hcrof

For what its worth I am an identical twin and we have quite different personalities. Funnily enough, he sometimes gets asked if he is gay! (He isn't) A friend of mine recently revealed he was gay a few years ago - we were all extremely surprised given his personality and success with women. He said he was sure of it by the time he was 14 but never wanted to come out because he didn't want to get the attention it would bring. Given his background I would doubt he was 'taught' to be gay, in my opinion you are born with it. Whether that is genetic or conditions in the womb I don't know but I'm sure someone is working on it!

As far as I know, snipers do target high value targets like squad leaders/grenadiers/MG gunners. That is based on my experience with both blue and red sniper teams. Now that I mention it, I think all squads target high value targets first - that would certainly explain why I keep losing by RPG gunners!

I played the demo last night and you are right - It is good stuff! I was playing as an obscure, low rank brute with high stats. I then went around building up an unstoppable steamroller of an army but everyone just ignored me because of my lowly status - I couldn't expand due to politics! I was just beginning to pump up the pressure when the demo ended, dammit! It might be a bit irresponsible of me to order a new game right now though. I have little enough free time as it is and I am supposed to have a social life

I was thinking RKG-3 too. It looks like they put too much spin on them though, the drogue parachute was unable to stabilise the grenade so the chances of a successful kill is low in that case. I doubt they had any training in the use of the grenade, maybe their aim is good because they practised by throwing rocks at convoys?

souldierz - thanks for the link. It is a nicely balenced (if short) overview of the war. I think I will pass that on to a few friends of mine, it is tragic how the war is so unknown in the west.

As the enemy machine backed into the trees, the tank commander switched targets. The Massed BMPs attempting to storm the farm on the hill made easy targets and shot after shot slammed into the ruins, knocking out several vehicles. In the excitement, the commander barely noticed the return fire until a round slammed into the turret armour. Surrounded by BMPs firing from concealed positions, the tank finally succumbed when a round hit the engine, killing the power to the turret. Death by a thousand cuts... A sad sight - death and destruction around the ruins of HILLFARM From his new HQ at the river crossing the battalion CO wearily gave the order he had been considering for some time. 'Dig in boys, we aren't going to take our objectives today.' Mikes troops dominate the map though had he attacked BIGFARM, he would have payed dearly for it. Well that's it I suppose, although the score is a bit lopsided due to my surrender I would put it at about 800-349 to Mike. Still, I enjoyed that game a lot and have learned (and relearned!) a couple of lessons from it. 1)The T-62M is a great anti infantry tank – It might not stand up in a modern armoured battle but it can shrug off RPGs easily and has a pretty respectable firepower. I can see why countries like Russia still use this machine. 2)Putting vehicles in light forest can give very good protection from just about everything. They are concealed by the trees but also the vegetation will 'catch' incoming HEAT rounds. 3)Surprise is not as effective as in the real world. Mike reacted immediately to my attack and was able to quickly move reserves to fill the gap. 4)Aggression early on is key to a meeting engagement, once Mike had captured the important high ground, he was impossible to shift. 5)Saggers are completely useless in any kind of restricted terrain. Due to vegetation and moving vehicles (as well as their guidance system obviously) I must have achieved a hit rate of around 5%. I don't think their '73 success could have happened anywhere other than in a desert! 6)If something can go wrong it will. And then something worse will happen. Always build redundancy into any plan. 7)You can never have enough smoke! So, could I have done better? Well obviously, but my plan was flawed from the start – I assumed the hill was indefensible and I was proven wrong in quite a bloody fashion. Also, had I decided to include best case/worst case/probable scenario thinking into my planning of the attempt to retake the hill I might have done better. On the other hand, CMSF is not my job. I don't want to get too serious or I just wouldn't enjoy it! I hope everyone enjoyed that battle as much as I did – it was quite a fight

Eddie - True that it will go to Afghanistan but how many scimitars have we lost there? IEDs are probably a bigger threat than RPGs anyway and extra mobility is a great counter for them. flamingknives - 42-45 tonnes! Oh god, why don't we just buy a proper tank!? As for the javelins, I know that was a swipe at British army policy But seriously, the javelins don't need to be fired from inside the vehicle but they add a nice extra capablity that means they can pack a nasty sting 'just in case'.

Im not sure I am very impressed to be honest. It looks large and heavy but without a telescoping mast. It is neither fish nor fowl, it cant be as discrete or mobile as a small, light vehicle but it can't fight for information against the heavy weapons which you have got to expect on a modern battlefield. My perfect vehicle would keep the gun which seems like a great piece of kit but make it smaller, less well armoured (14.5mm max), very 'network centric' and give it an ability to 'peek' over obsticles using a mast or a UAV or something. Then strap a javelin or two to the outside of it. It all depends on price I suppose, if we can get these off the shelf for a lot less money (and hassle) than developing a new system then I suppose it could be worth a punt.

Armour stats in CMSF are wierd - In my testing I have learned to take them with a big grain of salt. The stats for tanks are mainly real world stats with a little bit of testing (so may be wrong - certainly debatable!) but the stats for IFVs tend to be firing range estimates (so are more accurate). The problem with tanks is that their armour tends to be very variable (and what rounds they fire are not obvious) so it is difficult to estimate things based on firing range stats. IFVs were easier. I had a benchmark - the RARDEN gun, and used it to compare most of the vehicles. (hope that makes sense, I just came back from the pub)

Yep, the AT-10/12 is fired from the barrel of the gun at a low velocity and then its rocket motor does the rest of the work. The box above the gun barrel is the guidence system.

They had found a great spot to break down – almost completely shielded from view by trees. Unfortunately that was the only good thing that could be said about their situation. The gun had taken a bang and appeared to be knocked out of alignment – three shots missed the enemy tank! The enemy tank as seen by my commander My tank as seen by the enemy gunner. In fact, he doesn't appear to have spotted it. Both images taken at 20x zoom.

Thanks for the input Damian90, I had great trouble with the tanks because their armour is so variable. AFV's were easier because of more consistent armour protection. All I had to do was fire 50 rounds of autocannon fire at them from various ranges and see if the crew bailed (ok a little more complicated than that!) Side armour values are particularly difficult because the front third of the tank is always much better protected than the rest - I tended to take a pessimistic view of the armour there. Elsewhere I have tried to go for an 'average' value. About the CR2 enhanced, while in real life the side protection may be the same, it appears that in the game it is not. The enhanced versions stats are a result of a comparison on a firing range. Side Turrets of the T-72 family are an 'average' value but if people think it would be better, I could reduce it to 80mm. Finally, you are right - I forgot the T.U.S.K M1! I will add it later

Not with you there im afraid. Do you mean the BRDM-2 with the AT-5? No other vehicle uses that weapon and it is not an infantry weapon. BMPs tend to use a varient of the AT-4 in the game.

Hi stoex, thanks for the correction - I'm hoping more will come in the future! 1) The guide has been updated on my computer, when I get some more corrections I will upload v1.1 2) I had to have a think about that but at the end of the day the MoD calls it a tank. Also, by putting it there, you get to see how well the RARDEN gun works at 2km so it provides more information. 3) Probably a good point, the 'T' additions were a bit of a rush at the end. To be fair though, at some point I will make the whole thing more user freindly when I integrate it into the community strategy guide.

Oh yeah, the issue was raised ages ago but autocannons still have a habit of using HE not APDS against IFVs. Particularly noticeable was the Warrior shooting HE at BMPs and struggling to knock them out and LAVs shooting at Strykers with equally poor results. Im sure there are more combos out there but it doesn't affect every vehicle. (Ive spent a lot of time on the firing range )

After a short Beta, I have finally finished my AFV and armour guide! Features include: - Protection levels for every vehicle in the game given in RHEe vs KE and CE - Main gun penetration statistics for every vehicle in the game at a variety of ranges - Penetration statistics and maximum/effective ranges for every infantry AT weapon - Colour coded numbers for ease of use It should be noted that first of all, this guide is not definitive, it is a simplified version of my interpretation of a fictional computer game. I am not trying to pass off any of this information as fact! Secondly, all values are averages. While the front turret of a T-90 might be rated at 1340mm the ERA only partially covers the surface and a tandem warhead will defeat it anyway. Because of this there will be areas which are significantly weaker, leading to the so called 'golden BB' shot. All vehicles are vulnerable to this but it becomes more and more apparent when the size of the round increases. A 115mm round is far more likely to be a lucky shot than a 12.7mm bullet! Hopefully this guide will help both players and scenario designers by giving a clear idea of exactly what each vehicle and weapon is capable of, it will pop up on the repository soon!

Inexplicably, the enemy BMPs pulled back behind the hill. Back to safety. As my troops continued to stream down the road they came under even heavier fire. The agile UAZs where not hit but my tank limped along the road, damaged tracks squealing. Suddenly there was a bang and the vehicle slewed round - they had been hit! Their immobilisation was the least of their worries. 'Enemy tank at 9 o'clock! 2000 meters!'

Recon elements such as the one mentioned by Alex operate well ahead of the main force (25km?) and would not really expect to do much combat. They might send some guys to do a route reconnaisence, set up an observation post or set up a radar post. The 'Tip of the spear' if you like might be an infantry company supported by tanks and engineering assets. Back in the Soviet days they might lead with a mech platoon reinforced with a squad of engineers and a couple of tanks, the rest of the company would follow on 10-30mins later with more tanks, artillery and engineers to develop the battle further. Unfortunately I don't know enough about the modern Russian army to say what their exact structure would be so maybe modify the above to make the game fun. It all depends on what sort of battle you have in mind! Edit: Also, who is attacking? The Russians wouldn't lead with such a small force if they knew where the enemy where, if they are defending they might change their screening units completely. More info please!

RPGs can only realistically be used against hovering or landing helicopters. Because of this the Soviets got into the habit of clearing the LZ with artillery or fuel air explosives and the problem went away. The other method would be to wait until the helicopter is 1km away and use the self destruct timer on the RPG warhead to make an airburst effect. This was only useful against unarmoured helicopters like the MI-8 and obviously required a great deal of luck. RPGs were pretty useless when anyone tried to use them as an AA asset. (and yes I have watched Black Hawk Down )

I enjoyed that a lot - lots of great screenshots! It must be said that you seem to have played very differently to me. I managed to get all my guys into the compound safely due to the fact that I just put pedal to the metal and didn't hang around. On the other hand, my cordon around the police station rapidly shrunk as I took a LOT of casualties from RPG teams - how did you avoid that? Its a fun mission, I might play it again some day!

Sorry guys, just for clarification, the whole team got wounded (red) and the UAZ destroyed. I have only one FO left who is capable of calling in artillery but obviously my officers can call in what is left of my mortar support. I was in a bit of a hurry last night and didn't read my post as thoroughly as I should!

As the men ran to set up an all round defence around the position they just took, bullets came cracking out of the trees, cutting down 2 men and wounding another! Not knowing where the fire was coming from, they fled in panic - abandoning their newly gained position. Their platoon leader wasn't stupid though, he had ordered a second squad to work their way up to the treeline in order to flank the enemy. As the enemy security detachment opened fire they were spotted and a hail of bullets and grenades cut them down. There were few survivors. He then heard his own security detachment shout out - enemy BMPs cresting the hill! Those BMPs would be driving into an ambush - their route took them less than 150m from the hidden RPG teams waiting for them... I love little platoon sized knife fights I must have killed at least 10 or 12 of his guys for the loss of 6 of my own, and now his BMPs are driving into an RPG team I put to cover my back! Apart from that, not a lot is happening right now - I am trying to get as many of my men safely to the south side of the map as possible. I had a couple of near misses and my FO team got shredded by a well placed 73mm a few meters away from their UAZ as they were speeding down the road - only 1 left! My tank has only just got going though - I hope his tanks dont get eyes on it!

Both tanks now desperately retreated, trying to get away from the enemies surrounding them. The first took a 73mm hit to the turret, then a 115mm round just as it destroyed the BMP. The crew bailed and began to crawl away. The second tank continued crashing back through the trees as round after round hit from all sides. The gunner took shrapnel in the arm and the driver, as the only unwounded member of the crew, fled the vehicle. As he ran, the tank took more and more hits until finally the wounded beast died. In the south the enemy was almost destroyed. The few survivors ran backwards into the trees where they were again outflanked, taking more casualties. At the last moment however, a grenade rolled into the triumphant soldiers and exploded – killing 4 men instantly! One of my tanks just took 16(!) RPG/73mm hits from 3 sides this turn alone. That I think gives you an idea of how badly they were outnumbered and surrounded! I have managed to get my bailed out tank back into action which kind of makes up for the losses on north hill but I still think Mike has 2 tanks left in total. North: 1 Tank, 8 BMPs, 1 platoon of infantry with extra RPG teams? South/BRIDGE: 1.5 platoons of infantry, 2 MG sections, at least 3 BMPs, 1 tank, 2 ATGM sections I have: 1 tank (missing crewman), 1 ATGM section, 2 plt infantry, 2 MG sections, 11 BMPs Given that the balance of forces are equal but Mike occupies the high ground, an objective and roads to shuttle troops around I think I might offer my surrender and congratulations. What do people think?

Well I lost my last tanks (sort of) Read below

The left hand tank spotted the enemy vehicles coming over the hills and backed into a defensive position as the friendly infantry took positions in the moonscape of the hill. The squad spotted the enemy tanks coming round a patch of trees first and unleashed a torrent of fire at one. The RPG hit the thick turret armour however and the commander ducked into safety. Continuing the advance, his tank fired a shell that caused the infantry to dive to the ground. My tank aimed as soon as the tanks entered its sight picture and sent a round through the side of an enemy tank. As the crew began to bail another round crashed into them but as the third round was slammed into the breach, the commander spotted an enemy BMP less than 30m away! My second tank continued to push forward into the trees, round after round hitting the thick armour. It spotted a bailed out enemy tank and put a round in for good measure. Suddenly an enemy BMP was spotted at point blank range! Without waiting to reload the gunner put a long burst of 7.62 into the enemy vehicle and the unbuttoned gunner disappeared in a red mist. 'Infantry at 2 o'clock!' Shouted the gunner and the turret slewed round to engage. 'HEAT up!' Another enemy round crashed into the turret and the loader screamed – covered in spall from the side. 'BMP at 12 o'clock!' Screamed the driver, slamming the tank into reverse The turret swung round again and the gunner took aim but as he pushed the fire switch the tank crashed backwards into a tree and the round went high. Tearing its way though vegetation and bouncing into craters the wounded tank fled backwards as the gunner frantically scanned for targets in its way... In the south the squad kept shooting as friends ran to outflank the enemy patrol. There was little return fire but one man fell just as a huge flurry of grenades exploded in the bushes. A few men tried to run towards the river but they were cut down. As the platoon overran the shredded remains of the enemy they spotted a few disappearing back into a field. They had to pursue them! Enemies are cut down as they flee into the forest (South Ambush) Wow. Mike has really thrown all in, I honestly don't know where he has found all of these troops! In the north I now estimate Mike has 9 BMPs and at least 1 tank, even with the heavy losses he has already taken. As for infantry I have no idea – my tanks have taken so many RPG hits from so many directions I have given up trying to find their positions. I have given up on HILLFARM and everyone that can get away is now retreating to BIGFARM. Those that are left (My 1.5 tanks and infantry) will make a last stand. If I can destroy Mikes last tank then we are back on an even footing but by now I think Mike must have taken heavier losses than me! In the south my ambush went well. I destroyed approximately one squad for the cost of one casualty of my own and spotting rounds continue to fall on the south hill. I have also ordered a mortar barrage near HILLFARM. Hopefully any infantry Mike moves in to hold the place should get a nasty surprise! The next question is do I attack in the south and attempt to trump HILLFARM by taking BRIDGE? I suspect him to be greatly weakened there with almost no defenders. In the real world no one would be that bloody minded but this is a game...