Plinko

...and this relates to Black Sea, how? 
 
Seriously, click-bait silliness like this is just begging for a whirlwind of crank politics, pseudo-evidence and loud screaming.

You know I am kind of wondering what Mord's neighbors were thinking when recorded that.
 
Ironically enough it was probably a lot of "Did you hear that?"

After years of CM games, I figure it's about time for me to actually do one of these. I'm playing as the Russians against a regular opponent, who has done quite well against me in recent battles in CMRT and CMFI. He is however somewhat inexperience with CMBS (that's why I'm the Russians). We're playing Bridgehead at Kharalyk, which along with Lights, Camera, Action is my favourite CMBS battle. The battle is currently about 20 turns in, but I'm going to start from the beginning and focus on what went wrong and what I would do differently a second time around. I will usually turn off icons for screenshots, but they can make things much easier to follow.
 
Initial Setup and the First Turn
 
The map is great and feels like a real landscape. However, it is a landscape that I must defend against an enemy that at least initially outguns me by a wide margin, although he may not outnumber me. I have reinforcements arriving in 30 minutes, so my focus must be to delay my opponent by misdirection, ambushes and flank attacks. 
 

 
Here's a view to the north showing almost all my units at initial setup. A few mortars and AA assets are not shown. The bulk of my infantry and their vehicles are located in the town.
 

 
I have some recon assets forward from my main positions. I have set up an ambush laid to hopefully attack the rear of vehicles that have passed through the woods. I have a few sniper teams placed well forward to keep an eye on things. I also placed some empty foxholes in the treelines. The intention is that my opponent will be forced to take time and clear these.
 

 
I also have a mobile ambush posse located in the woods on the northeast section of the map. It consists of two Khrizantemas and two T-90s. As we shall see, things don't go quite according to plan. They're a bit difficult to see here, but trust me, they're there. I also have another T-90 on the far side of the map (unfortunately it was stuck just outside the setup zone and I couldn't move it. Probably would change that in the editor if I was doing things again). This T-90 will immediately withdraw back down the hill.

More than 10 hours battle for Maryinka finished. Shortly about situation around:



1. Clashes in Maryinka area escalated in last two month. Terrain on this direction didn't allow to build solid line of defense. So, enemy made probes because thought that our lines is more weak in this area.

2. 31st of May enemy deversion group penetrated behind our checkpoints in this area and ambushed "Ural" truck with six soldiers of 28th brigade. Two were killed, two wounded, two missed with truck - possibly were captured.

3. Yesterday representative of Russia left negotiations in Minsk and hampered work of contact group. By words of our diplomats representatives of Russia and separatists demanded full revision of Minsk agreements, but Ukrainian side sharply refused all these demands. So, obviously, this demarche became signal that next step of Kremlin will lay in military plain.

4. Russian backed fighters in force of about two battalion tactical group with heavy MLRS and SP-guns support attacked our positions on line Krasnohorivka-Maryinka. Possibly enemy objectives were to seize both settlements, establish good conditions for next attack on Kurakhovo with their energy plant and take part of highway Zaporizhia-Donetsk. Also with success of operation to force Ukraine for revision of Minsk agreements and inflict panic and dissatisfaction inside of Ukraine society ("stupid generals", "Poroshenko give up Donbas", "All on Maidan 3.0 !")

5. Artillery and MLRS strike and continuously mortar fire caused many wounded among UKR forces, also Krasnohorivka was badly damaged - a part of clinic, garages, and several dozen houses were hit and burned. Enemy fighters conducted intensive shelling checkpoints in Maryinka with tanks, BMP and small arms, but main pressure they provided in Krasnohorivka area, seeking to outflank Maryinka garrison. Them succeed on several directions to pierce among our positions, but their massive advance was stopped here. Commander of 28th brigade call own SP-gun support - possibly they destroyed enemy base on territory of horse club "Equestrian"

6. Meantime, from Maryinka side intensive enemy fire forced Ukrainians stepped back from several forward checkpoints, enemy troops entered in Maryinka and Russian/DNR media hurry up claim about next "great victory".

7. Ukraine General staff assume a decision to use heavy artillery, which was drown off due to Minsk agreements. Approx in 14:00 artillery and MLRS arrived and deployed, but no order on opening fire. ATO press-service claimed they don't sure that this attack is a real offensive.

8. Clashes intensified, pressure on our troops became more strong. In 15:00 General Staff commenced fire. Artillery hit various targets between Maryinka and Donetsk. Also several strikes on industrial zones of the city.

9 Enemy troops catch heavy fire and stop advance. In pro-Russian publics of social network spread info how one their T-72BA was hit by Ukrainains and two other, which followed it just surrendered. Battle turned in position withstand with artillery and MLRS exchanges. Russian artillery hit own troops.

10. After short lull and regroup enemy tried attack again, but their attempt choked quickly.

11. OSCE and Cease fire contact group started negotiation about cease fire. (First day of) Battle is over.


Order of battle:

Ukraine: main forces - battalion tactical group of 28th mech. brigade, units of 57th motorized infantry brigade (34th and 43nd sep. motorized inf. battalions), units of 30th mech. brigade (possibly battalion), units of special police battalion "Kyiv-1", some National Guard unit.

DNR/Russia: "international brigade Piatnashka", units of brigade "Vostok", diversion-assault group "Riazan' "


Losses:

Ukraine on 19:45 - 3 KIA, 32 WIA (also unconfirmed info about 5 KIA), 1 GAZ-66, two UAZ-452

Separatists/Russia: ATO press-service claimed minimum 36 KIA, 2 tanks, BMP, several trucks, several batteries suppressed, insiders in Donetsk said only one hospital admit about 100 wounded. 

Looks like this thread is rapidly swirling down the drain.  Perhaps best to shove a plug in.
 
Looks, gents, war is hell.  There is nothing glamorous about it.  There is nothing moral about it.  And it is nothing to celebrate. 
 
It is really easy to point fingers at the other side and decry them as murderous bastards, fascists, commie pinkos, the great satan... pick you favorite slur.   It changes nothing in the long run.  It doesn't bring back the dead. It doesn't comfort or heal the wounded, whether those wounds are physical or psychological.
 
It just leads to another cycle of violence.  Like the saying in Star Wars - anger leads to the dark side.
 
When I was in Bosnia in '93 as a Canadian peacekeeper, two Bosnia Serb soldiers came up to me at a checkpoint.  They were two brothers from Toronto, Canada.   I asked them why they were here in Serbian military uniforms.  I then heard a story about as they were growing up, they heard from their grandparents and their parents over and over about what the Croats did to the family in WW2 and stuff post war.  They were here to defend the motherland and to settle accounts with the Croatians for something that happened to the family nearly 50 years ago.  I don't get that - they were born in Canada (their family came to Canada post war) yet they felt that this was THEIR war to fight.
 
Anger and hatred lead them here.  Instilled by the anger and hatred of their parents, perpetrated by anger and hatred from their parents.  Fighting in a war not of their making, for a cause not their own, for a homeland they have never seen.  A cycle of violence nearly 50 years in the making.
 
I have seen some of that anger expressed here and I am reminded of that time talking with the two brothers.  And I am seeing the seeds of that tragedy here.
 
I was in a very dark place for a long time after my peacekeeping tour in '93.  Some would call it PTSD.  You can only see so much of genocide up close and in your face and a part of me inside died.  There was no moral high ground for either side,  All sides did stuff terrible things that are war crimes - the Bosnians, the Croatians and the Serbs.  Yes, the bulk of the ethnic cleansing was done by the Serbs but is no excuse for the Bosnians and the Croatians to do what they did.  I saw a beautiful country in ruins, shattered lifes, mounds of civilian dead, and a land with seeming madmen running around with guns seeming to want to re-fight WW2 or address the wrongs they suffered in that conflict..
 
Chains of the past.  So many people in the world are bound by those chains.  I see the ghosts of the past conflicts playing out in the conflicts of today.  There is the real tragedy.  We seemingly can't escape our past and we poison the well for our children so they are doomed to repeat our mistakes.
 
Anger leads to the dark side.  That is true.  I lived it grappling with my PTSD and the nightmares of seeing a country gone mad in Bosnia.  I wanted to kill every ethnic cleansing son of bitch with a gun.   It took a long time but I came to accept certain things.
 
I saved lots of civilians, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian but not enough for me.  I wanted to save all of them.  I couldn't and felt guilty for decades as a result.   War lesson 1:  In war people die, soldier and civilian alike,  War lesson 2:  You can't do anything to change lesson 1.  It took a long time for me to embrace that and that saved my sanity ultimately.
 
There is real evil in the world and real monsters.  The monsters look like us and talk to us but make no mistake, there are real monsters out there.  You only see them for what they are by what they do.  I want to Kill All The Monsters but the reality is, strike one down and another rises to take his place.  Nothing changes and we learn nothing from our history.  Hitler was struck down and Rwanda and Bosnia happened.  Deal with those and then it is Sudan. Or Cambodia.  Or Syria.  Or ISIS.  Or who ever the next Hilter wannabe is.   People who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.  
 
Chains of our past.  Everyone has this issue.   Do you allow the past to bind you and deny you a better future or do you let it go.
 
The chains of the experiences in Bosnia bound me and put me on a self destructive path to most likely a grim future.  Only by embracing what happened and learning to rise above it, to not allow the past to control my present so I can forge a new future did I finally find peace for my soul.  It was hard because the chains are thick and strong - memories, recollections and seeing stuff like the genocide in Bosnia playing out elsewhere in the world brings it all back.  But I broke free finally and the memories are not emotionally charged as they were in the past as a result.  No, the memories never go away.  But you can make peace with them and find a way to a sort of 'wholeness' again.
 
I have rambled on.  Partly to acknowledge my past and the role I played in it.   A affirmation that something in life tried to beat me down and I rose above it.
 
Partly to my brothers in arms from any side of the conflicts who are dealing the the imprint of what total war does to their soul and well being, that there is a way ahead.  Memories can become less emotionally charged and less painful. Memories do fade somewhat through time, working hard toward wholeness, and throwing off the shackles of the past and living for the future.  It is not a easy road or a fast road and not everyone can break their chains of the past but it can be done.
 
And finally, to the Croatian, Bosnian and Serb posters.  I see anger and pain in your words.  War is terrible and it will write things on your soul that will deny you a bright, happy future.  I know.  I was there.  I have lived it.   Acknowledge the past, regardless of how ugly or hurtful it is.  Realize the past is the past and is not your future unless you allow it.  Do not do what a Serb family that moved to Toronto did and poison their two sons with what happened long ago in a land now far away that resulted in them involving themselves in killing other people, perhaps being killed themselves and exposing themselves to the horrors of war, for a cause not that shouldn't been theirs to fight and a war they shouldn't have been involved in, all over something that happened nearly 50 years ago.   Don't deny the future of your children or grandchildren by binding them in YOUR chains of the past and dooming them to fight in some future war because the last war had a negative impact on your family.
 
War is death, destruction, shattered lives and futures denied.  Don't glorify it and not rationalize it.  Your a damn fool otherwise.

That reminds me of a quote from Gladiator that can definitely be substituted for America or the rest of the "western" world.
 
"There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish... it was so fragile."

I hope that T-90 will never be able to prove itself in a real tank to tank combat, because that will mean a war against a country operating that tank.