danfrodo

Grey Fox, I am still playing at my usual slow pace. This thread does take up a lot of space on the forum. but add up all the pages on non-game specific discussion of WW2 and see if it's not 1000+ pages. And that war was over 77 years ago. This war is live so the discussion is much more condensed. This community has a lot to offer anyone interested in the war. And there will one day be a module covering this war -- I bet it's already getting some attention, at least in planning stages. It's not slowing down releases of new content; BFC was always slower than we all wanted, this is status quo slowness. Keep playing. Between work, vacation, computer burnout and sore arm tendons (from work) I am still playing. Last session before a week vacation I stupidly lost 2 bradleys and half a squad -- so I am definitely right where I've always been w CM.

From a PR (or propaganda, if you prefer) perspective, I wonder if the correct framing of fuel prices is to push the blame on Putin. something like this: "Putin's war and his choices are causing shortages which have increased prices. Putin is using his fuel deals w EU to extort all of europe. And if we ever give him this power again, he'll do it again, so we are taking the hard step of removing ourselves from Putin's extortion racket, which is painful now but will make us safer in the future"

Did you hear that noise in the video? That's sound of many, many Ukrainian soldiers not dying this month. So UKR hits this right when they start (alleged) big push to take the Kherson region back. RU now has to rush more of it's limited resources across the bridge or face the offensive undergunned. Yeah, that's making me happy. I wonder how much ammo went up in this? I guess we'll never know. I suppose RU will try to use arty from the south side of the river, dang it.

RU is in an interesting position in Kherson area. If they reinforce, anything they put there might be cut off just by UKR dropping the bridge. If they don't reinforce, looks like they'll lose the area. Good times. And anything they do choose to move over there weakens some other nearby sector, like Melitopol axis. I actually hope Putin says to hold Kherson at all costs and to reinforce. And then UKR pushes S toward Melitopol and then W and cuts off the whole area. I want lots of booty & prisoners.

Oh, goody. We might get a real life test of Dan/CA's Belarus collapse theory. I would love to see military coup in Belarus -- not something I've really said much in my life "I'd love to see a military coup..."

yeah, I think you got it right GrigB. M777 may not be 'war winning' but it sure is killing russians in a manner more effective than w/o these guns. I don't even want to think about how badly UKR would be doing w/o these weapons & shells. It's an arty war and has been for a couple months. Less is not better.

So intel, from drone or partisans or NATO satellite or some combo, seems quite good at identifying ammo dumps. I guess all they have to do is follow army trucks to do this. If an arty position is located, wait of supply truck to arrive, unload & drive back to the ammo dump. I bet US/NATO are playing a big role in the recent escalation of ammo dump destruction.

Yeah, when I read FancyCat's post, I wondered if this is a misdirection by UKR or not. We'll see. Is UKR trying to get RU to reinforce the north side of the river so that UKR can then cut the bridge and capture more stuff? Why would they announce this? For UKR morale? But what if they fail and it drags on, then it's a morale buster.

Hopefully, but even a 'light' tank takes horrific amounts of energy to move. Fossil fuels are amazing for providing energy density. Unfortunately there's some side effects..... It's like asbestos or DDT -- truly miracle materials for their intended purposes. Not so miraculous on the unintended consequences.

A full week out in the wilderness, no news of outside world, rugged terrain where no sane person would ever do a military operation, that's for sure. I was hoping I'd come back to find Putin had been ousted in a bloody coup that burned down the kremlin. No such luck. I reviewed the posts of last few days. So it seems UKR ceded some territory, arty was heavy on both sides last week. But last couple days it looks like mountains of RU ammo going up in flames. That's a nice way to fight an arty war, just destroy the enemy's ammo. Anyone have any info on any UKR advances? Any success over the last week? I do see UKR lost territory, though it was the expected areas where UKR was untenable and pulled out.

Ships in the black sea to pick up grain: I think it's not about some complicated no-fly zone, like has been mentioned above. NATO says, in a diplomatic way, "these ships, these times, will have protection, stay away. This ships are here for grain to avert food crises around the world, do not interfere." NATO could provide a CAP within NATO or NATO-friendly boundaries that would only scramble over the ships if Russian ships or planes approach. If Russia fired on the ships NATO would attack wherever the missiles came from, via planes or cruise missiles.

"Putin wants....." that's a funny couple of words. He can't get what he wants and is actually getting mountains of what he doesn't want. All that matters is that 'the west' recognizes that Putin will never stop trying to get what he wants, and therefore it's in all our interest to make sure he loses, badly, in Ukraine. He has, of course, been a great asset to the cause of RU losing badly.

WTF?? So idiot says Putin has no agency and that Slavs are being slaughtered. Dude, did you not even look at the official talking points???

Great points by all. Yeah, Hapless videos are a must! I've been playing from 6 or 7 years now and still learn things from those. Playing the era you are most interested in is also great advice. CMBN has incredible content, lots of different type of fights. From infantry-centric airborne to big tank battles. Those panther tanks firing from Bourgebous ridge at my poor shermans -- what a fight! I never thought of it before but the points made for CMFI are also very good. Less complicated fighting in some ways, graphics are nice (the hedgerows in BN can be a little slow to refresh, not a game stopper or anything terrible), good variety of units & situations. CMFB is a blast but a new person might find the mud rather frustrating -- we all do . But mud was a huge factor in the bulge terrain, so it's gotta be there. There's lots of fights where the ground is nicely frozen but in real life and in FB there's lots of mud. When your tank gets stuck it's always a good reason for an expletive. I looooove CMRT but I wouldn't start there unless that's your favorite front. The modern titles are great, though CMSF2 is, I think, easier than CMBS, and has a lot of great variety & content. But you will probably notice that WW2 folks own all the WW2 titles, which you will probably do once you get hooked. I was WW2 only for years then got CMSF2 & CMBS. And now the big problem is that I don't have enough time to play all the content I have. There's dozens & dozens of scenarios I still haven't touched and a bunch of campaigns also. You really get your money's worth w these games, you'll spend many many many happy hours and still not get through all the battles provided. So just get one and get going! Life is short!

and on the subject of american victims of Putin's criminality, there's hostage taking. Specifically Britney Greiner, WNBA star. Also there's another guy currently held hostage, name Whelan (sp?). The reporter here talks about what Russia is up to on this. Also they discuss the amount of coverage relative to her level of famousness (meaning Greiner is not Serena Williams level famous). I get that this seems trivial relative to the numbers of Ukranians killed, maimed, displaced, kidnapped by Putin.

OK, this is just getting ridiculous. It's like I am watching some kind of parody show. They are losing high ranking officers (major & above) at an absolutely unbelievable rate. Between the ammo & officer losses lately, it's hard to see how RU can do anything more than their very current local offensive actions. What a mess.

So it looks like UKR needs to withdraw from Lysychansk. Too exposed and vulnerable. Sad but not strategically very costly for Ukraine. It will allow propaganda win for Putin, and allow RU to reposition forces, unfortunately. But it does great simplify UKR defense, shortens the line, and allows UKR artillery to locate farther from danger while still in range to smash RU forces.

I am still waiting for the comedy section of today's news to start -- meaning what RU officials will say about Finland/Sweden taking huge step in the NATO process. Should be good fun.

UKR is outgunned, locally in Donbas by RU artillery and air. So they are going after the ammo for the guns and now the airbases. I like it. I like it a lot. Hard to find all those dang guns. but easy, it seems, to find the ammo storage. And a lot of talk about Russia and its future on the thread today. But what's missing is that Russia is in control of what happens. Remove Putin, make peace, make it stick, reform gov't and in 5-10 years things will start getting better. Keep on the path Russia is on and it will be severe, ongoing economic decline and probably dangerous political instability. No one is invading Russia, especially not going to moscow removing the Russian gov't. That's absurd beyond belief. And Russia attacking NATO in a way that hurts NATO 1% as much as it hurts Putin is only slightly less absurd.

I generally agree w all things Kraze, but I don't think I see this the same way. I think you mean that Russia has a collective insanity -- I agree, but this insanity starts at the top and is distributed via propaganda from the top down. Does Putin care about and represent the interests of the russian people -- doesn't seem so as he's oppressed them, economically and politically, for 20 years while making himself and his cronies crazy rich. The population mostly believes this is due to bad foreigners, of course. Blamin Putin is also very handy for the future, where removing Putin gives Russian a way to start to make amends w the world. W Putin in power, there is no way forward.

yeah, straight up murder-terrorism on civilians was plan B, which was over in early march. They are on plan E now, I thought. Jeebus, Vlad, pay attention & keep up!

I was thinking same thing. I want to politicians & media to start framing this war better. I want to start hearing things like "serial mass murderer & dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin" become the norm. He as murdered dozens of thousands now, crippled and maimed many times that, and wrecked the lives of literally millions. He's totally disrupted the already damaged world economy. He's worked to undermine democracy in the US and Europe. He's a murderous menace to the world but it needs to be framed so that it can start sinking in w folks that aren't paying much attention.

While RU making some very costly advances for very little ground, they are also losing ground on the 'land bridge front'. RU doesn't have enough forces to protect all its ill-gotten gains, perhaps. Here's good summary I saw today: LIBERAL SITE, ENTER AT OWN RISK https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/27/2106704/-Ukraine-update-Low-on-troops-Russia-plays-whack-a-mole-with-frisky-Ukrainians Hopefully all the sacrifice in the Lysychansk sector has opened up opportunities in the south. We shall see.

Whilst upon my trusty nordic trak steed today, I watch this most excellent video on how US artillery works, using M777 as example. Very informative for me and probably for others civvies and non-arty folks. So that's what 'splash' means, I never did understand that in CMBS.

I wonder if Putin's purpose w this is to scare Lithuania and Poland into sending less weapons to Ukraine. I very very much doubt it will have any effect other than to increase support for Ukraine. Yes, please send two Belarus battalions to take on NATO. One step across the border and there'd be the biggest air show imaginable coming down on them. So, yes, please, we're calling your bluff.