danfrodo

This guy is disgusting overall, a full-on MAGA stolen-election fascist, at least in his words and actions, gawd knows what he actually believes because it's near political suicide to actually say sane things on his side of the aisle. But let's judge him on this one item: I interpret his words as "I support UKR aid. I just gotta go thru some motions to make it look like we are more responsible w that aid than before to placate those of my colleagues who are on Putin's payroll". So I like what he said, I think it bodes well. And if he delivers I'll have to swallow my pride and thank him, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, just like I did w Sen McConnell.

That's the assault of my dreams. I always have one crazy ivan w a ppsh that just won't quit that kills 5 of my guys

I just hope this happens in my lifetime. If not, I wonder at what level of hell (where I'm going) one no longer gets CM? I am guessing by level 4 all you get is Company of Heroes.

Well, here we are at the end of the summer campaign season and RU, sadly, still owns the landbridge and Luhansk. I was definitely wrong about how summer would shape up. Now I am looking at where we're at wondering about reasons for hope in kicking RU out of UKR. UKR has seriously degraded RU capabilities, of that I think we can be confident. Maybe that degradation will yield some operational gains in the coming months. The UKR operations across the Dnieper might yield something but only if they are going to put a lot of effort into it -- infantry supported by lots artillery & drones. Even then it will take a lot of time since it's a foot mobile force for a while. Still no real movement in the south, east, or north, sadly. Maybe loss of leaves and long nights will help UKR. Maybe decreasing RU morale and effectiveness with the cold, wet weather will help. I sure wish there'd be some cracks somewhere. Meanwhile, RU is doing its best to destroy its own army for nothing in pointless attacks. So maybe there's hope for something to break somewhere, soon.

You are missing the point. RU is using the soldiers as energy absorbing extra armor layer to protect the BMP. Very clever! and a good use of resources since RU knows that its people have zero value while BMPs are in shortage.

My epic rampage through the soviet rear areas went rather poorly. I ran into three ZSUs and a T72 over the crest to my front, while also getting hit by T72s that were hidden along a tree line to my left. Of my 5 M60s, two destroyed, two immobilized, with only one ZSU to their credit. Disaster, as seen here from soviet view. So now we make the best of a tough situation. I head onto track in the woods w a squad, an M113 and the remaining M60 a couple minutes behind. After a small arms firefight I approach the hilltop (an objective) and soviets respond with ZSUs and various HQ elements, all of which are smashed. Meanwhile, on my side of the valley there's a zerg rush on the hill at my center. The M60s you see are knocked out. I'm engaging from the left with small arms and from the other side of the valley with M60 & M113-50cal fire. Goal is to pin the soviets long enough for my 107mm mortars to come crashing in. Success! Say hello to my big mortars, commies! Now need to deal with the 4 T72s & a couple BMPs that are hidden the tree line. I use some M60 smoke to approach, looking to get into a close range fight with my 5 M60s vs a couple T72s at a time. The smoke fades and I get two of the T72s right away. Charge of the M60s! After losing two M60s, I finally clear the final T72. Nasty close in fight. I had engineers closing in from woods on the enemy right but didn't quite time it right. I was hoping to have the infantry engage while the T72s were busy with my M60s. But ended well overall. All enemy armor destroyed and I can advance with armor & infantry. And a Total Tictory! Each side lost 21 tanks but soviets lost more AFVs. My losses in personnel were terrible, though. What a fight. I'd love to do the same battle with M1s instead of M60s. Quite a challenge when half my tank & most of my TOW hits fail to penetrate.

W RU burning up lots of what would be operational reserves, maybe this can work? Put light forces across on wide front, supported by arty, with relatively few roads for RU on which to move in mobile forces. So becomes infantry/artillery fight. Interesting. But if we can see this so can RU, so can UKR do this before RU pours in the mobiks?

I can't believe you did a cliffhanger here! That's cruel! What happened????

damn straight! I love to watch the action from a distance then zoom in to the hot actions and watch at ground level. It's what makes CM so great.

That's been the case for lots of these RU operations. A lot of RU casualties, a little advance, then UKR counterattacks/probes into these smashed RU units and pushes them back to the original start lines or a little further.

ugh, nothing worse than running into ppsh at short range. Nothing better than being the ambushers w the ppsh. What nationality is that smoke? German or russian? Great pics, as always, thanks much

I am still wondering how long nights and loss of leaf cover is going to affect operations. Mud would normally be the problem, but w UKR's tactics maybe not a show stopper. I am pretty sure UKR will have more infantry/vehicle night/thermal vision and more drones w same. I'm hoping RU soldiers find themselves severely underequipped for night ops w no concealment.

I keep getting my hopes up when I see these cross-river raids and I know it's so impossibly hard to supply it, so much risk, as in 'arnhem' level risk. But wow, it sure does present RU w some tough choices. If it is real, RU is facing probable annihilation of their land bridge defenses, so RU has to respond. But with what do they respond? They just burned up their 'reserve' army at Robotyne & Andiivka. So they'll have to thin the lines somewhere, move some artillery & support, etc. If they don't respond strongly they'll be at risk of UKR actually making a bigger move. Good timing, w RU now fully committed at Andiivka and having burned up a huge amount of shells, men, & vehicles. Maybe UKR is looking at this as being a nice place to ambush RU reinforcements out in the open with artillery as they coming rushing in w orders to wipe out the bridgehead. There was talk of option space recently here in the thread. This crossing definitely reduces RU option space, and makes the options they do choose that much more risky. I like it.

The Grieshof Meet & Greet. Really fun so far. My big flanking op is taking shape. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but things are looking good.

Playing a 1979 CMCW scenario that so far is one of the best of any CM title that I've played. Large meeting engagement with lots of options for offense & defense. So far things going pretty well for the US. Set up: advance mech infantry & tanks through possibly observed area using smoke to get to some of my objectives. Saw 'em coming and got into good firing positions across the valley. M60s & TOWs had hard time but finally knocked out RU tanks: BMPs used terrain to mask movement but got caught by another group of M60s w TOWs I had rushed to the RU side of the valley on the right of the battle: With those threats mostly dealt with, time to begin my big flanking operation. But to do that I first have to knock out the reverse-slope ambush-roadblock in the woods. Fortunately my scouts heard the BMPs so I knew it was there. Organized a big infantry-tank attack from three sides, and it worked . One last thorn in my side needs to be handled: Four T72s(64s?) have been sitting at the edge of some woods in overwatch position the entire battle. My artillery knocked out two, but two were still stubbornly constricting my ability to poke my head of the slope on my side of the valley. But with the roadblock gone, I could come at them from behind, from the woods. Lost one M60 but knocked out the bad guys. Four lovely smoke plumes. Now forming up for what I am hoping will be a rampage through russian backfield on their reverse slope. Takes time as my forces all thread their way along single forest track. Russian infantry with some tanks still moving on my side of the valley in dead ground, but hard to engage them so will have to wait until they crest the ridge. Gonna be quite a shootout at that point.

FlammenwerferX & PhantomCapt, keep it coming! This is great stuff, I really enjoy it. Thanks! I gotta add some of my recent to this thread, some CMCW fighting.

This is really irking me right now. First we see the nonsense that Ukraine war & terrorist attacks by Hamas are somehow part of some scheme, which is of course true because .....they are contemporary in time????? I see idiotic, imbecilic new narrative being built where somehow aid to Israel precludes aid to Ukraine. Israel already has 10,000X the military power of Hamas. Maybe they'll need to be back stopped on shells, but not at anything close to the level that UKR goes through. Could people just use their damn brains and not just swallow these obviously absurd narratives without question? Jesus, this is infuriating. It's like watching the pied piper hypnotize children.

Daily dose of confirmation bias. Good summary of where things are today but not much new. Both sides stuck in defensive warfare, or denial as TheCapt would say. RU launched brilliant, massive offensive operation that cleverly reduced the amount of food, ammo & fuel need by RU forces in the Andiivka area, though did lead to a shortage of body bags. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/14/2199143/-Ukraine-Update-Ukraine-has-the-upper-hand-but-it-s-a-defensive-slugfest?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web

Incredible UKR combat video here. Video bounces between trench fighting and the drone above watching it all. Confusion amid fighting in the trench maze, particularly on RU soldiers who seem to have less situational awareness. Especially when they come flying out from dugouts trying to escape. Some shooting just a couple meters apart. From above, we get the big picture while the guys on the ground only see what's right in front of them.

Well thought out & well spoken, Kraft. I don't really agree, but I can see that your points make sense. I still think the cost to RU of taking some unimportant pile of rubble wasn't worth the cost. UKR took casualties but also believed the math worked in their favor so chose to use Bakhmut as an area to hold w goal of killing lots of russians. Morale & politically, I think Bakhmut was a UKR victory. They stood for months, slowly giving ground. RU looked inept and had heavy infighting that led to a botched coup (or whatever that was) and burned up hundreds of thousands of shells and now has a shell shortage. Maybe RU doesn't care about the convicts it killed but it does miss the ordnance.

Yes, well, I am a very stupid person, obviously. Sugarcoating would be nice, and use small words.

great point, thanks for that. But like you say, pretty sketchy 'what if' to hang one's hat on. But damn that would be great if it happens and it works.

They were just absolutely obliterated, even their own propagandists are saying it was a disaster. Yet again, another offensive action that leads to massive losses for nothing. Exactly what did they learn?? I was hoping for more nuanced analysis, but Ohh well.

Or maybe it shows that RU decision makers are really, really f-ing stupid? Like w endless waste of men & material to take Bakhmut? Like every other offensive they've tried this year? They have basically gained nothing while burning out huge resources. UKR hasn't gained much territory, but at least they are working toward something important -- cutting major landbridge east-west supply lines. If UKR can just get another 20km then RU in serious trouble -- but can they get another 20km?? But instead of ensuring this doesn't happen, RU burns up its reserves in pointless disasters.

nothing particularly new here, but when there's good news might as well enjoy it https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/13/2199210/-Ukraine-Update-Russian-sources-are-pessimistic-about-their-disastrous-attacks-on-Avdiivka?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_2&pm_medium=web It's always lovely when RU decides to destroy it's reserves out in the open. This is huge amount of men & material that won't be around to cause trouble later.