The_Red_Rage

I think the anomaly occurs when you use the plain camo mod. I'm using it and i have the same problem.

In my whole CM playing experience I cannot recall a case of a full battalion engaging. Usually - not more than a platoon actually firing on either side with few AFVs, rest of the force is usually idling. Now, that's not a whole lot of calculations for 60 guys firing. Dual core CPU with 2 gigs RAM should have no problems running a game like CM and yet I am having performance that would cause me to stop playing any other game for good. But it's CM and there is nothing remotely as good on the market as far as gameplay goes:). Having better performance in Call of Duty 4 on medium settings with 30-40 guys on screen than that in CM:SF is just not right. Edit: Completely agree with redraw issue as well. Such a mood killer at times and gives a game an unfinished/shareware kind of look.

Turkish Cobra vs. high caliber sniper rifle: http://krig42.livejournal.com/118266.html Outcome was 3 dead passangers, wounded driver and the round still richocheted inside. Vihicle proceeded to roll into a ditch, which in turn took out its entire front suspension(!!!). Russians inspecting foreign trophees gave Cobra a nickname - Coffin.

Why is it exactly so hard to believe that downgraded models are used for export? Isn't the whole point of investing billions into research and development to stay ahead of everyone by having unique technology?

Mercenaries are not entirely out of the question. 2nd Chechen war, and 2 years of lawlesness prior to it, attracted alot of garbage to the region from all over the world. Plus sketchy links Saaskashvili has with Pentagon, which i am sure include access to a massive network of private security contractors. Over 100000 private contract presonnel operate in Iraq alone, with 20000 of them American and the rest of very international mix. Ukrainian radicals (Banderovtsi/modern Nazi fanboys) have a history of sending volounteers to wars, just to spite Russia - their "big" idea is that what is bad for Russia is good for them so they will fight on any side as long as it is against Russia (1st Chechen war is the best example). Pre-Baltic states provided alot of mercenaries as well during the last 15 years of coflicts in Caucasus.

Speaking of French, just bumped into this marvel: http://auto.lenta.ru/video/2008/08/04/sherpa/ 2 liter (!!!) turbodiesel with 214 hp at 2300 rpm and can haul up to 4000kg with insane ground clearance - not bad at all!

More humour. This one ought to get quite a few laughs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRN1_2pM08&feature=related

Markel was always very anti-Russian. It's some sort of ex-Soviet complex (she is East German) certain world leaders seem to be having. Serving in a NATO country, I can only hope that countries like Georgia and Ukraine never get accepted. Ukraine is a political time bomb, with anti-Russian West Ukraine currently in power, and very pro-Russian East Ukraine (Donbass, Crimea for example are 100% ethnically Russian). Crimea is the "next big thing" - it is a Russian city that was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Following the new Ukrainian logic that all Soviet was bad, they should really give it back. There is a strong Tatar influence there too, with newly discovered Islamic Vakhabbitism. So the Russian population is stuck between Ukranian nationalism and Islamic radicalism in their own house. As for Georgia, they are not up to NATO standard and will never be. I will never feel comfortable serving alongside "soldiers" who found it OK to level a civilian city, shoot at fellow peacekeepers, finish off wounded, and when **** hit the proverbial fan, they simply ran (didn't even pack up and run - just ran, leaving hangars full of equipment) - i am disgusted by such behaviour as it is un-soldierly and not how a NATO-affiliated soldier should conduct himself. On subject of German involvement: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3571263,00.html

All mods go into Z folder

+1 on that. Modern Russian army hasn't been simulated in any game yet. If anyone does it, I'd wait it to be BFC.

Alexander Babkin's pictures from 4 days in the warzone: http://www.navoine.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=551#551

Here is for all the non-believers. Uncensored pictures from Tskhinvali - just a warning: some are very graphic. http://flickr.com/photos/29507379@N06/

Better infantry (including body armour) BTR-80 is a must BTR-90 would be nice to have BTR-D T-80 - nice to have but can do without it BMD 1/2/3 MTLB with variety of mounts T-90 and BMP-3 will have to get an upgraded package as well

She said that they were running not from bombs but from Georgian soldiers who were shooting people on the streets (she is Ossetian, don't you think they know how Georgians look like... I was born in St.Petersburg and even I can spot and distinguish any ex-Soviet ethnicity a mile away). During the initial bombardemnt they were hiding in a Russian peacekeeper bunker, aided by Russian soldiers (or "Putin's thugs" as Mr. Peters called them in his article). So far we only heard Georgian voice - a voice that had been carefully staged by Belgian PR firms that worked with Mr. Saaskashvili for the last 2 years. Now finally an Ossetian speaks, and it is immidiately dismissed as Russian propaganda. Speaking of propaganda tricks - doesn't cutting people off with commercials happen to be one? Or lowering the number of hits for this particular video on YouTube (read Google)? She is a US citizen - it doesn't get any more unbiased than that if you want word-to-mouth. I believe her alot more than i do Saaskashvili/Bush/McCain/Chainey clique, who would happily start WW3 over this issue. But then again, McCain will be happy to start WW3 over anything.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5idQm8YyJs4 This is appaling... I don't recall Saaskashvili's vile face being interrupted by "sudden" commercial breaks. To make the situation even more ugly - this girl gave 4 recorded interviews prior to agreeing only to a live interview. Previous 4 twisted her story making it into "American Girl rescued by Georgians from Russian tanks". Bravo to the girl, for both surviving and speaking the unpopular truth. Someone should punch the a-hole host in the face if given a chance. "There are grey areas in war...".... New find - Gorbachev's article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081101372.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Israel has direct stake in Georgian pipelines so there are as many Israeli observers/instructors as there are American. Georgian Su-25s had been upgraded by Israel as well (air strike near Tbilisi was aimed at the upgrade facility). Georgian tanks had also been equiped with Israeli upgrade packages. Interesting item list - equipment abandoned by fleeing Georgians in Gori and Senaki and captured by Russians: Senaki: 1728 units of small arms: 764 M-16 , 28 M-40 machineguns (i assume it's m240), 754 AKs of various makes. Hence the new joke "One American M-16 for sale, never fired, dropped once". Gori: 15 tanks; "Dozens" of artillery units, armored cars (Cobras?! Turkey sold those Humvee ripoffs at absolutely redicolous price to Georgia), ATGMs, as well as alot of stored munitions; AA Complexes of various configurations; Now, all this stuff was COMPLETELY unguarded for a period between Georgian retreat and Russians moving in.

I can assure you that Russian contract soldier serving in Chechnya is NOT getting paid close to 3k a month. There are still alot of problems with soldiers not getting combat bonuses on time. Realistic figure would be somewhere between 800-1200$ in best case scenario. "Contract" service is still considered either a "rock buttom" form of employment for socially disadvantaged classes (particularly people from smaller towns and villages plagued by unemployment, and to whom the oil dollar doesn't reach) OR the only way to realise themselves for adrenaline war junkies (turbulent '90s produced alot of youth who had experienced war at 18 and simply couldn't find themselves in civilian life). There is still great debade within the military whether switching to contrat basis is a good idea. Russian army traditionally depended on its officer corps rather than NCOs, and dedicated officer corps is pretty much what held it together during complete collapse of the '90s.

Looks like the media tone is changing. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4525885.ece I don't think Kadyrov needs any priming btw - he found out that cooperating with Moscow is safer and more profitable. Oil buck can tame Saudi Sheiks as well as fiersest of Chechen fighers.

Why not have both MTLB can carry 11 troops to give it some distinction. Red side vihicle list could definately use some love. Some of the most common and mass produced vihicles are missing: BTR-80 ZSU AA guns of various configurations (including stationary) MTLB BMD-2 for Syrian paras Who cares if Syria doesn't operate them - they don't have BMP-3 or T-90 either.

MTLB with ZSU AA mount would be most welcome addition, especially with an ability to herass helicopters (similar to CMx1 flak guns). Those things are very common everywhere and are very effective in infantry support role. http://pvo.guns.ru/zu23/zu23_chechnya.htm

I usually played Red on Red on Veteran to avoid spotting frustrations with Red side, however I just fired up Hasrabit (for the 4th time:)) on Elite and the experience is not that much different so far. After i'm done with Hasrabit, i'll try out Perdition on Elite to see how it goes (should give me enough time to forget enemy positions and what i did before - to keep the freshness factor). Btw, i got REALLY lucky in the 1st mission of Perdition. To take the first position, in all my "genious", i decided to simply park my tanks on top of the hill that separates starting area and the small village beneath. Both ATGMs fired and both missed, but not before revealing their approximate location. I backed my tanks off the hill, but still managed to lose one of the recon BMPs as it tried to advance towards the village at high speed using the road (it was a gamey move, i admit, since its only puspose was to confirm second ATGM position while sacrificing the BMP). Good news was that the crew crawled out unscratched, even though BMP caught fire.

You can run CM through Bootcamp (Windows emulation software from Apple, works very well). Gotta have a newer Intel Mac though. I have a side question - will Mac users who already purchased a Win version (and will purchase Marines Win version as well ) get some sort of discount?

But will assigning my own keys remedy the menu situation? Stock key bindings are fine with me - it is the fact that pressing one key in a "wrong" menu actually activates a different command under a different key binding that is bothersome. Much like the example with pressing "I" to move quick while in fire control menu will actually "press" "Y" (target light) unless switched to movement menu. c3k, Good idea with a small ecyclopedia/tooltip menu. Old feature from CMx1 would work as well - when pressing enter gave you all the unit stats, with armour and penetration values as well as effective ranges for infantry. Loved the fact that you could also view damage done by the unit in very same menu (I usually spent 10 mins after any given CMBO/CMBB/CMAK battle looking for particularly distinguished units).

Main gripe is switching between 4 different menus for firing/movement/admin and how using hot keys does not override what menu the unit is in. Currently if i press "I" to move quick while the unit is in Firing orders menu "Y" key presses for some reason, which is actually a Target Light order. It could be problems with my system, since i'm running CM under bootcamp and not all the keys function like they would in native Windows. Double right click to zoom in on the unit would be very helpful. Going back on Fire mission and air support menus. So, if i accidently chose "Heavy" instead of "Light" mission I'd love an option to go back without starting the whole mission over again.

Another statement from Kadyrov regarding Saaskashvili in http://rutube.ru/tracks/917002.html?v=92406c270cdbf2a85f5fb6968b2ea44f "Moscow. On August, 12th. INTERFAX.RU - the president of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov was disappointed in Michael Saakashvili as in the commander-in-chief with Armed forces of Georgia. " Yesterday I looked a fragment on the TV, as the commander-in-chief of Georgia (M.Saakashvili - IF), having heard a sound of the plane, has escaped, leaving even his bodyguards behind. It was difficult to catch up with him! He should be sent to the Olympics to participate in sprinting events, he is a very good sprinter, - has told Kadyrov on Tuesday to journalists. He continued on to state that "while the Georgian army bombs women and children, the president of this country does not have enough personal courage to look up at the plane ". In turn the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defence, speaking about this incident, has noted: " Saaskashvili's protection detail was most likely frightened, by a sound made by two Georgian artillery pieces which have renewed bombardment of South Ossetia." He also noted the professionalism of camera operator, as the camera did not shake or lose focus during the "ordeal". Interestingly enough, French foreign minister was on scene and "quite surprised" with Saaskashvili's reaction. Really, if GRU wanted to take him out physically - they would've done it already.