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absolutmauser

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Posts posted by absolutmauser

  1. On 1/5/2019 at 7:31 AM, SelfLoadingRifle said:

    Apropos the subject of suppressive fire...

    Firstly, what a fascinating thread.  For what it's worth, here are my thoughts...

    1) I'm getting a strong sense of deja-vu here, particularly as I seem to recall once reading that pre 1914, accepted military thinking was that the new-fangled Vickers gun was clunky, inaccurate and definitely no match for the magazine rifle plus an acceptable standard of musketry.  To be fair though, this didn't apply to the Germans who at that stage were way ahead of the curve in all matters Maxim compared to us Brits.

    2)  With regard to the new all singing all dancing M27 rifle...  Yes, improved accuracy is always a plus and yes, with the M27 I'm sure this could be achieved on a gallery range, with  firing points every hundred yards, ditto flags to show how the wind is blowing, beautifully mown grass, an inexhaustible supply of tea (coffee for our American cousins) plus a NAAFI wagon.  It would be a completely different story though when you are trying to win a firefight where the enemy is shooting back at you and is exposing himself briefly if at all.  It's even worse when you are assaulting up hill, doing the fire & manoeuvre thing, you are knackered, out of breath and the sweat is trickling into your eyes.  Under those conditions, getting the rounds down is what matters.   Having a sooper dooper Gucci rifle that can shoot the pips out of a playing card at 300 will make no difference at all.

    3) An eyebrow was definitely raised at some of the arguments that stated that accuracy of fire trumped volume of fire.  What these arguments seemed to be saying was that the highly accurate Bren gun was better at putting down suppressive fire than the MG34 or the MG42.  Er… Yes!  Quite!!  I would have loved to have seen someone try and run that one past my old man who served in the 8th Army.

    SLR

    To the third point, that's definitely something that's been asserted many times and it's always seemed a bit off to me. It may well be that Bren was better for suppressing a specific point target or for actually hitting a specific man-sized target at range, but it's hard to argue with the area suppressing effect of the MG34 and MG42 given their intimidating ROF and belt-fed ammo capacity. There is a reason why practically everyone on earth adopted the GPMG after WW2 after all... 😃 Certainly the MG34 and 42 weren't perfect; their ridiculous ROF (necessitated by the requirement that they be truly general purpose and usable in the AA role in addition to light and heavy MG roles) made them ammo-hungry and harder to deliver accurate point fires in the light role. 

  2. 8 minutes ago, slysniper said:

    Well Panzerblitz was my second game, I selected Panzer leader first, heard it had improved on the rules. but it was not long before I had both.

    But I am afraid squad Leader was the game that won me over, that was the start to a path of no return. Thus the reason I am here today. These games have replaced those early starts.

    Same here for SL and ASL. I haven't put the platoon-level games on the board much since the squad-level ones took over. 😃

  3. On the Warrior's armament, the predecessor FV430 series did have an ATGM variant, but that system (the Swingfire) was phased out. Right now the British Army basically only fields the Javelin as its ATGM, if I am not mistaken (except for the Hellfires on AAC Apaches).

    There are proposed FV510 variants with a turret that will launch Javelins, but I don't believe any have been produced.  I would guess the main reason for the lack of an ATGM version is a combination of the lack of a suitable ATGM option at the time of adoption (suitable for cost and policy reasons I mean) and now the lack of budget to adopt the Javelin-based variant, based on what was said above! 

     

  4. 2 hours ago, sburke said:

    Not me. I wanted to play the Marines. I was psyched when ASL released Gung Ho. 

    I occasionally show up to the forums to suggest Combat Mission: Pacific, but if memory serves, the folks at Battlefront are not interested in the pacific campaigns. *sigh* It doesn't stop me from hoping! 😃 It could start with Guadalcanal and USMC, and later modules add US Army, then Commonwealth, and then China. 

    Right, back to my waiting chair and refreshing the home page. 

  5. On 11/8/2018 at 3:12 AM, Erwin said:

    Firing a main gun like the 25mm when one only wants MG fire to cover one's attacking inf can be fatal to the inf.  So, yes, this is an issue one hopes will be addressed.

     

    This might be a dumb question, but IRL how do Bradleys and the dismounts coordinate this? Obviously the 25mm with HE and API has a certain AOE greater than 7.62mm coax, but I'm not sure I'd want the Bradley blasting away with the coax if I was dismounted in proximity to the target area either! I'm sure there must be doctrine on this, I just don't know what it is!

  6. On 11/8/2018 at 3:12 AM, Erwin said:

    Firing a main gun like the 25mm when one only wants MG fire to cover one's attacking inf can be fatal to the inf.  So, yes, this is an issue one hopes will be addressed.

     

    This might be a dumb question, but IRL how do Bradleys and the dismounts coordinate this? Obviously the 25mm with HE and API has a certain AOE greater than 7.62mm coax, but I'm not sure I'd want the Bradley blasting away with the coax if I was dismounted in proximity to the target area either! I'm sure there must be doctrine on this, I just don't know what it is!

  7. On 11/12/2018 at 4:09 AM, Jayzthegamer said:

    What's so bad about releasing things on holidays? I saw the CM team was saying they really don't wanna release SF2 on this Christmas either

    Hehe. Because they want to spend the holiday with their friends and family eating pie and watching football instead of 1) crunching to final release code and 2) handling all the support requests that accompany a release! =D

  8. On 10/31/2018 at 3:52 PM, Ch53dVet said:

    I like it when your two man anti-tank team is set up in a building next to a road with a close range "armored target arc" and the assistant fires his rifle first as the tank enters the target area, or better yet if the team discharged it's anti-tank round successfully in an earlier engagement and go back to "wait for the next tank mode", then when the next one rolls into the engagement area the team then decides that now is the time to re-load the weapon, not while they were waiting for the next target to come along.

    It takes a while to high five everyone after you destroy the first tank, so maybe they were still working through their touchdown celebration dance routines when the second one showed up? 

  9. On 10/17/2018 at 9:41 PM, Erwin said:

    In "Passage To Wilcox" noticed that the Bradleys fire their main 25mm gun even when ordered to TARGET LIGHT.

    Also, it's possible to use the FIST to order more than one discrete fire mission simultaneously - is that correct?

    Even tho' there is no indication that inf cannot cross the stream on the RHS of the map, they refuse to do so and insist on moving across the bridge.  

     

    Maybe I'm mis-remembering from Black Sea, but doesn't Target Light on IFVs just stop them firing their missiles rather than forcing them to use only their coax machine gun? 

  10. Running well on OSX. As mentioned above, make sure you drag the extracted application into the Applications folder if it doesn't unpack there automatically! Otherwise you get a black screen! 

    I'm on a mid 2013 MacBookPro 15" with integrated graphics and it's running well on Balanced, similar to performance of other Engine 4 games (I've got all of them except Gustav Line, which I will get!) 

    Looking forward to the full release!

    On a sad note, Strykers are still made out of spit and tissue paper, just like IRL. 

    @Pete Wenman We can be more than one thing! We can be happy about the demo and simultaneously grouse about any number of other things! We're amazingly capable in this area! =D

  11. On 7/17/2018 at 3:19 PM, IICptMillerII said:

    *sigh* there is always one.

    Well actually, (nuance nuance nuance nuance nuance... infinity)

    In the context of Shock Force, which takes place in a modern setting of 2008, COIN refers to the modern doctrine and the modern application of said doctrine developed in modern COunter INsurgency conflicts. 

    To avoid any confusion, the key word here is modern, and the definition of that key word is post-9/11.

    I know it's fun to emulate the Pentagon and try to over complicate everything as much as possible, but seeing as we are not in fact the Pentagon I am more than happy with keeping things simple and practical. 

    I think you originally replied to add "nuance" to sburke's "simple and practical" answer. I just wanted to add that COIN is not a new term, nor is counterinsurgency theory a "post 9/11" theory. FM3-24, which is the Army's documentation and statement of this post-9/11 COIN doctrine, is a revival of the doctrines developed in the 1950s and 1960s with updates to adapt to new technology and the differences between the current Jihadist insurgencies compared with Communist and other prior insurgencies. Gen. Patreaus and Gen. Mattis, the listed authors of FM3-24, specifically discuss how they are applying these earlier doctrines that have been neglected for 20 years, and placing them in the context of the current insurgencies. 

    I see your point, though: Soldiers fighting in counterinsurgencies prior to the modern world of post 9/11 had to deal with such primitive situations as:

    ---Being assaulted by AK47 and RPG-equipped guerillas who blend in with the civilian population
    ---Dealing with restrictive ROE that prevent the use of firepower in various situations
    ---Being transported in helicopters on air assault missions and relying on helicopters for casualty evacuation
    ---Being blown up by improvised explosive devices and other booby traps (maybe there will be an initialism for this sort of thing in the modern era!)
    ---Setting up combat outposts and firebases and conducting ambush patrols outside of observation posts and outposts to detect and disrupt guerilla attacks on those outposts
    ---Relying on fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft to deliver close air support including dedicated COIN aircraft like the AC130 gunship
    ---Being armed only with a mix of assault rifles, precision rifles, automatic rifles, grenade launchers, hand grenades, rocket launchers, light wheeled vehicles, light armored vehicles, APCs, tanks, artillery, mortars, and radio communications
    ---Using elite special forces to conduct raiding, interdiction, intelligence gathering, and training indigenous personnel

    My god, it was practically the bronze age. I'm surprised they didn't pay the troops with salt. 


     

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