Probus

I started that thread and I can't keep up with all the comments either! It is still my #1 source for Ukraine war information and analysis.

An interesting video about the Merkava. Some recent footage and some historical footage.

Another good article about the war by the ISW:
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-24-2023
I would also like to agree with @Vacillator that the Ukrainian thread is my #1 source of information on that war, with reports and analysis beating the news media almost every time.

I really don't think that is true at all. Learning how things are playing out in an actual conflict is now these games were designed. A lot of that work was done learning about history for years and years by Steve and many many others. The fact that we have a conflict on going with direct relevance to tactics and equipment is unusual but the learning is going on. Lots of learning. Sure Steve and Charles et al are not beavering away and making changes that you see tomorrow but there is no question that this learning is good for the games (feels gross saying it). Kinda like people's learning over decades went into CMBO the learning going on now is going to pay off in the years to come.
You can bitch and moan about "not working on the game", "too busy posting to work" all you want but it's just whining that's all.

Don't most of the Israeli Merkavas have Trophy? CMBS teased that hard-kill APS was going to be a prominent feature of ground warfare in the near-future. But APS have been mostly absent from the fighting in Ukraine. Assuming there's a ground invasion of the Gaza strip we might finally be able to start getting a significant number of data points for how well these kind of APS systems perform in real combat, and what sort of countermeasures work well against them (salvoing two or more missiles so the second hits before the APS can reset, and degradation fire with autocannons to destroy the APS are two countermeasures I've already heard suggested). I'm guessing that APS will significantly improve a tank's survivability, but that effective counters to the APS will be found which will mean that tanks will remain (as always) far from invincible. I've already seen one drone video of a grenade being dropped onto a Merkava. The video didn't show clearly that the tank had been destroyed (despite the caption claiming that the tank had been destroyed), but I bet any subsystems on the roof of the tank (such as the APS) would have been seriously degraded.

A couple of days ago, Hamas claimed they ambushed and destroyed an IDF "tank". Does anyone know if it was a Merkava?  I was thinking the news may have classified an APC (M113?) As a "tank".  

Kinda makes sense:

 

Is the choice of Forum optimal? Probably not.
Does it really matter enough to keep derailing the discussion? Definitely not.

I'm still catching up with a backlog of ISW reports, so I don't have the latest just yet (I'm now reading their Ukraine-Russia, China-Taiwan, and their Iran updates). But they have started covering the Israel-Hamas war in their daily Iran updates.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-23-2023

Capacitors do store energy. Releasing that energy quickly delivers a tremendous amount of power.

Comparing a laser to an automotive internal combustion engine is a terrible analogy.

I think the bickering over where this discussion belongs is counterproductive. If I had started it I would have put it in the General Forum, but the Middle East setting makes the CMSF2 Forum a natural choice too (none of the games have any of the countries or forces involved in the war). At the end of the day I really don't think it matters. Can we just discuss the war now?

The way the other Israel thread was going, that was definitely the correct approach.  Thanks for your 'moderating'...

Howdy friend.
Your analogy is flawed.  Russia is an aggressor. Israel is not. Israel is besieging a military target that is firing rockets and hiding an army.  Whether the Gazans are human shields or not is on Hamas.   The entirety of Gaza is a weapons free zone for targeting and it will all be legal.  
Hamas broke every rule of war in their attack.  They must all die  
We all feel bad when we have to shoot a rabid dog. But obviously, Israel cannot be expected to live next to baby murderers. War is hell, But it’s much worse if you lose.  We’ve seen this movie before. Don’t awaken your giant of an enemy and fill them with a terrible resolve.
Delenda est Carthago. 
 

I was out for a while today, I come back to see hundreds of Israelis dead, plus hostages.  And what will this accomplish for the Palestinians?  More suffering.  Nice binge but the hangover is gonna be deadly.
Starting this thread to get the discussion out of the UKR war thread.

I'm just going to make this one statement to inform if never heard of. Whether you choose to look into it further is up to you or not. When the nations of Turkey, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Ethiopia, and Russia or former parts of Soviet Union which are muslim to name a few form an alliance of key players to pile on Israel then it's going to get Biblically prophetic hot. Notice that Egypt, Syria, and Iraq are absent from the alliance although they fought against Israel in the past. Iraq could be considered part of Persia though. Saudi Arabia specifically will not be part of this alliance, and will actually condemn it. All these countries will come against Israel, but it will be victorious which will be viewed as a miracle of God. The aftermath is described as taking 7 months to cleanse the land with special people who have to mark the land as the dead need to be disposed of in a particular way. The very fact that Israel became a nation again after 2000 yrs in 1948 as prophesied it one day would is something to consider in accuracy.
I did this painting, "The Bringing of Mars", 24 yrs ago in 1999 about it, but Ezekiel 38, 39 were written thousands of years ago.

Steve has never felt more justified.

To quote myself one more time;
“What is this?! I come here to express my uniformed opinions, not have people throwing facts around and saying it’s wrong. I'm out of here!”
To be little bit more serious, this is why we are here, share information, opinions, debunk BS, etc. Nothing personal against anyone, propaganda goes both ways and I am all for calling out both sides.
However, without countering Russian exaggerations we got ourselves masses eating out of their hands. Keep the ships sinking, even if they float.

Supposedly leaked photos of the submarine. This doesn't look good. Which is very good.

Hilarious 
 
 

That wasn't a malfunction that was a rapid unscheduled disassembly.

If the Russian sub was taken out, it would be the first time a military submarine was destroyed by a hostile adversary since WWII.  This isn't trivial.      

They weren't our workers, they already were fired,while missiles have been flying %)

My favorite part is "Ukrainian cruise missiles". Oh how the turn tables.

https://t.me/mod_russia/30416
 

I ran this through the bull**** translator:
"Ukraine fired something at us, we thinks it was a missile. No one really noticed anything until the fireball went off. We hope our ship can be recycled at some point but it's hard to see through the flaming drydock."