VasFURY

Thanks for the points Steve, Panzer and other active members in this thread. Duly noted. I do disagree with some of your opinions above Steve - especially regarding armed gang control of Crimea. I have it on good authority from around 100 or so families whom i know from that region (whom we keep in contact with from time to time to see how things are developing), and they all unequivocally say that the place is very peaceful, and very Pro-Russia, no crime, no armed gangs etc. (Im in the maritime trade and used to service a passenger line between Odessa and Yalta before the current problems started, so I know many local seafarers, port agents, tour operators, technical services suppliers etc. and none of them have complained about anything that was bothering them. They are of the opinion that things are much better right now, salaries have gone up, pensions have gone up, fuel is cheaper, etc etc. Seafarers are usually very outspoken persons, as anyone here who is from the Navy will confirm, and they dont sugarcoat their opinions. If things were crap out there, they woulda said so. Other points - Im not so well informed on them, so thanks for pointing me in the direction of the cossack problem and other "faults" with the Russian influence in the region. I will educate myself on the subject matters and possibly return to you with a debate on some of the interesting points that you have raised above, if I feel that I can argue a strong point for the other side. But Steve, same way you get "depressed" when you have to point out to me that I heard something from a "confirmed liar", and base my opinion on that rather than on the logical reasoning related to a given circumstance, I get depressed when you relate to your news outlets back in the US as sources of much more informed/cleaner/truthful findings. Snowden showed the world just how capable your secret services are at either altering, witholding or modifying the truth, and lets not even get into the control of the internet conspiracy theory (interestingly, some of the websites that I was trying to pull up just now to paste into here, which i read a few months back and which provided the "Russian point of view" in respect to MH17 (from private sources, not government related) - I cannot find them anymore!). That's why its good to talk about matters relating to whats going on in the world with other educated humans, and hear their points of view, hear what they have heard or seen, and make own opinion. I have come to better understandings of some aspects of the "situation" from some of your and other member's writings. Just need to point out that your "totalitarian" necessity to outline all things wrong with Russia can be hard to stomach sometimes . Its all good though, we get wiser from it.

It just pains me to see all the burned out wrecks of tanks and armoured vehicles from the various recent conflicts ongoing in the world - as Michael correctly said: expensive pieces of scrap, because of simple and inexpensive counter-tank weapons and tactics deployed by infantry. Donbass has shown us that even untrained miners can take care of BTR's and the like.

Would you agree/disagree, that on todays modern battlefield, armour is mostly derelict and more of a liability than a bonus, taking into account the vast amount of cheap anti-tank systems available that can take any armoured behemoth out with relative ease?

Hahah, that video is hillarious! @ John - thanks for the insight regarding the destroyer situation. I found this article here: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/11/13/aegis-fail-in-black-sea-ruskies-burn-down-uss-donald-duck/ and this one (has english further down): http://www.stopfake.org/en/lies-the-crew-of-the-us-destroyer-ship-got-scared-by-the-russian-fighter-aircraft/ I agree that Russia has a very strong propaganda machine, but then again so does the West/US. When that flight went down over eastern Ukraine, within the first week all of London was convinced that Putin personally fired the missile to bring the jet down. And then - complete and total silence. There are no reports on further findings, no reports on interviews with the Ukrainian traffic control officers from Kiev, who were leading the aircraft, absolutely nothing in the papers that sheds any light, on who was responsible for this tragedy. But what really irkes me, is that nobody here in the UK is seeming to even consider the possibility that there was a ukrainian military jet involved in this situation, or that there was something else rather than a ground to air missile, in accordance with the data that the Russian Ministry of Defence had provided some time ago. I guess both side's propaganda machines know not just how to highlight matters to embarrass each other, but also how to keep things hidden on the dark side of the moon. I dont think that professionally trained crew of a US Destroyer were spooked by a bomber that was flying very close to the vessel (if it was a situation where they were in danger, they probably wouldnt even have seen the bomber, just a missile contrail heading for their vessel), and subsequently resigned or needed psychotherapy. I do think that there may be a possibility that Russian military technology is not as **** as some of the western media outlets like to point out. Ultimately, i hope that there is never a situation to determine it in a combat environment, and I do hope that hostilities cease sooner rather than later, and further bloodshed is avoided. I have read many interesting things in this topic by various sides of the discussions. I feel very sympathetic to the Ukrainians for their suffering (like I said before, I have family there, and Ukraine feels like a second home to me, even though I was originally born in Russia), but I do not feel sympathetic to the current Ukrainian government. I think that the most reasonable step to stop the bloodshed, is to call off the Ukrainian troops from the war against the "separatist terrorists", and bring them back from the front line. Maybe establish a new border, which, while not legitimately confirming Donbass autonomy, would act as the new national boundary, to be respected by Donbass/RF while the politicians and lawyers muse over how to resolve the separation. As Steve and some others mentioned, I agree that it is unlikely that the "insubordinate" territory will expand further towards Kiev, in order to gain control of Ukraine. If that were to happen, the West would surely intervene with armed forces on the ground to defend Ukraines sovereignty (personally, I think the UN peace keepers should have gone in as soon as the Donbass conflict started). What such an "ending of the war" would mean for the Donbass region - i dont know. For sure there will be problems with maintaining public order and civil discipline (theres probably no police force there anymore, and a ****load of armed guys roaming the streets). Maybe Russian troop presence could provide some stability in the region for a short time? Problem is, although well trained, I do believe that parts of the Russian military have remained corrupt/"hoolyganist?" in nature, so Im not sure how that would work out (although all of Crimea is talking about the "polite green men", the russian soldiers that came in during the annexation period and have acted in the most disciplined and courtious manner - and i have heard this from people living in Crimea with whom we used to do business, not just media outlets). (again, referring back to media machines of the west/RF, notice how crimeans call them "polite green men", while in the UK media they referred to them as "little green men". Who would you rather have outside of your house? (I know the best answer is probably "neither" ). Also, Alex K said something very clever - the russian people/culture/politics, will not change quickly (good example with Iraq). Russia is a huuuuuge nation, with over 100 nationalities within it. Russia is a totalitarian state. I dont see any other way that Russia could be governed effectively without being one. And I must say, that people for the most part, have been living better off in the last few years under the Putin regime, than they were for example under Yeltsin, or the USSR before that (again, not from media, but from personal childhood and family experience). I dont know if this will last with the current sanctions situation, and with the looming possibility of an actual armed conflict taking place, but Steve, I think that it is VERY unlikely that Russia will collapse any time soon from within. Public opinion is very high for Putin, and is very strongly set against the West's intervention. People do not view the current sanctions as a result of Putin's actions. They view it as a western attempt to undermine a strong and growing Russia, as it had previously attempted to do in the past. And in times of hardship, Russian people have a very strong tendency to come together and endure in order to overcome whatever difficulties exist. So if the West is being inactive because they want to wait Russia out, well, its gonna be a hell of a long wait, during which Ukrainian situation will deteriorate even more, because the sanctions are affecting Ukraine even more than they are affecting Russia. Someone mentioned that to save the current situation, need to give ukraine loads of money (not on loan, just gift) - whoever said that sorry that Im not crediting your name, i just dont have time right now to go back through the thread.) I strongly agree with this, BUT, the corruption in Ukraine is even worse than in Russia. New government is very similar to previous in respect of their interests and goals. Any such monetary gifts will have to be strongly controlled in terms of their distribution and usage.

Best tank in the world - T-34/85. Gimme that against a leo2 or an m1 any day!

Hahah, this inteview is indeed interesting, I wish someone did a proper full translation into english of its content. Later they talk about the US destroyer Donald Cook, which was lighted up by Anti Ship Shore Systems "Bastion", turned tail and ran for the bosphorus. Apparently, after that situation, more than 10 US sailors from the destroyer resigned from their service (can anyone confirm/find out in US news?) (could be just propaganda). Apparently one of the reasons was also the presence of Russian SU-24, which did some fly-bys on a dangerous distance to the already spooked destroyer. An admiral then says that in order to cool off our American colleagues, we had to demonstrate the strength of our force in the area, so we chose to utilise Air-to-Sea aviation with instruction to fly in missile deployment range, in order to demonstrate our strength. Then it cuts to interview with Putin, where the interviewer asks - was it your instruction to scare off the destroyer with aviation? No, says President Putin, No, not mine. They were naughty/bullyish to do so, and didnt even tell me. (hard to translate хулиган directly. It translates like a bully, but its not really. Its more "mischivous" than bully). Then interviewer says: So, you turned Crimea into a Fortress? Yes, says Putin, we made it a fortress, from the Sea, and from the Air.

Right, so I reached the part of the interview, where Putin talks about the nuclear deterrent. Alex K relayed it pretty well. The full transcript, is as follows (Starts at 1:28:30 or so of this video http://russia.tv/video/show/brand_id/59195/episode_id/1180834 -so that you could look at President Putin's delivery while he gives these answers to judge for yourselves whatever you want to judge): ----- - Interviewer: In your discussions with western leaders - was it at all clear to you, that they would not involve themselves in this story via military methods? - Putin: No of course not. This could not be something that was immediately clear. Even from the first stage of working [with them], i had to accordingly organise our armed forces, aaaand, not just organise them, but give them direct instructions, orders, which dictated the possible behaviour of Russia and our armed forces, under any [means all types] of development of the events. - Interviewer: Does this mean, what you just said, that we also made ready our country's Nuclear forces? - Putin: We were ready to do this, weee, I spoke to the colleagues [means western leaders] and told them directly, just like I am telling you now, in a completely open format, that this is our historical region, there are Russian people living there, they became endangered, we cannot abandon them, it wasnt us who overthrew the Government, this was done by Nationals aaaaaand, people with extreme mindsets, you supported them [you meaning west/US], but, where are you [west/US] located? Thousands of kilometres away? And we are here. And this is our Land. What do you [west/US] want to fight there for? You dont know? Well, we know. And we are ready for it. And this is an honest and open position. Because this is what it is. And this is why I dont think that anyone had any intention to turn this into a global conflict. We are not intending to climb the horn [Russian equivalent of kicking hornets nest], they [unclear if he means Nationalists or the Western leaders, i guess he means Nationalists] have simply forced us to take such measures, and I will repeat again, that we were ready for the most unfaveourable development of events, and I was trying to base everything on the fact that it would not get to this and it was unnecessary to escalate the situation further. ------------- Then the video goes on with voiceovers from announcer, who says the following: "Later, in the Ministry of Defence, we were told that in the days of the events, many of our Military Specialists proposed to Vladimir Putin, acting as the Chief Commanding Officer, to use all available measures in order to demonstrate the readiness of Russia to defend its national interests. The President responded, "Despite the sheer complexity and dramatism of the situation, the Cold War is over, and we dont need international crisises, in the format of the Caribbean one. Moreover, the situation does not call for the necessity of such actions, and would contradict our own interests. In respect of our Nuclear deterrent forces, the President added, they are anyway always in full combat readiness."

@ Jargonth - i got your BS joke - it was a nice pun! I just think that Steve is very passionate on the subject matter and he didnt pick up on your humour in that particular instance.

Some interesting and valid points there. If things are left "as is", do you (in your reasonably educated opinion on the existing situation) believe that Russian forces (or the "Donbass opposition") will drive onwards to Kiev?

Hahah, I jest you not sir! I wanna start looking to the future than being mired in the past, simply because i really like how CMBS shows how much the modern battlefield is different than what our predecessors had experienced.

Problem with these sanctions Steve, is that they are hurting Ukraine even more than they are hurting Russia. I have family living in both countries (far from the fighting, thank God), but those in Ukraine have been far far worse off than those in Russia from the moment that even the first round of sanctions was imposed (even though financially both relative camps were on equal grounds ). I really dont think sanctions are the answer to this mess. I think the Germans understand this, thats why they act how they do.

Yeah, thats what Im trying to hear from the video, so that I can directly translate it and post here, because what he says and how he says it may indeed give rise to the precedent which you mentioned earlier.

Hey, just out of interest (Im not picking sides here) - would you view the US deployment in Iraq/Afghanistan as "national aggression"?

Interesting vid. Im only 70 mins in, no such comments regarding nuclear detergent yet. Probably will be towards the end, in order to enforce a point across. Will continue watching tomorrow.

Sorry Joe, I am looking for a game of Black Sea. Im burned out on all the CM WW2 stuff.

Hello guys. I want to play a quick 30 minute company level battle against a human opponent (will be my first for CMBS). Please kindly PM me if interested (im relatively relaxed on the setup, just dont want it to be too big, and not too much armour (IFV's ok).

QUOTE: However, this weekend Putin just offered up a concrete legal requirement for the US to be involved. Putin, on camera, boasted that he positioned nuclear capable missile launchers in the Crimean area in the event anybody tried to interfere with Russia's military invasion of Crimea. He specifically stated he was ready to put nuclear warheads on those missiles. If that does not fit the definition of "threatened", nothing does. UNQUOTE Does anyone have a link to this in original Russian please? Im interested to hear what he actually said and the manner in which he said it.

Just got my physical copy to the UK - really impressed with the contents, but really pissed with the customs declaration and the international handling charges that Royal Mail just made me pay for my parcel. Battlefront, can you not send your items labelled as gifts, or at least not have the declaration on the exterior of the package, but rather inside? I just had to pay 20 pounds (about 30 bucks) in order to be able to collect your game, which cost me 80 bucks (about 50 pounds), so I paid 30% of the game in customs and postal office charges. Really not cool.

Im based in the UK, still havent received my hard copy yet.

I would be interested in this. Preferrably leading a Russian platoon, but can be bluefor if necessary.

I would like to get a small match in as well please!

+ 1, game runs much smoother on my laptop than CMRT did. The colour palette and object variety seems greater as well.

+1

Yes, the change of setting to modern has been Really well implemented! Its like I have to unlearn everything that I had to learn in previous battlefront titles, because most of that is not applicable to the modern battlefield. Also like that there are far less man-squads to manage than was the case back in WW2 setting.

Mickey, my shadows look seriously more pixelated than in your screenshots, even though I am running on all max settings and 3200x1800 laptop resolution. Is there a particular setting I can tweak? They are flickering as well :-(. Im on latest nvidia drivers.