pintere

We need more and better mechanics for mine warfare in the next game. Their effect on the conduct of this war has been absolutely enormous.

Imagine the outcry on social media about the slugfest around CAEN until finally at 8th August Op. TOTALIZE started.

Leopard 2 was oversold as some game-changing Überwaffe when its merely more MBTs to add to Ukraine's tank fleet. Leopard 2 is going to do as well and as poorly as any other tank in the arsenal when trying to breach Russian defenses. Leopard 2 comes with its own particular handicap in that is seen by the Russians as a 'prize' to focus their attention on, so it becomes a magnet for incoming fire.

No Kontakt

Albania's representative to the UN saying what I think a lot of people are feeling these days about Russia's claims.
Mr.Hoxha put it very eloquently and professionally, but you can tell he has really had enough of listening to all this nonsense.

Caesar in action
@Haiduk do you recognise the patch?
 

Olaf Scholz, explaining to some idiots how it is.

Well since technically this is a video game forum, I will leave this news here.
 

https://kyivindependent.com/illia-ponomarenko-why-some-ukrainian-soldiers-use-nazi-related-insignia/
Well known Ukrainian war reporter takes on the nazi symbol problem. I wouldn't say he says anything the thread hasn't discussed, he doesn't approve of it at all. He does have a very fine grained view of the problem from following the war closely from 2014 on.

Belgorod, Briansk and Kursk are historical lands of Ancient Rus Chernihiv Duchy and later Great Duchy of Lithuania occupied by Moskovia in 15-16 centuries ) And Belgorod was Ukrianian territory in 1918 (writing on old photo with old spelling - Belgorod (Ukraine) 1918). In this game can play together )

Always appropriate themes for this war.
Ok, we laughed, now get back to serious business.😎

Short update:
While I am starting with playtesting for 2 of the 4 campaigns (the biggest one runs already at this stage) - I have now an overview of all the different divisional and Army-Units, the players will command (parts of) through these 5 campaigns. 
And I couldn‘t resist to list them here 😎: 
12th ID 
24th (mot) ID 
31st ID 
45th ID 
95th ID 
134th ID 
178th (Storm) ID
252nd ID 
286th Security Division
383rd ID 
PGD „Feldherrnhalle“ 
12th PD 
20th PD
3rd SS-PD 
SS-KG von Gottberg 
I. Flakabteilung(AA-Battalion)/ Kommandostab RF-SS
schw.(Heavy) TD-Battallion 665
schw.(Heavy) Heeres-TD-Battalion 519
Assault Gun Brigade 244
Assault Gun Brigade 245
Assault Gun Brigade 909
 
Regards 
Mr.X 
 
 
 

That looks very good 👍.  And it reminds me that I need to get some feedback to you (even if it's too late).

Seems there is going to be >100 AMX-10RC in Ukraine

Summary of Bakhmut and around from UKR TGs
Russians have recovered from sudden UKR strikes and moved additional reservers - both army and Wagner to recapture lost ground. They fiercely counter-attacking, especially on southern flank, but even despite this UKR troops managed to advance some further toward Klishchiivka and in Ivanivskyi forest. Reportedly for now UKR troops advanced on 1,7 km in forest and attached to it treeplant. Units of 5th assault brigade entered to battle (but maybe they were involved recently) on this flank.
Northern flank: UKR troops attacking toward Berkhivka between eastern part of resevoir and railroad in narrow space, trying to capture tree-plants at the "bottle neck" entrance and along railroad. Also Russian strongpoint was captured on other section on northern flank, survived Russian soldiers surrendered. 
Bakhmut city. Situation still hard, Wagners continue assault actions and could achieve some gains in area near crossroads of Levanevskoho and Donbas Liberators streets. 
UKR artillery and sometime HIMARS reportedly caused some strikes on enemy arty.
45th arty brigade strikes at firing positions of D-30 near Bakhmut, destroying field ammo dumps
 

One episode of war...
Today my husband has conducted own 300th combat flight. This is biggest personal number among all Air Forces pilots. This is more, than conducted most famous pilot of WWII Ivan Kozhedub. But every time he emphasizes this it's not something he wants to be proud of.
 

There is even more good news today -it  seems that the Swiss will finally lift ban on delivery of their weapons to Ukraine! It means ammunition for Gepards, but more importantly Aspide/ Spada/ SkyGuard SHORADs from Italy and Spain can finally be sent too. These are quite numerous and slated for replacement anyway - just a thing to announce during Zelensky's visit in Rome today  
https://de.euronews.com/2023/05/12/schweiz-waffenlieferungen

Not that I had any doubt, but now we have proof. Storm Shadow for the win!
https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1657323371812601858?s=20
https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1657020349479809025?s=20
 

It is a miracle that everyone managed to escape alive.
On the other hand, it reminds me of CM gameplay. I have always felt that the effectiveness of armor penetration after-effects in CM is somewhat exaggerated. A single 45mm AP penetrating from the side can kill an entire PzG squad inside a sdkfz251. In CMCW, a hit from an AT-4 or AT-7 on the upper front hull of an M113 like this, or in CMSF2, a hit from an AT-13 on the YPR, often means that no pixeltruppen can survive and escape from the burning wreck.

"The office of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, our country’s president, is in charge of the ultimate decision regarding the dates and directions [of the counter-offensive]. When people start talking, even people from respectable Western institutions, trust me: there are no people who know the full extent of our plans. Because the final plans have not yet been approved.
We have several options [for the counteroffensive]. They are all being considered. Decisions will be made depending on the circumstances that prevail at any given moment. There’s no need to expect, or not expect, anything.
We have already proven that we are an invincible nation, and we will definitely [win]. In no small part, thanks to the help of our partners.
-- Oleksii Danilov
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/secretary-national-security-council-zelenskyy-171659645.html

Externally to us it looks like a sh*tshow, but it's not about the external view. Internally it shows father Putin in control of his squabbling underlings. These stunts also give him the "evidence" that the failure lies on MOD when the UA wins this. It appears to me that Wagner is seen as an extension of Putin so he gets to be seen as the guy with the best troops, that made the most progress, and would have won if not for the bumbling MOD. These "incidents" can later be used to prove that Prig, and by extension Putin, did their upmost, but were harried at critical junctures that made them fail. This is just Putin getting the narrative laid out in advance for all the finger pointing that will certainly happen when it all falls apart. 
Others on here have a much better grasp of the internal politics in the Kremlin, but this is how I see it as a move to make Putin look strong in the chaos that follows.

See how long this video lasts. 
 

Serious deficit of modren ATGMs in Russian army.
This document was issued on 29th pf April during conflict between Prigozhyn and Shoigu. This is allegedly amont of ammunition handed over from MoD to PMC Wagner for March-April. 
I post it without translation, because it's quite obvious
It's other Interesting and this was pointed out in comments to this document in TG of some  Russian milblogger. There are no ATGMs in this list. And that's why. As told this blogger, Russian army now suffered huge shortage of ATGMs, because they wasted all stocks of new missiles when Russian army encountered with lack of artillery shells and in order to compensate this, usage of ATGMs (including TLGMs) and tank HE shells, using from closed positions increased by a multiple. This led to full exhausting of ATGM stocks, and because own manufacturing can't supply troops in proper amount of missiles, Russian army now forced to use old stocks of old Soviet ATGMs, which have outdated terms and launched successfully 1 from 5-6. 
In addition, the lack of ATGMs, Russians try to compensate also with Iranian missiles - recently were spotted Iranian thermobaric ATGMs for Iranian copy of "Kornet"   

For those who follow the misadventures of Z propagandists, Gonzalo Lira got himself in Ukrainian custody, good riddance