Sandokan

It's too late for all that. Besides, we are not capable of such action and the risks are simply too big. What matters now is to accept a new Cold War is upon us and has been for years. 
And then to think we had them on their knees in 1989....

This invasion, or whatever styling people may wish to use instead, came as a shock to someone used to seeing a more or less constant array of alarmist false Ukraine invasion stories online and even more outrageous videos, one of which claimed a NATO destroyer had been sunk by a RBS-56 cruise missile. The problem? The RSM-56 BULAVA is tha-state-of-the-art MIRVed SLBM on the also latest BOREI-class SSBN!

Truly did not expect Russia would invade, but would note that the correlation of forces was deteriorating over time against Russia, as clearly evidenced by the massive influx (2000+) of ATGMs from no fewer than three countries (US (Javelin), UK (NLAW, LI (Javelin)). Would further note that using protracted combat exercises to wear down the prospective foe, then standing down (to reduce enemy vigilance) before conducting a surprise attack was and is a standard tactic from both the Soviet and Russian playbooks.

My heart goes out to Ukraine and her people, but it is also my fervent wish that none of our CM flock and dear ones in the current or possibly expanded combat zone to come is harmed, or worse, killed. Before it's all said and done, this will be a tragedy on a host of fronts. The only questions are how severely, in how many ways, for how long and at what costs in limbs, life, infrastructure, homes and more?

Regards,

John Kettler

 

I am ashamed of my government. 

Hi everyone,
 
I have a lot of mods that I have finished and would like to share with you all, I'm going to post all my CMSF2 mods in this thread to keep it simple.
When you download the mod it will contain an Optional file that contains "Mid" with no mixed woodland camo, only place one of the two folders in game.
Like always, test them out yourself for a better look than the pictures 
 
US 3rd Infantry Division Early
The Infantry will be equipment with M16 rifles replacing the M4 rifle, if you don't want the M4 replaced, take the Skeleton file out.

US 3rd Infantry Division Mid

Download link below.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/266x315f113zhlr/DM%27s_US_3rd_Infantry_Division.zip/file
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
US 101st Airborne 502nd Early

US 101st Airborne 502nd Mid

US 101st Airborne 187th
If you would like the 187th Airborne helmets go into the "Optional file" and open US 101st 187th Airborne and read the "Readme.txt" for Instructions.

Download link below.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3mu6uratck3tg7o/DM%27s_US_101st_502nd_Airborne.zip/file
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
US 173rd Airborne Early

US 173rd Airborne Mid

Download link below.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/b36w0pla3wemw3l/DM%27s_US_173rd_Airborne.zip/file
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
United States Marine Corps Early

Download link below.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/xqkuct6jqygl6nv/DM%27s_US_Marines_Early.zip/file
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
United States Marine Corps Mid

Download link below.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/8kpodscu3zto274/DM%27s_US_Marines_Mid.zip/file
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All my future mods for CMSF2 will be in this thread, Enjoy 
 
Kind Regards,
Damian45

That's quite a layered question, with some curveballs thrown in, so bear with me:

Firstly, sourcing:
https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/Hot Spots/Documents/Russia/2017-07-The-Russian-Way-of-War-Grau-Bartles.pdf
In some respects this is apparently (and unsurprisingly, since it's five years later) out of date by now, but it's absolutely relevant for CMBS.

In there, you can see that the majority of the fundamentals of Soviet doctrine have survived intact into the modern day - attacking on-line for maximum mass, the focus on meeting engagements, on counter-attack in the defence, etc. In this sense, CMCW lets you see those fundamentals very clearly, in their intended context, before you translate them to a new one.

First curveball - there's a large difference between Russia vs Ukraine and Russia vs the US here. The latter is significantly more asymmetric, so ends up breaking a lot of the rules or otherwise forcing you out of where you want to be. That's essentially why things like Javelin exist, of course - they're supposed to be disruptive technology, aimed at plausible opposition. Will focus on Russia vs Ukraine then, with some notes on the US at the end.

Second curveball - I'm not convinced that all Black Sea scenarios capture or represent the main tropes of hyper-modern warfare as well as they could. Arguably that's true for all CM titles, but I suspect it's inevitably a little worse for Black Sea, due to the speculative nature of everything. As an example of that, Between Two Fahrbahns in Cold War. That's scenario that's great fun to play from either side, plays well H2H, and it's perfectly competent... but isn't terribly representative of "Cold War", and doesn't really make an argument, express a concept or investigate a tactical problem of the period. The same scenario might as well have Shermans vs Panzer IVs and it would work equally well.

So, what defines Black Sea? Philip Karber has a definition of the real combat in the region as "high intensity combat on a low density battlefield", and I think that core idea should also define CMBS. As a basic rule of thumb then - it's pretty common to use a Quick Battle map that's one size larger than your force. In Black Sea I think that should really be two sizes larger by default. That same thinking can/should apply to scenarios, but it's intended as a quick representation of the idea.

The other difference in theme is that in Cold War the operational tempo is paramount. Typically the tactical battlefield is not something that needs to be taken, it's something that needs to be move through, as fast as possible. This is part of the reason why the Soviets could be (had to be) comparatively free with casualties - gaining operational freedom is the goal here, and the tactical-level losses are acceptable.

This is not true for Black Sea. The Russian army is smaller, more casualty-adverse, and isn't screaming towards the Rhine at maximum velocity. This means you'll be more interested in capturing objectives, and can't afford to take the losses. In addition, the Russian army has significantly improved equipment. Much better spotting and C2, faster call-in times for artillery, ERA and APS, drones to call in massed fires, etc. They also have pushed assets down to lower levels - not as much as the US do, but significantly more than the Soviets, meaning that small units are significantly more capable and independent. The Russian air defence is significantly better than the US, so they should have drone superiority (and the US have nothing that can shoot down Zala at all). 

So how do you marry these two ideas? Soviet fundamentals, whilst being casualty-adverse? This is perhaps the major problem to solve as the Russians, but a lot of it comes down to controlling your engagements. You still want to be attacking on-line, with maximum firepower against a subset of the enemy, but you want to be careful as and when you engage, and to control that engagement with overwhelming firepower. An actual engagement might only last a minute or two, and a battle might be a lot of sneaking and manoeuvre, followed by a brief period of devastating fires. High intensity, Low density.

The first mission of the Russian campaign in the core game is indicative, I think. This is fundamentally a Soviet doctrinal meeting engagement. This is identical in concept to Miller's training scenario from CMCW, or the first mission of the Soviet campaign in Cold War, but the differences start to become apparent.

In the Russian campaign scenario, you have all the elements of that meeting engagement - you have a recon platoon, followed by a Forward Security Element of a BMP-3 company and a tank platoon, and they should be doing the same fundamental job.

The differences really start when the follow-up to that FSE is a single tank company, and not an entire battalion. That means that you're inherently more limited in how you can approach this.

The approach I took with this was to advance with the recon platoon and get spots along the route of contact, then advance at the speed of the fireplan. The FSE wants to march into a valley, so, suppressing the high town objective on the valley's far side is what allowed the follow-on tank company to take up a base of fire on the right side hill, on-line, and dominate the valley with fires.

The FSE can then approach into the valley floor, preceded with drone-summoned fires on the central objective, and with covering fires on likely enemy positions to the flanks. This FSE can then bypass, surround and reduce the central objective, before moving on to take on the others to the conclusion.

At each stage the fundamentals are the same - your fire plan is paramount, and in each bound you're attempting to go fires-first, maximising firepower at every engagement. 

So, how about the US? Well, Abrams, Bradley and Javelin represent disruptive technology, that will do terrible things to you. The fundamentals remain identical, but you can do everything right and still lose sometimes, and anything you do wrong will be punished severely. Fighting javelins is about firepower and the terrain read - they're systems used on foot, and the modern US infantryman doesn't like mortars anymore than anyone else does, so denying potential javelin positions is as important as anything. Abrams need to be engaged from the flank where possible (ideally from two angles at once), and Bradleys are near-psychic in their spotting, so you need to engage them quickly and decisively with excellent recon - you never want to get into an engagement where you don't already have spotting contacts.

If you play the interview backward you will hear secret message.

I owe someone a HUGE THANK YOU but cannot remember who or which post.
What's this all about?
About a year ago I bought a new Alienware gaming laptop with some pretty decent specs. But when trying to play my favourite game, CMBN, the text was virtually unreadable and the graphics stuttered and rendered very slowly and incompletely. I had no idea what was happening and frustrated removed the game from my rig. Went back to playing it on my desktop which it did quite nicely with two NVideal GeForce 1080 cards in SLI.
Then a few days back I stumbled on a post in this forum that advised players to make sure that the game was being directed to the VIDEO CARD and not the integrated video whatever. I though, "Huh??" Opened up my NVidea program and sure enough, there was a selection for letting the program decide automatically which to use or whether to force it to always use the video card. I selected video card and, nervous with anticipation, reinstalled CMBN and gave it a try. And what do you know? HooooRaaaah! It plays great. So now I am very very happy. And thank you, thank you, thank you to whomever posted that bit of advice.
Wim (a.k.a. WimO, a.k.a. Kandu at FGM)

it is hard to get exact info due to the ongoing conflict, most of what we know is what shows up on open sources. We actually have a thread in the Beta forum where we keep tabs on this stuff for the next module.
Basically, the Ukrainian forces are like in CMBS, but they have received a lot of new/updated equipment from US and NATO countries: Javelin ATGMs, modern Drones, new artillery equipment, new vehicles, night vision glasses which should now put them on par with Russian forces. They have also been upgrading their T-64 tanks, the new model is a bit different from the one we have in CMBS.
The most unusual bit of kit is that Ukraine is now getting their RPG-7s from the USA. For some unknown reason, Russia stopped supplying those so the US stepped in by producing an exact clone known as the PSRL.
On paper, Ukrainian forces are more powerful than in 2014-15.

I follow this guy on Twitter - Jon Hawkes, who is an industry commentator on land warfare technology and a Principal at Janes, where he previously was Associate Director and Head of Land Warfare for some years having fulfilled a range of military ground vehicles market forecasting, industry analysis and defence research roles before that.
He shares some interesting posts re modern AFV/IFV design and technology and he's shifted a lot of stuff to his new blog which some of you may find interesting.
https://www.tanknology.co.uk/post/welcome

That is some fine optimism right there, Aragorn.  May all your wishes come true.  Soon!

And oh, happy new year everyone. 🙂

Yep! Now it works properly. Thanks Elvis!

The normal Italian models in-game make it unfortunately impossible to properly represent the desert uniform worn by the Italians in both Africa (where the uniform was worn by most troops) and Sicily (where it was still worn by some). This is because the cut of the uniform differs majorly from the desert uniform. 
To compare, here is the desert uniform's tunic, the 'camiciotto sahariana':

The sahariana had several differing cuts, and this is just one of them, but they all had this general appearance. Now, here is the continental uniform:

As you can see, the tunics are obviously fairly different from each other, especially in regards to their collars.
Whilst reskinning the normal Italian models (essentially doing little more than making them HD and tan) was an option, it was not a good one, as it did not properly represent the actual uniforms worn by the Italians, especially in Africa. And whilst the normal Italian models do fit quite well for Sicily, where many wore just the continental uniform, as depots with clothes once-bound to troops in Africa were opened up to supply troops in Sicily, many also were able to get their hands on and wear the desert uniform. This, alongside the lucky few troops repatriated from Africa just before it fell, who were still wearing what they wore in Africa. And whilst there did exist an older desert uniform that was basically just a tan version of the continental uniform, it had been effectively phased out by the outbreak of war for Italy in 1940, and was predominantly used in East Africa.
As a result, we decided to use German models. This would allow us to both represent the desert uniform AND the continental uniform properly (with the continental uniform being worn over the 'sahariana' or a denim fatigue shirt, as was commonly done), whilst also making for easier-working with the textures, since I was pretty familiar with them. It also allowed, pretty conveniently for me, the textures for both to be readily applied to the other Italian mods, namely the RSI ENR mod- which also uses a German model.
Hope this clears that up!

Buongiorno, everyone. 
I'm happy to present to you some mods I've been working on for FI to better represent Italian forces, both pre- and post-armistice. Please enjoy. 
 

RSI ENR Mod 
The mod reskins the Heer (Gerbirgsjager included) to be in-line with the uniforms and equipment utilized by the majority of the RSI's Army, the ENR (Esercito Nazionale Repubblicano), from 1943 to 1945. This mod includes reskins for winter uniforms, as well. 
The German facemaps have been replaced by Italian facemaps. The German voice-lines of the Heer have been replaced, mostly, by Italian voicelines. I say mostly, as there are fewer Italian voicelines than German voicelines, and thus not all could be replaced- so you might hear some German every now and then, but hopefully not very often.
Weapons have been replaced, also. The Gewehr 33 is replaced by the Carcano and the G43 by the Breda 30 (as it is effectively the closest in practice to the Breda). Weapons such as the G41 and MP40 have not been replaced, as both were used, albeit in limited amounts, by the ENR. 
The mod does not reskin the Waffen-SS and Luftwaffe, and is effectively incompatible with them- meaning that you should not use this mod when playing scenarios/campaigns for either. The mod is also incompatible with 1943 scenarios/campaigns. This mod does not reskin tank and AFV crew uniforms (though, it does replace the Stahlhelms used by AFV crews with the M33).
There are two versions of the mod- one that's compatible with Juju's UI mod, and one that's compatible with the basegame UI- both are named appropriately. This mod is best used with R2V content.
Juju-UI compatible: https://www.mediafire.com/file/nkkcveci4s09vy7/Pitbull%27s_RSI_MOD_-_Juju_UI.rar/file
Basegame-UI compatible: https://www.mediafire.com/file/mdum1gw3wzhzyda/Pitbull%27s_RSI_MOD_-_Normal_UI.rar/file
 

RSI Paracadutisti Mod
This mod reskins the Fallschirmjager to be in-line with the uniforms and equipment utilized by the Paratroopers who fought for the RSI from 1943 to 1945.. Wearing a mish-mash of uniforms, both German and Italian, this mod best represents the ANR (Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana) paratroopers of the I Battaglione Paracadutisti 'Nembo', of which fought at the Anzio-Nettuno Front as part of 4. Fallschirmjager Division, and later went on to be become part of the larger Reggimento Paracadutisti 'Folgore'. 
This mod can be used without needing the previous RSI mod, as the necessary content required has also been placed into this mod (weapons, voicelines, facemaps, UI, etc.) Greatcoats have also not been reskinned. 
There are two separate versions compatible for Juju's UI and basegame UI, linked below.
Juju-UI compatible: https://www.mediafire.com/file/ksvwu0gsm5lc723/Pitbull%27s_RSI_Para_MOD_-_Juju_UI.rar/file
Basegame-UI compatible: https://www.mediafire.com/file/q4homvqmhwcvkeo/Pitbull%27s_RSI_Para_MOD_-_Normal_UI.rar/file
 

RE Paracadutisti Mod
This mod reskins the Italians to be in-line with the uniforms and equipment utilized by the men of the 184th Paratroopers Division 'Nembo' during 1943. The division was sent to Sicily to perform rear-guard actions to protect the evacuation of Italo-German forces. They later went on to fight against the Anglo-American Forces in Southern Italy right up to the day of the armistice- wherein the majority Nembo's members found themselves siding with the Germans (and going on to form the majority of personnel in the RSI's I Battaglione Paracadutisti), with the remainder siding with the Allies and fighting alongside the Italian Co-Belligerent Army, with its' members notably taking part in Operation Herring. 
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3bffxv9xt6tn0q6/Pitbull%27s_Italian_Paratroopers_Updated.rar/file
 
 
To use any of the mods, just drop the folder in your Z folder, in Data. 
------
That's it for now. Again, please enjoy.
There's still many things that I would like to do, such as a mod to better represent Italian forces in Africa/Sicily, and will hopefully get around to doing and posting those things here, and things I wish I could remedy, such as importing a better helmet model for the paracadutisti- which despite my best efforts is currently beyond me.
These mods could only have been made thanks to EZ's textures, of which I used as a base for the textures in these mod, alongside several other mods.
Please post any errors found below.

Javelins are not using in current positional warfare. When US has agreed to supply Javelins, there was a condition - missiles can be used only in case of separatists offensive or direct Russian invasion. In current time all missiles shared among special teams in SOF and air-assault units, but stored out of JFO zone.
In 2018 one or two missiles were launched for demonstration to Poroshenko.

Also Javelins were showed in that year on military parade.

Meanwhile, soldiers were joking on frontline %) 

I'm also very new to the CM franchise and have slightly differing views about both the price and the games being the same.
I own CMSF2 (plus all the DLC's, flavour packs or whatever you want to call them).  I also own a number of the WW2 titles, CMBN, CMFB and CMFI, again with all the add ons.
One thing, which IMHO you are missing in your assessment, is that these add-ons also include additional campaigns, maps and scenarios in addition to their vehicles, regiments and weapons etc.
There's both large and subtle differences to all of the WW2 titles I own and there's simply no comparison with the WW2 titles and SF2.
I'd also spin the "Price tag too high" remark a bit different.  For sure I needed to think hard about dropping my money (I'm on a fixed income these days) on these titles.  However, in the end, for me at least, it came down to "Value" rather than "Price".
I play a lot of games, from many different genres but ultimately I enjoy sims, war, strategy and role play genres and all the better if some overlap each other.
I've spent $$$ on so called AAA titles and had no more than 10 hours in to them before I'm bored and move on.
I've spent $10 on supporting indie dev games in early access over a period of years and I've spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours on these titles, often getting what amounts to a new game every few months as the dev releases updates.
Then there's the Paradox titles as an example, that are not "cheap" to buy but offer me, as a player, real value in terms of the hours and hours of gameplay that with DLC's add to and alter the games over the course of a decade in many cases.
When I evaluated my expense on my new CM titles that is how I looked at it.  Yes, it was a large outlay in terms of cash, but seriously, I knew I'd eventually have thousands of hours in to those titles over the course of the coming years.
Price? Not for me, it's about long terms value and I'm more than happy with my decision.

CMBS – Opening Encounter (thefewgoodmen.com)
Uploaded and install instructions updated.

So here are the draft orders ...
Situation
Amid a background of tensions on the Russian and Belarusian borders with the Baltic states, Russia announced its Zapad exercise, which traditionally takes place in September, early causing alarm to NATO governments.  This saw Russian forces move to border regions and the reinforcement of the Kaliningrad Oblast with airborne formations.  The exercises finished a week ago, but these forward deployments are unchanged leading NATO intelligence analysts to assess that Russia and its Belarusian ally planned to attack the Suwalki Gap.  In response NATO has started to move reinforcements into the area including the 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team (1 IBCT)/82nd Airborne Division which started to arrive in Vilkaviskis, Lithuania last night.  A Troop 3rd Squadron/73rd Cavalry Regiment (A/3/73 Cav) was one of the first units to arrive and has been rushed west to deal with any Russian supporting eastward attack from the Kaliningrad Oblast.  It is now 1100hrs on June 01, 2017, and the Russians crossed the border 30 minutes ago.  It is warm, clear and there is a gentle west to east wind.
Mission
A/3/73 Cav guards in the vicinity of Maldenai until 1200hrs, 01 June in order to delay the enemy assault on Vilkaviskis.
Tasks:
Destroy enemy reconnaissance.
Disrupt the enemy first echelon battalion.
Deny enemy penetration in greater than platoon strength of the Battle Handover Line.
Maintain 60% combat effectiveness.
Withdraw no later than 1230hrs, 01 June.
Friendly Forces
A/3/73 Cav complete comprising 1st, 2nd and 3rd Platoons each with 2 x M1151 HUMMWV M2, 2 x M1151 HUMMWV Mk19, 2 x M1167 HUMMWV TOW and an LMTV truck.  Also organic to A Troop are 2 x M120 120mm mortars and 1 x RQ11B UAV.  Other support available comes mainly from 3rd Battalion/319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment (3/319 AFAR) comprising Battery A (6 x 105mm M119A3), Battery B (6 x 105mm M119A3) and Battery C (6 x 155mm M777A2).  An additional RQ11B UAV has been assigned to A Troop from 3/73 Cav.
Enemy Forces
Intelligence assesses that either 7th Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Regiment (7 GMRR) or 79th Guards Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade (79 GMRB), both of 11th Army Corps normally based in the Kaliningrad Oblast will lead the attack.  The S2 assesses that 7 GMRR is the most likely of the two.  Both are equipped with T-72 tanks, 7 GMRR is BMP-2 equipped while 79 GMRB is MTLB equipped.  Whichever formation leads, Intelligence Preparation of the Battlespace (IPB) indicates that the enemy unit will be a battalion-sized force tactically deployed to conduct a meeting engagement.  Its likely mission is to defeat the friendly covering force and secure a jump off point for subsequent echelons to assault Vilkaviskis 7km east of the Battle Handover Line.  There is no threat from enemy air assets.
Plan
It is your choice commander but be aware that you have been given a tough mission which will stretch the capabilities of your light and small force given that you will be facing a mechanized force that outnumbers you by approximately three to one and your force is not optimized for this kind of mission.
Your plan will need to make best use of ground and your key assets which are your long-range anti-tank and indirect fire weapons.
You must exit the eastern edge of the map (Battle Handover Line) before the mission ends.
Conceptually this is a simple mission that requires a trade-off between inflicting casualties on the enemy, slowing enemy progress across the map while minimizing your own casualties and picking the right time to withdraw and exit the map.  The enemy gets points for advancing across the map, exiting units from the eastern edge of the map and for inflicting blue casualties while minimizing red casualties.  You lack the combat power to destroy every single vehicle, so you need to track your kills and enemy progress in order to choose the right moment to withdraw.  Once you have withdrawn, you should ceasefire.
Notes
This mission was going to be part of a campaign depicting a ‘what if’ Russian attack on Lithuania which I never really progressed with.  The Russian and US units have been researched and the map is as good as the Combat Mission editor can reproduce of the area depicted.  I spent a lot of time in Street View in Google Earth while making it and I hope you appreciate the result.  If you want to check yourself, the middle of the lake on the map is at Grid 34U FF 2386 5620.  This mission has four Russian AI plans so if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
I hope you enjoy playing the mission.
Combatintman

I'd like to think so - I can't remember how long it took me to make but a lot of the time in Street View was spent seeing what colour the buildings were and then picking the closest CM match.  It was epic ...

This has been sat on my hard drive in an 'almost finished' state for a couple of years now.  Prompted by this thread:
I decided to finish it off.
Some tasters ...
Scenario Image:

Strategic Map:

Operational Map:

Tactical Map:

Overhead Comparison CM and Google Earth

Eye Level Comparison CM and Google Earth:

The basic premise is that Russia attacks the Suwalki Gap after a period of tension on the Russian and Belarusian borders with NATO (sound familiar anyone ...).  This mission is set in Lithuania's western border with the Kaliningrad Oblast where a US force has hurriedly deployed in response to a threat of a thrust east out of Kaliningrad in support of the Suwalki Gap attack.
The map is 3,328m x 1,920m ...
Watch this space ...

Starship Troopers
Bugs, Skinnies, Drop Ships, Tactical Micro Nukes, and, of course, the bad-ass armor that the movies never included!
  
 

T-90SA & BMP-3 would make a very reasonable alternative force for this battle, it's what the Iraqi 9th Armoured replaced their older gear (& some of the Abrams) with:


Glad you enjoyed the scenario, you have encouraged me to do a full remake for CM:SF2 at some point in the not too distant future. 

I just finished playing Sgt Squarehead's excellent Ashsh al-Dababir AKA the Hornets Nest scenario this morning. Up until now I've avoided scenarios that featured urban combat as I suck at it and I get a bunch of crunchies killed and lose supporting armor like crazy. I've read various write up on the forums and watched Youtube videos but it just never clicked. 
 
Then I read this post: 
which had domfluff's excellent advice for using the camera at level 1 to spot buildings that are potential have the potential to be covering your moving troops. Also in that thread was a link to this short write up about street fighting : https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/call/call_01-9_karagosian.htm which has this quote 
and then talks about the need for suppressing or obscuring buildings that have line of sight to when I need to move my troops in the open. 
 
And then it all just clicked. In the city fighting in the Hornets nest I only lost a few troopers fighting in buildings or crossing over to buildings after applying these 2 key principals:
1) Don't move in the open 
2) Smoke or suppress buildings that have LOS when you do have to move in the open
And of my losses were in the 1st few turns where I was in a firefight to get fire superiority of the rooftops. I wanted to be able to move around on the roofs to avoid moving in the streets and to be able to clear buildings from the top down whenever possible. Another learning is that even with target light the troops will burn though a lot of ammo surpassing just the buildings that have LOS. 
 
Big thanks to Sgt Squarehead for getting me going again after a bug kept crashing the game at 30 minutes remaining. 
 
I want to play thru the scenario again, this time using Syrian forces and in particular the BMP3. ISIS has their own VBIEDs but so do the Syrians with the BMP3. I imagine encouraging the troops do debus when under fire is never a problem when they are riding in a BMP3. Keeping the troops mounted and within a 100m might be a problem...
 
H
 

It's been a shamefully long time (it was finished years ago) but here be The Steppenwulf's UI mod for SF2.



**It's currently awaiting authorisation so you'll have to be patient and keep trying the download**  

Umm, what's Vietnamese for 'bring it, bitchez'?
.... Of all the fights China could pick that could end worse than a Taiwan invasion, you have just picked the second (attacking Siberia would of course be the first).
There are only a few military mobilization ready societies left on our planet, and Vietnam is one.  Nobody will fight more stubbornly and united in defense of their homeland (the dau tranh spirit), as the last 6 superpowers to invade Vietnam with conventional armies (Q'ing China, France, Japan, France again, USA, PRC) all learned to their cost.
(I won't go into the history of French colonialization of Vietnam; suffice it to say it was a series of piecemeal grabs brought about by internal disunity and corruption. There was no French Robert Clive, only the overwhelming advantage of steamships and breech loading arms -- the same tech used to force 'open' Japan, China and Burma, and to rapidly subdue warlike indigenous societies, from Zululand to the American West to the Northwest Frontier (Second Afghan War, not the first) to 'Tatarstan'. Once the Vietnamese people caught up, it was merely a matter of time before the foreigners and the hopelessly corrupt local elites were first confined to the cities and then ejected.
FWIW, I also believe that the US would actively support Vietnam, whether for reasons of reelpolitik or merely to expiate the guilt feelings of the Boomer Generation.