Zveroboy1

I don't know, just a guess, I was thinking maybe it would be too much for a single module. Besides it is not needed for Seelow-Berlin and the Vistula-Oder operation only lasted two weeks so maybe not a must have compared to the work involved. But I am happy to be proven wrong and have snow in the next expansion.

Are you guys saying it needs twice the firepower it has now? lol this thing is already a beast.

Ok here is the second shed. And the dropbox link : https://www.dropbox.com/s/3yz9okd9ntrfrhm/Zvero%27s%20shed%20202.rar?dl=0 Enjoy. Zvero

Probably not entirely accurate but it is the most detailed account of the events I have read so far.

Enough about bugs and more talks about modules please. What would you like to see? What vehicles/tanks are currently missing? I think we need ss and german themed buildings so we can have Seelow-Berlin. I doubt we'll be seeing snow so that means no Vistula - Oder offensive.

I was talking about the Soviet Union - Afghanistan war in the 80's and the neocon myth that the Soviet Union collapsed because of it. And how by waging a proxy war and arming the mujahideens with stingers the USA bled out the SU which caused the fall of the Communist regime, either financially or by sowing the seeds of discontentment at home.

There are more similarities than you might think. And no, the religious dimension was never central to the problem. It was merely an aggravating factor. An ex Soviet block country with the communist rule keeping the lid on the boiling internal tensions gone, a country plagued with corruption, populism, nationalism and a weak central government, all these elements are present in Ukraine today to some extent. Anyway this is off topic, but it is a lot more relevant to me than the comparison with Afghanistan. I know I am the one who brought it up in the discussion but I can't help but think that this is the model some experts in the West want to reproduce. Of course I might be wrong but this outcome is just wishful thinking to me. Back to our topic, I am afraid that you have it backward about Putin. If he hasn't ditched the separatists it is because he would lose face. And this is precisely when his popularity would plummet dramatically, not by standing up against the West as Moscow is portraying the whole affair. The internal risk for him is greater if he folds. The man has built his reputation on strength, machismo and restoring Russia's pride. Russia has felt humiliated by the West and the USA in particular since the fall of the Berlin wall and the lost of her superpower status. That this perception is justified or not is irrelevant, it is the mainstream view. He doesn't fear sanctions or internal trouble now with the majority of the population backing him, as strange as it may sound to people in the West, as much as he fears losing face. His veneer of strength would vanish and that would be the beginning of his downfall.

Interesting article but nothing really new here except the 3-1 casualty ratio which I am going to take with a large pinch of salt. I also question the attrition logic supported by the author. Lots of people seem to think Russia is going to collapse and fold because of the weight of the sanctions imposed by the West on her struggling economy combined with the cost of the war, or because of internal public uproar caused by mounting Russian soldiers casualties. While it is entirely possible, I think this is maybe wishful thinking. It sounds like the West hopes the situation caused by the Afghan war in the 80's or the star wars arms race under Reagan is going to repeat itself and either bankrupt the Russian economy or cause so much internal turmoil, Russia will have to fold and a regime change will follow. But I don't think this is the right model or comparison. At the risk of rubbing you the wrong way Steve, until proven otherwise I am going to assume the bulk of the fighting in Ukraine is still carried out by the separatists themselves. There is little doubt in my mind that the whole affair was instigated, funded, guided, supplied by Moscow and the fighting is supported by Russian artillery, AA assets, military advisors, specops, volunteers and probably some whole combat units too, but the bulk of the blood being shed currently is Ukrainian not Russian. As far as the economic situation is concerned, it seems to me that Ukraine is in an even worse shape than Russia. And the fear, real or not it doesn't matter, of having NATO on their doorstep is too big in the Russian psyche, the support for Putin too high at home, to have them fold and give up on such an important security issue for them and a matter of national pride, despite the hardships they might have to endure. I think if you want to compare it to an another modern conflict to draw conclusions on, Yougoslavia might be closer. Of course there are no religious issues here and no atrocities on the same level being committed. And while it is of course really hazardous to venture out a guess as to what will eventually happen and way too early in any case, I am afraid it might resemble something closer to Yugoslavia which saw the partition of the country. Maybe Putin will end up simply having to ditch and abandon the separatists, it wouldn't be the first time Russia does that when an ally stops being useful and becomes a liability, but it is far from certain this is what will happen.

The East Front is in dire need of some loving. Unfortunately it is the red headed stepchild of the CM2 family it seems. The engine has been out for what, 7 or 8 years? And we'll have 3 West front games soon with the Bulge, 2 games in a modern setting and a single East Front game. The American market is the biggest one and where the bulk of the sales come from I imagine, so games without GI's don't sell as well. Personally I doubt we'll ever see Barbarossa at this rate which makes me a bit disappointed. I hope we get a Berlin module next.

Yes for instance in that last vid, if the Bradley had stayed on the road for one more minute to cover the deployment of the squad instead of wandering away in that field on a wild goose chase it could have pumped that building on the hill full of lead to protect the dismounts. This is probably what these guys were doing, screaming themselves hoarse to call the Bradley back.

Yes it is called being pinned down or suppressed. It does exactly what it says on the tin. Humans don't particularly like being shot at and tend to freeze when under fire. It causes both physical and psychological effects like heart pounding, limbs shaking uncontrollably, the inability to think clearly; a primal fear that training can alleviate partially but not completely squash. So yes your men will sometimes freeze, this is a perfectly normal behavior, it is not a bug or anything. But really you're complaining when your pixel troops panic and move on their own randomly but you also complain when they don't move and stay put?

Well about the first point, he could have seen many battles but be a complete idiot, or just have a really abysmal tactical acumen, take all the wrong decisions in the heat of battle and his men know it so they don't feel too good about being led by him. Not every officer is a military genius, some are just liabilities.

Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe this is a case of watching too many Hollywood war movies if you expect soldiers under heavy fire to react like automatons. I am not saying the Tac AI is perfect, but it is imo symptomatic of this tendency of a category of players to be control freaks and balk at the thought of your pixel troops not blindly following orders in all circusmtances. War is chaotic, you can't control everything. I think this is what makes CM games so good.

Concerning the attack from the sea and US Marines, didn't Steve or someone from Battelefront pretty much rule it out as unfeasible in the Black Sea? I am not saying that as an argument against the inclusion of Marines, but if they are included, there probably won't be any amphibious landing.

Interesting interview in that vid. It seems to confirm what I read earlier about Logvinovo being taken in a night attack under the cover of heavy artillery. That could make an interesting CM scenario by the way. Also I definitely agree about what DreDray has to say about the role of artillery, in particular the "offensive by artillery" part. It could be argued that most modern wars fall into this category but in the current situation it sounds especially relevant. Positions are just pounded until the defenders pull back, then there is a mopping up operation, the kind you see in all these vids with low intensity fighting, platoon strength units supported by a BTR or two and a couple of tanks shelling isolated pockets of resistance or sniper nests, then a counter barrage, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.

I just hope they mix it up a little bit compared to CMSF and add some variety by not releasing the same countries/contingents.

:lol:

Yellow is a light wound. The soldier and his fighting abilities are probably impaired somehow, maybe he tires faster, is less accurate or his morale is lower. We don't know precisely but he can keep on fighting. Casualties can be two things. You need to look at the icon under the soldier to be able to tell which one it is, he either got seriously wounded or killed. In any case he is out of the battle. It can be difficult to tell which it is but there are some mods that make it easier. There is one from Juju in the repository that he made for CMRT but I am pretty sure it should work for CMBS too. (see pics below.) Or you could send a private message to Vein to get the one he made with a stretcher for wounded and a puddle of blood for dead. Buddy aid peformed on a seriously wounded soldier gives you a chance that he won't die. It matters for victory points at the end I think. You can also buddy aid a dead soldier. Obviously the name is misleading. You won't bring him back from the dead. What it does is let other soldiers of the squad pick up his ammunition. How long it takes for buddy aid depends on the difficulty level, the higher you set it, the longer it takes. But it is usually between 2 and 3 minutes.

Embrace the chaos. War is hell. There is friction, you can't control everything and there is no such thing as a clean battle, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs.

Most of the scenarios are quite challenging, it is fun. The victory conditions are often pretty tight, the AI rarely auto surrenders like in CMSF and with triggers it often has a couple of surprises up its sleeve.

My infantry dies like dogs. I have tried sneaking up on tanks a few times thinking I was being all sneaky and clever... yeah I won't be doing that a lot in the future. This is what it feels like :

That Tymchuk link sends you back to the forum's main page.

I see things a bit differently concerning the importance of the ground held by both sides. Maybe I am looking at it from the wrong angle, but the way I see it, the onus is on the loyalists to recapture the lost territory. A status quo with a chunk of land out of Kiev's control would be in favor of the separatists because if the current situation doesn't change significantly, sooner or later the Ukrainian government might be forced to recognize a fully independent or semi autonomous state of Novorossiya or Donbass or whatever you want to call it. In other words, the longer the current situation lasts, the more likely it is to become a de facto state. Obviously it is too early for that outcome yet. A lot of things might change and in any case the situation is not ripe enough for a political settlement; there needs to be more suffering and dying.

The Debaltseve offensive has been going on for almost a month and the separatists had been in a position to interdict the Artemivsk road for a whole week before Minsk.

By the way Wee, that comment was sarcastic. If the separatists are as incompetent and weak then what does it tell you about the Ukrainian army that just got forced to pull back? I am ready to accept that their withdrawal was in fairly good order and an improvement over Ilovaisk. However retreating is generally not a very good sign that things are going your way in a war even if you don't think holding ground is a priority. It is not a good sign unless you are Manstein leading a veteran professional army. But I don't think anyone is ready to claim the current Ukrainian army despite its progress is in the same league.