CHEqTRO

Edit: Double post

Shoigu himself. Here is TASS report on the withdrawal:

Thanks for the insight Haiduk, much apreciated. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens eventually.

I was thinking about if I should keep responding because I cannot avoid to feel that I am giving the impression that I fully believe that war is inminent and that I desire such a war, when that is not really the case. I whish you are right DMS, however... From what I am reading only the 58th Army of the Southern Military District, 41st Army of the Central Military District, the 7th, 76th and 98th Airborne Divisions will return to their bases.That amounts to around 10.000 personel from what I see. Also Shoigu only said that personel (личный состав was his words) is going back, meaning that tanks and other heavy equipment will remain at the border at the ready. And getting troops for that prepositioned equipment could be achived in hours. Also, a lot of the movement that we saw in those days was actually a repositioning of such units. For example, the 56th Airborne brigade has been permanently redeployed to Crimea, and the Units south of Voronexh will remain there supposedly for Zapad 21. It definitively can be considered a good sign, but until all units deployed to the border have dispersed and the bellicose rethoric dies down, I still think is to early to be safe. We still have to see what happens with todays meeting with Lukashenk and Putin, and with the Forum "Unity for Russians" that last until tomorrow.

I think the problem here is not so much if they did or not fix that particular bug and how much time they did take to do so, as that despite that this bug had been found and reported here on the forums a long time ago, the developers just got news of it like two days ago. Hence why a better system of bug reporting might be in order.

I find hard to believe that you guys have no strategic capacity of retaliation against a Russian incursion. I said the air force and ballistic missiles as and example, but you also have to take into account the Ukranian navy, antiship missiles, radar installations, long range artillery and just plain army concentrations (and more things that i cannot think right now, i am sure ) could be severe threats to the russian forces, that would need to be dealt with. Do you really think that your army would not try to stop a russian incursion and just accept the territory loss? I am not being sarcastic here by the way, i am geniunly curios for your opinion. Of course Ukraine surrender is a possibility, thought funnily enough I seem to have more confidence in your president that you do. I guess it will depend in what the russians ask for. Hmm, It wouldnt be the first time that countries with comercial ties go to war. Also, wouldnt the situation you describe be more of a one way deal? Ukraine is dependant in Russian gas, that I know, what I do not know is what the russians are dependant from the ukranians (apart from water for Crimea, funnily enough) to make an invasion unsuitable? To me it seems that the russians are the ones holding nearly all the cards in trade. Of course, that changes if you take into account possible European and american sanctions, which will also be rendered non-important in case of war, of course.

Personally, I remain unconvinced. Such small operations will be dependant upon in that the Ukranian army doesnt really respond to them. For example, an amphibous operation into the Kherson area ould be susceptable to attacks from beyond the Dnieper and even around Odessa. What if the Ukranian army starts counterattacking with Ballistic missiles and planes, are they not going to attack those possitions and allow them to keep inflicting casualties on their forces? What if the Ukranians start mounting a counterattack from beyond the river. Are they going to allow it? Wouldnt be better to cross the river and secure a bridgehead to make sure that such a counterattack doesnt materialize? And just like that, they have just crossed the Dnieper. In the case that such threats arise, it wouldnt be better for the russian army to make sure that the Ukranian army is not a threat to its advances, no matter how small those are? I am sorry, but if the russians decide to launch an attack ( and they do not have a sure reassural that the Ukranian army would not retaliete ) they would have to make a large scale attack. Also, I disagree with the notion that Russia has no interest in conquering Ukraine. Russian economy its in downfall and the domestic situation is not improving. NordStream 2 would help of course, but I am not sure to which degre it would do so. For how long can Russia sustain the second biggest army in the world (or is it the third?, I do not remember right now, honestly) whit only the GDP equivalent of the Iberian Peninsula? What would they do when they have to face the chinese for control of Eurasia (lets not even talk about the economic leverage that the chinese are going to have over the russians at this rythm), if they are still boxed in in Europe and with such an ailing economy? Nevertheless, at the end of the day, I am just some random dude that likes history and wargames , and reads too many news in international politics and geopolitics. Most likely, those experts you mention know better than I do. I sincerely hope that is the case.

Jajaja I always play with the bright option turned on. I cannot imagine having a meaningful fight with it turned off. But I can see why you would prefere to play in the dark, it would be out of character if you didnt Also, glad that I could help. That mission was definitively harder than the rest of the missions that until that point the campaign lobs at you, but they definitevily do not get better. I am now playing the mission before to the last and it is really a slog. Good luck in those missions, and I hope you can do better than I did! (Which considering the number of destroyed vehicles I had in the last mission, it will be not that hard XD)

What, war with the russians?. Not really, no. But, do I want the russians, a natural adversary of an united european union, with their borders in the Carpathians? Definitively not. And thats its just me, that I am only really interested in the future of the EU and their countries, if you have also an interest put in american control of Europe, even more reasons to do not want so. I am sorry, but I am not convinced that peace should be achieved by claudication. Do not think that having our own "Peace in our time" moment would be that ideal neither. Plus, honestly, I do not know what it would say about us europeans if after making so many assurances to the Ukranians that they can be safe under the European Umbrella, (and after they even had a revolution in hopes of the European dream), we just ****ing leave them at the first sight of trouble.

There is no way that NATO allows russians troops west of the Dnieper. If the russians launch an invasion for real, and not a small land grab for the rest of the Donbass and the Dnieper-Crimea canal, there will be a war between NATO and Russia. Such an attack should also be considered an attack agains NATO, and looking by recent diplomatic events, countries which depend on NATO (The english, the eastern european countires, and well, of course, the americans) are taking a far more bellicose approach (Just look at the whole czech drama, with its former ambassador to Moscow calling for the activation of article 5 over state terrorist attacks carried by the GRU against their country), as they realize the strategic threat that having russians at the Carpathians would mean. Germany and France are not that invested in NATO so their approach is more conciliatory, but make no mistake, if **** hits the fan, they will join the war no doubt

I am also playing right now the Task Force Thunder campaign and I know your pain. I also had to restart twice, thought I was able to beat it at the thirdtry. My personal advice, spoilers free, is that you avoid buildings as much as you can, and follow the right edge of the map . You will eventually reach an orchard just infront of the SE trenches, were most of the firing will took place. It might look intimidating to fight in the open, but your soldiers are definitively better than the syrians plus they have night googles which the enemy lack, so you should be able to punch through that orchard with limited casualties (I took three). During this fight, do not get into the buildings, they are death traps that will cause unnecesary deaths. In case you dont mind spoilers, here is some more information. *SPOILERS* The enemy will start chasing you at the 5 minute mark, as you will probably had noticed, and they are a platoon of infantry accompanied with a BMP-1. The best course of action is to forget about them and rush towards the buildings in front of the orchard I said previously. You will not encounter basically any resistance until this point. Get into the orchard and the building close to it and start gaining fire superiority. The enemy will have two DSHK heavy machine guns emplaced defending this approach which might look worrying, but your troops should be able to overwhelm them without too much problem. And like I said, avoid as much as you can getting into the buildings to to left of the orchard. You want to reach the trenches in like 15 minutes or so, as the platoon of enemy infantry is heading your way Once you reach the SE trench line, you have to keep moving, do not stay at the trenches, as that full platoon of infantry is moving towards your location. Put them behind the slope and wait for reinforcements; the enemy wont follow you. Once the reinforcements are in, I recommend you to mass your forces in the direction of the NE trench line, and attack with your full company from there (The enemy will have less troops stationed here, but be careful, they might cause some casualties if you rush it). Eventually you will have to return to the SE trenches to fulffill the occupy objective, and the enemy will be in the buildings close to it in high numbers, so be careful ( I took too many casualties in this part, like 15 or so, which made me only get a Major victory, instead of a total one. I also recommend getting one og the javelins and look for a high building, and see if you can locate and destroy the single BMP-1 that is chasing your force. With that you should be able to get a major victory at least. Good luck!

Well, the thing with the Ppsh is that it wouldn´t need that much work to be introduced, only in the coding department. In fact, it surprises me that they have come in great lenghts to add weapons like the VG 1.5 and the MP3008 series, which would need to be modelled and coded from scratch and were, atleast that is the impression I am under, definitively rarer than the Ppsh 41 (in german hands, I mean), which wouldn´t need a new model and its inclusion would have been easier. Then there is the thing with inmerssion. One of my favorite weapons of FI is the Beretta sub machinegun in german use. It adds personality to the squad that carries it. The same would go for any squad carrying the ppsh 41 in FR (or any other distinctive weapon, really). Also, they were, like I said, pretty common; honestly, for me, having germans without Ppsh 41 in 1945 seems like the americans lacking the m3 grease guns. Plus there is also the gameplay perspective. Anyone that has played RT will know that those fast-firing Ppsh are a devil, specially on woods. Having germans with such fast-firing weapons, considering that we are used to the slower rate of fire of the MP40, will make for new interesting gameplay, or so do I think. And finally, its just more content that I would get from my 30 euros, so obviously I am going to want more stuff added ( I actually had a similar discussion with Steve over the inclusion of the Jagdtiger, withy my points being very similar to the ones being listed here. They did decide to add the Jagdtiger that time,so maybe I get lucky and I get them to add the Ppsh as well, thought considering that they are on final candidate stage i think is hardly a possibility, and I dont know how this forum would react to having the module delayed another one or two weeks for the inclusion of just a gun . But there is still hope, as they could add it in a patch down the line as they did with a french revolver in Rome to Victory. One can hope XD)

No Ppsh 41/ MP 717(r) Weren´t they quite common to be found in german hands, not only in volkstrum units, but also in the Wehrmatch by the end of the war? Atleast that was my impression from what I have read.

Curios. The description of events that I told you were supposedly also what happened the past night, atleast that was what the guy claimed. Funnily enough, I found the twit during the morning, when the incident had not been yet confirmed by the Ukranian navy but there were already rumours about it. I would not find surprising that the guy found the rumours and decided to add its personal touch to the story. No doubt from my part that you are right tho, you are a far more credible source ;also, no matter how I search, I cannot find the twit, so it was most likely deleted.

That is a relief to hear. Hopefully it stays that way. Curiosly, I had read about that incident, thought the version I had read stated that it was only one ukranian ship, which if I remember correctly they said it was rammed, against 6 russian vessels, and not 5. If i find the twitt from where i read it i will post it here. Thanks for the clarification and the info.

I can post it as a pop up, instead of as a link, if you prefer it that way. Here it goes:

@Haiduk This news has just appeared in my Twitter TL : https://twitter.com/IntelCrab/status/1382772816483876876 What do you think? After the possible closure of the Kerch strait and the Polish and USA expulsion of russian diplomats (I know that there has been a dispute betwwen a russian diplomat and the Latvians as well) I am starting to really worry. You probably have somewhat more information being in the field. Do you think there is veracity to this news? I worry for what it may happen this night if they are true. Anyways, be safe

Counterpoint: This might as well be considered an act of war. Edit: Also, about the comment related to the supposed lack of logistics, I would like to add this : https://twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1382581982278922240

Well, for what it is worth, I am 22 years old and I would play the hell out of an early WW2 game, specially in the Eastern Front, thought I wouldnt say no to North Africa or France as well. Plus, I do not feel I am an oddity in my "generation", here in the Internet at least, as there are tons of people of my age that enjoy WW2 games. The same goes to wargames, a lot of people of my age enjoys games like Men of War, Hearths of Iron, Steel Division, Post Scriptum; which are generally speaking non -arcade games with a setting in WW2. And I am sure that with proper marketing, a change in prices policy, and also a modernization of the engine; you could get a big chunk of that market coming to CM. I understand that with the release of Cold War, they are going to be busy improving it an adding a ton of stuff that I will most surely buy and play. Nevertheless, I hope that they will eventually return to WW2 to make a Barbarossa game. Hopefully their contract with Slitherine with show them the huge market that exists to this kind of games, and a change in policy occurs, just like it happened in respect of the supposed impossibility of a Cold War gone hot game.

From the Pre-orders are open thread:

Well, that its not exactly true. Some years back Russians did send Wagner mercenaries (which they might as well be considered another arm of the russian army at this point) to Venezuela to "protect" the oil fields there : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/25/venezuela-maduro-russia-private-security-contractors. Its true that russians have less troops deployed overseas and outside of its territory that its rival, but I think that its not so much a result of a lack of desire from the Kremlin to stay away of foreign adventures, as much as the very limited capacity to do so. But when they are able, they will try to expand its geopolitical reach, like they did with Syria, Lybia or the Central African Republic, for example. Now returning to the topic of the possible invasion, I agree with Bearstronaut, I do have a very bad feeling about this. Its not only that the russians are piling units (there are tons of videos showing tanks and Ifv going to the border, there is even one with either BMP-1M or MTLB6MB, which they are not really indicative of anything, but I found curious as they are somewhat rare vehicles: https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1380913638937141250) EPYLEPSY WARNING!!! (For some reason the guy who uploaded this particular video decided to add flashing lights, so in case you have epilepsy, refrain from watching this particular video : https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1380098646188904463 Showing AA units https://twitter.com/pmakela1/status/1379803535353769984 Showing heavy 2S4 mortars, you can also find videos of 2S7 howitzers, like this one https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/1381052231944912899 https://twitter.com/GirkinGirkin/status/1379394343778316292 A logistical train carrying fuel. There are a lot of videos showing these kind of units. Also a lot of Electric Warfare units have been also seen. https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1382037766700142595 Air units going to Crimea. https://twitter.com/Liveuamap/status/1381925663083540482 , https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1382240350497083393 , https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1382196119803990017 These show movement of Landing craft and other naval vessels going to the Black sea. They supposedly are going to enter the sea of Azov today. Also, units from the central and eastern russian military districts are being redirected to the ukranian border. There has been an attempt it seems to hide these information, as a lot of units have their number plates obscured, thought this guy proved the transfer of units from the other districts: https://twitter.com/CITeam_en/status/1378667714219237376 I recommend also reading the rest of the tweets from that account, specially this one which shows that the 76th Air Assault division from Pskov its also moving to the border (They were one of the units that invaded Ukraine in 2014) :https://twitter.com/CITeam_en/status/1381615350618460166 I can go on and on, but I think with these are enough. I would also like to add, that the propaganda arm of the kremlin is working full hours, and has started to prepare its population for a possible war: https://twitter.com/666_mancer/status/1380788189196075008 , https://twitter.com/yevhenfedchenko/status/1381556336291352576 Of course, all these could mean anything. After all, if you wanna pressure your neigbour with threats of invasion, you have to make that invasion credible. Thought I am not convinced that this is just Putin having a tantrum, trying to catch the attention of western leaders. There is also the thing, that, concurrent to all this, the situation with Israel/Iran and China/Taiwan is also deteriorating, which I personally find to be much of a coincidence. In respect to Ukraine, most likely a decision has already been made by the Kremlin. From what I have read, NATO expects that the invasion may come in the first week of May. We will have to wait and see I guess, but if the worst happens, atleast we shouldnt be surprised.

So this is were all of those resources were being used off!! Extremely exciting to see you going into the cold war. Not only that, but pre-orders are already open!! So we can expect the game between the next 2-4 months, hopefully. It does seems Christmas has come somewhat late this year, but god dammn in which way it has come.

Same. We have been stuck waiting for this module for 3 years (6 since it was first teased, if I remember correctly). Plus once this module its released, and the one for FB also does, a new door for new conflicts to explore opens up, as late 2WW will be nearly fully covered up (The hungarian, romanian, finish armies between others are still unrepresented, unfortunetly); so we will finaly see them (hopefully) moving into the early war, or they might cover a new conflict, wether real or hipotetical; or they might start working into CM3. Either way, they will start working into something truly new. As for this module, I am also curious how flexible will the partisans and volkstrum TOE be, and how many possibilities will they proporcionate. Also cannot wait to see that Berlin map

Fantastic! Thank you a lot for reconsidering its inclusion. Cannot wait to face those steel beast against my IS-2s

Maybe we should do like that guy did for FI and lobby hard for the Fantasy Pack. Be right back, gonna invest into Gamestop and help to the downfall of Wall Street "suits" in the name of Armored vehicle representation. In a more serious note, Steve, If I may ask, the lack of the Jagdtiger from the TOE is also a mistake of that provisional draft; or is that going to be the case in the final game?. If is that so, may I ask why is not being included?