanizing Russians to an unhealthy level. Sure, a lot of the RA KIA are criminals and excess human capacity, but every KIA has a mother. Many have wives and children.  My point here is not to have sympathy for the Russian soldier, they signed onto an illegal war and paid for it.  I do not even propose sympathy for the average Russian who may have lost a loved one. 
My point is that all war is personal and we likely now have millions of Russians who are taking this war personally.  These are not robots, they are people. And people do not forget personal stuff easily. They do not frame it as "policy".  War is a garden of grudges, and the ones about this war are in full growth. 
So while we in the West may pretend like it is all political, it really isn't. And the effects of this war will not be contained solely to a political arena.  Finally, politics is personal too.  We are going to be a very long time to renormalization with Russia. The status quo is broken...get used to it.

I think we are sticking a toe over a red line in a gradual escalation.  Before we get to ho hum, we are talking about US weapons and targeting support, killing Russians…in Russia. In 2024. Wrapped your heads around that one and let it sink in.  Imagine for just a second if the roles were reversed…we would be looking at WW3.

https://www.regeringen.se/pressmeddelanden/2024/05/militart-stodpaket-16-till-ukraina--ny-formaga-som-starker-ukrainas-luftforsvar-och-stod-som-moter-ukrainas-prioriterade-behov/
 

Reminds me of a computer RPG called Kingdom Come: Deliverance, set in the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1403.
Seriously the best computer RPG that I have ever played. The developers did a great job of conveying the feeling of living in Europe during the days of lords in castles and knights on horseback. Highly recommend it to fans of computer RPGs who like reading about this era.
A sequel is coming this year, really excited to play it. 🙂
Anyway, back on topic.
 

I would love, LOVE, LOVE! to see a Flight Commander 3 someday.

Another Su25 shot down. Fourth in the last 2 weeks.
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.bsky.social/post/3ksro7gnvaa2z 
 

If you abandon your principles whenever it gets a bit hard, you don't have any principles.

Oh dear Ukraine is doomed Kharkiv is about to fall...
Let's look at recent past history.
Has Russia been able to mount an attack that has taken and held any sizeable amount of territory in the last year?
Has anything changed that will mean they can?
Has Ukraine annoyed the Kremlin by launching attacks across the border?
Has the Kremlin issued orders to say stop those annoying attacks on our territory?
Has Russia launched attacks on this area before especially if as you say it is so exposed to Russia?
If it was an easy place to attack why has Russia not done so in the last year?
As for your "No clear picture of what's in the city or how it's defended" are you for real? Why would we know, why would you know?
But hey let's look at recent past history...
Has Ukraine been able to make decent defensive positions?
Did they know the attack was coming? Yes they did...
So I would counter your usual doom and gloom with Ukraine will be able to handle it.
Of course I could be wrong but I am happy to bet a stack of donuts on my view that they will handle it.
Russia might be able to create a buffer zone but that's about it. 
Why don't you ask some questions about if Russia can keep sustaining all their losses for sod all territorial gains...

One point missed on the Trump thing:  he has borrowed money from RU oligarchs.  We know this because his son admitted it on video ~10 years ago or so.  He was mocking the US banks the wouldn't loan to the serial defaulter anymore and said (paraphrase) 'we just borrow from RU instead'.  Also RU oligarchs had bought some of his properties at oddly non-market prices, leading to some wondering about money laundering.  So when we talk about what Trump would do we need to recognize the very high probability that he is on some level a leveraged RU asset.  And his behavior toward Putin/RU has certainly been like that over the years.  
Plus Zelensky refused his extortion racket which led to Trump's first impeachment (he was completely guilty, by the way).
So pretending he'd be doing anything statesmanlike or diplomatic is absurd.  He would serve Putin and abandon Ukraine.  

Ignoring Trump for the moment as I personally don't think that he is the determining factor.  The war will not end regardless of the US.  This is Ukraine's decision and EU support will continue.  Not sure why you assume the EU will just follow the US on this.  What could happen is a drop in US support levels but there are many in the GOP who want to continue support for Ukraine to the point they helped force the vote in the house despite Trump.  It is worth watching the response to MGT's motion to vacate on C-Span.  She got booed from both sides of the aisle for what was essentially her reaction to Ukraine aid passing.
Russia has made clear what it wants from this war and those demands are not ones Ukraine can or will concede to.  If there is a push you can be sure that references to Munich "peace in our lifetime" will be blasted everywhere.

**cough**Ogre Mk 0.1**cough**

Reportedly Ukrianian forces became to use almost noiseless night FPV drones. Here is UKR drone slowly follows for two Russians and despite the range is no more 15-20 m and this is a night, Russians don't hear it.
 

Meh, the 2% thing is a weak metric and everyone knows it.  I mean it is better than nothing but it is not a measure of effectiveness nor contribution.  Greece is spending nearly 4% GDP - which is essentially an extension of workfare.  When was the last time Greece led a multinational brigade in Latvia or took an entire operational province on in Afghanistan?  Cynically 2% GDP is designed to drive NATO members to buy into American defence industry either directly or indirectly as opposed to really measure effectiveness.  
The reality does not often match the theatre.  But we will bow and scrap. Roll in Coast Guard and VA funding and other creative accounting until the heat gets turned off.  The US on the other hand cannot walk away from its position as a leader of the free world and expect everyone to forget it.

your attempt to play the both-siderism game is pathetic and shows an incredible amount of ignorance, both in historic and in current events.  What Gingerich did was completely unprecedented.  What McConnell did was completely unprecedented.  And Trump is off the charts for breaking both norms and laws.  ANd where on the left are the insane ones that are wielding power?   Where's the dem Matt Gaetz?  MTGreene?  American democracy is on the brink and it is due to one side and one side only.  Guess what --  Biden won't attempt to throw the country into a civil war to unlawfully try to cling to power.  Trump's been doing that for last 4 years, including a full on mob-coup attempt that left people dead.  So just WTF are you even talking about?  Clearly you've been watching Hannity or some other bull**** monger and now you are parroting their bulls--t.
So stop watching Fox & newsmax.  It makes you look like a damn fool.
Oh, and please respond by telling me how it's the dems fault the GOP held up UKR aid for 3 months.  Dems aint the ones on Putin's payroll.  
 

Ukraine this night conducted large drone attack on Russian infrastructure objects with at least 50 drones, including jet ones. This was combined operation of SBU, GUR and SOF
Russian side as usual claimed all drones were shot down/supressed, BUT:
Most successful attack was on "Lukoil" and "Nyeftyanika" companies oil depots near Kardymovo village in Smolensk oblast. Both bases, standing side-by-side were set on fire. This is transit oil bases - Russian oil accumulates here before transporting on Belarusian refineries and then a gas and other products mostly go back to Russian market.

 

Locals also reported in TG they heard a sound of jet engine and explosion in area of Smolensk aviation plant. This object, which specialized on light aircraft and Kh-59 missiles producing already was hit by a drone in November 2023
In Vygonichi, Briansk oblast power substation was hit

Staryi Oskol, Belgorod oblast - also reportedly power object was hit
Reportedly a fire on power substation in Ufa, Bashjortostan Republic, but this is 1500 km from Ukraine. Maybe technical failure or diversion

 

It is potentially worse than that.  This sort of dysfunction does nothing but feed anti-democracy sentiment.  Democracies die due to abandonment, history demonstrates this quite well.  If the system is seen as "unworkable" democracies often choose suicide.  This is the threat to the US and global stability.  Trump and Greene are symptoms of something far deeper and dangerous....apathy that leads to despair.

Another area of development with this conflict - new ways to strike strategically
 

The West is watching...

Supposedly russia broke their record with confirmed vehicle losses in a single day. 

I can tell you from painful personal experience that you can be bleeping near crippled from long COVID while every test they can think to run comes back negative. On some level Havana Syndrome is same kind of the same thing. 

Russia's actions are intended for western consumption. The west is being shown that 1. Russia is inexhaustible, thru constant offensives, 2. Russia retains capabilities to inflict terror on all of Ukraine, 3. Russia's terror is emerging, ala war crimes and breakdown of prior standards.
This is designed to both demotivate western civilians and policymakers to abandon Ukraine.
AND ITS WORKING. The Speaker of the House should be fired. The cowardly Republican House deserves to lose in November on the mere basis that while the majority of Americans support Ukraine, majority of Republicans support Ukraine, majority of Senate Rs support Ukraine, they themselves support Ukraine, we have endured months and months of delays for no good reason.

This is where cultural differences come into play. You thinking like a westerner that has to be consistent in what hes saying. You don't get that this isn't the case in russia. The bigger the confusion the bigger the control. This is why i say that they will make twist on this that in the end will make no sense. Cause if its make no sense you will only remember the calling words. Ukraine was involved, and the feeling you should have that is hate. Every aspect of russian propaganda is based on building down rationality and enforcing emotional response. They aware that its hard influence rational peoples so they don't need them. They need instinct driven animals.
It does not matter that it was a fault of their home defense service. Cause they will not be held responsible.
The other thing is the narrative. It does not matter.  really don't want to come with cliches but in 1984 there is a scene where they have the two minutes of hate. You know the story in the first part of the two minutes they saying one thing and in the end they say the exact opposite. Its true today as well. There are some peoples in the russian society that can have individual opinion and some influence but usually they are far away in Ukraine. Those back home are don't have influence or first hand experience to know what its true. Its an alternative reality. So it does not matter if the narrative does not fit the picture, only that it push the right button on the primitive parts of the human brain.