Lethaface

Lol I remember in CMSF1 back in 2007 trying to see whether the RPG-18 some Syrian teams had actually functioned or was just a texture. AFAIK there was no UI representation for it yet, at the time. The attention for details sure is one of the big reasons I'm still playing CMx2.

I was thinking of potential other reasons, posted above. But indeed preventing escalation / WW3 is one of the more plausible explanations.

If we could ask the flora and fauna, much of m will probably say 'bad, bad idea'. But we are here and they'll have to deal with it . Most people are too busy with basic needs and have little desire or capability to think bigger or make large decisions. The mask thing here was a bit different, for a long while our government persisted that they provided too little actual protection and only mandated to wear them in public transport. So when they changed the policy halfway in the pandemic, the outcome was predictable. But in general your point is clear and correct imo. There is the old saying 'the best argument against a democracy is a 5min conversation with the average voter'. Somewhere I think it is actually a good idea to have actual voting exams. If you can't differentiate between cause and effect or basic things like that, what's the point of voting? It's a bit harsh and controversial perhaps, but still. Politics are also personal, although they shouldn't be. But I too think we are too far in too fold if Russia raises the stakes (what can they raise m with?). That is quite scary for many people, nukes and stuff. There could be other reasons apart from offramps and or escalating further. One could be preferring Russia to slowly grind itself down to a 3rd world economy. And or preventing Ukraine to become to powerful too quickly. Etc. I'm not saying that those are actually in play (and other darker motives), but I don't rule m out either. And yes Russia has made the tone quite dark with their style of war. We need not to be intimidated by it. To get back to more positive lands * The war is going much better for Ukraine than I had expected day 1. I didn't expect the 3 day victory for Russia, but neither did I expect it to be as incompetent as they have shown. I expected a sort of Grozny in Kiev and other major population centers and a long ugly guerrilla style war. We are now talking about how quickly Ukraine can end the war on their terms. * There is quite a bit of support and mostly united NATO and EU. There was no guarantees at all that there would be large amounts of support. Of course they could be larger, but still. The support is also accelerating. * This isn't yet a 'Total War' (by Clausewitz's definition) at least on the side of Ukraine which we support (edit: also Russians didn't burn down the Kremlin yet). I don't see it going that way either. Of course people affected by the war will lose part of their humanity for a while. * Looking to the future we will be better prepared for round 2 and Ukraine will be much better prepared for it.

Adding several trillions of dollars to the national debt (of which many is spend domestically) isn't the same as a sacrifice that the average 'consumer' does feel in his wallet / life. The USA national debt is one of the monetary wold wonders. But you're correct with regards to the financial aspect, especially if you look at it from USA pov. However if I look around here in Europe or more specific NL, there is plenty of people who have a different outlook on the war. They don't see this as their war, even though they might agree that Russia isn't doing nice things. Most people probably don't have a good grasp/overview of the whole conflict anyway. They have seen the cost of energy bill skyrocket. They see the inflation. They see the media / (populist) politicians which are laying the blame for that because 'we' need to get involved into NATO/USA adventures and the sanctions. They were probably also not enthusiast about Iraq or Afghanistan (or couldn't care less about m), but those wars didn't affect their daily lives. There is also 'whataboutism', there are other wars or countries who don't care much about UN resolutions but they get a free pass. All in all I don't think they are prepared to go on a wartime footing economically, even for 25%. That said, there is also plenty of people supporting helping Ukraine with everything imaginable. AFAIK the majority supports Ukraine but I wonder what that number would be like if everyone has to chime in with EUR 500,- from their salaries each month. Anyway, that was what I meant with 'sacrifice' being larger than any other crisis the last 50 years. And we just had the Covid pandemic which was already scary for many people. They want to get back to 'normal' like you or others said here. Even though normal might not return for a while, 'ignorance is bliss' is what they say right? ;-). There's certainly room for politicians to 'sell' our participation in this war better. But imo trust in politics and institutions is on a low already without this war. How successful would that be? On the other hand I think much of the governments do understand the reality of the situation. But they still need to consider votes (unfortunately I think at times lol) so there's that. Plus Ukraine isn't the only interest. I usually keep this thought to myself, but: if 'the West' really wanted to end this war as quickly as possible, they could have done (much) more (much) earlier. Every country included. Could it be there are interests supporting a less quick end of the war, with Ukraine winning but not spectacularly?

Ok, thanks. I'll add them to the Z folder.

If you look at it from a realist/realpolitik pov, probably not 'very much'. At the same time, more than we've 'sacrificed' for other crisis's since the last ~40-50 years? Unless we actually join the war that isn't going to change imo. What would the average western consumer think of medicine/car/toy shortages because of the war in Ukraine?

Do you still have the archive? or is it the same as @kohlenklau posted ?

I think you were probably a bit unlucky. AFAIK the odds aren't decided according to a table. So if you can penetrate the armour it all depends where you hit it. Sometime first shot can be a catastrophic kill, sometimes many penetrating shots fail to destroy the vehicle. The type of round used does matter in that regard. In general the unit that is moving will be spotted first by the unit that is not moving. But no guarantees. I guess the advice would be to not try dueling tanks/AT-guns with your tanks and expect them to win it without losses. There's plenty of guides on the forums. Searching using google (include 'site:community.battlefront.com') works better then searching in the forum. Some general points I play by: * Scout first with your infantry and have them report the tanks, AT-guns to their HQ and up the chain. * Ensure c2 so your tanks receive the report and have a tentative contact before engaging * Move along covered terrain * Make use of the terrain. Choose positions behind crests, trees, bushes, behind a house, whatever you can. * Shoot and scoot. Against AT guns area fire works great. * Use numbers Also: * Can you somehow ensure your tanks/troops have an advantage? Smoke, suppression, flanking. * Do you need to engage the AT gun with your tanks or can you just mortar them or overrun them with infantry? I think all players been where you have been. When you get more experience, you'll get better results.

I've read harsher things in non-Russian literature about probably all the peoples in the world. Anyway I think your point on the previous page was sound: Russia has somehow not evolved from the 1800 like some of the other countries actually did. Unfortunately Russia isn't alone in that regard.

Well I'm not planning on paying AI's a salary. We have a rather vast pension scheme but it sure is in need of adaptation with regards to the aging issue. With or without AI. But there's also nothing factual backing up the contrary. As someone working in the sector that eliminates other peoples jobs, it is my impression that there is always something else to do now that people don't have to do the jobs which can be done by a system. Just need some imagination. Ethical supervision of AI decision could be a new job. I don't have such a bad experience with doctors. But yes people in general are often clueless (at times), also in their supposed field of expertise. But sure AI can help with diagnosis, etc. But the decision whether to give someone a treatment or not is more of a human thing imo. 'This specimen hasn't optimally cared for it's mortal vessel and is deemed not worthy of receiving the proposed operation. To remain within our critical performance indicator threshold the specimen will be recycled'.

Indeed good news. Let's hope that the rumoured (air) offensive stays mostly a rumor. Perhaps one of the most important victories Ukraine can achieve in short term is shutting down most of Russia's terror strike capacity by means of AD. If Russia's missile attacks become trivial, that's a big part of their perceived negotiation power down the drain. And of course, less terror :).

Against what? The missing T-14 Armata's? Just like the Spanish need their 2A6E for defending against Marocco, etc. But I digress from the subject. I never really liked Tetris that much but it I sure remember it from my lower school years.

It was more tongue-in-cheek. I understand Finish position, but the same arguments against other countries could be made there (Russia not being a threat at the moment, NATO already guaranteeing security, etc). After all Finland bought all of those 2A6 after the cold war had ended. But I don't think the debate is fruitful; actually I think not disclosing contents of aid is probably the wiser / better. The political games surrounding and the hype made around it was my issue with the thing. Germany has now adapted to the game and implementing 'what goes around comes around' position. Fair enough imo. Especially if it puts pressure on more 2A6 going ;-). If I were the Dutch PM I would at least not have said I could send tanks I don't have. I find it ironic that I could predict we couldn't send tanks because we don't have any (well we lease some), but our PM first said we could buy them and send them only then to have to threat back on that statement. 'The political will to send them is there, but...'. Anyway I'm not making the decisions so I don't know what I would have done. Probably also in the politics games because that's the game that's being played, unfortunately.

hehe I'm not afraid of a lil area firing myself but @jheinrichk was really putting effort into the goal of having most of his Bradleys be out of ammo at the end of the battle. A lot of it fell on innocent trees / grass without any of my troops nearby, but he did force me to advance through a hail of 25mm fire which was an effective tactic I guess.

Yeah, all was going well until the final shove lol. That didn't went well at all :D. It was a mistake to try to shove my 'main effort' through that funnel. Perhaps a bit unlucky as well as the first T-80 was K-killed with 1 shot and threw its turret in a massive fireball leading to traffic jams. None of them could see a damn thing. Smoke and dust limiting my options to order fires. The few tanks which got through in piecemeal fashion then got greeted by your Bradleys. The only tank which performed was the Co HQ which I send around the right flank and took out an Abrams and a Bradley. But there was no point in trying to push through anymore so he went on another adventure to get some more kills with the rest of the surviving AFVs. I should have probably send more tanks along with the Co HQ, or even most as you were focusing on the spot pictured above. But for the flank my tanks had to drive quite a bit over open terrain and I wasn't sure what you had covering it. My artillery on the town didn't came through as you managed to hit one of my FOs with artillery. And I didn't have TRPs near our flank engagement so I had no option to order artillery to support my push. I wasn't happy with pushing through there but the other options didn't seem better nor was staying in place. I felt that I already took too long / my push was too predictable. But I had some good fun :D. And new respect for the T-80B, they can really take a pounding especially if your opponent is fielding them :D.

If AI takes all our jobs, we can enjoy our well deserved pension :D. As the world is aging that's probably for the best, probably most people will work in healthcare by then. Imo there will always be new jobs. On capitalism, how would one call the economy system of the stone age? Stone-ism? ;-). I think our financial markets are a threat and unhealthy overall (only not for the shareholder), but we don't need to go back to trading goods to 'fix things'. As long as we keep producting things / 'adding value' we need some system to actually have the amount of money grow. Our (NL) social variant of capitalism worked rather very well until the early 2000s. Arguably we let the social care get out of hand a bit, without much plans how to sustain it with an aging population. So something had to change. But instead of tuning the system, we went on massive privatization later followed by the government somehow thinking it is wise to outsource all knowledge and expertise to 'the market' on almost all terrains. That's where my country is now, at least recent research of the states-general came to the same conclusion. Anyway I think the problem is more in corporate culture (and blind profit maximization) and conflicts of interest, not necessarily 'capitalism'.

Where is Finnish tanks? Finland has many Leo2A6 and also 2A4 in reserve.

Unless China's balloons begin barrel bombing Boston I don't see WW3 going hot happening for now.

The Treeman won't forget about this horrific estnical cleansing

There is always the chance of people rage quitting / abandoning a game, or RL issues coming up. That's part of CM and unless someone would be actively intervening in all the games I guess it can be '**** happens'. (there are such tournaments on FGM though). Unfortunately , there's no way to force someone to continue playing the game. It seems for round 2 people were matched to the one directly above/under in the ranking. That sort of balances opponents but not perfect indeed. It will probably never be 'approaching perfect competitive scene' given that the tournaments are retrofitted to the game. So unless a games is finished or ceasefired/surrendered, the score of a match (running score) will not be in the same dimension as the score of completed games. Still a nice way to try out different battles against varied opponents imo, while having some competitive spirit included is always nice :D. Perhaps just don't take it too serious and need have a bit of luck with oppo.

One thing which is striking in this war is that the average (?) Russian attack seems to be typewritten on a piece of paper with 'hardcoded' timings for artillery fire without comms between the units doing the groundwork and the fires. While Ukraine defense is live streaming image & coordinates to their assigned artillery from a drone while fighting a comms coordinated defense, all by people who where for a large part being civilians with jobs a year ago.

The more 'boring' subjects like logistics, manufacturing scalability & time to market (from R&D to operational), OR, etc, are also on the list imo. Most don't even need ChatGPT level of algorithms but rather a systems rethink.

We haven't seen much footage so I'll post some. One of @jheinrichks Bradleys showing off it's natural behavior of deforestation with 25mm HE-I, is caught in the act and stopped cold by my RPG-7 forest ranger. This is the wind-down phase of the battle. Most of my FSE has been turned into smoldering wrecks, but with 4 out of 5 Abramses destroyed my troops can ascend to the eternal pixel hunting grounds feeling satisfactory.

Although I agree that it is more fun to play against a somewhat matched player I think it's a bit unfair to punish people who try and get in the game ;-).

Perhaps the idea is already there but we don't see it yet ;-). Imo the large shift we're still yet to fully see is software defined everything. The world is still for a large part in the analogue age, or using applications to help 'digitize' the same old processes. Like how scanning a paper document and emailing it to the next hop is 'automation'. Instead of 'computer aided design' we are now starting to enter the age of 'software defined design'. Like in how ChatGPT can help you write an essay, software will probably be (helping) designing the 'next generation' of pointy sticks. It will still take quite a while probably to widely proliferate if only because the resource of skilled technical people are scarce and it's not cheap. Not every power will be equally competent on this level. Russia losing much of it's skilled people will probably not be among the front runners. Although late adopters also have advantages. And the new 'isms have already arrived imo: instagram-ism, twitter-ism, ego-ism , etc. Perhaps the new ism will be anti-social media, in which case I might seriously consider converting.