sross112

I also made myself giggle on the way home today. I live in the middle of nowhere upper great plains. As I was driving home thinking of this topic and thread I was looking out over the pastures and prairies. I started to think about how many Ukrainians would be in the same position this summer driving along through agricultural areas. Then as they are looking over the fields and pastures they spot the farmer dragging a feed wagon out to the cattle with an 8 wheeled pickup that they cut down from a BTR with an acetylene torch. Say what you want but the Ukraine is kinda like the Texas of Europe so you know they have some redneck engineers that are already thinking about this sort of thing!

Lots of discussion on possible ends and I was thinking today after someone posted that Biden named Putin a war criminal. I don't doubt that this invasion will last a few more weeks at least and if the past performance is predicative of future performance I believe the RA will be bled to death on the steppes of Ukraine. In the meantime if Putin is actually indicted by the Hague more options become available for Russia. Putin doesn't have to disappear, he can be taken into custody by the military and FSB. They point the fingers at him for the Russian people and the world and lay out a ton of evidence for his demise and hand him over for trial. That removes him from power, he is permanently out of their way and they would have their scapegoat so they can play the "he lied to us, we didn't find out until it was too late" card. The new government will cede back all territory, give token reparations and apologies and beg the world for forgiveness. The Ukrainians will have a temporary win, the west will cave and assist this "new" Russia like it did in 91 and in 20-30 years it will all start over again.

Did you read the article? He goes on how the UA is done, a bunch surrounded and will probably surrender soon and they are only able to do "pin pricks" to the RA. Then he goes on how everything is going according to plan and the reason the RA is making such slow progress is they are trying to not cause civilian casualties. I don't think there was a single thing he said that coincides with what we have seen in the video evidence just here in this thread. And of course he hammers Washington and hints to all this being NATO's fault. So a simple google search on the Colonel shows that he has been on RUSSIAN TV multiple times. Starting back during Kosovo where he was against the west interfering in the area and then in 2014 saying that Russia should be able to take any parts of Ukraine it wants. Seems like an unbiased analyst that is only presenting the facts with no political agenda. (Yes, this sentence is highly sarcastic.) I wonder what his salary in rubbles is??

Ah ok, my bad. I guess I was so used to the BDA like that coming from Ukrainian forces I assumed it was. With you guys advising there were counterattacks yesterday I thought they had achieved a major stroke. Sucks though, I was all excited about a nice chunk of invaders getting surrounded and wiped out!

Tried looking back through the thread for maps that I know are in there somewhere but gave up. Could someone point me to a good map with Russian BTG/unit locations? If the Ukrainians control the Kherson Airport as the video shows I'm assuming the forces that went up the M14 highway to the northwest are now cut off. I'm trying to figure out what all is up there for combat power. Hopefully be a nice little pocket of bad guys and I think the best (?) Russian units are supposed to be operating in that southern area. Thanks in advance for the help.

From looking at the maps of the area they don't need to take Kherson itself, just the bridge on the eastern side and they will have isolated any Russians north of the river and west of Kherson. With their low state of supply already it probably wouldn't take a day or two to reduce that pocket. It could go either way, but with low morale and supplies and getting hammered in a pocket I would think there would be a better chance of larger scale capitulation than of fierce house to house defense by the Russian troops. A Ukrainian counter attack in that direction explains the fast moving vehicles heading south and could be pretty indicative of the other Russian units trapped in the pocket. The video only showed soft support vehicles flying by so the REMF's are panicking. Probably a good sign of Ukrainian success. We will have to wait and see, but should be fun to watch if they get them bottled up there.

It was probably running away from the menacing tractor that is parked behind the house on the right side of the road in the video.

I really disagree with the last part of this. The west tried this approach with Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed and here we are. I think Russia should be left to itself. So it gets "closer" to China. Really it just gets more economically dependent on China. Really that should be a positive for the west as it drains China's resources for little to no gain and not ours. Haven't they been friends this whole time anyway, or at least friends when it suits them (against the west). I think that until Russia has a complete change of hearts/politics it will continue to be a thorn in the side of the western nations. That change has to come from within, by their own choice and no amount of foreign investment is going to do that. All that it will do is prop them up so they can be a bigger pain in the butt than they can achieve on their own. What should be done is all that money pumped into the Ukraine and build them up like post war Germany and Japan. They hate Russia so they will be a staunch ally and a great counter to their efforts in that area. They have the resources, population and location to be a very successful nation and would be a great addition to the EU and NATO. If Sweeden, Finland and Ukraine are admitted into NATO Russia is effectively canceled in the west. Play those cards and Russia effectively becomes the old drunk guy in the corner of the international bar boasting about his glory days in high school that everyone eye rolls and ignores. It's really too bad that China doesn't see this as an opportunity for expansion. They should be thinking "Wow, who knew they sucked so bad?" and decide to de-nazify eastern Russia. Take everything east of the Urals, gain the massive resources they seek and probably face very little back lash from the rest of the world. It would be funny if they used the same narrative that Putin has against him. I know it won't happen, but more because that scenario is guaranteed to go nuclear, not because they are "friends".

My prediction is that they will try another general assault with whatever they have left in the next few days after that they are done. Putin and friends will give it the one last hurrah hoping for success but all they will do is add to their casualty lists. Then they will try to dig in and defend/consolidate their gains, call for a ceasefire and try to get Ukraine to the negotiating table while they do their best to rebuild, reinforce and resupply whatever they have left. This will be with the intent of getting time to recover until they can attack again, or at least believe they can. They'll offer what appears to the west to be good offers but there will be something that the Ukraine just can't agree on so the talks and ceasefire can drag on until they are able to defend themselves and attack some more. I think the worst thing the Ukraine could do is give them any kind of a general ceasefire. They have the advantage and can easily take the initiative and chew them to pieces. I don't think they should give them a ceasefire even if they were just wanting to withdraw to the border. After the way they have conducted this invasion and how they have acted in their earlier conflicts with Ukraine they should receive no reprieve until they hit the border. Then the Ukrainians need to stop. Hopefully they could recover the lost regions from earlier conflicts, but absolutely do not cross the border and let Russia turn this into a defending the motherland scenario. I believe the UA can do all that, but the wild card is WMD's. Personally, I will be very surprised if they aren't used by Russian before this is all over no matter which way it ends but don't give them an excuse (invasion). Just my thoughts. I'm not one of those intel guys with great insight into these things so I'm probably wrong on all accounts.

Thanks CAPT!! I read that document you linked and anyone without much knowledge of the actions in 2014-5 should also take the time to read it. Learned a lot and the last 5 pages of lessons learned were spot on. What we are seeing now definitely confirms almost everything he wrote.

I sure appreciate all the information and expert insight this community has put together here. Thank you and hopefully some of you can answer some questions that I've had. Doing cursory internet research on the Ukrainian forces and their weaponry, I see that most of their heavy stuff is Russian, but they seem to be producing their own infantry small arms and support weapons. Did the Ukraine plan to replace all their old stuff with locally produced weapons? Are they starting with the smaller weapons systems and planning on working their way up and away from all Russian weapon systems eventually? I can imagine that will take a long time and significant investment, but probably the best choice. Why not buy the heavier systems from the west? Didn't have enough time/money or did they try and get blocked for some political reason? Or did their logistics and procurement people decide that it was best to have their people trained on Russian gear and just buy new John Deere's for the farmers for procurement? Sorry, had to throw that one in with the serious questions. Way earlier in this thread there was a little back and forth about the lack of infantry use in the leg role by the Russians. I experience a dichotomy of emotions watching the videos. The old CM'r in me cringes, but I'm happy for the Ukrainians that the invaders are so tactically inept. Anyway, I started looking at several western armies in Europe and it seems almost nobody has much leg infantry anymore. I get the big tanks and guns are sexy and cool and chicks dig 'em, but shouldn't modern armies have a sizable component of good ole grunt infantry to take and hold rough/urban/mountainous terrain? Not to mention it being cheaper to form/maintain as well as a smaller logistical footprint. I think most of the conflicts we've seen over the past 2-3 decades the heavies have been great for the initial assault and then the long term heavy lifting has been shouldered by the infantry. Do you guys think that this conflict as well as the others that have come and gone will influence an increase back to basic light formations or is wheeled/tracked mobility so crucial that their era is gone? The Ukrainian Army and TD forces have shown the worth of motivated foot mobile warriors in inclement weather and difficult terrain, or is the success more due to their invader's incompetent use of forces? Also there has been several references to whether or not heavy formations are still viable and this conflict will be studied a lot. My take is that not much will change with the heavy force compositions. I think they still have a place and can still be decisive. I believe the invaders have grossly mishandled their assets from top to bottom. I do want to clarify that I am not trying to diminish the success of the Ukrainian defenders, they have done a magnificent job and I fully expect in the end they will triumph. The question is, if the forces committed to the invasion were competently handled, supplied and led would the UA have been able to withstand the assault? Would have their regular armed forces been defeated and this already transitioned into a war of resistance or would the outcome have been the same? Thanks in advance and for the uninitiated, No. 11 Chicken and Rice with copious tabasco was the only way to go.

The other thing I don't get is that CM Normandy sound works just fine. Aren't these the same engines? Why would sound work on one and not the other?

Yep, nothing from the beginning. I've done all that except the re install of the driver.

Nvidea and realtek, both have the most updated drivers. Also updated Nvidea card just on a whim and that didn't do it either. No mods.

Well, took a little hiatus after the sound suddenly quit a few months ago. Would like to get back to playing, but I re installed and it still doesn't work. I went on line and purchased CMSF again, and it still doesn't work. Game runs fine, just doesn't have sound. Clean re installs. Sound option is on. Any ideas?

I checked the alt s function and my sound is supposed to be on. It was a clean reinstall, uninstalled first. No idea, kind of need sound to play though. Right now I'm dead in the water.

Uninstalled all four and reinstalled, still doesn't work.

Any solution to this? Mine just started this same sound problem.

I noticed that too. Finally had to settle with hooking at least two together to get the facing to change where I wanted it to go.

Thank you. I am especially happy with the ammo numbers instead of a gauge. Looks very nice overall and can't wait for the release!!

OK, thanks. Sorry I did not see the other thread. Thanks again for the quick response.

Went to start up CMSF and got a message that the exe file is a known malware (Win32/Heur). Anyone else experience this?

Something with padded shoulders maybe? And stay away from stripes.....

The Queen's Light Prancing Into Battle With Skirts Atwirling Royal Artillery I love those guys! I was just glad it wasn't the Queen's Heavy Cartwheeling Around the Battle Rocket Artillery.

Machineguns vs moving targets: Machinegunners are trained to pick a spot ahead of the moving targets, lay a line of bullets downrange and let the targets move into the bullets. This works very well with machineguns due to their greater stability during automatic fire and their greater ammunition load. You do not actually sweep the fire along with the target. This takes up too much time and ammunition. As for hitting a man that is running perpendicular to the shooter with a shoulder fired rifle; very short ranges are doable, but a man running at 12mph 500m away is going to take a lot of skill. It can certainly be done, but not by your average soldier without a lot of luck involved. You do the same as a machinegunner and pick a spot in front of him and crack a few rounds off while hoping he runs into them.