lomir

Hi all, Whoa! I've been out for a fortnight and I find a thread with some screenshots of the good old Canucks (btw, great artwork, Webwing!) and you guys arguing about the world's economic politics... You describe my job very accurately, Cid250, but we do pay taxes. And where are some screenies of the German and the Dutch, BFC, huh? I mean, huh? Is this part of the plan of the Anglo-Saxon conspiracy to kill the euro? Cheers, Lomir

No, Alek. British Light Infantry currently fields the Javelin for its AT purposes - and it's pretty good at it, I would say. In fact, the Javelin is replacing the older MILAN and Swingfire systems in the British Army since 2005. For ranges greater than 2000-2500 m., they rely on the heavier forces' Challenger 2 MBT or they may call for air support from the attack helicopters and the RAF aircrafts.

Nay: they are just rendering the AT-ATs

Very nicely done, tagge!! I would say that kind of TOEs at a glance are very useful for designing scenarios - I find very annoying that you can't scroll down in the units editor, you know. Do you intend to upload them in the Repository?

Hi all, For those that want to read an overview of the current market of Medium Armoured Vehicles, it's available online the Compendium by Armada (English language): http://www.my-catalog.at/E121702/ Cheers, Lomir

RommL, That's a great mod! Thanks! However, please note the long shadows on the ground in that picture of the Toyota pickups. At dawn or dusk, when the light is low, the perception of color changes. So, your truck looks like mustard color. You may want to try a lighter shade called "dull greenish yellow" (#ebe8a4). Here in this forum's page there are some pictures of ANA's Toyota pickups: http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?128142-Afghan-National-Army/page2 Cheers, Lomir

Excellent! Congrats to both of you, Mike Churchmoor and hcrof - for the victory and for this action report so enjoyable to read. Thanks!

Hehe, I know well that the interior paint uses to fall apart, Damian90, but I meant with that expression that it seems that the had done very poor maintenance on the bore evacuator (maybe it's just clogged with ice?) or the breech opening not fast enough after firing (the autoloader maintenance), as you can see in the video with all this fumes that fill the fighting compartment. A shame if it's a unit with T-80: I could expect this to happen in older models from reserve units, but not a T-80 that it's not exactly a rusty piece of... scrap metal

I don't want to imagine it firing 8 rounds per minute with all the hatches closed: They'll suffocate from the accumulation of carbon monoxide. Is it really a T-80?? Rusty piece of...

Hev, I guess it happened the same to the FV120 Spartan with MCT (MILAN Compact Turret). They all got tactically replaced by the Javelin missile launcher in mid-2005.

From www.aviationweek.com on 2/16/2010: Subtle. That one before was an extremely subtle comment. Punks.

LukeFF, the effective range of all NATO Under-slung Grenade Launchers is up to 350m for area targets (and they can easily reach 400m under the right conditions) and up to 150m for point targets. You usually aim using the standard ladder sights, that I can tell you that in the H&K AG36 it has the next scale: 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 and 350 metres. A qualified grenadier will definitely know how to use his weapon at distances of up to that limit. Cheers, Lomir

Hi all, As snake eye has said, a setup zone hasn't an influence on the mines. At the beginning of the scenario (Setup Phase) they'll always exactly appear were you had placed them when building the scenario, and if they are inside a setup zone the Red player (never the AI) can choose to relocate them within all the limits of the setup zone, as you could do with any kind of troops/vehicles inside the setup zone. But this isn't the case here. jkobmadrid, you might have assigned some of your mines to an AI Group. In the Unit Editor's "Purchase Units" option, take out all the [A2]-[A8]s to the right of the mines name. They all should have to be in the general Group 1, to avoid mixing them with any of your AI plans, so highlight them and press F1. At the Setup Phase the mines assigned to an AI Group will automatically move to the Map Zone for the Setup Order of their Group, that it has to be painted inside a valid Red Setup Zone. Please go to the AI Editor and see that you have painted a Map Zone for a Setup Order of a Group (Group 1 if your mines weren't assigned to any AI Group: [A2]-[A8]). That's in yellow color over the reddish background of the setup zone. The AI is automatically moving those mines there at the beginning of the scenario. Don't paint a Map Zone (yellow) for a Setup Order of Group 1. Use this Group for all the stationary units. Cheers, Lomir

Psst! Where is Steve? :confused: I'll write him regarding this when he'll be back... But I heard... ssh! I heard that last time he was seen he was about to take a flight to Damascus where he was going to be decorated for something...

Ali-Baba, it's still a mystery. The Stinger appears in this list of weapons: http://www.snowball.ru/afgan/?page=tech2 but we can't tell if it has actually done it into the game. The ZU-23 and the "Shilka" can be used in fire support roles, so we'll have to wait for further news about the game features. My guess is that the anti-aircraft role is not modeled as it happens in CM:SF.

Translated from the Russian official website of CM:A Mujahideen weapons: Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III rifle. FN FAL rifle. G3 rifle. Type 56 assault rifle. M16A1 assault rifle. AR-10 rifle. Norinco Type 85 sniper rifle. Bren L4 light machine gun. RP-46 light machine gun. KPV heavy machine gun. FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS. Mujahideen vehicles: Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4 hardtop and pickup trucks (technicals). Soviet Union and Afghanistan weapons: Makarov pistol (PM). AK-74 assault rifle. AKS-74 assault rifle. AKS-74U carbine. RPK-74 light machine gun. PK general purpose machine gun. Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD). GP-25 Bonfire under barrel grenade launcher. AGS-17 Flame automatic grenade launcher. RPG-7 anti-tank rocket propelled grenade weapon. NSV 12.7 mm heavy machine gun. RGD-5 hand grenade. RG-42 hand grenade. F1 hand grenade. RGO hand grenade. RGN hand grenade. Soviet Union and Afghanistan vehicles: UAZ-469 4x4 jeep. BRDM-2 armoured reconnaissance patrol vehicle. BMP-1/BMP-1D infantry fighting vehicles. BMP-2/BMP-2D infantry fighting vehicles. BMD-1 airborne infantry fighting vehicle. BMD-2 airborne infantry fighting vehicle. BTR-60 wheeled APC. BTR-70 wheeled APC. BTR-80 wheeled APC. ZU-23 towed 23 mm anti-aircraft twin autocannon. ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. T-55/T-55M/T-55AD main battle tanks. T-62/T-62M main battle tanks. I don't think it's a comprehensive list: we have already seen captions at the Media Files with some versions of Ural and KAMAZ trucks.

In the Team Info Panel of this picture, is it a Bren Gun what is shown under the Team Leader's (one star) yellow AK-74? And the Leader (two stars), does he have an AK-47? But definitely the big question you all probably have on your mind is: do the Mujs had tripods for their Brens???

stoex, Sorry, my bad. Thanks for making the 'area target inside buildings' clearer and thanks for the trick to easily place target lines in upper floors next door. But now I see why it didn't work in my 5-minutes-test compound: from the first floor of the building where the waypoint is you can area target all the floors (level 1, 2, 3 and roof) of the building to its right. But from the second and third floor you can't area fire none of them. In the level 1 of both buildings there are doors on each side of the party wall, but on the level 2 and 3 there is a door in the wall of the left building and a window on the middle of the wall of the right building! - you can actually see it in the picture. It seems that you can't use area fire through a wall under this circumstances. So the plot is getting thicker... stoex, I can send you that small scenario by e-mail if you want to test it A workaround regarding the lack of LOS regarding solid walls that it could be used, but I don't know at all how difficult it would be to implement, is making the new Target Blast (a combat command) to work under the hood as a move command with a maximum distance limit of one grid around when selecting the target. So we would have all the good things of the area target command stated before and we wouldn't have any solid wall's problem since the move commands don't check for LOS. Or maybe it is more easy than we are thinking to make an special area target command that ignores solid walls, I don't know :confused: I don't think we'll see it in CM:SF, though. For CM:N and beyond I think it would be even more useful - specially to use some demo charge devices on tanks, but I don't know if the working hours of Charles just dedicated to do this are worthy for BFC. But definitely I think it's something that would be good to have another look at in the future CMx2 engine. Cheers, Lomir P.S. Does someone know how to edit your login name? my lower case "L" looks like an "I" :mad:

Hi stoex, I correct you Following the old adage that says 'a picture is worth a thousand words': You can see in the picture that from the first waypoint you can only order the pixelengineers to area fire the first floor of the building to its side but not the first floor of the two buildings further behind - where there is a wall, but it doesn't matter there are or there aren't doors and/or windows. Of course, you can always area target the floor immediately above any waypoint, as you point out in the way to fiercely assault multi-storey buildings, but with Blast we aren't interested in moving vertically but horizontally. And you can see that you can't area fire from the waypoints of the second and third floor to the same floors in any of the three buildings around. You can only area fire vertically. But even with the pixelengineers already staying where the first waypoint is, you cannot set any area fire target to the room on the other side of the wall, because there isn't LOS - it's an opaque wall. And if you were to use that "blast area fire" on the same room were you are staying, how do you control which wall do you want to blast? It's not possible with the present game mechanics. And last but not least, if there is smoke/debris in the air inside the building you might don't have any LOS. Resuming: the ways of the LOS are impenetrable Cheers, Lomir

Or issuing the Blast command in the grid BEFORE the wall. Your pixeltruppen won't move through the wall but they'll stay next to it facing the interior. In the previous waypoint (before the Blast command) you may want to use the Face command to point the wall where you want to blow the hole in - useful in compounds with many different walls around the same grid. First I liked your idea, Thomm, but then I thought it twice and I can think of some problems that might appear: you could only use the "area fire blast" command on a wall where you have LOS... Imagine the WEGO player's comments: 'My pixeltruppen stay put for almost a whole minute because I cannot issue another blast command on the next wall inside the building!' - so Charles would need to change the way LOS is taken just for the "area fire blast"... IMO, the Blast command works well and you already have a few different tips & tricks to use it - there's a sticky thread about this and other things in the CMSF Strategy and Tactics Forum. Cheers, Lomir

stoex, I guess the Soviets needed a compact gun that could fire a projectile (fin-stabilized rocket-assisted, the same one of the SPG-9 Spear recoilless gun) able to penetrate at short distances the frontal armor of the NATO MBTs of that time (the 70s). For long distances it relied on the ATGM system. Cheers, Lomir Edit: Ryujin types faster than me.

:eek: I had to look twice: yes, it's BBC News and not The Onion. And obviously it's not April Fools' Day! "Substance detection cards [...] that in ideal conditions [...] can detect explosives from a range of up to 1km. [...] (and) it can even, with the right card, detect elephants, humans and 100 dollar bills." And it seems that the ADE 651 can also detect guns, ammunition, drugs, truffles and contraband ivory at distances of up to 1 kilometre (0.62 mi), underground, through walls, underwater or even from airplanes at an altitude of up to 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) just using the user's static electricity. And the Iraqi government has spent $85m on this! :eek: Dowsing for locating water, alright, it's something that hurts no one, but this is a blatant fraud and clearly fake!! How on earth the Iraqi government decided to buy that thing? Shame on them.

Arrad, if it is a building wall, it doesn't affect the LOS, but always look for a LOF that can be drawn from where the MG is deployed or your unit will start deploying in a new position a couple of meters away after spotting enemies that can't be shoot upon from where they actually are because some building corner. The use of the "Face" command in the same direction of the most preferred LOF from the waypoint where you are going to deploy the MG is very advisable. The rest of walls (high or low, all materials) will affect the LOS and LOF of any MG that is deployed behind it at the same level. They won't see and they won't be able to shoot to the other side of the wall. They are to be used just for protection. Cheers, Lomir

John, it's more likely that the fear to loose the AH-64s due to the Serbs deploying the SA-18 Grouse (9K38 Igla) MANPADS is the explanation. The US doesn't want to risk his Apache pilot lives unnecessarily. The A-10 exceptional durability was a better choice to provide CAS at low speeds and altitude. On this days, a "Warthog" landed safely at an air base flying with just one engine after been fired upon with a SA-6. Also, at many days most of all flights were cancelled because of poor weather conditions and low cloud cover. John, can I ask you: the too high and cold explanation, where did you take it from? I'm sorry, but I have to say I disagree with you about those forum's information. Sources are Serb/Russian (propaganda) news and forums... I have to say those aren't the best places to look for anything close to real information about NATO operations on that period of time. I quote from Maskirovka in Yugoslav military thinking, by C. J. Dick. Published in 1999, Conflict Studies Research Centre (Surrey): The mass media and the population/military morale, both yours and enemy's, is something you have to win in a war as well. Allied Losses & Incidents during Operation Allied Force (1999) Two allied planes were directly lost during combat missions due to enemy fire (2/May/99 F-16CG #88-0550/AV of the 31FW/555FS hit by SA-3 and on 27/March/99 F-117A #82-0806 of the 49FW hit by SA-3 or more likely a SA-6). Six Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were shot down. And the next list from that first forum you give us the link to, seems to be the most accurate: ALLIED LOSSES & INCIDENTS Date Loss Country Circumstances 28 May 1 A-10A USA Hit by Serbian SAM. Aircraft returned safely to its air base 14 May 2 Drones USA Shot down by Serbs 5 May 1 AH-64 USA Crashed near Tirana on a training mission Both crew members died 2 May 1 F-16CG USA Crashed near Metic after strike mission due to engine failure;pilot was recovered two hours later 2 May 1 OA-10A USA Emergency landing at Petrovac, near Skopje 1 May 1 AV-8B USA Crashed in Adriatic on return to carrier; pilot ejected safely 26 Apr 1 AH-64 USA Crashed near Tirana on training mission; both crew members survived 18 Apr 1 F-16 Denmark Emergency landing in Sarajevo due to engine problems 16 Apr 1 OA-10A USA Emergency landing in Skopje, cause never acknowledged 14 Apr 3 Drones Germany One was shot down by Serbs; earlier, two other drones were shot down 7 Apr 1 Drone USA Shot down over Yugoslavia 27 Mar 1 F-117 USA Shot down west of Belgrade by Serbian SA-6 missile; pilot recovered hours later by combat SAR unit 26 Mar 1 F-15E USA Emergency landing at Istrana AB John, I believe there were more incidents and planes returning safely to base with some kind of damage, but not more combat losses than those stated. I'm not an expert at all about how well US Congressional reports and committees work, but I'm sure that here in Old Europe if a government/military tries to falsificate records on the official loss reporting, very soon his balls will be served on a tray. To end: "The truth is that the greater the collection capability an opponent has, the greater the opportunity to feed him specifically designed false information." U.S. Army FM 90-2 (October 1988)

Damian90, in fact it was an agreement signed on 1995 between the German and Spanish governments to build the Leopard 2E that were to be assembled in Spain by the then-Spanish company SBS (Santa Bárbara Sistemas), with 60–70 percent of the components manufactured by Spanish companies (SBS the hull and final assebly; Izar the motor; SAPA the APU, transmission, tracks and wheel assembly; AMPER the command and control system (LINCE) and radio-comm; Indra Sistemas together with the German company STN the combat system; etc.). The problem is that the first Leopard 2Es were not manufactured until late 2003 due to the merger between Santa Bárbara Sistemas and General Dynamics previously in the same year 2003,and Krauss-Maffei's reservations regarding the sharing of the Leopard 2's technology with the rival company,manufacturer of the Abrams. Finally, with some production issues in 2006/7, the total production of the 219 Leopard 2E ended in 2008. Under the same Program Armor 2000 of the Leopard 2E we built the ASCOD (Austrian Spanish Cooperation Development) AFV family (called Ulan in Austria and Pizarro in Spain) that is the product of a cooperation agreement between the Austrian Steyr-Daimler-Puch company and Spanish Santa Bárbara Sistemas (now part of General Dynamics as I said before), and the Tiger attack helicopter manufactured by Eurocopter (a wholly owned subsidiary of European EADS company, that is a merge between DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (DASA) of Germany, Aérospatiale-Matra of France and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA) of Spain). So I think that we can't properly say that they were selling their equipment in the same export way the U.S. sell "monkey" tanks to Middle West countries, but they are rather a product of the collaboration between EU companies and very close-allied countries. Cheers, Lomir