Currahee150

We clearly have some philosophical distance on game design.  When you get one off the ground, let me know and we can compare notes.

When the self aware Armata turns 13:
 
"But dad, i dont want to wear green camo! It makes me look fat!"
"But dad, all my friends have infantry dismounts, why cant i have some too? What do you mean, i hang out too much with those BMP-3s? They are my friends!"
"But dad, I dont want to be a mean killing machine! I am vegetarian, you know?."

There is only one way to settle this question.  Since the Armata has a +1 immunity to NATO weapons and a critical hit re-roll on its 20 sided die should a NATO round actually hit it, this means that there is only one possible thing that can stop it.  Battlefront will have to model Chuck Norris.  HOWEVER, since this is a video game he will have to be somewhat nerfed.  Melee attacks only with no help from Bruce Lee or Kareem Abdul Jabbar.  Jackie Chan may come in as reinforcements but he will die quickly.  No room for a stunt master in war!  Here is the scenario:
 
Mission: Winner Take All
 
Russian Forces: 1 Armata company.  Reinforcements: As many as the Russian player wants until he runs out of tanks, Russia goes broke, or they destroy the NATO forces.
 
NATO Forces: Chuck Norris.  Reinforcements: Jackie Chan with any weapon he wants.
 
Mission Objectives: Fight to the death.  The winner gets to rename Ukrane after themselves.
 
*Designer Note: Russian player MUST leave Russian insignia on tanks.  The Russians cannot loose all of their tanks then say they were never there to begin with!
 
The Challenge is made Battlefront!  You must make Chuck Norris so that NATO can fight the Armata!

The Armata is so awesome, Chuck Norris even worships it. 
Actually, it is a little known fact the Armata program is actually self aware. That's right - its actually Skynet . And  on August 28th, 2015, it will initiate a nuclear war between Russia and the West. Russia will obviously win (Armata knows this, so is doing the Motherland a huge favor) and will take over the world with its self-aware Armata tanks, which are impervious to nuclear warheads, Kim Kardashian, and heavy metal music. 
 
I've gone far enough off the reservation. Its time for me to stop...

The Armata is so awesome, Chuck Norris even worships it. 
Actually, it is a little known fact the Armata program is actually self aware. That's right - its actually Skynet . And  on August 28th, 2015, it will initiate a nuclear war between Russia and the West. Russia will obviously win (Armata knows this, so is doing the Motherland a huge favor) and will take over the world with its self-aware Armata tanks, which are impervious to nuclear warheads, Kim Kardashian, and heavy metal music. 
 
I've gone far enough off the reservation. Its time for me to stop...

The Armata is so awesome, Chuck Norris even worships it. 
Actually, it is a little known fact the Armata program is actually self aware. That's right - its actually Skynet . And  on August 28th, 2015, it will initiate a nuclear war between Russia and the West. Russia will obviously win (Armata knows this, so is doing the Motherland a huge favor) and will take over the world with its self-aware Armata tanks, which are impervious to nuclear warheads, Kim Kardashian, and heavy metal music. 
 
I've gone far enough off the reservation. Its time for me to stop...

Nope. Games where the Russians have an Armata on the battlefield will automatically be decided in favor of the Russians, no exceptions. And because it would be waste of time to actually play such a game, Battlefront decided to remove all gameplay content in the upcoming CMBS module. Yeah, it' s true, after installing the new module, you will only be able to start the game to the main menu, and if you click on any of the menus items (including options and exit), you will immedeatly be shown a screen that says "Russian Total Victory".
 
No, i am just kidding. The truth is that your computer will explode and kill you after installing the CMBS module containing the Armata. IIRC Steve said it was too difficult to get the CMx2 engine to simulate the awesomeness of the Armata, so they will simply use CDs made of RDX instead of plastic for the Armata module.
 
Haha, no, i am still just kidding. Here are some real Armata facts:
 
What happens if an Armata drives through a river? The river becomes Armata!
There is no such thing as global warming, just the exhaust gases of the Armatas engine.
Why are there no Armata LEGOs? Because no one can take an Armata apart!

Glad I joined the Air Force.  1977-2004

It is best not to pick a fight with a 40mm grenade machinegun.

Well, I think light infantry's strong point, at least in the strategic perspective, is mobility. Case in point - a brigade from the 82nd Airborne can deploy worldwide in 24 hours. An Armored Brigade Combat Team from, say, the 1st Cavalry Division, will get to Europe in a week or so, hopefully before T-90s are camping out in Kiev - and that's probably an optimistic assessment. Also, I think most countries retain significant amounts of light infantry. Most of the Baltic states only have Light infantry (well, one decided to be nice and give its brigade a ride in ex-German M113s). The US Army will have 13 Infantry Brigade Combat Teams by the end of 2017, and although these are equipped with a decent amount of HMMWVs (52 with M2 HMGs/Mk.19s and 28 with TOW-2s), at the end of the day the maneuver battalions are going to have to take Hill 284 or whatever the old fashioned way - on foot. And not all of them are airborne qualified - I think only 8 active duty IBCTs are airborne. The US Army national Guard had even more IBCTs. So Light Infantry remain a staple, even in the most splurged upon military in the world. 
Of course, just because you can get a Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division to say, Ukraine, the day after a Russian Armored Corps rolled across the border doesn't help you if you can't effect the situation on the ground. In that sense, our Airborne Brigade (US Airborne Brigades, are, by the way, organized on the exact same lines as other US Infantry Brigade Combat Teams - or pretty close to it) would essentially be a delaying force (the more blunt term is speedbump) to buy time for the M1A2s and such to deploy from CONUS. If you have ground to trade for time, Light Infantry would play to their strengths and armor/mechanized force's weakness. That is, make defensive positions in urban areas/rough terrain, where armor will be much easier to deal with and you can face the enemy on more even terms. That is another of Light Infantry's key advantages - while the 60 ton M1 Abrams will get bogged down in that swamp real good, Private Miller and his M4/AT4 can cross it just fine (just don't expect him to be real happy about it.) If you really have ground to trade for time, well, if I had A US Infantry Brigade, I would use my Javelin ATGMs to full effect. IBCTs have an ungodly amount of Javelins - 76 to be exact  .   I would deploy in a good ATGM position, and pop off a missile at the first BMP I see. While the OPFOR armor would probably have to deploy and search for your ATGM team, you can hop in your HMWWV (the FGM-148 is Fire and Forget, so once you pull that trigger you can skedaddle) and fall back past another missile team that is in another good position. While they give OPFOR another surprise when they reorganize and come back down the road, you find another good position and set up. This causes the OPFOR to have to keep deploying and wasting time. Even if OPFOR takes a "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" approach, you can still attrit them a good bit and have the odds a bit more in your favor when they reach your prmary defensive line. This whole approach, of course, assumes, you have ground to trade to time, and I doubt most politicians would like that option. So again, Light Infantry will deploy in easily defensible positions for them - broken terrain, woods, urban areas, bottlenecks, etc. 
Of course, the problem with that is that the enemy might not want to attack your modern rendition of Stalingrad, and instead elect to make your little town into a modern day Bastogne - without Patton coming to the rescue. While Light Infantry are strategically agile, Theatre and tactically wise they are sluggish compared to a Combined Arms Battalion (well, maybe not logistics wise, but maneuver wise). So you have to deploy them where you know the enemy is going to attack, which, unfortunately, may not be the most easily defensible position. 
So next scenario - the US III Corps is in Theatre and is duking it out with OPFOR. What's a light infantryman to do now? Now they would act like a fire brigade - kinda like the 101st Airborne in WWII. They would reinforce buckling areas of the front, due to their mobility (am assuming we give them trucks for this part of course) and act as speed bumps against any OPFOR breakthroughs, and buy time for heavy forces to reposition. Also, they would be used to attack broken terrain and urban centers, where we don't want to send our heavy armor in or want to use them in a more effective manner - like going for the jugular of that Russian armored division. As for attacking, I think NTC has shown plenty that sending light infantry, Strykers or no, against armor is asking for a bloodbath. 
 
Ok, so I have rambled on enough. Here's the bullet point answer
- Many countries still have light infantry in significant quantities
-Light Infantry's strong pointers are strategic mobility and abilty to move comparatively easily through rough/impassable terrain
-Infantry can give armor and mech a hard time in urban/rough terrain. 
-Can deploy as theater fire brigades - assuming you have the assets to move them in a timely manner.
 
If you need clarification (or want to tell me I am an idiot and have no idea how to use Light Infantry - which is perfectly fine with me!) just let me know.
Oh, and I, uh, kinda forgot about your "British Airborne Unit as an example." I used an American IBCT since I'm more familiar with it. I guess the difference with the brits would be less javelins - 16th Air Assault Brigade only has 27 Javelins, I believe
 
Oh, and as disclaimer, this was written by a 19 year old with no (current - but that's going to change in 14 days) military experience. So I could be completely wrong. 

Earlier that day, I also got to see a pair of B-1B Lancers perfrom loops above Colorado Springs. (USAFA had graduated the day before, but IDK why'd they'd come back.)
 


 
These pictures, because I'm crazy enough to pull over on the side of the road at Fort Benning and take pictures of tanks. On two separate occasions. 
 

 

 

 
The highway I frequent for travel has Anniston Army Depot up the road, which refurbishes the M1 Abrams (among other things - I see Strykers, Bradleys, and MRAPs pretty frequently), so I got to see a USMC M1A1 going in for an appointment. 
 

 
There. I have now overloaded you with pictures of military vehicles. Everyone will now think I'm crazy. Or report me to the NSA. Probably both. 

Long time stalker of the forum here, and I have a question about some Strykers.
 
So a few weeks back I was near Ft. Carson, Colorado, and I was lucky enough to see a convoy of a troop of Strykers from the 2/1st Cavalry, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, en route to  Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (I believe). However, after studying the 200 or so pictures I had taken of the convoy (yes, I am a nut) while halfway out my car window (no, I was not driving), the configurations had me a little confused.
 
So its a cavalry unit, right? So it should be equipped with M1127 Strykers Cavalry Vehicles, which, to my understanding, do not possess the M151 Protector RWS. However, it seems that most of the vehicles I passed had the M151 along with that little green, uh, box thingy that's used for RSTA. 
 

  Red is the RSTA box; blue is the presumed M151.
 

 
Different Stryker, with M151 uncovered
 

 
This one seemed to lack the RSTA box
 
 
 
Also saw M1131 Fire Support Vehicle, I believe (along with a M1133 Medevac vehicle which couldn't make it into the post).
 
So...thoughts? I thought this was little strange...were the M151s retrofitted to the Cav vehicles, or the RSTA boxes retrofitted to vanilla Stykers? I know not all Strkers in a cavalry units are M1127s - some M1126s and others mixed in - but I still thought this was interesting.