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Monty's Mighty Moustache

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Posts posted by Monty's Mighty Moustache

  1. Maybe we'll see some kamikaze peacocks before too long?

    https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-zoo-sent-soldiers-peacocks-hoping-inspire-them-in-ukraine-2024-5

     

    EDIT: realised that you need to sign up to read some articles on BI, text of the article below

    Quote

    A Russian zoo said it sent two peacocks to Ukraine with the aim of inspiring Russian troops fighting there — but then deleted its post after people mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin in the comments, according to reports.

    The Lipetsk Zoo, in southwest Russia, announced the move on social media website VK on Tuesday.

    It wrote: "For guys in difficult combat situations, the beauty of birds inspires and brings a piece of joy. This is not an advertisement for the zoo, but a gift from the heart. We hope that the beauty of these birds will brighten up soldiers' everyday life in combat," The Daily Beast reported.

    It also shared a video of a masked soldier in front of an enclosure with the two birds.

    The soldier said that every soldier would be able to look at the birds and get some "spiritual peace," according to The Daily Beast's translation.

    He added that an aviary was being built for the birds, according to Ukrainian outlet Pravda's reporting.

    It's unclear if the video was filmed in Ukraine. It's also not clear where the birds were sent, or how close to the fighting they had been.

    The zoo later deleted its announcement post, according to The Daily Beast and Pravda.

    It told Russian news outlet Rise that comments were left that insulted Putin.

    The zoo blamed Ukrainian bots for the comments — a common excuse that Russia gives for online comments that insult Putin or criticize Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

    It said that "insults against the president are unacceptable," per The Daily Beast.

    Some commentators were confused by the move, with one writing, according to The Daily Beast: "What are peacocks going to do there?"

    Russia has heavily restricted information that its citizens can get about the war, and has punished Russians who speak out against it, leading to little visible dissent in the country.

    While some protests have taken place, with thousands of people arrested, Russian citizens have largely not been seen to oppose the invasion.

    Putin has also put in place a law that effectively criminalizes any reference to the fighting in Ukraine being a "war" or "invasion."

     

  2. 29 minutes ago, PEB14 said:

    During WW2 the smallest tactical unit both in CW, US and German armies were squads, not platoons. (What you refer to is more in line with the Soviet doctrine.) So squads shall be able to manoeuver (fire/support) on their own.

    Not if you want to maintain any kind of C2 they aren't. Unless it's a recon team with a radio (i.e. a specialist) then the smallest unit that should be assigned a task, IMHO, is the platoon. Of course the Red Army did things a bit differently as you allude to but if you send a fireteam or squad off on their own then they can and will suffer from not being effectively led.

    MMM

  3. 1 hour ago, AdamPraha said:

    Turn based. 

    But that's the whole game then. But it's only needed in an uncluttered map.

    It's not a tactical solution.

    This switches the whole game completely into a turn-based game.

    But I'm only talking about a partial solution to an cluttered control. 

    Nothing in the 200 page manual says anything about that.
    It's a very nice and clear manual, by the way. One of perfect manual in the world.

     

    Otherwise, I've known about this problem for many years.
    This is also the reason why nobody plays this game.
    The impossibility of solving the attack for RTS players. As for your assumption, the manual doesn't say a word about it !

    That proves you've never read the manual.

    Real-time, for me, is nigh on unplayable once you get above a certain size of force involved as it's far too easy to miss things. Combat Mission has always been a turn-based game, We-Go was their USP when CMBO came out, and the real-time mode was added later but it's fundamentally designed to be played in turn-based mode and I never play it any other way.

    The only way I could imagine playing in real-time might work, for me - others probably have better ways to manage it, would be to watch from a high level overview and then pause and zoom in whenever something interesting happens. But then there is no ability to rewind and find out why it happened. I re-watch turns multiple times to make sure I catch everything I want to see.

  4. 1 hour ago, AdamPraha said:

    1.) Then the tank team itself I'll also put order" hide...

    2.)And paint over enemy tanks with purple paint...?

    3.)When they get within range, they'll start firing the panzerfaust themselves?

     

    Or do I have to give them the order to stop hiding manually ?

    1) It depends. If they have good concealment then not really necessary to hide especially as tanks don't spot that well.

    2) Yes a panzerfaust team with a Target Armour Arc will only shoot the rocket at armour. I can't remember exactly but I think armoured cars and such don't count as armour but half-tracks and tanks do.

    3) Yes if the team is hiding and a target comes into the arc and they have a good shot they will unhide and attack.

    Target arcs are a good way to make sure supporting assets such as HMGs or rifle squads don't open fire and give away the positions either, just set a small target arc of a few metres and they will not fire at anything outside the arc.

  5. 4 hours ago, Vacillator said:

    Looks like Russkies using captured PFs?  I'm sure there's a degradation in performance for that in 'the code' 😉.

    Upper hull penetration on the side of a Panzer IV, but no KO?  Really?

    The team had two fausts, the first went over the top of the panzer (as expected) but the second hit and the crew bailed out. I had it marked down as dead but next turn the crew popped back in and started blasting away. I can't remember seeing that happen too often in all my years playing, I think it must have hit something squishy as only 4 crew got out (and back in again).

    3 hours ago, Brille said:

    Panzerfausts are nothing like the RPG7 or other modern rocket launchers. They are still pretty inaccurate. So even when the Panzerfaust 60 says that it´s effective range is 60m (though they were also ranged for 80m), one probably should use them at even lower ranges, especially with troops under veteran experience.

     

    You must be pretty unlucky there I guess. Usually a Panzerfaust hit means either a destroyed/decrewed tank or a severely damaged one.

     

    Combat-Mission-Battle-For-Normandy-Scree

    The range was about 45-50m if I remember correctly, they were waiting in ambush at the roadside in case he pushed his armour down unsupported. Felt very aggrieved :)

  6. My computer was only one year old when I tried to play it, so it was not old by any means at the time. The point of my post was not to criticise, merely to point out that calling someone lazy when you don't know what decisions were made for the FR scenario and why is probably a bit harsh.

    I may return to the Blue Hills once the performance improvements come in Engine 5, it was an enjoyable scenario when it ran.

  7. On 1/8/2024 at 7:54 AM, BornGinger said:

    The author of Mountains of the Moon was just too lazy to put an effort into making a good map and I hope the scenario and map authors to the new Final Blitz module have used enough of their time to not make those who buy it disappointed.

    For the record I tried to play your Blue Hills scenario in FB as PBEM and whilst it was an interesting scenario it was unplayable due to performance issues, and whilst I don't have a top end PC it's no slouch. We had to abandon the game not long after starting as my oppo was having issues too.

    So perhaps it was a conscious choice by the designer? To simply label them lazy is very judgemental, Walt Whitman would not be impressed :)

    MMM

  8. 7 hours ago, CarlXII said:

    I would be perfectly happy to tell him the same thing if he was sitting infront of me....But he's not.

    Should i book an appointment, maybee ?

    I keep seeing people commenting on Steve’s priorities like they know exactly what he’s working on and how he spends his time. But none of you do, unless you work closely with or know him well.

    Now you can comment on the “impression” you get of how what he is working on, that’s fair, but to say he needs to sort his priorities out based on that is ridiculous 

  9. I pretty much follow what @Centurian52 does but additionally I always use the + key to cycle through my units to see if anyone else got wiped out or took incoming fire. It's easy to miss an icon disappearing if they all get hit by artillery, especially for smaller teams like HQs and scouts, or fire making your men go to ground if they didn't take any casualties.

    MMM

  10. On 7/18/2023 at 10:44 PM, Flibby said:

    Firstly, do you typically come up with the best avenue of attack first before determining key Terrain, or vice versa?

    I am by no means an expert but I tend to do my OCOKA like outlined in my DAR (which I really must finish). It is really useful in the early stages and helps identify KT and NAIs and TAIs too. 

     

    On 7/18/2023 at 10:44 PM, Flibby said:

    If you have a dominating key Terrain feature such as a ridge overlooking your objective, how do you asses it's occupation vs the fact that you will be vulnerable to enemy fire from a lot of units as well as being able to bring a lot of fire upon them? Is that fight essentially the big pre requisite for the attack?

    It depends on your forces I guess. If you have a boatload of artillery then there's no reason not to deny the terrain to the enemy with indirect fires, make him at least keep his head down if he's up there or dissuade him from trying to go up there in the first instance. If you have only manpower and armour then you'd probably have to find a way to take it.

    On 7/18/2023 at 10:44 PM, Flibby said:

    On avenues of attack, a covered approach seems to be regarded as a good path for an infantry attack, but this limits the opportunity for overwatch. How can this be mitigated against?

    Movement techniques would be my go-to, you'd have to use bounds, either successive or alternating and provide all round overwatch to the element that's moving.

    When I get away from the above (tired, CBA or am not thorough enough) is when I usually get into trouble, and I get into trouble a lot :)

    MMM

  11. What if the Ukrainians basically have baited the Russians into counterattacking in the north by attacking the south, and have forces built up and waiting to launch a spoiling attack to destroy them when they push? They of all people know the Russians love to attack and don't like to sit and defend.

    That would be epic (although probably pretty unlikely but one can hope)!

  12. 17 hours ago, Sakai007 said:

    This is one of the reasons I was so happy to see CM go to Steam. People who might never have found this series are now part of our happy little band of maniacs. I personally found CMSF1 in a brick-and-mortar store back in 2009 I think, as a Paradox release. I am 39 now so I was like 25 or 26 then and I was instantly hooked. Now 14 years later, I am seeing more new blood around here then ever before and it warms my dark little heart. 

    This is basically me, I was playing Close Combat for the most part but wanted something...more. I stumbled across CMBO in a PC store it said it was 3D so I gave it a go and 20 years later I'm still here (still have it in my drawer), albeit I have in the dipped in and out over the years. Only game series I keep coming back to.

  13. Thanks for these @George MC, I like to use scenarios such as these to hone tactics. I've played through the first scenario and without giving spoilers away it looks like I went exactly the way you were predicting. I got luck though and only suffered one casualty and that was through friendly fire.

    I just fired up the second one and it seems the briefing is the same as for the first scenario. Not that it matters as it's clear what I need to do but thought I'd let you know. Not checked the third one (have to work now) but it might be worth double checking that one too.

    MMM

  14. IIRC if you split them and then they are out of C2 from their HQ unit then they suffer a huge morale penalty as doctrinally the Red Army were not supposed to split. I think I read, a long time ago, that BF were not going to allow it but had to in order to allow tank riding.

    I tend to keep them together when I need to mass firepower but will split off a scout team etc when advancing to contact

    MMM

  15. The One Hundred and Nineteenth Minute

    KG Leino -  Die Mitte

    The SPWs arrive on station.

    tVzMtmg.jpg

    KG Perala - das Rechts

    The attack continues.

    jrhzqkp.jpg

    A 251/17 goes boom.

    lxlFJlK.jpg

    At least one more T34 to deal with!

    9vLhPXT.jpg

    The poor infantry. The pictures tell the story.

    lo4GIBv.jpgeNwKAGY.jpgNuHTV8z.jpg

    On a positive note the StuG arrives to help, a bit too late, but he has spotted the T34 and it does not appear that he has been spotted in return...

    WppeauV.jpg

    SITMAP

    bgFmLuM.jpg

    I've updated the blood board with the loss. It's all pretty much academic now. I could try and rush the StuG onto the objective but that doesn't seem like good form to me, and certainly not realistic and I like to play as if I were actually there.

    j4Gq5bi.jpg

    MMM

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