altipueri

Azovstal deserves to echo down the ages as long as the Spartans at Thermopile have. As strong a stand as any in human history.  

Crimea was effectively unopposed. The Ukrainian forces there defected en masse to the Russians, including almost all of the Ukrainian Navy.

If you are surprised by the brutality of the Russian soldiers in this war, you probably have not been paying too much attention to what they did in Syria (where they would intentionally target hospitals to the point where MSF refused to share the coordinates of their hospitals) and Chechnya (where they have been reenacting Grozny in Mariupol).

Putin's words at the beginning of the war have made it very clear he wants nothing less than the complete destruction of the Ukrainian state and identity. And he is far from the only Russian who wants this. That's what "denazification" actually means.
 
These are OF-37 offensive hand grenades. By design they have a smaller kill radius because they rely on blast instead of fragmentation, unlike the M67, which is also 25% heavier and about 30 years more recent.

The whole speech was as unescalatory as possible really. IMO the game now will be to hope for weariness on the side of West that could lose it's resolve to support Ukraine in reconquering all the lost territories. The ball is on our side now to make sure that this doesn't happen.
Edit: next thing to look for is speech from Biden:
 

It surely doesn't look like things are improving..
Some topics and comments are so heated up that I start to reminisce about John Kettler and his conspiracy-stories. Those were less fanatical than some of the things I read in this thread (multi-multi-multi-topic-thread?) lately.
I loved reading the amazing news-updates and the very interesting debates and analyses, but things seem to go a little haywire, I fear.
 

I think you’re right…time for all of us to agree to drop the ACW topic.

I much preferred this thread when it was discussing the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Absolutely. And when you look at it, the situation is far from rosy. War is raging in and dividing Europe and nobody knows where this will end, we're possibly heading for a global, economical crisis and have to spend billions and billions on arms, alternative energy, helping refugees and if God willing Ukraine survives all this, building up an entire country again. And that's not nearly all. 
The only ones that profit from the present chaos are the Chinese, who are probably laughing their heads off right now. I'm convinced they encouraged Putin in all this and are not nearly as worried and neutral as we Western softies like to think. The economies of the West are severly weakened by the war in Ukraine and it's consequences (increased defence budgets, other and more expensive ways of finding the energy to keep our factories running, a Tsunami of millions of Ukrain refugees, that have to be fed and housed, and so on and so forth). And all this  time China prepares for the future...

I very much doubt that. In fact that would be a very dangerous development for the peace in Europe. None of these countries have the political stability, nor the experience with democracy to make that into a success.

Some of the conversation over the few pages have referenced the former Yugoslavia.  Which brings back... well, not so good memories.
I was a Canadian peacekeeper in Bosnia in latter half of '93.   During the Croatian offensive in the Medak in Sept of '93, I was with the 2 PPCLI when we went into the sh*tstorm to try to stop the ethnic cleansing going on.  The Croatian army attacked our unit during that operation, a thing that the Croatian government denies to this very day.  Despite us photographing the Croatian dead after the battle and collecting their ID, etc.    We had god damn evidence and to this day, the Croatian government position is that they never attacked us.
Part of our job, beside trying to keep the warring factions apart, was to document evidence of ethnic cleansing and I was in charge (I was an officer) of a evidence collection team.  So, literally thousands of photos, videos.  Transcripts of interviews with witnesses and victims.  Six months exposed to that living hell, day after f*n day....
So I had the evidence, because sometimes our official recording devices ran out film or tape and we used our personal recording devices to finish up at a site.
After I got out the military, I found myself sometimes on various military forms about games, such as this one.  Arma forums, military wargame forums... that sort of thing.  And as it happened, I ran into forum members from Croatia and Bosnia Serbs and we would get into it.
Universally, every Croatian or Bosnian Serb forum poster denied what happened there.  And I was called a liar on many occasions for telling them them the truth of that war as I was there and they weren't.  And I have evidence to back up my claims.  No one believed me and if I offered visual proof, they didn't want to see it or they disclaimed it as fake.
I remember a particular Bosnian Serb who was not in the war but we got deep into the weeds discussing what happened during that war.  Deny, deny, deny.  It never happened.  Until videos that the Bosnian Serbs took of them killing civilians and dumping them in mass graves what was recorded by the very soldiers who committed the atrocities surfaced and made it onto their local media and they couldn't deny it any longer.  Those videos were part of the process besides sanctions that resulted in some notable Bosnia Serb / Serbian leaders being turned over to the ICC for prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.  After the revelation came out, this individual on that forum who I had spent hours engaging with about the culpability of Serbs in the atrocities simply ignored me from that point onwards.  I will never know why.... was it that he discovered that I was right all a long and he was wrong and he was ashamed (as he would have been) or he simply wanted to hang onto his delusion of what narrative he wanted to believe was true and he knew that I would keep chipping away.   
Denial is a powerful thing.   I don't understand why it has such power but it does.  People can dismiss an outright objective reality because to accept the truth is to undermine what they think reality is or should be.   I don't get it and is beyond madding to see the denials in the face of objective reality happen over and over.
Sigh.   I don't know why the hell I rambled on with this.  Maybe it was a story I need to tell to remain sane in light of the same brutality I witnessed back in Bosnia happening in Ukraine now.  Or maybe I still am the greater fool for believing my experiences in Bosnia can be an object lesson to others about holding onto a narrative that is personally comfortable but runs counter to all the real evidence to the contrary.   DMS, I am looking at you....
The truth will come out after all this is over.  At least, I hope it does.  The truth of this war needs to be told and codified so generations that follow can know what really happend.
Now at the end of this and reviewing it, I feel that I should have deleted this or apologize for it.  
I am hitting post. It is my truth.  Let people accept it and learn something from it or ignore it.  I needed to say this for a long time.   
 
 

From FT today 11:00 am:
Some of Europe’s largest energy companies are preparing to use a new payment system for Russian gas demanded by the Kremlin, which critics say will undercut EU sanctions, threaten the bloc’s unity and deliver billions in cash to Russia’s economy.
Gas distributors in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia are planning to open rouble accounts at Gazprombank in Switzerland in order to satisfy a Russian requirement for payments in its own currency, according to people with knowledge of the preparations.
The groups include two of the single largest importers of Russian gas: Düsseldorf-based Uniper and Vienna-based OMV.

We actually announced the visit date of two high ranking US officials?  tell me we didn't do that.
Meanwhile, Putin et al keep threatening Poland, Finland, et al, as per above posts.  This is hilarious.  It's like me threatening to beat up an NFL defensive lineman.  "what out Aaron Donald, else I'm gonna F you up!".   For you non-US football folks, Aaron Donald is, in strength and agility, the closest thing to a comic book superhero that actually exists.

I recall a story from my old home town at the top of northern Maine (US). When the US was supplying Lend-Lease planes to Britain in WWII they built an air base right on the border with Canada. They'd fly the plane in then tow it the last few hundred yard across the border in order to abide by the letter of their neutral status agreement, or some such reason. If the US is doing something odd like that now they're no doubt looking at the fine print of what the are and aren't legally allowed to do without stepping over the line.

Some frontline news:
Mariupol. After a time of next ultimatum has gone Russians hammered Azovstal with FAB-3000 from Tu-22M3 and heavy artillery (maybe 2S4 240 mm siege mortars too). Azov command made a statement the plant territory almost all ruined, they try to take out survived people, dead and wounded from ruins. Russians at this moment don't advance forward. About 1000 civilaians hide in plant undergrounds   
Zaporizhzhia axix: Russians throughout the day desparately attacked our troops in Huliaypole area to establish better conditions to the entering in the battle rest of forces, but hadn't sucess.
Velyka Novosilka axis (JTO south): Russians decided outflank our troops west from this settlement and to breakthrough between Huliaypole and Velyka Novosilka. They advanced from Liubymivka to the line of ponds and the dam near Temyrivka village
JTO: Russians could take Maryinka under own control, but our forces after regrouping counter-atatcked and retaken the settlement. In Rubizhne all attempts of enemy to move further where repelled. Now Russians and separs control about half of the city. Calshes around Kreminna.
Kherson oblast: Russians launched attack on the north of Kherson oblast to take back positions, lost in previuous weeks, but hadn't success
Kharkiv oblast: multiple attempts of small armored battlegroups to infiltrate through our positions and find the hole in our defense - no success.     

Many thanks for this Haiduk.

Like Napoleon on the night before Waterloo, Putin thought he had a 90% chance of winning.
But the dice rolled badly.
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The rest is history. Or will be for a long time.
 
 

Horrible from PR POV for whom?
Domestically russians couldn't care less. To them africans are even lower human beings than us. They just want their empire back.
Abroad? After Bucha they now know their oil and gas will be bought by EU regardless of them murdering european civilian population in all the horrible ways directly, let alone some africans indirectly.
You just come at an issue from a humane standpoint. But russians aren't very humane.

CMBS Ukraine 2022 Scenario 1  The Coup  -  scenario ends 14 April 2022
Russia victory objectives:
1. Remove Zelensky
2. Install puppet administation
3. Occupy Ukraine east of Kiev
4. Occupy Ukraine west to Lvov
Russia score  =  0
---------------
CMBS Ukraine 2022  Scenario 2 The Pause  - scenario ends  31st May 2022
Russia victory objectives:
1. Putin still in power
2. Crimea still in Russian hands
3. South and East Ukraine "de-nazified"  (obliterated, massacred, etc..)
4. 100,000 Russian boots still in Ukraine   
5. Bonus objective: Germany still buying gas.
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Any bets on Russian points at the scenario end?

So does that make it not so much a Char B as a charred B ?

So does that make it not so much a Char B as a charred B ?

Come on Wart - shake your box of tricks up and give us another game.

Principles or principals?
In principle I think the principals of a firm should explain their game design principles.
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I usually ost (=post) drunk, so that's my excuse (error picked up just in time) 
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A very short book called "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White may help the confused.
 

At last - a German minor victory. Time for another drink.
 

3 more defeats. At least on one I lasted 9 minutes before my guys died. (I sprinted vehicles up past the house and round the hill)
 
I even tried playing without a drink in my hand.
 

3 more defeats. At least on one I lasted 9 minutes before my guys died. (I sprinted vehicles up past the house and round the hill)
 
I even tried playing without a drink in my hand.
 

Ugh. Major defeat again
And it made me sit through 5 minutes of "extra time" watching the smoke from my vehicles.  Grrr.
 
I got some use from the infantry guns behind the woods firing onto the road in the middle, but they didn't last long.