Ts4EVER

Obviously that is because the Russians are not nasty nazis and don't want to make "war porn"... either that or they suck at hitting, I guess.

Hello, I am Vladimir Putin and this is Jackass.

These seem a bit too easy to fake to be taken at face value.

So I guess the goal is to have the Ukranians make their own no-fly-zone...

Maybe they have decided it is finally free of Nazis...

Isn't that the one city they actually took? Big if true.

I'd be worrying that they can somehow remote detonate a drone like that if captured.

The biggest economic blow so far was the freezing of Russia's foreign currency reserves. This way they can't use those to buy rubles to prop up their currency, leading to runaway inflation. Seems to me that they had actually prepared to get hit by the SWIFT sanctions, but in the recent years they had bought more Euros as opposed to Dollars, possibly because they had not expected the EU to actually freeze their funds. Major miscalculation.

But wouldn't you at least leave a few guys who pulled the short straws stay by the vehicles as sentries?

Yeah those are just artifacts from compression. I think some people vastly underestimate the amount of work that would go into a fake like that. I mean, you would need to have a big crowd shot of people at the right angle, for one thing. And don't get me started on that "fake" Putin video. Hollywood can maybe do something like that, but it requires specialists and way more time than you might think.

If the Ukrainians faked that with CGI, they should apply with Michael Bay after the war.

I am still using Office 2007, still works.

150 billion rubles? Gee...

I‘m sure they are some pilots in Poland right now watching those tank columns with increasing agitation…

Dunno about that, isn't Navalny a pretty right wing nationalist?

Yes, but they might fear Russia having some kind of pro-western revolution or see the potential of essentially turning it into a client state that relies on them economically.

Whacky conspiracies aside, what worries me right now is the prospect of China propping up the Russian regime and turning this into some endless proxy war.

Seems to me right now either Russia will collapse / have a coup or there will be an endless proxy-war stalemate in Ukraine in the foreseeable future.

Maybe they have started painting their fuel levels on their tanks.

I sure hope you are right. For Ukraine's sake of course but also: On Wednesday my 9th grade students asked me "Do you think Putin is going to invade Ukraine?" I told them that I thought it extremely unlikely, that he probably wanted to use political pressure to get the separatist areas under control or at the most create a land corridor to Crimea in some way. I also said that Russia could theoretically take Ukraine, but that I didn't think Putin would be that reckless and that it would take a long time and heavy casualties. So when he invaded he made me look like right chum, but slowly but surely it looks like I might be getting the last laugh after all...

Glad to see more battle packs, hope they will be able to deliver on their plans.

I was fine with the Lend Lease stuff, knowing that the Russians tended to standardize their tank units to use either homegrown or foreign equipment. Also, fighting against Germans late war, the huge amount of HE a Sherman tank carries is actually a giant advantage. Since we are talking about the campaign now: As I said above, I really enjoyed it, but if I had to come up with one criticism, it would be the German units you face. Not the tanks: I think it is perfect, that they didn't fall into the late war trap and just gave the Germans tons of Kingtigers or Panthers. Instead you mostly face Stugs or no armor at all, which makes perfect sense to me. What I find a bit odd is the choice of infantry in many of the scenarios: If you don't face the militia forces or the SS in one or two scenarios, the designer mostly uses the "straggler" formations. I am not a huge fan of those, because they usually lead to setups where the Germans actually have tons of people in their trenches, but very little fire power due to having only one MG in each platoon. From what I know about the last months of the war, it would probably be more on point to face a defense line consisting of a bunch of MG nests, each with maybe 2 or 3 people manning them due to lack of manpower. Basically the standard formation but depleted to its essence. Some of the scenarios almost felt like you are facing an early WW1 style defense, with trench lines full of riflemen. Pretty small complaint though, all in all the campaign was excellent, one of the best.

Long campaign, varied terrain and opponents, decent challenge, but not frustrating, ends in Berlin, which is always the best ending for a WW2 game...

I have both and as someone who basically only plays scenarios and campaigns in single player, Fire and Rubble is far superior. If you are more of a multiplayer or quick battle player, R2V will probably give you more variety though.

Yes... The map looks great btw. I actually seriously considered trying my hand at CM campaign design after F and R was out. I regularly make scenarios for WinSPWW2, including recently a Russian campaign set in the fairly unique Arctic theater. It would end with an amphibious assault across the Norwegian border by OSNAZ forces. Imagine my dismay when only the Germans got their amphibious vehicles with not a DUKW in sight... so for now that idea is shelved.