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Jammersix

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Posts posted by Jammersix

  1. I think he was trying to "bridge the gap" between officer and enlisted. It was all the rage in the early 70s. Although I've always wondered if one of those sneaky bastards in second squad invited him in, then lit the poncho on purpose.

  2. I was taught to mask smokes under a poncho. While that may date me, it also led to one of the funniest things I've ever seen, a lieutenant dancing around trying to get a burning nylon poncho off his back.

  3. An FO who smoked under light discipline would be torn apart (silently) by his platoon.

    I used to wonder what the FO was blathering on about at night in perimeters... Meeting you has been a most educational experience.

  4. I've been using a lot more artillery since you explained that modern FISTers strive to deliver first round FFOs. The idea of keeping a running plot of an up-to-date overlay ready to go makes perfect sense to me.

    But after throwing 30 or 35 TRPs out on a huge map, it occurs to me to ask why a grid? Surely there's a more efficient form than a rectangle.

    Dazzle us with your wisdom, FO, and we will lift your heavy **** for you.

  5. So. How do you use your HHC people? Are they important, or are they disposable recon?

    In particular, the HHC Commanding Officer. You buy a U.S. Task Force. Doesn't matter what kind, armor, Stryker, Mech. You trim stuff away, and in the end, you decide you want battalion mortars off map because it's a small map, and you keep the Raven that comes with HHC. To do these things, you're forced to keep three weird little units that go with you onto the map. You have to keep the HQ, HHC, and the HQ Mortars, as well as the Admin Mortars units. Three little groups of reasonably high ranking dudes driving around in Humvees. No heavy weapons, just AT4s and M16s. 

    It seems to me that each of these groups would be vital C3 nodes, and if the mortars of off map, killing off the Mortar HQ and the Mortar Admin, which is who really does the work, would slow mortars way, way down. The same with their boss, the CO of HHC.

    On the other hand, game wise, these guys are useless unless you decide that they're actually expendable recon troops and send them in first.

    Has anyone noticed any adverse effects from losing either CO HHC or CO Mortars? Are they really just scouts in this game?

  6. Actually, carpenters and surveyors like math, too. Carpenters can figure hip, valley and jack rafters, stairs and doors while surveyors reduce stadia, close perimeters and zero out leveling runs. And then there's that whole scale thing, rotating to north and drawing Reports of Survey. Sailors sort of like math, there's a lot of north, true north, compass north, deviation and the whole fuel, current and course issue, but you wouldn't want your daughter to marry a sailor. Don't even get me started about the great circle. If you really want to get wrapped around the axle by math, read Bowditch. Studying Bowditch is like studying the dictionary without the fun, or reading the section of the Old Testament about who begat who.

    If you're strong, but you can't do math, you become an ironworker. If you don't like heights, you set chokers for loggers. So there's always the deep woods. And they like fresh, young boys.

  7. That's right, I was talking about Quick Battles, not scenarios. These settings almost never produce enemy (computer, Red) air power:

    Upper left: random battle type, random size,  length of battle one hour, map selection automatic, random map size, random environment.

    Lower left: U.S. Army, Mix, No Electronic Warfare, Human, Preview Allowed, No Change in force adjustment.

    Upper right: 2017, June, Random Daylight, Random Weather, loose rarity factor.

    Lower right: Random Red force, random force mix, no electronic warfare, automatic purchase. 

  8. Are the forces the computer selects controlled by the map, or are they random?

    I've noticed that certain maps usually have enemy air power, while other maps never have it. The same feels like it's true for Soviet vs. Ukrainian forces and infantry vs. armored forces.

  9. On 4/23/2016 at 2:31 PM, TheForwardObserver said:

    This can be fixed by equipping the Observer team with a Javelin, which provides superior spotting, you will instantly notice the difference.  Just don't provide them Ammo, or keep their target arc short, so they don't let one fly and give away their position.  

    P.S. I keep forgetting to comment on this: just like a FO, thinks the good part about a Javelin is the optics. Although I agree, if you're going to give an FO a Javelin, for god's sake, don't give him any ammo!

    P.P.S. The only FO I knew in real life could do sines, cosines and tangents in his head. That was 1976, and I've never met anyone else since who could do that. They're like medics: worth the trouble of helping them keep up.

  10. That just sounds like you saw some of the boys getting in touch with their Inner Warrior... It's nothing to worry about. We have E-3s to handle the explosives, and we enforce strict limits on how much they drink.

    The reason the FIST was invented was so artillery officers could keep up on patrols. For the first FIST, we took an M113, stuck a mirror inside at the front, dropped the ramp, tapped the FO on the shoulder, pointed inside and said "look! Very shiny!"

    "Okay, he's in, close her up and let's go."

    What's a yorkshire pub rat? Is it like Yorkshire Pudding? I liked Yorkshire Pudding.

  11. 10 hours ago, TheForwardObserver said:

    @Jammersix Not true.  I've known some of the greatest infantrymen on the planet, and not a single one can dance.

    The secret to dancing is twenties. Any Infantryman knows that when you start dancing and throwing twenties around, panties hit the floor.

  12. Officers. None of them understand the Drunken Naked Boom-Boom Boogie, Waddle and Roll, and how much information can be transmitted with it across cultural, language, light, noise and sobriety barriers.

    A Real Infantry Sergeant can dance his way into the panties of women on any continent.

    On the other hand, signal a forward observer to get down, repeat the signal twice, and he'll stand up, spread his hands, palms up, and scream "what?"

  13. I remember when the ballpark was just a vacant lot.

    Of course, if you keep telling yourself you can't do it, well, then, you can't.

    But someone will.

    You're right about one thing, though. They used to blame Apple for everything, before they just shut up and coded. And this is the same thing.

  14. I just used TRPs, an Armored Knight, two FOs, a TACP and a FIST to kill the computer without every sending a ground attack.

    I bought a combined arms task force, took one of the armored teams, the HHC, battalion, and 2 batteries of 155s in platoons, two Strike Eagles and two Guardian AT Apaches. An extra Raven and two Shadows.

    Step one, conduct precision 155 strikes, three rounds at a time, on all visible armor until 155 precision ammo is exhausted. Enemy armor turns out to be T72s. Not fair.

    Step two, since no one is shooting at the Shadows, I conclude that the computer has no AA. Send in one Strike Eagle to test the theory. After two strikes without drawing fire, cancel the mission and send in all four aircraft.

    Step three, wait patiently while Apaches and Strike Eagles decimate everything that looks red.

    Step four, run one short line of 155 AP on the largest concentration of visible infantry.

    Step five, oh, wait, there is no step five, because the computer surrendered.

    I never moved my task force, elite FOs, TRPs, and Apaches for the win.

     

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