Lethaface

I remember part of that footage from the start of the war. Who knows what Oleksandr (and the other Su-25 pilot) did manage to prevent by their sacrifice/efforts. Whatever it was, a show of defiance against the aggressor at the outbreak of war. Outnumbered, outgunned, whatever; he went for it all in. I guess occurrences like these (across all branches) made the difference in the early days. I don't really know what to say about such things but they impress a fellow human being.

Yup, they even got mud on their faces.

As I understand it those mines are harmless pieces of material until you insert the denotator part. (edit already explained by theCapth with actual RL knowledge :D)

What would you say knowing your time has probably come? If I'd be fighting in some dodgy war for my country and knowing I'd be dying soon probably I guess my last words would be Heil Holland or sumfink (hopefully guns blazing instead of cowering though)

nice one

Don't want to rush you either! Just wanted to say wow that's nice. RL (should) always takes precedence, as does mental health. I'll follow the thread and maybe have a look at github if I'm impatient. A tutorial video is always nice but some of us probably can make do with some basic documentation. Although some would probably not and create a flood of questions :).

Recently discovered this thread @Butschi. Sure looking very interesting! Your script tool opening up map making for people (like me) who struggle with the effort of building a map from scratch but have some technical affinity seems like a potential great step easing the workload. When I have spare time outside doing my turns and following Ukraine (including reading 'the thread' :D), I'll have a look setting it up and see if I can produce something with it.

If Bakhmut culminates into such a situation they've been planning on that for quite a while lol. With meteorology not being an exact science it would indeed be quite a feat. Anyhow the mud can indeed be a (large) factor for any Ukraine (couner)offensives. It would be great if Bakhmut can hold, or Ukraine being able to counter attack and undo all the gains it has brought. But even if they have to give up Bakhmut without immediate counters, I guess they still have been able to contain the Russian offensives for a long time. Which probably has value in and of itself, for Ukraine (although at a cost, but who knows what the cost of not containing the offensive would have been). And even with Bakhmut Donetsk province and thus Donbass as a whole isn't yet fully taken, so I guess too early for Putin to roll out the 'Mission Accomplished' flag.

IIRC ceasefire will take affect the turn after both sides have pressed ceasefire. Due to the WEGO system it can look like >1 turn.

Back in the day I had good fun playing those campaigns, looking forward what you can come up with now!

The reports from Bakhmut not looking too bright, but at the same time several thinktanks/etc have been expecting for a while that Ukraine might not be able to hold on to Bakhmut. I was thinking whether it could be that Ukraine is setting up a trap? As in UKR actually retreats from Bakhmut and let it looks like a chaotic mess / rout and lure in the Russians to overextend themselves. Then close the jaws and strike at both flanks in the rear, trapping the advancing forces and cutting them off. Now this is very speculative and perhaps much too rosy, but I'm sure Ukraine is planning something and probably they won't try the exact same trick they tried with Charkiv/Kherson. I mean even the Russians won't fall for that one again, right? But they might fall for other traps.

While I love smoke in CM I guess it is quite hard to organize effectively with large formations because the smoke doesn't last that long (while the same barrels could be firing HE). Plus drones can see over the smoke and direct/correct (artillery) fires behind it. I guess the answer to your question is what we have seen before when UA launched offensives. If the RA has on call artillery with enough ammo on hand and communications with those in the trenches or OPs, that's what's going to cause lots of casualties. As will tanks/AFVs/ATGMs with LOF on the advancing formations. So first HIMARS the logistics and HQs, excalibur the AFVs and strongpoints while continuously barraging the forward and rear fighting positions/trenches. When the defense has stopped being an effective fighting force, press the attack and insert your last paragraph. Of course that's the ideal situation.

While MC provides advantages for less control, imo it doesn't necessarily mean an organization utilizing MC will not benefit from direct communications with higher ups and some form of control. Ensuring that authority is delegated to the lowest capable level is probably more a challenge for higher ups than it is for the lower levels, but does still require a 'lowest capable level' for authority to be trusted upon. If you don't have capable cadres for that, more rigid and detailed command and control is required. In my opinion this is the same for any type of organization. One example of how even fully digitized forces become difficult to command effectively from a DC perspective is playing Combat Mission in 'realtime' with a battalion worth of troops. Sure it would allow for more 'detailed command', but having a better 'TAC-AI' would beat the opposing force given that everything else is equal. DC as a concept is more brittle compared to MC, not only because of the risk of losing control and the consequences that has for DC, but perhaps even more because favoring DC over MC is imo defacto a choice for an inflexible culture ('system says no', 'tell me what I need to do now') and wasting human potential. Although probably no organization(al unit) is ever pure one or the other in practice, imo for the better.

Although I sort of fully agree on your China position, I don't know who has been passing around the 'koolaid' that central/south/west and parts of east Europe are married with China or Russia and will tear up their family/most important long term allies (EU/NATO). For what exactly? Not that I even know what Koolaid tastes like so I might be missing something ;-).

Anyone know who is Kees ? Going on his name he seems to be a fellow countrymen but don't know if he's on the forum (he seems to have missed start round 3)

I also got some emails with warnings, sometimes I look at the turn but it's too late to play it (or something else comes up) and I quite the game. I don't see how loading up a file and looking at the turn more than once can be considered cheating. In the end I just made sure to not close the game after loading a file / only load if I was sure I can play. But indeed no impact on our games.

@BFCElvis Somehow I still have one of the files from round 2 when I log in. Not sure if that's a problem, I did also get a round 3 file (RED). @Kees (not sure if he is on here?) I've send the first file, GL & HF!

CM:YK, Middle East '73?

That's just a wild guess after googling Jazreel and Israel came up. To be fair it's not a German sounding name and I had actually downloaded the scenario but never even contemplated the egg was in the scenario name lol. Well played. If it's indeed a CM featuring in the middle east during 70s I guess that will get a lot of people hyped. Most of the resources (terrain, vehicles) should be there so why not?

Lol I just checked the forums after busy workweek (not finished yet unfortunately) to find this news posted a few minutes ago, CM:MiddleEast 73 confirmed!

it is reassuring to observe we Europeans aren't alone with regards to political bashing among ourselves

Might as well spoil the beans if none of us found it. We can blame it on that we couldn't finish our battles and limited post battle AAR options. Thanks for the scenario, I had fun with it. First impression was a bit off because both side start in potential LOS/LOF, but imo RED just needs to grow a pair and push forward while using their support in a smart way for it to develop in an interesting battle.

Round one I was doing great with USSR :). Round 2 you put a stop to that, although my USSR troops are doing quite some work. But indeed RED is more challenging in the 2nd battle. Still it's not impossible as @MeatEtr got a win, job well done and looking forward to pics!. I have a video of our game when you moved a platoon of T-80B forward against my Abrams Tentcamps with their bbq smokers ;-), while artillery was falling everywhere. I'll upload it on YT in a bit. While I picked a different area to stage my main effort I don't think yours was necessarily bad, but you spread out your attack in waves and didn't continue moving. That helped me arranging my forces against your attacks. Video done (HD will probably take some time). Full spectrum engagement!:

The capabilities of that ATGM are interesting.

It's probably also Germany fault