DreDay
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Posts posted by DreDay
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I was thinking of assault ladders. It should probably be limited to engineers and ranger or SF units if they do decide to add them. I didn't think about external ladder or fire escapes, but that too would be a welcome addition.
I gotcha. I would certainly welcome both additions; but I am a bit hesitant of how often the assault ladders are used by army units (as opposed to CT/Police teams); still it would certainly be a nice option.
You could easily make a game just centered around urban fighting. The trend is for the population to gravitate to urban areas as thats were the employment is and that's were they say much of the future fighting will take place.
As mantioned above a Stalingrad module will eventually be released...
Agreed. The current engine is already quite good for handling MOUT operations, but more features would have to be added if that becomes the focus. Right of the top of my head, I can think of modeling of building interiors and walls and basements (shot out to CMBB).
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One thing I am sure of is there is no morality when it comes to the actions of state forces - especially for bigger countries. That's why this thread is laughable in its attempt to portray any such actor as 'good guys'. There are no good guys only many shades of deep grey.
Absolutely! I am with you on this 100%. When looking at any powerful nation (i.e. US, China, Russia) it is absolutely fruitless to argue that the aggressive actions of one are well justified, while those of another are despicable. They all do what they consider to be most beneficial for their national interest, and their citizens would not expect anything less from them. That's why I find the whole "when we kill people we do it for the good, while when (Russians/Chinese) do it they are pure evil" statements to be laughable. I understand that they are driven by our propaganda machine (just like they are in any other powerful state); but I would expect more people to see past that and to realize that we are not always the good guys, and what we learn about our potential opponents is very much slanted by what our systems what’s us to think and believe... again, just like any other powerful and independent state.
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I am pretty sure I am not.
On to your other question and following on some of the comments of other folks, collaboration of the state with political groupings allied with them is pretty much the norm everywhere though still reprehensible. The involvement of prison guards in America with the klu klux klan and other aryan groups is a long standing problem that still exists today is just one example. However now we are really going way off topic. My feelings about what Putin represents was at least about his participation around the parade whether you agree with me or not.
Fair enough. If that's what you actually believe (I am refering to your earlier posts here) I can respect that; while still completely disagreeing with your premise. I would not dispute your pont about goverments (all around the world) using political and even militant organization to push their agenda and to neutralize their opponents. As I've said above, there are plenty examples of that everywhere you look. What I do find highly questionable is the notion that governments would commit horrific terror acts agains their own loyal citizens only so that they could blame their opponents for it. In my political studies, I have come to a firm conclusion that this is not how functional goverments operate.
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Ladders would also be interesting. The only way to enter and clear a building is through the door or to blow a hole in the wall. Ladders and the ability to enter a building via a window from an oposite and covered direction at a higher level would give more variety to urban fights. You could also make an improvised ladder bridge between buildings and you could scale walls you normally can't do so at present.
Are you thinking of external ladders that are built into the buildings (i.e. firescapes), or assault ladders that would be deployed by soldiers? I can see a case for both, but the assault ladders are much more likely to be used by CT or police teams rather than army units...
Goes without saying that the ability to just enter a building via the windows would be a welcome addition.
Yes! 100%!!
If they are going to add Special Forces then the ability to repel and fast rope from a helicopter should be added...anyone remember the old Command and Conquer series? I thought one of the coolest things to do was to load a chopper with troops and see them fast rope down to take a building.
I would love to see this at some point, but CM engine has no means of accurately depicting air assult deployments right now. We might have to settle for deploying such teams on the top of buildings in the scenario editor for the time being...
Perhaps someone can shed more light on this-but I've always understood one of the best ways to clear a building was to work your way down, not up.
You are absolutely correct. There are many other factors that go into this, but clearing building is generally much more preferable from top down, rather than the other way around.
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Here's a few links :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Reaction_Force
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14_Intelligence_Company
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Research_Unit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Special_Constabulary#1969_deployment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Defence_Regiment#Paramilitary_infiltration_of_the_UDR
The Military Reaction Force has been called a legalised death squad by some of its own members. Its successor the 14th Intelligence Company was involved in numerous civilian killings including the worst atrocity of the civil war in Northern Ireland - the Dublin and Monaghan bombings - an attack on a sovereign country against which they weren't at war - in which 33 civilians were killed. The British military were up to their eyes in helping kill their own citizens over a period of decades.
Anyway - like I said - there are other websites for these type of debates.
Thank you for those links Niall. It's always a pleasure to learn about another chapter of history that I have been fairly ignorant of till now. However, I think that there might be a slight disconnect in what I had meant in my original post and what you have so graciously explained here. In case of 9/11 or 1999 Russian bombings conspiracy theories - it is implied that the government had setup terror acts against its own loyal citizens to blame their opponents for it (for the record - I find such insinuation to be not just ludicrous, but also insulting to the victims of these horrific acts). While in case of NI Unionist forces, they had been used as "death squads" to take out the British Citizens that were opposed to Unionist rule in NI. Both cases are fairly despicable in my view, but the former (unfortunately) has had many other precedents around the world, while the later seems to be completely contrived and illogical to me.
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US is apparently playing it 'subtle' in its military aid. Back last December they supplied Ukraine with 35 armored vehicles. Bradley? Abrams? No, Volkswagen SUVs! About the least military-looking armored vehicle you could hope to find. The VW Amarok SUV, nominally militarized by Rheinmetall.
Precisely! At this point the threat/insinuation of lethal military aid is used more as a bargaining card rather than a practical military plan. Based on the recent visits of Merkel and Kerry to Russia, and lack of heavy offensive actions by either side in East Ukraine; this threat will probably not materialize for now...
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I think the maintenance state of the equipment is playing a larger role than tech level. Ukrainian equipment serviceability levels are likely far below the separatists' (not to mention the regular Russian forces). As an example, when ~10 APCs and tanks were assembled for one of the thrusts in Donetsk airport counter attack, only 2 (or 4, depending on the source) actually made to the jump off area. The 70% of ATGMs being unusable are a reflection of this, of course.
I agree with your point that Ukrainian high command perfromance has been lackluster - at best - up till now. The fact that separatists have dominance in C3I is a factor, but operationally Ukrainian forces have been extremely passive.
Those are some very perceptive points. I personally tend to think that serviceability levels are pretty bad on both sides. I mean, there have been multiple reports on rebel tanks not being loaded with ERA explosives, missing communication equipment, and being patched up together by some scotch tape. Moreover, DNR/LNR have very limited repair and maintenance facilities on their territory (even compared to ZSU).
The Ukrainians have many of the same issues as well, as you correctly point out. And the end of the day - both sides is using 30-40 year old equipment that has not been well maintained or serviced... so that's not exactly a shocker...
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Cheers Dre, but AFAIK the 45th Guards independent airborne reconnaissance regiment has dual subordination to both the SSO and the VDV chain with it being the primary expeditionary unit at full readiness for unconventional warfare duties.
Could be wrong though, things have changed since 2012 quite substantially.
The recon companies of VDV units are much better equipped than their motor rifle counterparts. Though ingame they probably would not be much different than the existing "new" reconnaissance companies. Visually however, which is half the battle in CM and part of what I think constitutes a good game and immertial tool, they would be different equipped.
Cheers old friend! I agree that a lot of Russian Spec Ops structure has changed multiple times since 2010. At one point all the Spetsnaz Brigades were taken away from GRU and subbordinated to Ground Forces, although I believe that this has been reversed by now. As for Russian SSO - so far they seem to be just a tier 1 spec ops unit that is called up for most critical missions (roughly comparable to SAS or SFOD-D); but not a US SOF equivalent that would include multiple formations.
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The British supplied, trained and provided intelligence to Loyalist gangs that murdered numerous British subjects over a forty year period. Going so far as to equip the gangs with captured weaponry to further escalate sectarian tensions. That's one example over a long time period that I am aware of.
I know very little about the history of the tensions in NI, so I might very well be mistaken; but there was no record of Bitish government either suppling the IRA or performig "false flag" terror acts that they would blame on the rebels, was there? That was sort of the core of my question...please feel free to correct me if I am missing something.
I'm not sure what any of this thread has to do with Combat Mission, Battlefront or as background to the released games. I don't come here to be propagandised to by any side of the debate. In fact reading this thread is like listening to a group of nearly bald men arguing over who has the best hairstyle. Not good Battlefront - please uphold your own rules and end this type of debate on your games forum. There are thousands of places on the web such discussions can be had if people want to have them.
Well said, good sir!
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I'd like a broader, more polished Ru equipment module because looking at high-polycount Russian vehicles in CMBS makes me warm inside.
1) T-72B with K-1 Era (good use for coastal defense units), also should be very interesting to see how T-72B vs T-64B fight plays out.
Agreed.T-72B/B1 are still the most common tanks in Russian arsenal; and most of them would probably stay operational by the time that CMBS timeline takes place.
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so I guess that in order to call the Russian gov't out for it's behavior and pronouncements one must be squeaky clean... okay that is one way of avoiding criticism.
And no there is no, none, zilch absolutely no validity to all the 911 conspiracy crap and trying to use those ridiculous sites to somehow excuse what the FSB did just goes to prove the point that it is impossible to have a rational discussion with anyone about Russia who is already inclined to excuse everything it's gov't is and what it is doing.
The US gov't has never ever faked an action against it's own people killing hundreds for the political ambitions of one sector of that gov't (nor has Britain or Spain, which you seem to be ignoring). Nor for that matter to my knowledge has Russia done so prior to Putin. Even Hitler didn't try that. Burning down the Reichstag while nutty didn't actually kill anyone in the process. Heck it is even questionable whether the Nazis actually had anything to do with the fire rather than simply taking advantage of it. The Comintern head of Western Europe who was charged was actually acquitted in the trial.
Nah the Moscow bombings put Putin's crowd into a league of their own.
I am pretty sure that you are trolling here, but just out of curiosity - 9/11 and Russian bombings aside, can anyone think of an example of a definitive case involving any government bombing its own people in order to shift the blame on to their opponents? I can't think of a single good example...Anyone?
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Big NO to SF being in game. Unless they were extremely restricted, they have absolutely no place in CM, barring for some extremely themed single player missions.
I would be curious to know why you (or anyone else) think that SF have no place in CM. What makes you say that?
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Recon troops for VDV formations are often subordinated to GRU - these are the "elite" troops we will most likely see, essentially they are still light role infantry.
With all due respect to the modding contributions that you have made to CMBS and other games, which I very much appreciate - it is worth noting that VDV recon (i.e. 45th Recon Regiment) have completely different subordination and command hexarchy than GRU Spetsnaz and SSO forces of Russian MOD. Not that is not entirely impossible for them to cooperate on the same mission; but that would probably be an exception rather than the rule; as all of these formations have quite different command and subordination structure.
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It is kinda telling that when I did a Google search on this earlier today the only article that showed up was from Russia Today. The reason is that in the West this isn't news and it is not important. Yet, anyway. But it's being spun as something far more meaningful in the RT article. It stated it was a continuation of the US' "anti-Russian policy".
Steve
To be fair, this was reported by quite a few news sources in US (Washington Post), Ukraine (Kiev Post), and Russia (RT/Sputnik) amongst others. Still it's far from being headline news for the reasons that you have outlined above; but (again in my humble opinion) it is sufficient to send the message to those parties that it is meant for...
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For sure, that is true. But that's really not news either, nor is it the only message being sent recently.
Steve
100%. My only point was, that there is some meanig behind such actions and their coverage, regardless of their actual procedural status.
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Are you sure they are not "invisible" because of the difficulty setting? Ammo dumps don't appear for either side at lower difficulty settings (which is why it is impossible for scenario designers to make their presence essential in a scenario). The ammo just gets distributed to the parent unit (or is lost if the originating vehicle does not have an on-map parent unit).
You cannot use enemy ammo, vehicles, or weapons. However, nothing would stop a scenario designer from placing friendly ammo dumps in enemy territory that can then be "captured" (bearing in mind difficulty level problem noted).
I only play on Iron, so that might have something to do with it; but still it seems like my troops should be able to find enemy ammo cache if it's within their line of sight. I do like your idea of placing friendly cache in enemy territory, would have to play around with that.
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Why not just mark their location with a TOUCH or OCCUPY objective and allocate points accordingly?
That's certainly an option, but that still does not provide for a resuply option and it would be nice to have my troops search for it rather than having it explicitly declared...
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I have recently noticed that enemy ammo caches (i.e. dismounted supply trucks) are not visible, nor usable to the opposing force. Is that by design or a bug?
In theory, it would be nice to have them visible either as targets (i.e. mission objectives) or just as re-supply points...
Has anyone found a way to make them available to the opposing side in custom scenarios?
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Excellent point, the aging Ukrainian population just has not enough man in fighting age to stand such casualties, especially the KIA !
The moral of the population would go downwards really really quick and peace talks would start. The same could be applied in a similar way to the russian side.
While I agree that the numbers listed by OP don't have any credibility behind them, there are some serious issues that prevent the casualty counts in this conflict from being more transparent... The Ukrainian forces are a mix of ZSU (Army), National Guard, Police, and volunteer battalions. All of these formations keep separate casualty counts and in case of some (i.e. volunteer battalions) the casualties are not officially verified (especially considering that there are quite a few foreign nationals fighting there).
Now in case of DNR/LNR side, things are even less transparent; as you have higher rate of foreign nationals (who don't have to be reported), Russian regulars (who are not reported due to OPSEC), and irregular formations that are not accounted for in any centralized casualty figures.
On top of that, there is a very large number of MIAs (around 1,000) reported by each side, some of them are probably WIA or deserters; but many are unfortunately no longer with us. What’s worse is that many (if not most) soldiers on both sides are from small rural areas (villages), where the impact of high casualty numbers is nullified due to small size and large distance between the locales where the recruits come from.
Those are some of the issues that make realistic casualty tracking be an absolute nightmare in this conflict; and that’s why the best we can do is operate with the ball-park figures based on video/photographic evidence and very limited objective news coverage.
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Wait a second. In order to understand how something works, it is kinda important to know it actually works in the first place
Seriously, there's nothing interesting new here. The subcommittee of the House of Reps has passed draft legislation for a wide range of defense spending programs, of which is the (relatively) tiny $200m for arms/training to Ukraine. It has not been approved by the rest of the House, it has not been approved by the Senate at all, it has not been "reconciled", and therefore there is absolutely nothing for Obama to sign or reject because it's not on his desk for either action. That's exactly where this has been since late last year.
Steve
Steve is absolutely correct in describing the factual/procedural side of this matter. From that perspective, it is definitely a nonstory. However, when you consider the impact of this act and it's coverage in the media field, there are (in my humble view) several hidden messages that are sent here:
1. US is not forgetting about Ukraine and will continue to support its military - that's a message for Russians
2. US support for the Ukrainian military will remain limited and scalable (as the $200 mil is not nearly enough to push ZSU to a new qualitative level) - that's the message for the Ukrainians
3. The conflict in Donbas will continue to burn and possibly get worse with more global implications; unless the "Normandy Format" negotiations succeed in resolving (not very likely) or "freezing” it (very likely) for the near future - that's the message for Europeans (mainly France and Germany)
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Recently I've obseved strange behavior of my infantry squad. It was engaging in firefight with enemy squad. Antitank guy has first loaded and launched OG-7 frag rockets which was absolutely logical. But then he fired AT rocket at enemy squad. That has puzzled me a lot because he had "HE rockets" in inventory.
Should the be considered as a bug or it is legitimate (whilst stupid) infantry behavior?
I honestly can't remember seeing a single Russian RPG team with more than one OG-7 in this game. Are you sure that they had extra ones? Moreover, did they fire the AT (I guess PG-7VL) rocket at an enemy infantry that was out in the open or inside some cover. I can see a point being made that HEAT RPG munitions are more effective against infantry inside buildings and fortifications...
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Definitely fake or misreporting - 248 tanks is about the entire combat-capable Ukrainian fleet. As far as we know, the Ukrainian mechanized units in the area of Debal'tsevo consisted mostly of 2 battalion tactical groups (from 128th mountain inf. bde and 30th mech. bde). Each mech BTG typically includes 10-15 MBTs (depending on the technical condition of the vehicles). There were also a couple handfuls of vehicles from 1st and 17th tank bdes, reinforcing various motorized airmobile and territorial defense units. After the encirclement was completed, the last reserves, consisting of another mech BTG of 30th mech. bde and company-sized force of 17th tank bde, attempted a partially successful de-blocking action. It should be noted that the 17th tk bde's company had been equipped with newly restored T-64BVs from long-term storage, and about half of these vehicles very soon broke down and had to be towed to the rear by the still operational ones (so it probably did not participate in the battle for long). Therefore the total number of Ukrainian MBTs in the combat area for the fighting period was probably no greater than 60-70 vehicles.
Out of this number, by Lost Armour's count, 20-24 were confirmed destroyed (location uncertain for 4, might be another section of the frontline) and 25 captured by militia (majority of them abandoned without significant damage - probably due to mechanical problems). Similar proportions are present for other AFVs (126 Ukrainian BMPs and BTRs lost during period of Jan. 1st - Mar. 7th 2015). Personnel losses are harder to verify, but the more reliable figures that I have seen are in the area of 1200-1500 Ukrainian KIA/MIA (with ~800-1000 for militia).
Excellent points tovarish Kransoarmeyets. We really don't know,nor do we have any reliable means to estimate the losses for either side that were inflicted during the winter campaign(s). However, your ball-park estimate seems fairly feasable for the overall casulaty count during the peak of fighting in Jan and Feb of 2015. Although, I believe that those numbers probably apply to all hotspots in Donbass (i.e. Debaltseve, Peski, Avdeivka, Donetsk Airport, Schastye, Metalist, etc); rather than just the Debaltseve offensive.
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The green experience level pretty much covers it. They do NOT have a clue.
Right that certainly is a part of it; but what panzersaurkrautwerfer is describing is a lack of proper situational awareness of battle conditions due to being new to the combat environment. It's more than just a function of training. For instance, you could have a squad that had decent tactical and firearms training and will generally hit their targets and spot enemy units as it is supposed to, but would not know how to properly react to incoming fire. While (I believe) a "green" squad in game terms will not just be clueless but would also have poor accuracy and spotting (amongst other factors)...
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The conscript thing is worth of note when it comes to units freezing though. It's not at all a question of morale, it's a question of training and the experience to be doing what needs to be done next .2 seconds vs 20 seconds after the event occurs.
I think that's really a point worth making. The conscript who's been in country three days asks himself "was that a bullet?" when here's getting the snappy noises that come with bullets going close then hits the dirt after he's come to the conclusion "THOSE ARE BULLETS!" or when ****. The conscript who's been in country three weeks is hitting the dirt with sufficient vigor to make an impact trench about halfway through the first snaps (on the other hand, he's moving hunched over and moving with a purpose when it's "just" bullets whizzing by because those aren't the close ones).
100%! That's an excellent point, and perhaps that's bit of a gray area in CMBS that is not completely simulated by simply considering training and morale. Not sure how that could be addressed by the game engine, but hopefully it would be at some point.
Combat Mission: Modding tools
in CM Black Sea Maps and Mods
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Thank you so much for your amazing work Sbobovyc! Quick question - are you (or any other contributor) aware of any good and intuitive compilers that would run *.py scripts on Windows?