E4Grunt

I'm sure most of you recall the mega hit "He must be like Putin." Now, there's another one, and it operates on two levels: Putin smitten girl and how Putin's perceived in Russia over Crimea and other matters. This thing has over 2 million views on YT alone, and the lyrics are quite revelatory.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v6Jw9rsWCE
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

quincy,
 
If you want MRSI straight up you must wait for the Germans and their marvelous PzH 2000 to be added to CMBS. As a student of TOT as performed during WW II, the notion of being able to do that from a single SPH verges on incomprehensible. 
 

 
Until that happy day arrives, though, maybe we can get the major M109 upgrades described here. Meanwhile, this is where the Paladin's going as it becomes the M109A7 or Paladin PIM.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

kohlenklau,
 
Love the way you express yourself! "Modwarians," a group not previously identified by the wargamer ethnologists. Genius neologism. As for your ongoing analyses. CMSF, had it not been released in the rather dire state it was, would've done much better than it has. After all, it was the first. CMSF has/had, I suspect, nothing like the overall level of interest CMBN commanded. But CMSF was, until recently, the only US/NATO modern game there was. And it's got lots of goodies these days. I don't know much about it, but I think it's grown on the Forumites, with many taking it up (once it got sorted out) who thought they'd never play it.
 
Scads of gamers are WW II buffs, and most of the game buyers are US centric and ETO focused, not to mention Panzer besotted, so it's no surprise CMBN has flourished, especially with CW, MG and now the Vehicle Pack. MTO is far less well known, so was guaranteed, based on known wargamer preferences, to play second fiddle to CMBN in the West. To my knowledge, the second most popular combat area for US gamers is the Eastern Front. Consequently, I'd expect it to go: CMBN, CMRT, CMFI. But now the drumbeat for Bulge is thundering, and I expect the rank ordering will quickly be, once it's out: CMBN, CM Bulge, CMRT and CMFI. Had CMRT been set at Kursk or earlier, it'd certainly be showing better metrics, for most gamers never heard of Op Bagration. Again, if you want to play CMx2, it's CMRT or nothing for now. CMRT has also, I'm sure, benefited from attention and sales via our colleagues who live in the region. CM:Battle of Berlin should stomp CMRT, with lots of Forum activity from East and West, helped by movies such as "Downfall" and a slew of books.
 
I think what's happening with CMBS reflects a bunch of things: first modern CM in practically a decade; very high media and public interest in Ukraine situation; subject area of great interest to non US players in region and from a variety of national and other perspectives, and pretty much everything short of laser-armed sharks when it comes to toys and war piggery!  Further, I think a lot of FPS franchises have helped grease the skids for CMBS with all their modern releases. My best guess for where the CMBS will fall relative to the four WW II titles is: CMBN, CM Bulge, CMBS, CMRT and CMFI. A major variable here has to do with which game gets what and when, developments slips, mod involvement. CMBN has the considerable advantage of having two Modules and a Vehicle Pack. CMFI has a Module, and neither CMRT nor CMBS yet has a Module. Additionally, there is the vexed matter of whether a new purchaser will need to buy an Upgrade immediately in order to be current. 
 
Something else I've noticed has become more and more evident--plummeting duration of "it girl" status for new releases. I got into CMBN, which already by then had CW, shortly after CMFI came out. But it seemed to me that CMFI had very little time in which to get established before CMRT took over, and very little time after that before CMBS in turn displaced it. And now, with CMBS barely released, CM Bulge has practically stolen the show. The situation is even worse with Modules, going back to GL, at least. Bil and c3k did their fabulous Beta AAR for GL, yet practically as soon as GL got going, here comes MG, which got obliterated by the tsunami of CMRT. Seems to me we're both blessed and accursed. We're blessed in that BFC keeps turning out CM wonders, but the more CM games titles are out there, the more fractionated the overall CM community becomes and the shorter the effective (in terms of "hotness") life of a particular product becomes. This isn't to say people won't be playing and talking about an earlier game for years, but that what is currently of mass interest to the CM community has increasingly less and less time to make a splash before being swept aside. It's kind of like the observation that dozens of classic TV shows would never have made it under the operating conditions and limited amount of time the network execs of today give a show in which to become viable and maybe even truly succeed. 
 
In other news, I left you some goodies in the Op Herkules and vehicle painting threads.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

boekie,
 
Welcome aboard!
 
Soldiers live in the bunker. They have their combustible packs, which are full of combustibles (spare uniform, socks, tobacco, books, mags or newspaper) plus blankets, bedding, mattresses (made of straw, horsehair or even feathers) and anything similar they can obtain "outside of normal channels." They'll probably have a stove of some sort in there, too, together with fuel. Ammo explodes nicely, as do hand grenades and other toys.  Wooden packing crates, cardboard cartons and such are also a ready meal for fire.
 
Think of it this way. If your house were made of concrete and the interior was subjected to instantaneous enormous temperatures, what would happen? On balance, concrete is practically fire immune, but practically everything else will, under the right conditions, burn. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

If you wish to know Moscow's playbook, its track record; what worked, what didn't and why; if you want to know why what Putin's done in Crimea is an unprecedented departure from all post-Soviet practice, may I commend to your attention Jeffrey Mankoff's deeply insightful and informative article "Russia's Latest Land Grab: How Putin Won Crimea and Lost Ukraine," which is available online here at the Foreign Affairs website?
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
 
P.S.
 
Mods, I tried to couch this description in ways not violative of the Forum Rules. If I still inadvertently stepped in it, my apologies and please tweak the prose as needed.

Saferight,
 
In more and more of their vids, IS thugs are wearing MARPAT. Real MARPAT. Imagine how (un)happy this makes the US Marines for whom it was specifically designed. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Kieme(ITA),
 
If you wish to go back to the desert, how do you feel about Italy vs ISIS in Libya? Includes Italian Predators. I leave it to you to figure out how to depict all this.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

agusto,
 
Am not sure what level of TO & E you mean, so let's start at the top. The Global Security link has a wealth of material, but I think I've hit my viewing quota there.
 
This doesn't have the equipment breakdowns but does show the force structure for the RSA. Since the Saudis have been under our tutelage and are largely equipped by the US, I'd expect US style unit orgs in the heavy formations at least. I'm glad I don't have to do logistics for the RSA, what with US, French, Chinese, Canadian and Swiss and Brazilian weapons on the AFV, SPA and artillery front alone.
 
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Saudi_Army.png
 
ARs  M16A2, M4A1, AUG A1, AKM (M63), AKMS (M65), G3A3  Excerpted from this 2005 Saudi small arms list.
 
RSLF vid. Should help the war effort considerably


 
2014 Saudi military parade, including air component overhead. Much to be learned here.
 

 
Remember the SANG (Saudi Arabian National Guard) which, though primarily for internal defense, has operated outside of it, as was done during ODS. No tanks, but scads (1000+) of Cadillac Commando ACs (in the process of being replaced with LAV III).
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Am off this evening and thought I'd let the troops know in case someone would like to meet me and tie a person to a Forum contributor. If interested, please PM me.

Regards,

John Kettler

Jorge MC,
 
What a find!  This looks like a great war movie, at a very intimate level, too, as well as covering aspects of the GPW to my knowledge never before seen. So nice to see the right equipment for the period, though I did catch something interesting about some of the T-34/85s. Many thanks for sharing this first rate trailer.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

agusto,
 
This thing is a very big deal indeed, and now we know the players, too. Who's contributing what to the campaign, included as part of a broader analysis. But here's today's very nasty wild card. Seems the Pentagon has lost track of $500 million worth of weapons, body armor, NVGs, even UAVs supplied to Yemen! This creates all manner of interesting possibilities. Anyone for UNCONs with body armor and NVGs, for instance? So far, I don't have anything directly stating Saudi and/or aliied forces have begun to invade Yemen. Absolutely no ground force descriptions, never mind unit IDs or force sizes, outside of the 150,000 troops named on the SA side. Can you do mountains in CMSF? It would appear that's exactly what a ground invasion will be facing. The author here thinks a long campaign, even with western logistics support, is unsustainable. The roots of the conflict have a lot to do with a Yemeni government favoring one part of the country over another. A part which got entirely sick of that and has now taken over much of the country. The Saudi Arabia (Sunni) vs Iran (Shiite) aspect is secondary, though it most definitely is now in play. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

I absolutely did not see this one coming. Saudi Arabia, faced with the near collapse of neighbor Yemen, with whom it shares a long border, has today, March 25, 2015, gone to war, as part of a 10-nation coalition, to throw out the Shiite Houthi insurgents. Who also have aircraft and are using them. Seems to me this multinational campaign, in which the US has no forces, offers amazing opportunities to take CMSF scenario design into a brand new direction. The Saudi's armor, part of the Saudi Royal Army, is mainly an Abrams version built specially for them and Bradleys, but uses a diverse range of weaponry after that. SA also has Apaches. SA rundown here. Yemen has a rather shopworn ex-Russian T-54/T-55 force and some T-62s, BMPs 1 and 2, plus BTR-60s and M113s. Did I mention the Yemeni Army is fighting on both sides?! As for the Houthis, they're doubtless mostly UNCON armed with low end weapons, plus whatever they've seized since. Also AQAP is opposed to the Houthis. 
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler
 

Wicky,
 
You've been all over me of late, to include your deliberate baiting of me, despite numerous direct requests from me that you stop doing so, in a thread I started specifically to appease others who were complaining that I'd made too many posts. You knew full well when you did it that I wasn't allowed to so much as mention the things you brought up. Additionally it's readily demonstrable that you've been on me for years. I called you no name whatsoever. Rather, I addressed the behavior of both you and LukeFF. It's very ironic that you savage me over and over again with no thought whatsoever for me, my feelings, or even the effects your savage campaign has had on me and my creaky and fragile health. I'm not supposed to be stressed, you know this, yet you deliberately do things which cause me great stress. If you ever said something about your family and sensitivities related thereto, I must've missed it. That you should complain about being insulted after what you've been doing to me for a very long time is rich beyond words. Lying about me is okay with you. Slandering me is okay with you. Deliberately mischaracterizing me is okay with you. Conducting character assassination of me is okay with you. This set of observations must be true, because you've done, and continue to do, all those things and more. I've done everything but stand on my head to get you to behave appropriately toward me, but you won't do it. You might back off briefly, but that's all. Yet you're demonstrably capable of being socially appropriate with other Forumites. But you insist on coming at me like a rabid dog.
 
Now, let me set you straight. Steve never gave me an infraction. I got one from Moon over a year ago because you, in your typical perverse style, went over to a place I must not name, came back, made some outrageous set of accusations based on that, and I, placed once again in a situation in which I was under yet another vile attack from you, sought to defend myself by showing what was really said by me and got so worked up I inadvisedly posted a link to a certain place. That got me the Moon rocket, so to speak, because of the rule prohibiting commercial links. I worked my way eventually out of that. Steve has asked me in the past not to start posts on certain hot topics after you et al. went nuclear time and again in response to them. Nor have you ever let me off the hook for several technical mistakes I made regarding V-2 installations, mistakes I've several times publicly admitted. It has served you well in your endless efforts to discredit and humiliate me. You even went so far as to wreck a 2012 CMA thread in which several of us had a great discussion going on Russian lasers, one in which there was a serious military-technical discussion being conducted. Since any topic along the lines you know quite well automatically led to enormous Forum upheaval from you et al.,, Steve, in my estimation, decided to avoid future board explosions by not having certain things discussed. That's his prerogative. As the old SEAL Team Six saying goes "Thou hast not to like it, thou just hath to do it." Which is what I've been doing ever since.
 
Thus, I am in full compliance with the Forum Rules, and I rigorously honor Steve's request. Additionally, and with no rule existing requiring me to do so, I'm not allowed to so much as mention a certain endeavor of mine quite well known to you.  That's from ChrisND, I deem it unfair, but there's nothing I can do about it. So now, I'm under the Forum Rules plus two other strictures. I got the warning because, and again not from any rule violation, I dared to state that information of a category I'm not allowed to state anymore (unless, per Steve's statement, I publicly provide my sources) confirmed a certain widely viewed YT vid. Again, I violated no  Forum Rules and was shocked to get a Warning out of the blue. Thus, you go around breaking Forum Rules like twigs, go way out of your way to conduct a broad array of prohibited direct and indirect ad hominem attacks against me, make my life, both on the Forums and at home, very stressful and unpleasant. Because of you and your (insert strong pejorative here) ilk, I'm now forced to operate as though I'm walking in pitch black, on thin ice. Heavily mined thin ice. Practically afraid to sneeze. Unless and until someone at BFC starts subjecting you and certain others to the same standards which have practically stifled me for some time now, you get to operate without a care in the world while I, despite disabilities, a brain injury from which I'm recuperating, and a bunch of other things, have to always exercise profound care what I over say and how I say it. Else, I'll be gone, not you and your brethren. Which, I have to say, very much appears to be your real objective in assailing me the way you do. 
 
Frankly, Wicky, for you to come at me as an injured, aggrieved innocent party is like the boy who murdered everyone in his family and when arrested, brought to trial and convicted, threw himself on the mercy of the Court. Why? On the grounds he was now an orphan! You have led a very charmed life on the Forums, and by any reasonable review of the vast evidence of your ongoing malefactions, ought long ago, in my considered view, to have been banished for good. Why you're still here is a great mystery to me.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler 

danzig5,
 
Yet another reason I love this Forum. So many people who know (or can find) so many goodies from so many different countries and weapon varieties! Is Corsar correct, or is that wrong, too. As it was, I had to go look up both missile types when I first read of them, regardless of name.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Steve,
 
Was going to do this as an edit, but got jammed up by a phone call--timed out. I believe it might it be a good idea to tell prospective downloaders what the scenarios are, rather than merely post the DL links. I could be wrong, but I think more people will bite if they've got some idea what awaits, such as these two hypothetical scenarios:
 
Background for Scenario 1
 
Putin has finally admitted what all but the willfully blind knew for ages. He's now moved against Ukraine in a big way, saturation publicizing his attack on the "Nazi fascist" government with a view to scaring Ukraine's government into giving him what he wants (Finlandize Ukraine) and following up the threats with his best mechanized forces and CAS. This, after bouncing the Dneiper River in record time. The Russian bridgehead, so far consisting of only amphibious AFVs and Motor Rifle troops, must be contained and crushed, else the drive on Kiev will prove hard to stop. Mixed Ukraine and NATO mechanized forces rush to the scene, but are under heavy artillery fire from the far bank and harassed by increasingly strong and determined Russian CAS attacks. For now, at least, Russia controls the local airspace. The NATO forces are well and truly up against it, and their combat task may not even be doable. Yet something must be done. Immediately. 
 
Background for Scenario 2
 
Putin's troops aren't very combat motivated, though some have foolishly believed the "terrorist attack" on the Moscow Metro (done by the FSB to solidify the home front) was the work of "Ukrainian bandits," but they have to at least go through the motions, for their ranks are laden with two sets of stukachi--stool pigeons--who operate outside of the chain of command. Both are there to ensure the political reliability of the troops. Make sure they obey orders and fight. Whether they want to or not!  One bunch is from the Army's Main Political Directorate, and the other is the KGB in all but name FSB. Both are potentially lethal to "cowards, shirkers and saboteurs." Be that as it may, the attack goes forward! Will what's left of the Ukrainian defenders and their increasingly unenthusiastic allies be able hold off Putins' onslaught? Might tacair be the difference? There would be a major Russian CAS presence, had those nasty NATO birds not plucked so many from the sky, sent others fleeing, and had NATO not mounted a concerted defense suppression (SEAD) and air defense killing effort (DEAD) to make the skies relatively safe for those daring pilots, men and women alike, who time and again turned Russian AFVs into flaming charnel houses. But CAS and closely coordinated artillery fires could do only so much. The battle would be decided on the ground. Meanwhile, MANPADS whizzing through the blazing summer heat or not, the harrowing low level missions continued.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Steve,
 
That's wonderful, and I'll make sure my brother knows, since I've been showing the game to him via vids and stills. But please tell me where to find the Black Dea? That's what the header reads at your link.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

This is a great story illustrative, I think, of human potential. Stan Lee himself would be impressed, and he's got a show full
of incredible unique people who can do things so amazing they're hard to think about, never mind see happen and have to deal with those shocks. Let me put this mind boggling deadlift into perspective for you. Arnold Schwarzenegger's deadlift record in his prime was over 300 pounds less, and that's straight from Arnold. Watch Eddie Hall kill it, with Arnold Schwarzenegger totally focused on motivating him all the way.
 

 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

This looks like serious work, and this is very clear from the high production values. Sky Mods will want to take notes, for some of what I'm seeing is breathtakingly beautiful. Who knew the Poligon could be an art piece? The treadhead stuff is great, and it's interesting to see a Russian encampment with the troops in tents, camo fencing around what look to be HQ or other sensitive elements, but what I like already, less than 2.5 minutes in, is seeing the tank crews themselves. Whatever this is, it has subtitles, but they're in Russian!  Also, I noticed something remarkable and rather cool. When the tank fires, the shock (pretty sure it's not the muzzle blast) on the chassis is so great it shakes a lot of dust off the tank, something akin to what a dog does. Clearly, we need a dust mod for this!  Russian tankers are tough. I see these guys driving through great clouds of dust, yet not a man is wearing goggles. Sure wish I could see all the footage that went into this.
 

 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Steve has clearly stated they don't close or delete threads unless it's a very, very specific reason, which is almost always when the thread is spam.

Indeed, as @Sgthetred said. Is there a way to ignore a thread completely? Seriously if I have missed a way to do that please enlighten me.

I am one of the ones who complained.  I came in one morning to look for a specific thread.  I found the first six threads started by John and another one only 8-9 down.  One was on emoticons, one was on some issue with sound on youtube, one was on a video of the T-90 which could have easily been just a post in several existing T-90 threads, one was on Grad rockets falling on a city in the Ukraine (which also could gone into an existing thread if it really was relevant), one on Russian field rations, one on a video of the XM25, and another on a training video that no one seems to where it's from, and one legacy one on the A-10 in US service.
 
So maybe 2 you could say were relevant.  Three are clearly not relevant, and a couple could have been just part of existing threads.  I have seen his behavior in other threads and the pattern is to spam the forum with so much stuff that finding anything useful about the actual game becomes difficult.  I don't mind the thread here and there about equipment or units in real life, but I have seen where this ends up.  I was just trying to point out that it would be nice to have the game forum have the majority of the posts about the actual game.
 
There is a general forum.  There are forums all over the web for this stuff.  I initially asked nicely to back off of some of that stuff.

A reason why he's been running amok posting here is that he's desperate to prove himself as somekind of world renowned expert (with super secret sources ) from his bedsit assisted with a wonky mac and google. As he's been linking from his own woo website to threads here on the battlefront forum so he gets some relected glory from this site's good web reputation to enhance his own and uses them as backing for his super secret Kettlerlian conspiracy theories.  JK is simply a bore.

Wow. I've done a few laps around the Internet in my day, but this may well be the most insulting backhanded comment I've ever seen someone make. That's harsh.

Yeah, I am passing no personal judgement...frankly, I don't care.  I just don't want this to become how the CMSF forum became several years ago.  Every other thread was a video on some piece of equipment or some obscure website.  It became almost impossible to find threads on game topics.  I see this forum heading the same way.

Just last night, I was watching a bunch of real world goodies pertinent to CMBS and had excellent audio. A short time ago, I watched TV programs online. That was fine, too. But in looking at an array of things on YT just now, nothing has audio. It's all got the dread "X" on the speaker image. I thoroughly checked at 3:30 AM (3:42 AM, 03/14/15 where I am presently) to make sure my sound was on and volume adequate. 
 
T-90 (in Russian)  A tremendous vid, may I add? Not a sound. 
 

 
Dad used to crack wise about easy college courses, such as Basket Weaving and Canoe Tilting, rather than Engineering. Guess what? The audio there doesn't work, either.
 
Making Willow Baskets
 

 
Kelly's Heroes Showdown with a Tiger scene
 

 
I don't know what's going on or why, but I absolutely hate this and am concerned this is some insane new YT policy. If so, someone needs to replace YT. Stat.
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler