Monty's Mighty Moustache
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Posts posted by Monty's Mighty Moustache
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Try searching for Fire and Rubble on YouTube, most of the recent content that has gone up has been for the module.
I think the best value game is CMBN, closely followed by CMFI just for the sheer amount of stuff you get. If I were to choose between the two honestly I'd actually go for Fortress Italy as it spans a longer timeframe and has more variety of units. It goes from 1943 all the way to the end of the war, you have hills, mountains, snow, beaches, rolling grassy slopes, urban warfare, the lot. Plus you have Brits, US, Brazilians, Indians, South Africans, French, Heer, Fallschirmjäger and Waffen SS to play with (I may be missing some too) and the available equipment changes depending on the timeframe (no Fausts for the Germans early on).
But go with whatever theater interets you, for me my personal favourite is Red Thunder because that's the theater I am most interested in. Italy is a close second.
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1 hour ago, Kevinorf said:
Thanks. A little hazy but it will make more sense the more I play. For indirect fire, should I keep a unit with a radio by the mortars?
Not necessarily a radio but ideally yes. As long as they can see or hear a unit who is in contact with whoever is requesting fire then you're good.
Have a play with it, fire up a QB and choose a formation that has on-map mortars and try placing them around in the setup zone to see what happens with different combinations.
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Mortars can be used in one of two ways, firing direct (for which they need LOS to the target) or indirectly (called in by other units, the mortars themselves do not need LOS).
To be used in indirect mode they have to be in C2 with a higher unit that has C2 with the unit calling for fire. So for example if you have a US platoon HQ calling in fire but the mortars are out of contact with their section/platoon HQ or higher then the mortar will show as unavailable. They have to be able to receive the order from the network. It's not so much of a problem with western forces that have radios but when it comes to the Soviets in RT then you need to be really careful about maintaining C2 links or they will not be able to fire indirectly (assuming they are on-map of course).
That make sense?
Also as a new player I would recommend reading Bil's excellent blog for tips on how to apply real life tactics to the CM games: https://battledrill.blogspot.com/
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6 minutes ago, Sarjen said:
And Belarus won't join Russian war in Ukraine? Could that be true?
BBC is reporting it too. I believe he has said it, if it's factual or not is another matter.
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2500m? That is optimistic!
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I have been getting this with RT on PC since Fire and Rubble came out. It also happens for me with Cold War, all other games are not affected. Non Steam versions.
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1 hour ago, DMS said:
Absolutely not. He hates communists, who "gave too much to non-russian republics". Russian Empire, may be.
I meant the territory and world status, not the ideology.
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14 minutes ago, Phantom Captain said:
Apparently there are protesters in the streets in Moscow being dispersed by riot police.
Demonstrations in 40 cities and 735 arrests according to BBC.
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6 minutes ago, Splinty said:
I wish there was a clear understanding of Putin's end goals. There is no way this ends well for him or the Ukraine.
Rebuilding the Soviet Union would be my guess. It will be interesting to see if he tries it on with any of the former Soviet states who are now members of NATO. He has quite wisely targeted a country that is not a NATO member so now if NATO gets involved he can say “see, told you they were a threat”.
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1 minute ago, Aragorn2002 said:
And yet we, the West, are to blame. Divided and weak as we are, only interested in bigger economies and woke nonsense, while Putin prepared his moves, not even hiding it, but in plain sight. And it doesn't stop here. Mark my words, it's just the beginning.
Quite right. I don’t know why anyone is reporting what Putin says anymore, the man never utters a word of truth (although his comments about denazification did raise a wry smile given he is the one who’s acting like a 1939 German dictator).
He’s been ignoring international law for years, poisoning people in broad daylight in western countries, and I am not surprised in the slightest that he has done this as it was on the cards in 2014 when they took Crimea. I’m only surprised it took this long for him to make his move. The man lives in the past.
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The Eighty-Seventh Minute
KG Leino - Die Mitte
Jean lets rip. A casualty is observed. The man has ice in his veins.
The last man standing turns tail and heads back into the relative safety of the woods chased by MG fire as he is spotted by the overwatching 4 Zug in the buildings and they try their luck too. He gets away clean.
KG Koskela - die Links
Everyone gets mounted into the spare spots on 1 Zug's vehicles.
They soon set off towards SCHWARZ, unharrassed and unharried by any form of opposition. I wonder where they are?
KG Perala - das Rechts
The scouts have reached the end of the scrub, kein Kontact! They start to probe out into the open.
The rest of the KG are moving through, oh so slowly.
S2 is pulling flank protection. T1 is almost on station and will provide additional flank security.
SITMAP
All in all a quiet turn and a non-even on the left. It seems I have got away with it.
In the middle 1 Ko will start to probe the treeline and see what shakes out.
KG Perala on the right will continue to work their way through. I'm starting to get a bit worried about the time, there's not an awful lot left and there's a lot of map to cover. Here's hoping my forces don't have any more bad luck.
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Watched it last night while trying to get my boy to sleep, very well done.
As for what you could have done different I think you did the right thing by going right into the open ground where you could mass your firepower but with only one company of T62s you were always going to be at a disadvantage. I would have brought more tanks and cut down on the infantry and kept what infantry I had mounted and moving to overwhelm his positions. More arty and some TRPs would help deny him overwatch positions too, but I realise points are limited (I assume it was a QB?).
Looking forward to more.
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Rollbahn D is a campaign, which is only playable against the AI. As to why the battles aren’t available for H2H play I guess that is one for the campaign author to answer. I know in Cold War they made the US campaign battles available as scenarios so they could be played H2H.
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10 hours ago, Kevinorf said:
I see that Usually Hapless has videos on this campaign. He's great. I love how his videos are succinct and well edited and don't make me sit through 46 hours of "Let's Play" style game play.
He does, General Jack Ripper has been through the campaign too and I am sure there are others.
I am currently playing through To Berlin in the Fire and Rubble module for Red Thunder and it’s not too difficult. I am having success using Soviet doctrine too, just take the lumps and keep on pushing through. It’s worth a go, the first couple of battles are easy going and you get some night fighting early on too
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CMBN The Road to Montebourg is a classic. It’s long but it has a bit of everything and there are plenty of playthrough videos on YouTube if you want some tips
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When I played this the Abrams were parked on the berm and didn't move (hull-down of course) and provided supporting fires on identified targets. I took one platoon DISMOUNTED with their Strykers and moved them through the mines once the engineers had marked them. There is still a risk that the mines could go off and IIRC I did lose a Stryker driving through the marked minefield so best to get your guys out.
With that platoon I inched SLOWLY towards the compound and if they were engaged then use the supporting assets to blast the snot out of them. All the while the FO was up on the berm calling in indirect on the building at the front at first and once they were demolished/cleared then roll the barrage on through the compound.
The other two platoons: I had one dismount and run over the berm (yes they can make it over) and set up a base of fire and the other was held in reserve. I didn't need them in the end as the AI surrendered. I can't remember how may casualties I had but it was single figures, and two of them were taken out by mortars.
Always best to grab Javelins if they are available.
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Apologies for the delay, it's been a busy few weeks what with Christmas and both my sons having illnesses and their birthdays in January and February. I should have an update up in the next few days and hopefully now things have calmed down I can get back to a more regular cadence.
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WW2 - Soviet style, the first wave goes in
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8 minutes ago, dbsapp said:
And maybe if he sent those 3 companies on the left flank they would be mercilessly slaughtered by invisible enemy? We are engaging in pure speculation at this point.
What are the facts? The facts are Reds were demolished, scattered to prices and blown away by enemy, who they didn't see.
What should we discuss? We should discuss this spectacular failure and draw the conclusion that Red are blind.
What they are discussing? "How Soviet dictrine works".
It would be easy to put all the blame on clumsy mr. Hapless and his "wrong' decisions and save the face of the broken system. But would it be fair? I believe that his major mistake was to select Red team instead of Blue.
What amuses me is that this thread and post-game discussion are framed in deductive reasoning, which is basically pre-Enlightment method of thought. Discussion goes from concept (Soviet doctrine works in CM normally) to facts (the fact that Halpless failed is him to blame).
Where as post-Enlightment method is inductive, e.g. to construct concepts based on facts (the fact that Halpless's units couldn't see anything means that something is wrong).
You are the one making sweeping statements that Russian doctrine doesn't work in CMCW, I was merely providing a viewpoint that shows that at the very least we don't know that for certain (based on this series of videos) and unless you have tried it and tested it extensively then that is the only fact that is relevant. Even Hapless said so himself, he didn't use Russian doctrine so he doesn't know if it would work.
But we can agree that Russian T-62s are not the best at spotting and have a distinct disadvantage.
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54 minutes ago, dbsapp said:
The thing that M60s sometimes don't see something doesn't change the fact that on average all Soviet tanks are much, much worse in spotting than their American opponents, and it makes them really uncompetitive.
Your "Deathride to Schweben" video clearly illustrates it.
Basically it shows just that: in present state Soviets in CM are doomed to fail. If you read comments section on Youtube, you'll see that they don't hesitate to speak out this obvious truth.
But if Hapless had indeed sent 3 companies of tanks down the left side then he would have lost a few (perhaps even quite a few) sure, due to the spotting limitations, but all those muzzle flashes would have given the M60s' positions away. At least a few of the other 30 tanks are bound to notice and get the spot and then the M60s are in trouble.
As far as I can tell Soviet/Russian doctrine is about concentration, mass of firepower and closing distances quickly and accepting the losses because they will always have more guns than the enemy. Like Hapless and Rice both said on the video it's a different way of thinking and takes some getting used to, they mentioned John Curry a few times so I looked up some of his articles, I liked this one and it's certainly something I will be considering when playing CMCW as the Russians: https://20thcenturywargaming.wordpress.com/2013/06/16/why-cold-war-warsaw-pact-tactics-work-in-wargaming/
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I see some are already dubbing them "The Commies". I doubt that is the look they are going for, especially with what's happening on the borders of Ukraine. I do wonder sometimes if the people who choose such things have any imagination at all as surely someone could have foreseen that this is what people would call them? Madness!
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The Eighty-Sixth Minute
KG Leino - Die Mitte
2 Zug's HQ Trupp cross over to Jean's position to offer encouragement and perhaps temper his murderous intent some. They draw fire from the trees.
Jean was not going to miss hearing those shots. His pulse quickens slightly, then his training kicks in and he becomes as cold as the frozen tundra around him, waiting.
Then he spies his prey, the HQ team that were seen moving into position a short while ago. He steadies his breath, takes dead aim, squeezes the trigger...and the turn ends.
Meanwhile on the right 1 Zug are starting to probe forward and THQ has arrived on station to assist.
KG Koskela - die Links
The StuG moves over onto the paved highway. A risk, but a calculated one as I've only seen infantry in the woods and they are some way behind the lead elements and this will allow him to move more quickly and reduce the risk of immobilisation.
Speaking of which, back at the immobilised SPW it's quiet. Too quiet.
The Landsers pile out of their now useless vehicle and start moving towards 1 Zug's vehicles. P2 is reversing to come give some fire support.
The woods are still quiet.
The SPW crew grab some ammo and a faust and hop out too and await their ride (the reversing 251/17).
They watch the treeline with anticipation, or is it fear?
Their ride is almost here.
Still they watch the trees for any signs of movement that could spell instant death.
But none comes.
2 Zug link up with the remainder of their Kompanie but they aren't out of harm's way yet!
KG Perala - das Rechts
2/1 continue to push through the scrub, nothing to report and no reaction that I can see.
T1 is on the way to join them.
SITMAP
On the left I may have got away with it, but we'll not know until next turn.
In the middle Jean is about to open up on that HQ team and 1 Zug are probing towards the trees from KT1. I'm thinking of putting the HQ Tiger to good use and area firing his T34s' positions to see if I can drive him out. We'll see what the infantry uncover first.
On the right the way does indeed appear to be clear. The forces are gathering to start moving up to join the scouts.
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8 hours ago, Vacilllator said:
Fair enough my friend, it's not easy to tell which would be okay (let alone good) for H2H sometimes. I'm wondering whether there is a register of this, perhaps at The Few Good Men or @IanL 's website?
The Blitz have the scenarios listed and scored for playability by the members, useful resource. I tend to go there first and pick one based on the reviews.
These are the CMRT ones:
https://www.theblitz.club/scenarios/combat-mission-red-thunder/b-15.htm?action=scenarios&game=176
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I haven’t played it but they should be able to knock out any armour the Germans have. Soviet aircraft can’t be controlled however, they turn up when the scenario designer designates it and are under control of the AI, you can’t designate targets because of this.
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How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted · Edited by Monty's Mighty Moustache
So the Russians are going to offer a ceasefire so civilians can be evacuated to...Russia? And they will be in control of the corridors? Do they honestly think that anyone outside of Russia believes a word they say?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=6225c93fec502b53cd4810ec%26Details of Russia's proposed humanitarian corridors%262022-03-07T09%3A14%3A20.323Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:asset:3d574e8e-24dc-438f-b469-a552c7cb32c1&pinned_post_asset_id=6225c93fec502b53cd4810ec&pinned_post_type=share
Text of the report on BBC News:
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