Douglas Ruddd

Now John, is this topic really valid for the CMSF Forum?
 
I have a link to a story on how Doctors at the Mayo Clinic are using re-engineered AIDS virus cells to kill Leukemia cells in children and adults, with a 90% full remission rate. This story is far more uplifting and shows how hard we are working to alleviate human suffering, while ISIS continues to ravage the Middle East in its attempt to turn back the clock 800 years.
 
Which would you rather read?
 
This is a game forum not a world events forum, John please learn the difference.

Looks like this thread is rapidly swirling down the drain.  Perhaps best to shove a plug in.
 
Looks, gents, war is hell.  There is nothing glamorous about it.  There is nothing moral about it.  And it is nothing to celebrate. 
 
It is really easy to point fingers at the other side and decry them as murderous bastards, fascists, commie pinkos, the great satan... pick you favorite slur.   It changes nothing in the long run.  It doesn't bring back the dead. It doesn't comfort or heal the wounded, whether those wounds are physical or psychological.
 
It just leads to another cycle of violence.  Like the saying in Star Wars - anger leads to the dark side.
 
When I was in Bosnia in '93 as a Canadian peacekeeper, two Bosnia Serb soldiers came up to me at a checkpoint.  They were two brothers from Toronto, Canada.   I asked them why they were here in Serbian military uniforms.  I then heard a story about as they were growing up, they heard from their grandparents and their parents over and over about what the Croats did to the family in WW2 and stuff post war.  They were here to defend the motherland and to settle accounts with the Croatians for something that happened to the family nearly 50 years ago.  I don't get that - they were born in Canada (their family came to Canada post war) yet they felt that this was THEIR war to fight.
 
Anger and hatred lead them here.  Instilled by the anger and hatred of their parents, perpetrated by anger and hatred from their parents.  Fighting in a war not of their making, for a cause not their own, for a homeland they have never seen.  A cycle of violence nearly 50 years in the making.
 
I have seen some of that anger expressed here and I am reminded of that time talking with the two brothers.  And I am seeing the seeds of that tragedy here.
 
I was in a very dark place for a long time after my peacekeeping tour in '93.  Some would call it PTSD.  You can only see so much of genocide up close and in your face and a part of me inside died.  There was no moral high ground for either side,  All sides did stuff terrible things that are war crimes - the Bosnians, the Croatians and the Serbs.  Yes, the bulk of the ethnic cleansing was done by the Serbs but is no excuse for the Bosnians and the Croatians to do what they did.  I saw a beautiful country in ruins, shattered lifes, mounds of civilian dead, and a land with seeming madmen running around with guns seeming to want to re-fight WW2 or address the wrongs they suffered in that conflict..
 
Chains of the past.  So many people in the world are bound by those chains.  I see the ghosts of the past conflicts playing out in the conflicts of today.  There is the real tragedy.  We seemingly can't escape our past and we poison the well for our children so they are doomed to repeat our mistakes.
 
Anger leads to the dark side.  That is true.  I lived it grappling with my PTSD and the nightmares of seeing a country gone mad in Bosnia.  I wanted to kill every ethnic cleansing son of bitch with a gun.   It took a long time but I came to accept certain things.
 
I saved lots of civilians, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian but not enough for me.  I wanted to save all of them.  I couldn't and felt guilty for decades as a result.   War lesson 1:  In war people die, soldier and civilian alike,  War lesson 2:  You can't do anything to change lesson 1.  It took a long time for me to embrace that and that saved my sanity ultimately.
 
There is real evil in the world and real monsters.  The monsters look like us and talk to us but make no mistake, there are real monsters out there.  You only see them for what they are by what they do.  I want to Kill All The Monsters but the reality is, strike one down and another rises to take his place.  Nothing changes and we learn nothing from our history.  Hitler was struck down and Rwanda and Bosnia happened.  Deal with those and then it is Sudan. Or Cambodia.  Or Syria.  Or ISIS.  Or who ever the next Hilter wannabe is.   People who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.  
 
Chains of our past.  Everyone has this issue.   Do you allow the past to bind you and deny you a better future or do you let it go.
 
The chains of the experiences in Bosnia bound me and put me on a self destructive path to most likely a grim future.  Only by embracing what happened and learning to rise above it, to not allow the past to control my present so I can forge a new future did I finally find peace for my soul.  It was hard because the chains are thick and strong - memories, recollections and seeing stuff like the genocide in Bosnia playing out elsewhere in the world brings it all back.  But I broke free finally and the memories are not emotionally charged as they were in the past as a result.  No, the memories never go away.  But you can make peace with them and find a way to a sort of 'wholeness' again.
 
I have rambled on.  Partly to acknowledge my past and the role I played in it.   A affirmation that something in life tried to beat me down and I rose above it.
 
Partly to my brothers in arms from any side of the conflicts who are dealing the the imprint of what total war does to their soul and well being, that there is a way ahead.  Memories can become less emotionally charged and less painful. Memories do fade somewhat through time, working hard toward wholeness, and throwing off the shackles of the past and living for the future.  It is not a easy road or a fast road and not everyone can break their chains of the past but it can be done.
 
And finally, to the Croatian, Bosnian and Serb posters.  I see anger and pain in your words.  War is terrible and it will write things on your soul that will deny you a bright, happy future.  I know.  I was there.  I have lived it.   Acknowledge the past, regardless of how ugly or hurtful it is.  Realize the past is the past and is not your future unless you allow it.  Do not do what a Serb family that moved to Toronto did and poison their two sons with what happened long ago in a land now far away that resulted in them involving themselves in killing other people, perhaps being killed themselves and exposing themselves to the horrors of war, for a cause not that shouldn't been theirs to fight and a war they shouldn't have been involved in, all over something that happened nearly 50 years ago.   Don't deny the future of your children or grandchildren by binding them in YOUR chains of the past and dooming them to fight in some future war because the last war had a negative impact on your family.
 
War is death, destruction, shattered lives and futures denied.  Don't glorify it and not rationalize it.  Your a damn fool otherwise.

Alderaan simply exploded in a massive industrial accident at the moment the Death Star arrived. Rebel claims to the contrary have no basis in reality.    The Rebel attack on the Death Star though killed anywhere between two and four hundred thousand innocent civilian contractors. 
 
Now who's the real monsters? 
 

Wonder if the M1 TTB (Turret Testbed) had much influence on the Russians... Cannot find much on this prototype.

 

Ok, as a (Non US) lawyer I´ll try  :
 
In the case of Armata Vs. Skeptics the Court finds as follow:
 
- That given the complete lack of evidence to support anything resembling technical specs, the only thing we deem proven is that Armata exist...sort off
 
- In light of the preceding ruling, on the question of who will have custody until majority of age, the Court awards it to LockandLoad because he cares about it the most
 
- The previous decision notwhistanding Steve is allow visitation rights to check on it from time to time and keep it honest on the question of future module inclusion
 
- And finally, Panzer, while not very fond of it, is appointed tutor, to teach T-14 how to be a proper tank and not some hybrid nonsense that every other tank in the yard will mock and bully
 
- No damages are awarded to any party since the only things affected are egos and prides and the Court finds that those have no monetary value on the Internet
 
And if everybody is unhappy with the ruling, we´ll know I did a good job  , as any lawyer knows usually the worst settlement is better than the best ruling

Can we have in game an immobilised red flag icon...
 

Hi, here´s some sweet eyecandy for you all 
 

 
Care,
 
Red

Burkey, technically Napoleon was not French. Any self-respecting Corsican will tell you as much.

Wait, we are celebrating? The defeat of the French Empire? I mean think about it, do you prefer Beef Wellington over Corsican wild boar. (Hint I had wild boar at a Corsican restaurant in Paris and it was one of the all time best meals I ever ate). No sir I say we commemorate in memory the end of our beloved empire. Piss on the English, German etc counter revolutionary clique. Viva la France!

I found something more interesting.  The nature of the Ukrainian dinosaur legions is approximately manifold of three to two rations against the Russian array of 4.5 Stegosaurus a minute.  This is acceptably within the prorate of twenty five, but well outside the GOP DOW electron of eighty nine.  I am frankly appalled at the weaponization of this gentle herbivore but after the semi-nuclear immulsion of sixty five raptors in Keplast Obast it is to be expected.
 
Either way, I know one thing and I know it well, this **** will make you a ********** sexual tyrannosaur and aint that the truth scrobot.    

Stop spreading BS.

Armata reminds of these, from some SciFi film made around 2008ish..... And about as real.

SPACE LOBSTERS!

Then don't play it. Go somewhere else if you don't like the realism. I for one am sick of games claiming to be realistic and then dumbing down aspects for the sake of gameplay. That is not, and should not ever happen in CM. You want a game where ATGMs can kill hordes of Abrams and the T-90 is equal to or better? Play Wargame:Red Dragon. Luckily there will be no nerfing of the Abrams of Javelin in the game from a patch because the developers of CM strive to provide a realistic simulation. 
 
Thats the other point. Its a SIMULATION. Not a 'game.' How does gameplay even factor into a simulation? Aside from UI< controls, and eye candy, it doesn't. 

There are flaming bits and the like.  It's not always a catastrophic tank ending explosion.  Odds of crew survival are not good to put it mildly, but even some Soviet type tanks that are prone to explosions failed to cook off in the 1991 and 2003 fighting despite being struck with a sabot.  An Abrams with a decent fire suppression system, and lacking stuff that'll still burn after a halon dump might not be as entirely destroyed.  
 
In terms of impacts, I thankfully never got hit myself, but things like RPGs and non-penetrating KE strikes certainly made a racket, and MG fire was at least somewhat audible from conversations I can recall.  On the other hand if none if it is coming through it's hard to judge how bad it might be, it could be the optic has been jarred a bit and needs to be reset, or the whole assembly could have been simply sheered off somehow.  In terms of reasonable effects, something similar to the laser warning backup is about right.  Generally not getting hit, even by non-penetrating strikes is a state the tanker prefers to be in.  So unless I've got a good reason to sit still and take some hits, I'm going to pop into reverse and get behind cover (and try to find the guy messing up my paint job, so I can smoke him).

An Abrams on exercise (note flashing strobe and BFA on Ma Deuce) has gotten itself into quite a fix. Will it be able to escape the attentions of General Mud?
 
http://www.military.com/video/combat-vehicles/combat-tanks/m1-abrams-stuck-in-the-mud/1481057376001/
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Im not even going to say it, I will let said picture demonstrate

 
God how I love how it gets people mad.

This is true. It is possible to simulate 3 week wonders. My point however is that a 3 week wonder scenario is very unlikely considering the time frame and scope of the conflict portrayed in CMBS. For instance, you could set up a more plausible scenario for modern skeleton tank crews by expanding the scope of the conflict (all of Eastern Europe, not just Ukraine) and increasing the length of time of the conflict. A somewhat lesser scenario would be to keep the current setup of CMBS, Brigade Combat Team sized elements cut off from reinforcements who have suffered attrition and must pull infantrymen from rifle companies and place them in tanks (a la WWII)
 
Of course you can just make a battle in the editor and set the morale and motivation to low levels to force-simulate this, but I am personally wary of this. What it sounds like to me is that people want to level the playing field by forcing restrictions. Essentially, the Abrams is too superior to the T-90, so in order to make the battles more symmetrical/balanced you force a handicap on one (or both) sides. The reason I dislike this is because it is not realistic in the slightest (unless you extrapolate a scenario like the ones I described above) Life is not fair. Combat is not fair. I am sure that everyone is aware of the various sayings regarding this; "The only unfair fight is the one you lose." and "Never give your enemy a fair chance." etc. 
 
CM is at its basis a simulation of the chaos of combat on a tactical scale (tactical ranging from the team level all the way to the brigade level, possibly higher if the player so chooses) It is not meant to offer an inherently fair experience, and attempting to force fairness by adding handicaps (read, game 'balance') defeats the purpose of the simulation. 
 
To summarize, yes it is possible to simulate skeleton crews, but it is not the primary scope of the simulation, and to suggest only using skeleton crews in Abrams/all armored vehicles completely defeats the point of Combat Mission. Adapt and overcome like commanders in the field must do. Make your own advantages while negating your disadvantages. There are plenty of historical examples to take inspiration from. find your favorite underdog and emulate him/her!

Well, it is inevitable that it does so, at some point. (This thread going OT...)
 
Tanks cost money.
 
Better tanks cost more money.
 
Money comes from economic activity. Economic activity (and the money squeezed from it) is, to a large extent, determined by centralized governments (at least, that's how it is working lately).
 
The Tiger II was a better tank than most...once it reached the battlefield. But the Germans could not build many of them, nor adequately support the ones they had. It was too expensive for them. Plus, thanks to the pressure exerted on them, they could never afford to shut down the PzIV facilities to switch over to something better. That's the effect of economics and how it filters down to the battlefield.
 
The current "run what you brung" attitude on modern large scale war may or may not be correct. However, that does drive some production figures and planning.
 
The US military (US Army and USMC) have about 8,100 delivered Abrams of various models. That's a lot of tanks. Not all of them are M1A2 SEPv2. But they all could be upgraded to that level relatively cheaply. Supposedly they cost around $7 million (that seems low to me and is probably an old number).
 
 
The latest figure I found is that the TOTAL Russian economy produced about $2 Trillion in goods and services. The US was listed as $16 Trillion. 
 
The cost to compete is prohibitive. As good as the Armata may be, there cannot be the numbers needed to seriously compete with US dominance without destroying the Russian economy... (Of course, that "US dominance" is a paper exercise. Tanks in the US do not have any battlefield influence were there to be a fight in Europe...unless the tanks get shipped.)
 
Then there are the M1A3 rumours...
 
 
Economics do play into it. That brings geopolitics into it. 
 
 
Meantime, I'm very curious to see what this new tank may look like and what innovations it brings.

The hell is wrong with you?  

Nukes are so 21st Century....photon torpedos would be my choice, lets see an APS counter one of those babys.

Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here

Wicky,
 
Interesting, if they cut back, wonder if they are going to put the resources into  AVF robotic support type tanks and supplies instead.  
As far as Crimea goes, I am baffled as to why everyone in Europe seems to be on Flouride or some sort of relaxant or they are being extorted, bribed, threatened into submission.  They had to know that Russia would want all of that land they lost, back.  So, why did they not see this ahead of time?  They need to realize  all the Mafias are ridding us off and are not to be trusted.  They are going to take Kiev next, I feel.  Why, because that is where I saw the Mafia at the CERN laboratory, I do have that picture if anyone is interested.  They intend to have control of this.  It is more that just a piece of technology.  It is their ticket to ride out of here or bring in reinforcements.  They think, if, they move a CERN laboratory closer to Putin, they will have mafia protection.  The last CERN failed (Swiss Zionist Mafia).  This new CERN is very expensive and many governments are being bullied,  to pay for it.   Russian planes have been flying over England recently, bulling them.  Russian has spies in MI-6,  London, forgot one of their names, go to Abel Danger.  This Russian mafia and other mafias in U.S., Australia, and more are blackmailing European (Recently Angela Merkel's, Germans, Poland, and other  world leaders by crashing their airplanes, school children even, using the Boeing uninterrupted Auto-Pilot +  Air Tranquilizer  (ATI)  to tranquilize pilots, crew, and passengers to terrorize countries into pouring money into the CERN Laboratory in Ukraine and other land grabs.   A list of flights where they used the BUAP + ATI  to force planes down for revenge to governments who failed to comply.  Adam Air 574, Kenya Airway 507, Speedbird 38, Turkish 1951, Colgan 3407, Air France 447, Air Afrikiyah 771, Sukhoi Superjet, MH370, MH17, QZ8501, and now the one downed in French Alps.  There is a reason why the co-pilot had steady breathing, he was out cold.  They own the mainstream news, so you will be reading from their mafia owned script writers.
 
So, if we want to make life easier, now, and later, we need to take Putin seriously, one tank in Mariupol is not enough to  stop their advancing toward Kiev.  Check my sources, meanwhile,  ensure pilots have warning systems in the cockpit when the air is foul, extra oxygen to prevent the plane from being droned.  For more on this see Abeldanger.net, on Livestream as Abel danger.   Around 1995, one of the airlines in Europe filed a suit for 800 million because their 747's airplane technologists for Lafthunsa, Germanwings is an affiliate, (recent France crash ,pay back) for filing this suit where technicians, found extra stuff in a electric equipment  compartment (E&E).   They filed, to get Boeing to pay for having to remove the components on all of the jets they purchased from Boeing.  To protect Boeing and us, these need to be removed immediately.  New York Bronx, Base 1 Technologies Clinton aides activated the patented devices BUAP + ATI to kill revenge Yvonne Selke, a Pentagon spy in the satellite mapping branch of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.  This is how they  revenge after being fired from key positions or to kill a whistleblower or to kill  Yvonne Salik.  We provided Ukraine with satellite imagery because Putin had control of Ukraines therefore always had the upper hand.  The mafia is trying to intimidate the Pentagon so we will stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
 
Let us put an end to mafia controlled banking, markets, and manufacturers exploiting humanity.  If they can blackmail our Pentagon, world governments, we have no representation.  Find out more, we have to wake up,  Airbus, FAA, JAA all know about this, so why aren't they doing anything about it, they are complicit.  Soon,  people who don't know about it,  will.   Covering up by killing off any whistleblowers exposing this, is a very dark world.  Not the world I want to hand over to my children. 
http://new.livestream.com/abeldanger

Mmmm Korean tank from at least 2008 ( http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/11/205_34719.html) conveniently jaunts in time and space to the present day half-way across the planet - chances nil

Russia is operating several totally different flavors of MBTs, IFVs, APCs, rifles manchine guns, etc, etc etc.  If it just picked one and said "okay, screw you T-80/T-72/T-62 etc, everything from now on is T-90 based" it'd save a lot of money and result in a force structure that was not nearly so uneven in capabilities.  While some of it is a reflection of the cold war leftovers Russia has been saddled with, it's also a reflection of the sort of dualistic pretending it's still 1989 and that mission set is both valid and realistic, while making robot guards/bearsuit body armor/not being able to figure out which more or less the same rifle it needs to buy to replace a rifle that honestly just needs a better way to mount accessories to prepare for a "future" conflict that's still pretty poorly defined.
 
More focus in equipment (with something more realistic than the Armata given the budget at hand), and a more realistic mission would likely go a long way in allowing Russia to accomplish national security objectives with less overhead and redundant capabilities, or questionable thinking.