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Machor

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Everything posted by Machor

  1. Machor
    From my experience of placing very similar forces on the same maps for defense with varying wind forces, I can confirm with 100% certainty that wind does significantly deteriorate sound contacts.
  2. Machor
    For the record, I've been playing Iron WeGo ever since I got into CM in 2015 (thanks to CMBS), and like it just the way it is. May I venture to guess that you don't play WW2 titles? If so, you're seeing far better contact sharing in modern titles, which may explain why Iron doesn't seem to really do anything - though there's still the very important point about friendly visual contacts that @Vanir Ausf B mentioned. This is a big reason for me - to be able to capture gaming 'moments' on video. I don't know how other folks do it, but I ain't got no stack of papers anywhere around me - nothing CM related, that is. For me, it's simply putting myself in the boots of a particular unit or formation's commander and deciding what he (or she, with some Ukrainian commanders in CMBS ) would do with the given information. I wouldn't be able to do that without the Iron mode. With this, you're missing the point that Steve and others have made, that CM is not a command simulation. You play the role of not only the force commander, but of every decision maker on your OOB. You may find it informative for better understanding CM to compare it to Battlefront's TacOps or HPS Sims' Tigers Unleashed.
  3. Machor
    Here's news that should cheer up some of us: "Japanese police arrest 74-year-old ninja thief suspect" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41750080 "Japanese police say they have finally caught a prolific thief who dressed as a ninja to carry out raids - and were surprised to find he was 74. After his usually covered face was caught on a security camera this year, he was put under surveillance which led to his arrest in July. Police now believe he is the so-called "Ninja of Heisei", thought to have carried out more than 250 break-ins. He has been charged with thefts worth 30m yen ($260,000; £200,000). Police had been baffled by a series of burglaries over eight years carried out by a suspect wearing black, assuming they had been carried out by someone younger. Investigators observed the suspect, whom they say seemed little different from most elderly men, during the day. But they say he then went into an abandoned building and changed clothes before waiting until it got dark to steal. "He was dressed all in black just like a ninja," a senior official in the western Japanese city of Osaka said. Police said the thief displayed great physical ability, running effortlessly on top of walls instead of taking the streets. After his arrest, the man was quoted as saying: "If I were younger, I wouldn't have been caught. I'll quit now as I'm 74 and old enough.""
  4. Machor
    Steve, @Vanir Ausf B said Armata can soft-kill Javelin: Here's the thread, in case you missed it: [OK, I'm about to post this, I linked to a thread I started, and I'm seeing a still from Back to the Future. I'll hit 'Submit Reply' and hope the post comes out normal.]
  5. Machor
    Thank you for the reply! I'll follow BTR's example and lay off the reversing topic - I hope it was of interest to Oleksandr and others.
  6. Machor
    A tip for making the AI 'fun again,' and some points that have been recently raised in another thread:
  7. Machor
    Thank you for the info. Regarding the weather, let me quote one more sentence from the report to clarify what they're saying: "Some additional field measurements and sensor performance modeling remain to be completed before final conclusions are reached, but these preliminary results seem to indicate that performance would be the same in LWIR and MWIR." (p. 7). So first, they're discussing 'preliminary results' from 2006, which may have later changed, or the technology may have improved since then. Second, they're not saying that the dual-band thermals were trashed [my bad if it sounded like that], rather that they had no advantage over scanning a single band. This is, of course, independent of factors like the computational aspect you mentioned; i.e. it is a comparison between two US sights that scan both bands or a single band. Again, my bad that it sounded like a comparison between US and RUS thermals in wet weather. Thus, I shall retract the statement "minimize the advantage of Yank sights," and go with "rob the Yank sights of a unique advantage, which would be interesting to scale against the performance loss of Russkie sights."
  8. Machor
    What I've found from some quick searches suggests that it's not NATO, but specifically US technological superiority. The Russian sights are supposedly based on the Thales Catherine [This article offers good information, but I've checked out a WOT thread as well: "French eyes for a Russian tiger," "Enjoyed an old T-90 vs M1A1 Topic"], which can scan in either the LWIR or the MWIR band [https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/worldwide/defence/long-range-thermal-imagers-catherine-fc-gfc-xp-mp-ez-ws ]. The Yanks had developed sights that could scan simultaneously in both bands way back in 2006, and you can check out Table 1 on page 7 to see how superior they are to scanning in a single band: "3RD GENERATION THERMAL IMAGER SENSOR PERFORMANCE" https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=12&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjljfOiy_bWAhVM_WMKHWwjChMQFghRMAs&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dtic.mil%2Fget-tr-doc%2Fpdf%3FAD%3DADA481411&usg=AOvVaw0YWHjpQ5ZGowvoat5Boga8 In that same document, check out Figure 1 on page 2 to see how much thermals get degraded in sandstorms and fog. Also, as indicated in Table 1, "Wet Targets" minimize the advantage of Yank sights; specifically: "Next was wet targets. Wet targets in wet backgrounds in the IR are challenging because they have low contrast and markedly different emissivity and reflectivity characteristics than when dry. The goal here was to investigate the impact of naturally occurring wetting, e.g., heavy rainfall, in the MWIR and LWIR, and so NVESD collected imagery of a variety of wet targets and backgrounds after a heavy rainfall." (p. 6). Time to experiment with weather settings.
  9. Machor
    Thank you for the clarification. I'm assuming the Merkava's three reverse gears have to do with the Israelis' penchant for prepared hull-down positions, and the first gear has a very high ratio for making sure that the tank doesn't get stuck trying to reverse out of a position, say, in the mud of the Golan Heights. If the Soviet army during the Cold War also clung to the doctrine of prepared positions in defense as practiced in the GPW, and Soviet designers were told to use a single reverse gear for sake of simplicity, it would make sense for them to use a gear with a relatively high ratio for the same reason as the Israelis. If all my assumptions are correct, we're looking at yet another fascinating aspect of how doctrine influences AFV design - one that I was completely unaware of. It would be most interesting if @panzersaurkrautwerfer , @Brian Smith , or @Rinaldi could compare reversing Western tracked AFVs. I hadn't thought about ROF making the carousel 'special' - that makes the tactic's name spot-on as it's an [presumably unforeseen] advantage of the auto-loader. Since you said it originated in Afghanistan, though, it can obviously be pulled off with manual loading with shell sizes at least up to those of the T-55/62, which means loading-wise it could be executed by most WW2 tanks.I will still have to consider other factors like ventilation, or ejecting empty cases out of the turret - I know the T-62 did the latter automatically.
  10. Machor
    For folks following this thread who would like to take their game realism to eleven, I can offer the following advice from my mini-research: - Don't steer the Tiger I when reversing, doubly so on soft ground - Don't turn the Tiger I in place on soft ground - Don't reverse at all with the Panther unless if the situation would make the TC willing to deal with a thrown track or replace the transmission. Also - since the topic of immobilization keeps coming up in various threads - it turns out driver experience is very important for avoiding thrown track, so I wouldn't be surprised if tracked vehicles with low crew experience are more likely to get immobilized from movement.
  11. Machor
    @BTR You've opened my eyes to the fact that reversing in tanks isn't... simple. I did searches in both English and Russian, but couldn't find anything discussing Soviet vehicles; I did find quite interesting tidbits like the Merkava has three reverse gears, the Tiger I was likely to throw track if steered while reversing, and the Panther was liable to break its transmission if reversed. Is the sole problem with Soviet vehicles having a slow reverse speed, or are there more significant issues like the Tiger and Panther? About the carousel: I am not getting the point of having a special term for it if it is simply suppressive direct tank fire at a building or a hedge; I thought what made it special was that by spreading fire over an area, it served as a quick and dirty substitute for calling in artillery. Am I off the mark here? If I understand the carousel correctly, it might offer a solution to get around the delay in calling in artillery in WW2 titles.
  12. Machor
    This was my dream as well until I realized it can't be done without dynamic lighting, which probably requires some major coding. Would love for Steve to tell me I'm wrong, but I've resigned myself to not having them until we get to CM3. In the meantime, only day battles for me for QB in WW2 titles.
  13. Machor
    I wouldn't call the example you gave gamey. As the player, I see myself as representing not only the force commander - which would be the case in a command sim - but also the decision maker in every unit that I control. Thus, while in RL the force commander would order an advance to a general area 'X' while leaving it to those lower in the chain of command to choose which 5 meter square they will occupy in that area, we have to do things the way you said because we're in several men's boots at the same time. Also, the capabilities of the Tac AI work for both sides; I'm not aware of any way that the AI cheats against the player. As for the continuum - I guess I am taking it to eleven beyond IRON; CM is such a complex game that it's understandable BFC doesn't offer a built-in option to make it even harder to play than it already is.
  14. Machor
    And arguably the best scene from the movie [no spoilers]. The funny thing is - when the movie came out this scene was the butt of so many language teachers' jokes, and yet it represents the cutting edge of language learning theory today:
  15. Machor
    @Erwin Let's think about the issue this way: Think about the set of RL tactics, and separately about the set of moves that are possible in the game. I'm saying we should look at the intersection of these two sets, i.e. RL tactics that are workable moves in game and vice versa. It speaks to the high RL fidelity of the game that players can 'discover' moves in it that are RL tactics. @BTR I now understand why rearming isn't relevant for the carousel in game, and thanks to your illustration I've understood the tactic itself. One more question: In the minute following your illustration, would the tanks keep firing while reversing along the same line that they advanced on? @MOS:96B2P I've recently started experimenting with attaching one or more scout teams (FOs in WW2 titles) to tank platoons, and the preliminary results seem very promising - I also discovered tank riders are far less helpful; the tank's own engine noise appears to significantly reduce the capacity to pick up sound contacts. Looking forward to reading through your thread, hopefully with the images restored.
  16. Machor
    Just remembered how I learned the term "draft dodger:" Credits to Ken Noble: http://www.essmc.org.au/ken_noble_m113_apc.html
  17. Machor
    @IMHO I was summarizing ikalugin's explanation for the move to divisions; he had specifically stated that the divisional structure allows for a higher ratio of combat to support personnel, which is in line with your points. Re: Conscription in Russia is bizarre, in that if you can dodge the draft until 27, you're off the hook. There's criminal liability for not having a legal deferral, but it seems to be very lightly enforced. Young men in Moscow and St. Pete seem to be able to dodge the draft with ease by avoiding the subway, where police conduct random document checks. Moreover, students of prominent universities can train as reserve officers without having to serve, or one can legally defer the draft until 27 by going into graduate studies. For these reasons, it can almost be said that military service is voluntary for those from the larger cities. I assume the reality of small-town Russia is different.
  18. Machor
    +1 They remind me of the Fuchs, but the Fuchs was not, as I understand, designed for getting in the thick of things, unlike the BTR-4.
  19. Machor
    @Brian Smith Thank you for the input - I suspected this move was taking advantage of the Tac AI. It works in game probably because there's an obligatory minimum time necessary to target a vehicle, whereas IRL the enemy would fire as soon as the tank reappeared. That being said, there is a tie-in to a non-gamey way to play better, which is to try and have observing units share their contacts with tanks before the latter move out to engage them, which will give them the edge in targeting. As with most other things in the game, the US are the top dogs in this, while UKR is at a huge disadvantage without satellite comms. [In theory, Oplots should fare better - I haven't experimented enough with them.] @BTR Thank you for the very interesting background to the carousel. Interestingly, in the incident where the interviewed Russian tanker was wounded, it was being used against Ukrainian forces that could respond. I'm not getting its applicability in game since we can't rearm? In the offense, they go in the base of fire. In the defense, use them as the anchors of your line, i.e. at the two ends of the line; that way, they'll be enfilading the attackers. Agreed, but that doesn't give licence to advocate gamey moves. ( @Oleksandr No offense intended. ) Now that I'm back to playing CMFB ('Tis the season! ), I find myself having to contemplate moves for units without radios that are out of C2, that is, whether they would realistically make the move that I want them to make based on the information that they have. And, in many cases, I end up letting perfectly good units sit, since they could make the moves I want from them only if they had a telepathic link to the HQ. (My favourite 'cheat' against myself is that all my units that are out of C2 have an SOP to seek out a C2 link if not currently engaged or defending a position. )
  20. Machor
    Oww... That was below the belt! Unfortunately, I don't think we can take this for granted.
  21. Machor
    That's hoping for too much... Let me play the IS-3 in CM2, and I can die a happy man.
  22. Machor
    Re: "Death Mill" Interesting idea, but we'd need input from a real tanker to establish if this would work irl or if it's being 'gamey' by taking advantage of the Tac AI. I mean, if you have a tank appearing at the same spot over and over, wouldn't a real enemy simply take aim there and wait for the target to reappear? There was something similar mentioned in the Novaya Gazeta interview with the Russian tanker who was wounded in Ukraine, but it isn't the same. I'm quoting both the original and The Guardian's translation below: "Мы играли в карусель. Это такой тактический метод боевой стрельбы из танка. Три или четыре танка выезжают на рубеж открытия огня, стреляют, а как у них заканчиваются боеприпасы, им на замену отправляют также три или четыре танка, а те загружаются. Так и менялись." "We played carousel, a tactic of tank fire. Three or four tanks would go out to the edge [of the area] of open fire, shoot, and when they ran out of rounds three or four tanks would take their place while they reloaded. That’s how we rotated." https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2015/03/02/63264-171-my-vse-znali-na-chto-idem-i-chto-mozhet-byt-187 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/25/russia-ukraine-soldier
  23. Machor
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enfilade_and_defilade
  24. Machor
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_slope_defence
  25. Machor
    While we're on Islam: "Why did Vikings have 'Allah' embroidered into funeral clothes?" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41567391 "Researchers in Sweden have found Arabic characters woven into burial costumes from Viking boat graves. The discovery raises new questions about the influence of Islam in Scandinavia, writes journalist Tharik Hussain." I couldn't help but remember The 13th Warrior.
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