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Pablius

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Posts posted by Pablius

  1. As a sort of long time fan (since CMSF1 times) of CM this is good news...I think...the "Steam wars" have raged on this forums from time to time, and good reason for and against have been argued over time

    I sincerely hope it works, Steam does offer many conveniences to costumers and if the math works out and more people buys into the CM brand it can only benefit us all

    In my particular case, being from Latin America, I wonder how localized price will work (if at all), on the one hand it could entice people over outside the US to buy more titles, but certainly reduces revenue in the short time I guess

    Still, whatever the case is, having more options is always good as a costumer

     

     

     

  2. Coming back to CM after a few years I decided to upgrade to CMSF2. It was nice to discover that owners of CMSF1 are granted a discount, sadly never bought the NATO module so I payed full price for it, and I'm having lots of fun

    Having been playing games since 1986, I would say CM is a good investment if you are truly into wargames and the like, there's really nothing like it that directly competes with these games

    Still, for me, having to deal with exchange rates from South America, it is an expensive proposition for just a "game"

    Don´t know if it would be profitable for Battlefront to have localize prices as some have, probably not, given the relatively small number of people interested in this sort of things to begin with...but it might entice me to jump into more titles 😁

  3. On 6/10/2020 at 4:19 PM, ChrisND said:

    I'm taking notes here guys, thanks.

    Hi, thanks

    Just finished Semper Fi, another thing I noted is that there weren't any 81mm mortars, although they are mention at the briefings sometimes, don't remember if it was the case for SF1 too

    Reinforcements never arrived in last mission either (CAAT platoon IIRC)

  4. Re: National Interest

     

    The US broadly wants you to buy their stuff, not be communist or too socialist, and to not mess with their ability to do business in your country.

     

     

     

    While I´m happy that the West won the Cold War and don´t consider myself to be anti american, I`ll take a moment to comment on this from the point of view of my corner of the world, Latin America

     

    It´s true, I think, that being in the US sphere of influence is more like having a Boss than a Big Brother, it´s more about money than soul crushing servitude, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of innocent blood spilled over that

     

    The US backed/supported/tolerated some of the worst butchers in history in Latin America during the 20th Century, and that has a cost, the cost is the monumental anti american sentiment in the region

     

    There were, of course, exceptions, when those butchers sometimes turned on the US or when some US President occasionally decided to call them out on human rights abuses (Carter did it to no great effect, but at least spoke of it)

     

    Paradoxically, this is the reason why Cuba is seen as a beacon of hope for so many in Latin America, as the one country that stood against the empire, it may sound crazy, but for many at the other end of the US foreign policy it is not

     

    In my personal case I was just a kid in the 70s and 80s when all of this was still going on, but friends of my family disappeared at the hands of the State and members of my family were forced into exile

     

    I put the blame of it more on our own shortcomings than on the US or any other foreign power, but the narrative the US propagates about being about democracy and freedom sounds completely hollow for most people here, it´s just the way it is

     

    In other regions of the world it may well be the other way around, having endured the tyrants imposed by the USSR.

     

    In the end the big powers play their game, they may not be equally evil but the simple truth is that their interest come first and the lives of the people in smaller/weaker countries comes second, it`s the nature of the nation-state model, certainly in a smaller scale similar dynamics occur everywhere, smaller/weaker countries are not blameless 

     

    Sadly, after the Cold War the international community was not able to find a working status quo and today`s stage is even more complicated by the appearance of non-state actors and global economics, I don´t think the US or any other country has enough power to shape the world, and would probably be better served by using it in a targeted form that apply the notion of personal responsibility and not collective punishment or on the basis of broad regional consensus (like against ISIS) and not by large scale interventions in most cases

  5. Probably best if everyone lets it go. We are obviously at the point of irreconcilable differences. Let the lawyers work out who gets custody of the outhouse and the horseshoe pit and move on. Comments that are partisan will only keep it going.

    The vehicle breakdowns in the parade prep make their own argument about systems status and potential teething issues. None of us can guess at long term decisions and results, none of us have any hard data or crystal ball and the vehicles absolutely will not make it into CM until they are in a production/information state to allow for that. In the meantime, it is all airbrushed tank porn and fun to look at.

     

    Ok, as a (Non US) lawyer I´ll try :P :

     

    In the case of Armata Vs. Skeptics the Court finds as follow:

     

    - That given the complete lack of evidence to support anything resembling technical specs, the only thing we deem proven is that Armata exist...sort off

     

    - In light of the preceding ruling, on the question of who will have custody until majority of age, the Court awards it to LockandLoad because he cares about it the most

     

    - The previous decision notwhistanding Steve is allow visitation rights to check on it from time to time and keep it honest on the question of future module inclusion

     

    - And finally, Panzer, while not very fond of it, is appointed tutor, to teach T-14 how to be a proper tank and not some hybrid nonsense that every other tank in the yard will mock and bully

     

    - No damages are awarded to any party since the only things affected are egos and prides and the Court finds that those have no monetary value on the Internet

     

    And if everybody is unhappy with the ruling, we´ll know I did a good job  :D , as any lawyer knows usually the worst settlement is better than the best ruling

  6. If the turret is really so thin, wouldn´t it contradict the super-duper capsule to protect the crew?

     

    Sure, it will always make sense to the crew, but if your vehicle can´t prevent a weapon kill from a HMG, it´s not a tank, won´t be used as a tank and so, it doesn't need so much crew protection 

     

    It must be a place holder if what the pics show is really that thin

  7. Well, the problem with arguing that Russia doesn't have the commitments the US has and that the US doesn't plan for defense of it´s soil as separate problems is that the lesson that everybody extracts is: if you don´t want to plan for homeland defense go and build a global empire/presence...as the US...and as the UK did before...all the way back to the Romans

     

    And for the insurance for NATO partners I recommend to call it the "Pre Paid Event Triggered Strategic Commitment"  :D

  8. This thread is becoming tank porn...with the vehicles slowly loosing their covers as the parade approaches...

     

    While a module with this toys would be great I´m skeptical enough data of actual production units will be available, looking at that "shopping list" of features, it looks too much given the time frame

     

    On the other hand, it´s good to see new stuff and it will certainly keep things interesting, deciding what works and what doesn't and at what cost/compromises, it feels like a big gamble given there´s no other program to replace current hardware

     

    What I don´t understand is the "no export" comment, why? Russia can't keep dumping T-72/90s on the world forever, eventually some derivative of this things surely will be exported

  9. As much as I would like a weapons selector, is this kind of micromanagement a thing in real life? Does a platoon or company commander get that involved?

     

    In any case it would be nice some consistency or pointer of what to expect in different situations, so far I can never tell what a Bradley will do against a tank, I´m not sure if it comes to training, distance, weather or just a roll of a dice

  10. In my experience, both in CMSF and CMBS, gunners will die rather quickly every time

     

    I´ve always blamed me more than the game for it, since I´m not sure this vehicles are supposed to be in direct contact with an entrenched enemy, but that`s the situation in most CM scenarios

     

    The game is not primary about recon/light patrol encounters, of course those can be modeled, but are not the core experience

     

    Recon/light assets could be removed altogether and we could still have the same experience for the most part, but not so if tanks and IFVs are removed

     

    I´ve never played the WWII titles, but for modern war, the distances in the scenarios turn light assets either into observers for indirect fire or balls of fire and hot metal, there seems to be not much middle ground

  11. Javelins should be strapped to everything...Strykers, COLTs, the head of the US President...

     

    Jokes aside, the BTRs with the 30mm gun are quite handy, at least in CM...they go from nearly useless as an offensive platform to somewhat worth the risk against infantry

     

    What about Strykers with a 30mm auto cannon and big thermobaric rockets? Would that make US Inf squads happy?

  12. According to wiki, there's 120x T-90, 32x early T-90A and 337x late T-90A. Mothballed ones are older, early models. They've stopped buying/upgrading them in 2010-2011 (production for export keeps going) because they wanted newer and better MBT of their own (T-14), while not spending too much on old stuff. This is why they went for cheap T-72B3 upgrades instead, before T-14 is ready for mass production.

     

    Another reason for keeping some amount of T-90s in storage might be - spare parts/replacements.

     

    Ok, this broke my mind...so, newer tanks (T-90s) are less capable than upgraded older ones (T-72B3s) and are put on warehouses because are too expensive to upgrade...this leads me to an obvious question...

     

    Why build them in the first place???? If they were better than a T-72 in any of it infinite forms they would be in service, if they are not is because they are worst (or too expensive to operate, which makes them worst in another way)

     

    Shouldn´t they go to one of those Brigades with really old T-72s?? I mean, justo for moral factor...90 is higher than 72!

  13. Like Command Ops? I downloaded one of their demos. The Panther Games enjoy a massive rep but that one left me with a feeling of... detachment. A ballet of of swirling icons orchestrated by Tchaikovsky. There's something to be said for the charm of BF's 3D modelling. 

     

    Haven´t played Command Ops but was looking at it just the other day, the thing is I´m a little bored of WWII, so I can´t tell you if it feels similar, it`s an interesting concept they put forward, one day I may decide to give it a try

     

    CMANO is supposed to be similar to the Harpoon series, but being late to the party never played that one either, just trying to figure out which version was the latest and greatest was akin to asking about the meaning of life, impossible to get a straight answer without college degree "On all things Harpoon", so never got it in any of it`s incarnations

     

    What I can tell you is that the game is playable without tons and tons of hours of study, of course a base knowledge on modern naval and air assets is required or you will end up sending your helicopters to sink a carrier

     

    But it is not a friendly or good looking game/simulator, it has no graphics other than icons on a map and the interface is plain windows and spreadsheets, it is, though, surprisingly easy to set up and launch missions, so you can learn to "do stuff" rather quickly

     

    Although, getting good at it is another thing entirely, I have made peace with the fact I won´t ever be a good player, just enough to win against the AI from time to time on small to medium size scenarios

  14. I gotta ask, what's CMNO? Googling didn't turn up anything that looked relevant, so...?

     

    Michael

     

     

    Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations (Sometimes shortened CMANO or CMNO)

     

     

    A game about watching strange icons moving on a map and spreadsheets at the same time 

     

    Alternatively, it could be looked at as a Database you purchase, that happens to have a game attached to it

  15. I´m from Argentina and I can tell you that having a conscript army didn´t prevent a single military coup in the 20th century (if you really want to look at it, start with the first coup in the modern sense in 1930 and laugh or cry your way to the last one in 1976-83 and every other folly in between)

     

    Latin America in general experienced long decades of high levels of political instability from local an foreign factors, coups were common occurrences, having conscript units didn´t prevent Generals to turn the Army into a de facto occupation force on it`s own soil, enough NCOs and low and mid level officers went along just fine with every crime and atrocity committed for various reasons, too long to go into in this thread

     

    We now have a volunteer armed forces, there`s no more conscription since the early 90s and the probability of a military coup has never been lower than in the last hundred years

     

    There are social, economical and political considerations for or against one model or the other, but I would venture to say that the composition of the armed forces is a relatively small factor on the odds of a constitutional breakdown, at least in modern times

     

    I would put more value on universal civic education, general awareness of civic and political rights, the ability of civilian political entities of managing internal conflict, etc.

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