db_zero

For some reason I think that while China talks tough on China, it's just talk. Its also very risky. Amphibious operations are the most difficult to pull off. Taiwan only has a few beaches suitable for sea invasion and they are atrocious terrain for any invader. It heavily favors the defender. Any invasion would require serious preparation and as already demonstrated by events in Ukraine and serious preparation will be detected. It would also probably have to be a large sea invasions as I doubt a airborne invasion alone would be sufficient. The naval forces available from the US and allied's would be a formidable force and China would have to gain and maintain complete air and sea dominance. The biggest threat to that IMO is the modern nuclear and conventional attack submarine. It wouldn't take much to serious disrupt a naval invasion from China.

Looks like the general consensus is the Russian will overwhelm the Ukrainians. While initial reports are not to be relied on I've seen that 5 Russian helicopters have been shot down and dozens of Russian tanks and presumably IFV's have been destroyed or damages and Russia has not committed most of their troops. If true or close to it, how sustainable over time is this for Russia? People think and most Combat Mission players will fight to the last man, but from what I've gathered most combat units will lose most of their effectiveness after a small percentage of losses and any additional losses will cause a proportionately higher level of derogation in effectiveness. If the above mentioned losses are true and concentrated in a relatively limited of units as part of a small proportion of the forces that can be committed then would that be something of concern and telling? I would think that if Russia sustains a loss rate of 4-5 helicopters a day and dozens of AFVs over time that's going to raise some concerns for the Russian military and will that affect overall effectiveness. As for dumping TOS-1s onto large urban areas-that would certainly cause a lot of backlash and wouldn't that just be counterproductive? Cause rubble that helps defenders, causes even more resolve to fight for Ukrainians? Not to mention that fact that what use would it be for Putin to capture and control a completely demolished city.

whats TOS-1?

How the Russian will handle the large urban areas? Surround and siege or try to storm? Urban combat is brutal. Another big question is if it comes to a point where the Ukrainian soldiers and militia say they've had enough-for now and they decide slip out to NATO countries like Poland, how will NATO handle this? Is the West prepared to support a long term insurgency? I also have to think that Ukraine has been preparing for this moment and stashed a lot of weapons and ammo. Javelins, Stingers and other modern weapons provided by the west are likely to be stashed if not used and Ukraine is a large country and 190,000 troops seems a bit small to effectively occupy a large country like the Ukraine.

While there are lingering questions to what if anything was promised to Gorbachev regarding NATO expansion east after the collapse of the USSR, the west should not be surprised at what’s going on. NATO expansion east was bound to cause reaction by Russia and Ukraine’s geographical location and terrain makes it critical in the eyes of Russia. The timing of all this is no coincidence. Putin knows his main adversary the US is politically divided. He has elements as well as key political figures who are sympathetic to his cause. Now is a good a time as any to move before this advantage slips away. Putin may have a trump card to play to counter the economic sanctions. For the past few years Russia has been buying and stockpiling physical gold. With inflation running wild in the west due to out of control monetary policy stretching back to 2009 the price of gold has been holding steady and recently catching a bid. Like drugs, controlling sales of physical gold is hard to control, regardless of economic sanctions and controls in place. There will always be a buyer and in a day and age where fiat currencies are coming under question due to mis-management, metals become more desirable to possess. Then there is the question of US Federal Reserve policy. Inflation is running hot and to try and control it the Fed will have to raise rates. Problem is with the US deficit so high each basis point increase in rates will cause hundreds of billion in addition cost to the interest on debt already accrued. There are other potential perils in rate policy, but the bottom line is raising the US defense budget to meet growing threats may become problematical. Then there is China. In the past the West in particular the US has been adept at playing China and Russia against one another. That day has passed. The action of the US over the past few years has made it difficult if not impossible to play China and Russia off against one another. Now China and Russia view the US as the main adversary and are working together to bring a slow and prolonged end to US dominance. I have no idea hot the situation in the Ukraine will get, but I can see bad times all around.

Take a look at Gravteam and how it portrays the battlefield. IMO probable the best war simulation out there. I'd be very happy to see Combat Mission be presented in a similar manner. I'm just referring to the actual tactical combat presentation, not the interface or game play. Visually when the combat starts its stunning.

Can't say I blame you. Seems like that region is very concerned about what's going on. The US has a very large and powerful industrial-military-complex and over the years the business community has been doing a lot of business in China in quest of riches. The belief used to be that the more capitalistic China became, the more democratic and free it would become. That proved to be a very bad assumption. China has issues of its own and a long history and a past of Western interventionism. Recently some top US military officials have said that inspite of the rhetoric, both sides know any conflict between the US and China would be a disaster for both sides and both sides are eager to avoid one... There may be another side to this. Back in the 80's when the US and USSR squared off, Reagan introduced the SDI initiative. Panned by many as impractical and wishful thinking, there is a theory and belief that Reagan knew that, but went ahead anyway because he knew the Soviets would have to react and their economy was on brink of collapse. The rest is history. Fast forward to today. The United States is running massive deficits. Interest rates is at zero, arguably negative. Inflation is rising at an alarming rate. Any sort of large hike in interest rates to combat inflation is out of the question. The US deficit has become so large that if rates go to what was once considered normal, the interest on debt accrued would swamp the budget. There is now open questioning of the US dollars status of the global reserve currency due to the gross fiscal mismanagement. The petrol-dollar system, put in place after the gold standard was abolished in the early 70's would also come into question. China has already introduced the digital yuan and their society and economy is already highly digitized. Its far ahead of the US which is mostly debit and credit card based and built around the USD, which due to its status as the global reserve has allowed leaders and the country to abuse that power. You see where this is headed? China may be ratcheting up rhetoric on Taiwan, with no real intention of invading to get the US to spend more on defense to react, while at the same time is also running massive deficits, dealing with fast rising inflation and an internal pressure for more spending on social programs, not to mention is seriously divided internally. All this while the status of the USD as global reserve is coming into question and China already having a foundation for a replacement of the USD.

One thing I didn't mention that would be nice to see is prepared assaults or defense. If a force knows and prepares for something like an assault then platoons could be equipped with things like more smoke grenades. Now in WW2 games if a unit splits up only 1 of the elements has smoke grenades. If all 3 could have smoke grenades in some situation that would make things more interesting. In fact trucks, HTs and Jeeps where you can acquire items-mabye let them have things like smoke grenades soldiers can load up on? For the modern titles-what about portable drones? Or for that matter anti-drone tech and weapon systems?

Over the years I've asked for China to be done and impression has been its not going to happen. The person who is in charge of doing the OOB and related stuff was reputed to be suicidal at the thought of having to take on the task. It would be great to have a modern module on the Pacific, but I'm not holding my breath. On an operational level I would love to a Flashpoint Campaigns type of game covering China and Taiwan... China at the moment has huge issues. They are in the middle of a massive housing bust, energy issues and blackouts and a large group of nations has revoked favorable tariff treatment for Chinese goods. In addition Japan has indicated they would assist Taiwan and any sort of Chinese invasion of Taiwan would incur massive diplomatic and economic isolation. The JMSDF is very well equipped and competent. Taiwan has been preparing for a Chinese invasion for decades. There are only a few beaches suitable for amphibious assault and the tides and weather has to be favorable. Any large scale Chinese preparation for invasion would likely be detected. Complete air and naval dominance would be required. While much of the attention is focused on Carriers, surface ships and aircraft, what lurks beneath the waters is where the real danger lurks. IMO US, Taiwan and other allied nation subs could cause havoc to any Chinese invasion. Mines and underwater drones is also a major threat to any invasion. American carriers and surface ships would likely be kept far back away from any threats. Taiwan is very rugged and defensible. Resupply of and large scale amphibious invasion would also be a big headache. These days bombers with massive loads of precision long range missiles can take off from the continental US and launch large scale barrages against naval forces. One thing is for sure. If there is a war between China and the US it will begin with massive cyber attacks and targeting of space based assets. The US Marines and Special Forces have been quietly training the Taiwan military. I saw a video that mentioned Taiwan if invaded will fight asymmetric against the numerically superior Chinese. The terrain is well suited for this-probably tunnels left over from the Japanese who occupied Taiwan and prepared for possible US invasion in WW2, plus more have been built. Plus the urban areas would be an absolute nightmare to try and take. These days with systems like Javelin urban combat would be very tough and time consuming and the consumption rate of ammo would be through the roof. I don't think China has the capability to mount and supply this sort of undertaking yet. Perhaps in 10 years, but any failure would mean the end of any regime that attempted it

I'd like to see better infantry animations. Ambush command. Better 4K resolution support. I'm playing it at 4k now on a 34 inch monitor. Its playable, but for some reason it doesn't feel as smooth as when I was running at 2056x1080. What does the move to engine 5 mean for the current engine? No more modules? Was hoping for a Russian Front 41-43 and North Africa.

I've played a couple of h2h games where the TOW was the primary AT weapon. In both games, while highly effective, I had a number of missiles fly into the ground way short of the target as well many that lost track of the target and flew over it. In most cases the firing vehicle was not being targeted. Woods, urban areas or any other obstacle where a target can break LOS for a short period seems to do the trick. On a side note I'm noticing infantry seem to fire LAWS in pairs. IIRC this was the standard doctrine? They are effective on BMPs if they hit that's for sure. I haven't seen them used on tanks yet, but if my opponent gets desperate and sends his remaining tanks into town we'll find out how effective they are. Side, rear or shots fired from higher elevation will probably be needed. The 4.2 inch mortars seem nasty. Been dumping them on infantry in the woods where it looks like they are being massed for an attack. If nothing else they sure make a nice commotion.

Real vodka or moonshine made from shaving lotion or de-icing fluid? There was another video floating around showing a BMP2 or 3 being driven by drunk Russian soldiers on a street. They do look like they handle like sport cars.

Air droppable at least once. Same true for driving through an airport wall?

Maybe they can figure out a way to direct the microwaves in specific directions or arcs from which the drone threat is coming from. As for the frying of mobile phones, I think the military has just come up with a solution for soldiers making tic tok videos.

Using microwaves to disable drone swarms..... Will we eventually see a miniaturized version of this accompanying armored vehicles or on the vehicles themselves. I see no reason why not. https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2511792/army-partners-with-air-forces-thor-for-base-defense/

Be interesting to see how the new Stryker based AA vehicle does against drone swarms which will likely be a serious threat as the technology proliferates. Most if now all the civilian drones are made in China so the technology is widely available. The other potential threat is UAPs. So far it seems to be mostly a US Navy thing, but who knows. Awaiting the report that is slated to be released. Not expecting too much.

The Stinger had a reputation as the bane of the Mi-24 in Afghanistan. So far in my limited CW game play, I'm not too impressed. I had 2 Stinger teams one with 11 missiles, the other with 15 missiles, plus a HQ with 4 extra missiles. All missiles were fired off and many times both teams fired at same time in same direction. All missiles have been expended and only 1 Hind downed and that was with the very last Stinger. The Hinds were able to strafe and rocket my M-113s and infantry pretty much at will. I haven't play too much so I can't say much other than to report what has happened with one of the first battles with Stingers and Hinds.

Haven't tried it yet, but I suspect just like the Tungusta in Black Sea the zip-gun is going to be a favorite in h2h quick battles as an all purpose eradication vehicle and used against ground targets and buildings quite a bit. Unlike Black Sea the American side also has a rapid fire zapper in the M163.

I would love to see a mode where you can just pick anything-no points, all you can eat buffet.

In the 70s, Foghat, Blue Oyster Cult comes to mind. Early 80’s? For some reason Men Without Hat’s Safety Dance cones to mind...

I would get a screen that runs at least 144Hz. I’m pretty sure Combat Mission will run fine on a 60Hz monitor, but 144hz is so common and cheap it’s the better option.

If the Dutch are included in a module will the soldiers have long hair and abide by Union rules? iirc correctly around the time frame of CW the Dutch army was unionized and pretty laid back.

I thought this would be the least favorite of all the games I owned, but it’s turning out to be very entertaining and challenging. So far I’m finding the Soviet artillery to be very unpleasant and so far I’m finding I have to change tactics as the Americans.

I have ARMA 3 but its not installed. I have 2.5 TB of storage space on my SSDs and need the space. I got it on sale. I'm not too familiar. I cannot play any FPS as I get motion sick. It looks like there are other modes than FPS in ARMA, I just didn't spend the time to really learn the system. When I get my new desktop system in July it will have 3TB SSD on it so I'll be able to store more. I did just get a new gaming laptop that had 1TB on it and I didn't want to put another SSD in it as I would void the warranty. It has the new USB 3.2 Gen 2 port so I was able to pair it up with a SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable 2TB external Portable Solid state drive. With USB 3.2 Gen 2 the transfer rate is 2000 megabytes a second. I've been able to install games on the external SSD and play them from the external SSD and I can hardly tell the difference between the external installed games and ones stored internally.

I would like to see the the Arab vs - Israeli conflict modeled, but given the current climate that probably won't happen. Falklands would be interesting, but probably too limited and not enough to cover. Asia as mentioned would be great, but I've mentioned in the past with other titles and that looks like it's not ever going to happen, same with Vietnam. I saw an interview with the designer and aside from the can of worms it may open you have the issue of modeling helicopter insertion of troops-something the game engine is not designed for. Would be cool if we could see helicopters zooming in and dropping off troops and river patrol boats, but that would probably require a new game engine. In terms of 1970-80s NATO vs Warsaw Pact I vote for Norway. Then Turkey and the Southern Front. For me its the variety it would bring-not just troops, but terrain,climate and overall feel. US Marines, Nordic forces, the Turks, Italians... Regardless, whatever is released, I'll buy.