ZPB II

I braved the pandemic and broke from hermitage to go see Dune in an IMAX theater after reading rave reviews and recommendations on how the IMAX experience elevates the movie and that it is such a unique experience to view it in IMAX. The visual, aural and mental experience was sublime. I couldn't get the movie out of my mind for days.
Dune is such a topical evergreen with it's themes of consciousness, AI, superdetermism, free will, the concept of randomness and time, resilience etc. list goes on.

The secure computing paradigm. UEFI, TPM, Win11 itself etc.

While I do understand where a lot of the complaints are coming from and I don't judge people for wanting things, I find it amusing, in a cute and innocent fashion, to read year after year. CM has always been artesanal and boutique in nature. It's the original indie game. Mainstream is mainstream but CM is a counterculture institution. So many businesses have sold out and lost their way when expanding. 
Something happened to Games Workshop and Warhammer. The original crew created a nihilistic, fatalistic counterculture hobby with some decent social and philosophical commentary. Now it's a soulless, faceless corporate juggernaut that churns out bland Disney-tier material. They became a parody of themselves. A similar thing happened with the Simpsons. Counterculture became mainstream.
CM is an amazing game but the slightly anachronistic "stick it to the Man" attitude is what elevates it to such a special place. But then again I'm a weirdo, so there's that.
 

Sometimes spouses have arguments.
 

While I do understand where a lot of the complaints are coming from and I don't judge people for wanting things, I find it amusing, in a cute and innocent fashion, to read year after year. CM has always been artesanal and boutique in nature. It's the original indie game. Mainstream is mainstream but CM is a counterculture institution. So many businesses have sold out and lost their way when expanding. 
Something happened to Games Workshop and Warhammer. The original crew created a nihilistic, fatalistic counterculture hobby with some decent social and philosophical commentary. Now it's a soulless, faceless corporate juggernaut that churns out bland Disney-tier material. They became a parody of themselves. A similar thing happened with the Simpsons. Counterculture became mainstream.
CM is an amazing game but the slightly anachronistic "stick it to the Man" attitude is what elevates it to such a special place. But then again I'm a weirdo, so there's that.
 

Para ser claros, ¿tiene un problema con CMCW (que se lanzó recientemente este año)? Cuando ingresa la clave de licencia, ¿le está diciendo que no es válida o recibe un error diferente durante el proceso de activación? Si está 'sin activaciones', puede abrir un ticket con el servicio de asistencia técnica (haga clic en el botón azul, '+ nuevo ticket' en la parte superior derecha) y proporcione su clave de licencia y ellos pueden agregar una activación por usted. ¿Se trata de una clave de licencia impresa en una pegatina que viene con las compras de 'solo envío por correo'? Si su clave de licencia está en línea (listada en su cuenta de la tienda), y la está copiando y pegando, tenga cuidado con exactamente lo que está copiando (sin espacios en blanco adicionales, etcétera).
El último parche para CMCW es 1.01. Aplicarlo no debería afectar la validez de su clave de licencia. No sé si la descarga completa está en 1.01 todavía.

ZPB II,

After reading this, from the excellent Tankograd BTR-80 article, I 've decided that the projectile which best fits the observables is indeed the MDZ, which is rated as having essentially the same explosive hitting power as the 20 mm ShVAK aircraft cannon fitted to the T-60 light tank and a great many Soviet fighter planes.

https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/btr-80.html
The MDZ is a high explosive incendiary (HE-I) bullet designed primarily for anti-aircraft work, but it is also suitable for soft skinned vehicles vehicles such as trucks, jeeps, and cars. The bullet has a bimetallic jacket containing an explosive filler. A detonator cap is installed at the nose of the bullet. It is extremely lightweight and occupies much less space compared to a mechanical fuze.   The filler of the MDZ bullet consists of ~5 grams of phlegmatized PETN. The phlegmatizer content is unknown, but the explosiveness of PETN (as determined by a Trauzl test) is 523 ml, while the A-IX-2 explosive-incendiary compound has an explosiveness of 530 ml, the same as pure hexogen. The explosiveness of the phlegmatized PETN charge is likely to be between A-IX-1 and A-IX-2. In terms of explosive payload, the MDZ bullet is similar to the 20x99mm OZ (HE-I) shell for the the ShVAK aircraft cannon, which contained 5.6 grams of A-IX-2.    The MDZ bullet is specified to blast a hole with a diameter of 20-30cm into a 1mm duralumin sheet at a distance of 1,500 meters. This is superior to a 20mm OZ round for the ShVAK, which is only capable of creating a 150x160mm breach in a 0.9-1.5mm duralumin sheet simulating the skin of aircraft.   Overall, the useful payload of the MDZ bullet is similar to the 20mm ShVAK OZ shell, despite the considerable difference in total projectile weight of 31 grams. The forged steel body of the OZ shell may be heavier and more effective at fragmenting compared to the jacket of the MDZ bullet, but at least in terms of weight, the difference is not as large as the total projectile weight suggests due to the fact that the OZ shell has a large mechanical fuze whereas the MDZ bullet does not. Regards,

John Kettler

I remember seeing a video where a Shilka in Syria was firing perpendicular at targets behind a highway, pausing whenever a truck, bus or other civilian car is about to cross the line of fire and then resuming firing. The traffic didn't even seem to slow down as they approach the stream of tracers.
The human condition and so on.

Also, from personal experiences I feel SLOW might be an under-appreciated command when moving into contact or I'm just experiencing statistical outliers. I've actively started using it more and I'm seeing great success. High-experience units moving into contact with SLOW will often spot enemies really well and will immediately return fire if engaged and don't seem to suffer from suppression as badly.
It's really tricky to use since it will exhaust your troops really fast, but doing those final move into contacts manouvers with slow has proven useful. 
I usually used Slow when moving ATGMs, MGs, FOs and such into positions but now I've been using it to enter buildings and crest terrain into contact.
Be careful when using it in the open though. 
 

In the NTC 1979 scenario, your US tanks have a weaker gun and weaker armor, but have better spotting and better comms. Instead of trying to match guns with plates, seek out to leverage C&C to outspot and outmanouver your opponent. If you try to trade by sheer volume at long range, it will be statistically unfavorable. Ideally whenever an enemy tank crests or approaches in a narrow, several of your tanks will be engaging a single target with volume, or get a good ambush shot.
Some simple rules: at any feasible range at any aspect any US tank is in mortal danger and can blow up at any second from an unseen ATGM or sabot. Soviet big guns and ATGMs will kill. Generally you can only afford to favorably trade at long range if you can leverage mobile TOW assets in good cover, they're incredibly accurate and deadly at extreme ranges. Otherwise, the Soviet heavy turret front advantage with T-64/72/80 vs. lots of your common penetrators will show, the 105mm gun on US tanks kind of sucks and there was a panic to replace it with 120mm. You should always be trying to outmanouver instead of outgun.
Soviet ATGMs will, when properly utilized, absolutely mess up your tanks at long range. I've had great success taking out all US kit in CW with AT-3/4/5/6.
I highly recommend leveraging all the mobile TOW platforms (infantry TOWs are too cumbersome, the crew will get suppressed when guiding and destroyed soon after.) The TOW is the premier long range antitank sniping tool in CW. The optics mean it spots amazingly well, it's incredibly accurate and it's rare to see anything survive a hit. It will enable you to reach out and touch things you want removed. I've had tremendous success with even the measly TOW jeep, it is so damn good as a mobile flanker in meeting engagements and other situations where you control the info space. When that tiny jeep peeks out from the bushes, it will routinely outspot especially buttoned up Soviet heavies and proceed to oneshot them while reversing away from danger. Unfortunately it seems like it's bugged and not available as single vehicle purchase in QB, only in formations. (OPFOR BRDM AT-3/AT-5s are also a favorite of mine when used similarly)
The hammerhead M113 is amazingly good at trading with tanks when the range is 3km+
As always, you want to have a light infantry screen enabling all your battlefield actions. Try to maintain good comms between your tanks, tank hunters, recon elements and their HQs so your dudes will win the spotting game. Consistently winning in CM is all about thinking in terms of command and communication. The better you facilitate your Command & Control the more often you will outspot your enemy leading to outgun & outmanouver outcomes.
One of the reasons I like CW so much is that a lot of kit that was rather useless previously, mainly recon stuff like BRDMs and Jeeps are quite useful now and I always buy some in QBs.

There are definitely a ton of weird stuff that happens in CM, it's a computer program after all. But in long term the way CM emulates trends of reality quite well, it's not supposed to be easy to advance without taking casualties. It's frustrating when a plan and orders that one meticulously plotted doesn't go well, but atleast personally the biggest charm is that it never goes as planned, playing CM is all about controlling chaos. It's a punishing game, cruel mistress, femme fatale kinda thing like Dark Souls or Escape From Tarkov.
What gamemode and tempo do you maintain? I play WEGO so waiting 5 ingame minutes to allow troops to observe and listen to their surroundings can be done in 20 real-life seconds. Advancing without taking casualties is a painstaking process, but if you methodically move from cover to cover, always maintaining excellent command & communication, always have overwatch covering a manouver element and always Target Brief the most potential threatening vectors while having a constant recon screen and support on call one can improve the odds. I can play maybe one "methodical" game in one day before it gets mentally tiring and but I can play a dozen scenarios in a quicker fashion where I take more casualties. I only recently got back to playing CM after a long break and at first I was frustrated at how I felt my troops were doing stupid stuff, but then I adjusted the way I play and I'm seeing less casualties.

Title say it all really:

https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/soviet-atgms.html
Hopefully of interest to CM:CW players.

Also, from personal experiences I feel SLOW might be an under-appreciated command when moving into contact or I'm just experiencing statistical outliers. I've actively started using it more and I'm seeing great success. High-experience units moving into contact with SLOW will often spot enemies really well and will immediately return fire if engaged and don't seem to suffer from suppression as badly.
It's really tricky to use since it will exhaust your troops really fast, but doing those final move into contacts manouvers with slow has proven useful. 
I usually used Slow when moving ATGMs, MGs, FOs and such into positions but now I've been using it to enter buildings and crest terrain into contact.
Be careful when using it in the open though. 
 

There are definitely a ton of weird stuff that happens in CM, it's a computer program after all. But in long term the way CM emulates trends of reality quite well, it's not supposed to be easy to advance without taking casualties. It's frustrating when a plan and orders that one meticulously plotted doesn't go well, but atleast personally the biggest charm is that it never goes as planned, playing CM is all about controlling chaos. It's a punishing game, cruel mistress, femme fatale kinda thing like Dark Souls or Escape From Tarkov.
What gamemode and tempo do you maintain? I play WEGO so waiting 5 ingame minutes to allow troops to observe and listen to their surroundings can be done in 20 real-life seconds. Advancing without taking casualties is a painstaking process, but if you methodically move from cover to cover, always maintaining excellent command & communication, always have overwatch covering a manouver element and always Target Brief the most potential threatening vectors while having a constant recon screen and support on call one can improve the odds. I can play maybe one "methodical" game in one day before it gets mentally tiring and but I can play a dozen scenarios in a quicker fashion where I take more casualties. I only recently got back to playing CM after a long break and at first I was frustrated at how I felt my troops were doing stupid stuff, but then I adjusted the way I play and I'm seeing less casualties.

People who call PBEM outdated aren't futuristic, and are actually the true luddites. If and when WW3 comes, the internet will be one of the first things to go.
A pigeon or a runner or a drone or maybe even a well-trained cat will deliver my PBEM turns. It's going to be a bit more laborious exchanging TCP/IP packets that way. Gonna take a while to get somekind of semaphore up and even then the latency and packet loss are going to be ghastly.

Not an expert, but it's only relatively safe if you're riding on top of the vehicle. In a fording vehicle, the geometry of the situation is a bit more stable, usually if something goes wrong the vehicle dynamics don't change as rapidly. There's still the issue of water but atleast the vehicle isn't sideways or upside down, making exiting easier.
Whereas, if something goes wrong in a swimming vehicle it can look something like the linked picture. Everything happened in the span of a few seconds, people riding on the deck reported that one moment the vehicle was swimming on the surface, and in 2-3 seconds it was gone. A common sentiment was "the BTR literally vanished from underneath us." None of the crew and passengers inside made it out alive. A bit like how it was extremely hard to bail out of a spinning bomber, you're just tumbling around inside the machine, disoriented and hitting against sharp angular surfaces.
https://is.mediadelivery.fi/img/1440/2972d134ecf8326d832bc3dd12693072.jpg.webp
(the human for scale looks a bit wonky when it's placed right next to a zoomed in view of the vehicle)

What playtesting ?
The scenarios are not updated at all.

And what miracle ?
No matter of CMBN, CMFI or CMRT, it the same game essentially. So how should a engine "upgrade" with a few additional features be a miracle ?

I'm trying to read between the lines here, is having arguments and criticism dismantled and countered point by point somehow painful to read so you want it to stop? People resort to the fanboy-card when they run out of things to say, which is why they are laughed at.
 
Many people here have close ties with BFC, so having someone with vague knowledge on the subject walk in and start insulting people you know is annoying. This is very normal and rational human behaviour. Ignorance and arrogance isn't exactly beneficial.
 
Hyperbole: 10 years ago this place didn't remind me of Tumblr. Not that it existed back then, fortunately.

I believe that politeness is key for good critiscism.

The first thing to do is to never, never attack your opponent directly. Always remember: Engage the problem, not the opponent. Else you won't be able to move forward.
 
Second: Make the other person feel understood. If you say "I believe that this and that needs improvements" and somebody else says "nope", first follow point one (don't attack) and then show them that you are on their side: IN this case, you both want to get the best out of a game. Don't say "You are a fanboy", or "F****** old breed", say "I can see where you are coming from, and, while I agree with some of your points, I do believe that further clarification is needed, so that you can understand mine". Be constructive.
 
Third: Be careful how you open up an issue. If you say "This is s***, this should change!" you'll immediately see the answers you got: If you attack something others will defend it. Instead, try to show everybody what your motivation is, and why you believe your way is better.. "I'm seeing other games with features I believe might improve the experience for everybody. I know that my position might be controversial, please help me make the game better."
 
Also, note how you should try to, immediately, inlude the people you are talking to. They can help you, you can help them. You aren't engaging each other, but you are tackling the problem. Include them, and ask them to include themselves!
 
And, fourth: Don't hunker down in your position. The moment oyu hunker down is the moment you feel that everybody attacking your position is attacking you and you start attacking them. Take a safe distance from all of your arguments. And, if you realise that you are wrong, take a step back. You aren't loosing if you got the best result for everybody!
 

Criticism doesn't equal attacking something. You can criticize in a polite way. I have never seen something good coming out of anything that startes with "your s*** is s***." While having a discussion in of itself can be fun, I don't think that's your goal here.
 

Techincally not true, atleast if you are refering to the comment I have in mind.
 

Nothing about death. Just about complaining somewhere else. But please don't misunderstand me, I do not agree with this statement.

I'm trying to read between the lines here, is having arguments and criticism dismantled and countered point by point somehow painful to read so you want it to stop? People resort to the fanboy-card when they run out of things to say, which is why they are laughed at.
 
Many people here have close ties with BFC, so having someone with vague knowledge on the subject walk in and start insulting people you know is annoying. This is very normal and rational human behaviour. Ignorance and arrogance isn't exactly beneficial.
 
Hyperbole: 10 years ago this place didn't remind me of Tumblr. Not that it existed back then, fortunately.

Plenty of people manage to criticize the game without being passive-aggressive.

Plenty of people manage to criticize the game without being passive-aggressive.

Plenty of people manage to criticize the game without being passive-aggressive.

I'm trying to read between the lines here, is having arguments and criticism dismantled and countered point by point somehow painful to read so you want it to stop? People resort to the fanboy-card when they run out of things to say, which is why they are laughed at.
 
Many people here have close ties with BFC, so having someone with vague knowledge on the subject walk in and start insulting people you know is annoying. This is very normal and rational human behaviour. Ignorance and arrogance isn't exactly beneficial.
 
Hyperbole: 10 years ago this place didn't remind me of Tumblr. Not that it existed back then, fortunately.

Plenty of people manage to criticize the game without being passive-aggressive.