danfrodo

Really, really well stated.

Who thinks this? Capitalism works, overall. It just needs some boundaries and people need some safety net. We can (and should) argue about where the right balance is, but what do people think will replace capitalism? State run economies are baaaaaad at running..... a state economy . The free market, which sometimes actually exists, works -- meaning it only exists when there's the much req'd proper competition, lest things devolve rather quickly into trusts & monopolies.

The term we always see for this is "a rising tide lifts all boats". But only for those w boats.

These SW tools can solve optimization problems w lots of design variables in lots of ways to provide some set of 'good' solutions. But it's still just a plan. Aint now SW gonna implement nuthin, someone still has to get truck A to supply point B in the real world. And the solutions can be very sensitive to the parameters chosen -- chosen by humans. When I teach some of this stuff to engineers I always tell them to test their sensitivity to their assumptions. 'bound the problem' so they at least know how much danger they are in if any given assumption is off by some appreciable amount. Never want to run these tools & say "there's THE answer" unless you are darn sure you've got everything well understood.

That is cooooold, very funny! But why do you think QAnon is false? Everyone I know drinks baby blood -- it's actually in the vending machines of most federal gov't office buildings.

I don't disagree w anything you said, just wondering why this thread has anything to do w that. We've all had the dreaded bridge bug at some point, and I try to remember to save more often once I start crossing bridges. GeorgeMC bridges seem to work great so far. Whatever magic he was seems to be working. Steve aint coding bridge fixes.

How on earth was this vehicle spotted with how well it hiding under that tree? That's really impressive UKR observation, took me a while to see it w that tree cover.

ChuckDyke, you have a choice to not engage here, no? Post on CM game threads. This thread is not delaying new BFC products. I think I just don't understand your point.

AKA 'generative design'. This is especially important for design for 3D printing. Our CAD tools and our manufacturing processes push our brains into a relatively cartesian, orthogonal space. This helps us greatly because it reduces our design freedom so our brains can wrap around the (now smaller) design space better. But in 3DP space the design space is wide open (mostly) and we can use modern tools, like topology optimization, to take advantage of that freedom. (this is a part of a basic spiel I give all the time, actually did it for Machine Design magazine a year or so ago)

In the short term I just want the IFVs & AFVs so the grunts in the trenches have some mobile firepower reserve they can call on when things get rough. Yes, these will also be needed to build proper combined arms units for offensive action but right now UKR needs everything it can get to mow down the RU infantry. Hopefully some of these vehicles also have ATGM attached. I am not, of course, diminishing the need for lots of mortars & arty which are the main weapons.

Wow, that is an amazingly detailed description of this fight. thx for sharing. I suppose not all UKR sectors are so well coordinated for defense, but hopefully most of them are this good.

Summary today here, a lot of talk of tanks and he does some math to add up what UKR and RU probably have. He repeats the ongoing rumor that RU is planning a massive air attack. I suppose that attack would be a drone swarm + air craft to overwhelm AD. Hopefully RU jets will be over aggressive & take huge losses -- which would be very uncharacteristic of Putin to spend gold assets to get pig iron return. What I am wondering about more than the tanks right now is the delivery/training/deployment of IFVs -- where are those in the pipeline I wonder? https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/14/2152434/-Ukraine-update-Analysts-warn-that-Russia-is-preparing-to-launch-an-air-campaign

Really ChuckDyke? I see your posts complaining about lack of threads about the game -- so play the game and make posts on those threads. I just did a little after action series on RT-BP1 fight (was f-ing epic!). Also, IIRC, only BS new module is delayed due to the war? Everything else is just delayed due to the usual reasons everything takes forever. Steve being here doesn't delay anything IMO because he can walk and chew gum. He spends some time here every day but it's not like he can't do his day job and this. And given that this current war will be a whole series of BS modules (I am praying for this) then studying this war is actually part of his job.

I learned some really good lessons for the next battle like this. Bad news is that I spent a week of Pz4 & hannomag production plus a company of men to get that lesson! Ouch. The soviet gunners shocked me w their accuracy. I started battle thinking my better optics & would allow me to spot first, hit first -- or at least hit first at the ~1000+ meter ranges even if they got off first round. I was quickly disabused of this notion, to say the least. Plus those pz4 75mm shells don't penetrate the front of a T34-85 turret at that range. So after that I decided stealth & mortars was the better choice Now going back to do some smaller RT-BP1 battles before moving on to bigger battle/campaigns.

Preppers are having a field day w all this I am sure. "they could use nukes to knock out the power grid!!" Yeah, but wouldn't they just use nukes to nuke us instead? And they could only knock out a bunch of small areas, which could be really damaging, but not the event the idiots think it would be where every chip in US is fried. Meanwhile, how stupid is this for China. The gain is probably negligible or at most minimal but it provokes US into increasing our military spending against China. And gets more and more corporate decision makers thinking "I need to divest from China, these guys are nuts". Well, Xi, I hope it's worth it for you, ya damn fool. You have global capitalism gushing prosperity onto your country and you think maybe you need a no-win war instead because..... why??? what is there to gain w all this foolishness? Why would one side of two gigantic interconnected trade partners think war over some rocks in the pacific makes sense?

Thanks for sharing, Haiduk, those videos are very enlightening. The guys in snow camo look right out of Feb 1943 until one sees the weapons. I hope UKR can take some advantage of any RU overextension in the Bakhmut area and punch back, causing RU losses & maybe some routs. These mobiks & conscripts need to start shooting at their masters. I know this is a LOTR-only site, but I keep thinking of the scene in Game of Thrones when Daneris tells the merc-conscripts "kill the masters!"

Good take on this. I look at this thing as an intended rape victim fighting back against the rapist. I don't really care how much violence is req'd to make the rapist stop especially considering the rapist could simply leave the situation and avoid being injured. The intended victim might be the most pacifist, non-violent person on earth with lots of totally pacificist non-violent friends. But none of those friends would say "oh don't betray our ideals and violently oppose the rape!". They would all say to do whatever it takes to make him stop and if nearby would also use violence to make him stop. Option B is they would say "sorry, but I am non violent. Ouch, that sure looks like a bad situation, I really feel for you." To me UKR war is that black & white. Putin is trying to rape & enslave & rob Ukraine and we are the friends who are nearby.

Behind paywall, but if you can get there it's interesting. RU ex-convict prisoners talk about their experiences w Wagner. Leaves me wondering how much better treatment is for mobiks. Mobiks being regular RU citizens, I would think that this kind of horrific abuse would filter back to RU and maybe start to cause some anger. But I've thought that before and nothing happens. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/world/europe/ukraine-russia-prisoners.html

Bizarro world for sure. I think the simple black & whiteness of this war, so very rare, makes it an easy choice even for folks that are generally skeptical of military involvements. I was pro-afghan war and anti-iraq war but those were way more complicated than UKR war. "do I want saddam dead? -- yes! Are we lying about WMDs and potentially getting into a big disaster? -- yes!" No dilemnas like that in this one. I am completely flummoxed on how a big portion of those usually aggressive in foreign policy are now siding w a serial mass murdering, city destroying, world economy wrecking psychopath dictator. I keep thinking there's some Putin payola underneath all the brainwashing going on, but that's just conjecture.

Yeah, I am in hiding. I've got a dozen friends coming over and a huge pile of fried chicken, an annual tradition. And some of the people coming over are actually more interested in football than in Rhianna.

Finally got my big RT battle done. Barely any progress for a month, stupid RL. So, GeorgeMC-ovich, you had me stumped for quite a while, stuck in the town. The AT guns kept me pinned and I was doing artillery/mortar duels to knock them out, but overall completely stuck. Finally decided to take some action, sent halftracks on scouting missions to find alternative paths to the final bridge objective. Terrain turned out to be my friend and I found a route that was only lightly sniped by AT guns w limited observation -- drove fast thru that section! I managed to spot some of your little friends along the way and knocked them out. Then the assault on the bridge was on! I pounded the bridge area w remaining arty shells and tank/MG fire then ran the first two tanks across -- success! How ya like me now, Georgie? Keep pounding w the tanks and add some tank smoke shells, then send the infantry across. Took some infantry casualties on the bridge and just across it -- tough guy w a ppsh in a foxhole I thought was cleared popped up & the tanks couldn't see him. Several wounded, a couple dead. But success as my infantry fan out & into the enemy foxholes. And the coup de grace, I reach phase line Loki w my armor! I lost 14 tanks and 24 halftracks but still got major victory. I was very much focused on my mission -- get the bridges & town to thwart soviet advances from this sector, bypassing enemy troops is OK. WHAT A FIGHT! This was brilliant, GeorgeMC. You really had me stuck and frustrated for a while. This battle really provides a great feel for what an operation like this would've been like w the troops, weapons and terrain of August 1944 on this front. Wow, what a blast! Non-spoiler tips for anyone trying this out: use the terrain to find unobserved or minimally observed routes forward -- cover AT-sniped areas w smoke so you can advance through otherwise suicidal spots -- PZ4 smoke is excellent. Once AT guns or tanks start whacking you, get eyes & mortars on them ASAP. Use the 75mm halftracks as sneaky snipers to hit well placed enemy defensive positions w plunging fire -- this is really dangerous but works if mortars have the guns suppressed. I made so many mistakes looking back on this but still managed to pull out a major victory. THANKS AGAIN GEORGEMC.

nice summary here today. open map in new tab and it's really good resolution to see what this person thinks is up. It's more confirmation bias as he makes the case that RU hasn't advanced as far as has been reported -- but maybe he's being overly optimistic. We'll see. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/11/2152392/-Ukraine-update-Russia-is-hitting-new-records-for-men-and-equipment-lost-as-repeated-assaults-fail

This really gives me insight to what it's like on a front line trench. A fire team hanging out, freezing, looking out over fields toward RU lines. Waiting and worrying. And freezing. But at least they have some nice MG42-looking weapons. I was watching this and thinking "too bad they aren't precise enough to hit that bunched line of 4 AFVs -- and then BAAM! Nice shooting!

We really have not idea what is really happening overall right now it seems. I am getting faint whiffs of 1918 german summer offensive to try to win before the tide irrevocably turns against them. That offensive was seriously dangerous but americans showed up just in time. What will happen here? We know UKR & RU taking heavy casualties but we don't know the ratio. We know UKR has only given up limited territory and even the fall of Bakhmut doesn't matter strategically. We know the ground stays frozen for the next 7 days. We hear reports that RU has artillery superiority around Bakhmut. Is that by UKR choice or by UKR deficiency?? Really wish there were multiple UKR brigades w western IFVs & tanks right now. This could've happened if we just started the process 6 months ago, dammit. Is RU really throwing everything into the fight, right now? Does UKR have the reserves to both hold back this flood and still prepare for a later offensive? Will next wave of mobiks be in place to thwart URK spring offensive even if RU depletes itself? Putler may be counting on the spring rasputitsa to act as his fallback in case of failure, buying him a couple months to regroup after hurting UKR even in slaughtering his own troops. I just don't know. And the more I think about it the more I worry.

I find 1:1 at Bakhmut very very very hard to believe. Locally it may look that way to a medic or soldier in a trench. But that's missing the huge number of zergs that died before they ever got to the soldier in the trench. Because UKR lines are mostly static or falling back, how would any soldier know how many zergs are dead in the fields and tree lines out there from UKR artillery? RU attacking mostly in the open and we think the guys in the trenches are the same amount?