Grey_Fox

The US did. Biden was announcing to the world that the invasion was coming.

The US did. Biden was announcing to the world that the invasion was coming.

1) The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe defines an infantry fighting vehicle as "an armoured combat vehicle which is designed and equipped primarily to transport a combat infantry squad, and which is armed with an integral or organic cannon of at least 20 millimeters calibre and sometimes an antitank missile launcher".
2) I think that works when defending but in an attack infantry are just too slow. You need to be able to cover ground quickly, be able to defend yourself from infantry/armor and be able to clear out an entrenched position. Cold War does a great job of showing why we moved towards IFV's. In an American attack, if your tanks are destroyed the M113's can't keep the attack going. In a Soviet attack, the IFV's can continue the attack with the tanks but also support them with cannon/ATGM fire.
3) I think IFV's still take the win here. I think we can consider Finland "rough" terrain and the CV90 IFV is a key part of their warfare strategy.
4) I think IFV's are still better even if they are more costly. I have explained their benefits in attack but even in defense I would take them over an extra couple of infantryman. An IFV can take pot shots from multiple prepared positions, act as a mobile reserve and flank the enemy separate of the infantry. 
5) What I consider flawed is the tradeoff of using APC's for an extra 2-3 infantry over an IFV with fewer. The doctrine/force structure goes hand in hand.

The only change was to add the tournament feature to PBEM++. There were no gameplay changes or bugfixes.

Hiya Folks,
Some of you may remember those of us who put up the Red Army Studies site way back in the '00s or '10s. We had a host of files from the Soviet Military History Journal of the 1980s in pdf format that were on a very very slow server. I decided to make those files available once more by sharing them all through a shared Google folder. Everything within that folder can be viewed by anyone with the link below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/125aCdAW_f5wXKx9jns5hzSJEN9Be5hVN?usp=sharing
There are also a number of handbooks and regs for both the Soviets and Germans in WWII. May they prove helpful in some capacity.
Best regards,
Grisha

In what possible context did you think this was about Quick Battle points?

All points-buy systems are bad, and CM's is no different - typically they're a least-worst option for design. If you're going to shift the goalposts to discussing the formations in QB efficiency terms then sure, only a minority of possible units and formations and unit are actually going to be worth taking, this is why they're bad. 
Quick battle points have no influence or meaning on the CM model, campaigns, scenarios or any PBEM which are outside of the context of Quick Battles. That might be the only thing that matters to you, but it's a minority of what CM actually is.

So obviously the response was a more generic one than for any specific formation, there will always be exceptions.

Stryker Cavalry is firmly not one of them. They absolutely have disproportionate firepower for it's size - as Cavalry they'll typically have far more CAS and artillery support per-man than that of the rifle formations, but even on the level of an individual platoon, you're looking at three five man squads with two M240Bs, and one javelin per squad. 

That's 16 men, two GPMGs and three ATGMS, not counting the Strykers themselves. Compare that to the Stryker infantry with 37 men and the same number of weapons, and the cavalry unit is disproportionately powerful for it's size - it has twice as many weapons per man as a Stryker platoon.

The Bradley platoon comparison becomes even more stark, since the Cavalry Bradley squads are four men, with the remaining space being taken up by extra TOW missiles.

July 16th, 1145 hours.
Triumph to tragedy.
“Sir…I’m not raising TOC” the RTO said, hesitatingly. Booth met the man’s eyes. Silent dread communicated between them.  He was about to tell him to try one more time when the FSGT came trundling back around the corner in his ‘peep.’ That’s not good. A gnawing, creeping realisation made its way up out of the small of Booth’s back and crawled up his spine. The NCO’s face was boulder-like. Jaw set…
TOC had been hit. Hard. They had failed to displace for one minute too many and got plastered by Soviet artillery, much like the Soviets in Dorfborn were having their back broken by vengeful American artillery fire. Like one of the four horsemen, the FSGT had been tasked with riding back to his CO to deliver the grim news. Basically, every senior officer in TOC had been taken out: the LTC, S-1 and S-3 had all been wounded enough to warrant evacuation. The XO was severely wounded, an arm and a leg severed, his condition critical. The HHC CO killed, caught away from any cover momentarily, ripped to shreds by shrapnel. All that was left of the staff was the S-2, who refused to be evacuated despite painful neck wounds, and the duty NCOs.
“You’re it” the FSGT growled, “you got seniority. The Battalion’s yours, sir.” A thunderclap. Booth was in command. The entirety of TF Dragon. Well over 700 surviving men, 700 souls. The burden could’ve crushed him then and there, and likely should have, but something turned in him. Eyes narrowing, he quickly told the dependable NCO to hurry ahead back to what was left of the TOC and have the S-2 re organise the NCOs into acting battle captains. He would follow shortly in his command track, handing off command of the unit to his equally dependable XO, 1LT Noonan. He would hurl together a hasty TOC and strain every nerve to get the unit back under control.
Chapter 5: Thorn in the Side
Northwest of Neuhof, July 16th, 1600 hours.
Luckily, the TOC’s survivors showed themselves up to the task. They had worried Booth at first, most had some minor wounds and all had looked deeply shaken. The M577s were ruined messes, but neither had taken direct hits, and much of the vital planning material was salvageable. Whatever morale had been wavering was firmed up by the arrival of the CPT and the news that B Team had savaged the enemy to its front. Booth had energized the headquarters with his arrival, distracted grieving men by entrusting them with key tasks (appealing, subconsciously, to the professional pride of each individual NCO), and focused their efforts back on the fight – a fight he had convinced them they were winning. The impact was electric. Within the hour they were ready to receive orders from brigade, by 1500 the bulk of the battalion was pulling back, knowing full well the punch-drunk MRR to their front was in no condition to follow closely and fill the gap, let alone pursue with vigour or violence.
As the skeleton TOC organised the move and conformed with orders, Booth was presented with his first command decision: the TF had mauled the MRR so thoroughly that a neighbouring Soviet unit had begun to shake out into the attack on a town called Uttrichausen with its right flank twisting in the wind. Brigade was willing to move boundaries on a dime and have TF Dragon nail the lead MRB of that unit from the flank. Booth leapt at the opportunity, and task organised his Scout Platoon and surviving anti-tank platoon to do so. They hadn’t had time to resupply, and thus the fight was going to be a tight one, but the potential payoff was worth it; success could likely keep the entire brigade counterpunching whilst the next line of defence was constructed. The Soviets were templated to be passing through Dollbach around 1630 hours, beyond which was their probable line of departure.

 
Command devolved to 1LT Pemberton, the Anti-tank Platoon CO, and his surviving 6 ITOWs. 1LT Horning, the battalion scout platoon leader, would race ahead with his extremely depleted force; two M113s, an ITOW (with only 4 missiles) and a meagre 3 Dragon missiles. He had two scout sections to spare, led by SGTs Roy and Chung. They would engage forward elements and buy time for Pemberton’s two sections and the attached air-defence joes.
Pemberton, bumping along in his ‘peep’ hastily did a map recce and came up with BPs. He prayed to God the map was accurate to the terrain, there was no time to do a proper terrain walk. This was an aggressive interdiction, no doubt about it, the young man thought. His eagerness to hit the enemy when they were exposed was tempered by the ever-human fear of the unknown.  How to execute this fight? Across the valley the enemy would traverse was a thick treeline. The Soviets must have known their flank was in the air by now, and if he was the Soviet commander, he’d have units in that treeline dominating the heights overlooking Dollbach. How to fire into the valley without exposing his vulnerable ITOWs? A crossfire, that’s what he’d have to establish, keyhole positions, he thought with finality. Pemberton had his plan.
Taskings:
BP1: Scout ITOW, 1st AT section (alternate)
BP2 – 1st AT section (main)
BPs 3A & 3B – 2nd AT section (main and alternate)
EA Alpha – Forward of point 430, left-flank of Dollbach
EA Bravo – Forward of point 401, right-flank of Dollbach
***
The Soviets’ hackles were raised; thought 1LT Horning, as he watched a pair of Hinds flit in and out of sight across the valley, flashing over the thick, forested hills. They had put a lot of combat aviation forward, clearly cognizant of the exposed flank of this unit. It was a high summer day, and any vehicular movement kicked up hanging dust clouds, prompting Horning to spread his thin resources out, and give strict instructions for the tracks to make quick dashes, pausing frequently to let the dust settle as they sheltered under the next nearest copse of trees. Slowly, but surely, they managed to set themselves up in their assigned positions, finding decent concealment and cover to establish firing positions from.

By 1604 hours, Horning and SGT Chung have set themselves up in excellent firing positions on the extreme flanks of the AO.

As the scouts settled into their hides, a sudden pop is heard as a Stinger missile screeches upwards. One of the hunting Hinds had raised itself up too much, for too long, across the valley and an American AD man had chanced a shot.

The Hind’s weapons operator saw the tell-tale report and, swearing, alerted the pilot in time. The Hind bucked down sharply, and the missile failed to track. The other hinds, spooked by their comrades’ close call, follow suit. The air threat abates, for now.
SGT Chung, only momentarily distracted by the firing of the Stinger, shakes his head and concentrates. Over the distant thwock-thwock of the omnipresent Hinds, he can hear – more accurately, feel – the rumble of an approaching formation. A moment later, he can see it for himself: an entire MRC. He urgently whispers to his RTO to send the word. The RTO duly whispers the code phrase for contact: Rio Grande. The pre-arranged cluster mission begins to fire, forcing the BTRs to accelerate through the maelstrom.

“Jesus, Mary and Stonewall Jackson sir, that’s got to be an entire company – what the hell we going to do about that with just one shot?” whispers Horning’s RTO in an awed tone. Horning ignores the man and presses himself further against the ground, putting his hands under his chest. He awkwardly cranes his neck downwards and rolls his eyes up, attempting to keep a good eye on the BTRs while masking as much unnatural colour – his skin, the whites of his eyes – as he can. He wished he had time to apply camo paint. If any of this mass of enemy units spotted him, they were dead. BTR turrets were awkwardly trying to scan for targets, but their 14mm machine cannons were bouncing around visibly. Good he thought, hope the bastard gunners are blind. More problematic of course, were the Soviet rifleman hanging out of the rear hatches, with the occasional BTR having a Soviet soldier bouncing a SA-7 on his shoulder, scanning the skies for targets.
“Dragon 2 to Dragon 1 – “
Horning’s RTO scrambles to lower the volume on the receiver, as SGT Chung continues.
“- I am engaging. Making this missile count. Out.”

It takes a minute for Horning to spot an opportune target for his own position to follow the NCO’s lead. In frustration they watch BTRs briskly march past. Then, it happens: a BTR visibly slows down as it attempts to push through a small windbreak of trees. Tapping the Dragon gunner on his steel helmet, the 1LT points towards the target with an arrow-straight arm. The missile hits, but barely, almost passing between the wheels and underneath the BTR.


“Get the track to make a run for SGT Roy’s OP/LP, he’s got the spare missile. Run him down here and lets see if we can’t hit something else. Once you’ve passed that message on we are displacing, shift 30m right. One at a time, keep low and copy my stance.” The Officer whispers urgently.
***
Pemberton could see his young driver struggling to restrain himself from speeding forward. It was a battle the PFC was losing, as the distance inexorably widened between their ‘peep’ and the ITOWs and VADs that formed their small column. A soft word saw the vehicle pull back again. The 1LT couldn’t blame his driver’s haste. They had just arrived with the first section of his platoon, and already there was a thin spire of smoke reaching out from the valley, in what he estimated was EA Bravo. The lead Soviet elements were already in the area. There was no time to waste. The section raced towards its assigned BP, with VADs pulling off the road to take up covering positions.

Horning was desperately trying to shift the artillery fires to the overpass and road bridge; this lead Soviet company was making tracks, pushing through their anaemic ambush with remarkable discipline. The tail of the column was now entering EA Bravo. He could hear SGT Chung ordering SPC Brody, the commander of their sole ITV, to engage.
The ITV duly rumbled forward from the treeline it had taken as its hide in BP1 and inches forward along the flat plateau to its front. Brody soon identifies a plethora of targets. With a pop the first ITOW roars out, popping up then being pushed down by the gunner. It reaches out, a red dot in Brody’s field of vision. 

“Target!” the SPC roars, and then guides on: “Gunner, traverse right, two PCs forward of the line of trees”
“On. Firing!” comes the excited response. The second ITOW races out, but Brody can already tell its going to be a miss, as the Gunner struggles to both chase the accelerating BTR and keep the missile down. It passes just high.

Two sweating men in the cargo hatch quickly reload the last two missiles, but Brody’s crew once again have a mixed engagement. The third missile strikes another BTR, this one racing up a crop-filled slope towards a windbreak and the MSR. It explodes violently. Their fourth shot misses entirely, the missile going ballistic and slamming only a few dozen feet in front of them along the ridge, inert.
“Driver reverse, back to our original position.” Brody says through gritted teeth, whilst deploying smoke to cover the retrograde movement. Bitterly disappointed, nevertheless his part of the fight is over. Even as he pulls back, he hears 1LT Horning report the entry of yet another mass of enemy vehicles. If only we had time to resupply.

Unbeknownst to the disappointed Scout ITOW crew, however, Pemberton and his three anti-tank launchers had just taken up position in BP2. Pemberton and his RTO leapt from their Jeep and raced forward, taking cover among some trees at the lip of the ridge, to better direct fire whilst guiding his tracks into positions. The officer knew fire discipline would be key, not a missile could go to waste firing at a target another vehicle was already engaging. A bit awkwardly at first, but successfully, he used some landmarks to assign fire sectors to his three ITOWs.

Like their Scout counterpart, however, the anti-tankers have trouble striking their fast, fleeting targets. Two TOWs miss, badly. It is not until the third TOW that a target is struck successfully. Pemberton puts out a calming word, his unnaturally even voice having its intended effect. The gunners redouble their efforts, taking their time to line up the shots.
“Aim high, guide low boys, don’t rush things” the officer chides.
ITOWs begin to hit with regularity over the ensuing minutes, and the enemy BTRs stop manoeuvring so smartly. Casualties and evasive actions cause the formation to become strung out, which only increases their exposure. The young gunners stop suffering from “buck fever” and are better able to pick out lone targets. From his vantage point, Pemberton can report an increasing number of burning enemy BTRs with exultant satisfaction. Between 1615-1616 hours, 6 TOWs are fired for 4 kills, illustrating the furious rate of fire and the cornucopia of targets.


Whilst BP2 turns EA Bravo into a charnel house, the balance of the AT platoon arrives on the heights, and transit through the small town of Zillbach towards BP3. 

There’s just one problem, though: SGT Chung and his team, who boldly have remained in their initial firing positions to act as an OP/LP, spot a new threat.
“Dragon 2 to Dragon 1”
“This is Dragon 1”
“This callsign currently observing four times enemy tangoes, treeline near road bridge. Out to you.”
“Acknowledged, Dragon 2. We’ll let the AT know. Out.”

1LT Pemberton warns his leading SPC in the second section, and the determined enlisted man simply states they’ll keep the threat in mind and attempt to find positions masked to this new threat in BP3. Indeed, two of the three ITOWs can do just that. One, however, led by a SPC Catalano, running out of space to jockey, is surprised to find a T-64 aiming – at him!
Catalano’s gunner fires twice in rapid succession, more from shock than aggressive mindedness. The first TOW becomes a satellite, spinning off into space, and the second slams into the ground just on the other side of their hull down position. Catalano sees a giant burst of flame, and briefly and irrationally believes his gunner has scored a hit…then sees a small green dot grow larger and larger. It passes over their vehicle, and even ensconced inside the vibrating M113 and through his CVC, he can hear a faint sucking woosh. Too close for comfort. Gathering his wits, he gets his driver to reverse.

 
While BP3 struggles to find good positions, Pemberton continues to reap a grim bounty. Handing off targets personally and ensuring the pre-assigned fire sectors are maintained, BP2 continues to turn EA Bravo into a hellscape. Individual Soviet BTRs mill about in confusion. Their indecisiveness often fatal.

Despite the presence of the T-64s making BP3 a no-go for firing into EA Alpha, the three ITOWs (including a recovered SPC Catalano) can take positions that allow them to thicken the fire in EA Bravo. The initial engagements are frustrated by low field of view and limited time to target, but they eventually tally a few BTRs themselves. 

Perhaps spurred on by the suffering MRB’s survivors, the Hinds make a belated reappearance. This time any pretence of careful flying is tossed aside; the Hinds roar up and forward, seeking to strafe the assailants. One Hind is able to get a burst off, severely damaging one of Pemberton’s ITOWs, but four Hinds are swiftly destroyed by the overwhelming amount of SHORAD provided by Booth. One Hind is struck by a stinger and crashes in the valley, destroying a cowshed as its flaming carcass crashes through the structure’s roof.

The flight of the Hinds proves to be a bookend for the engagement at Dollbach. In BP2 the ITOWs begin to report going “black” on ammo, and one by one pop smoke and retreat into the cover of nearby trees. Pemberton himself taps his RTO on the helmet and dashes back to firmer concealment, where he begins to issue orders for the retreat.
The last of the mauled MRB, under the cover of the suicidally courageous Hinds, presses past EA Bravo and out of sight. Trailing them come the T-64s, who break cover and roar forward, in odd mimicry of the Hinds. They wheel to their left and attempt to break past EA Bravo.
Catalano is waiting, and along with the rest of his section in BP3, savage the tanks. In short order, 5 T-64s are burning.



An eerie silence descends… the only living creatures in the valley are wounded and burned Soviet riflemen and crewmen, painfully crawling away from their stricken mounts. The silence does not last, as mortars begin to search out for the Americans in BP3. A round crashes just behind SGT Chung.
“Displace! Back to the track” he screams with furious urgency.
The sound of the mortars fade, and all the SGT can hear is his own rattling breath and a pounding in his ears. He never hears the fateful round: there is just a flash of red, and then a disconnected awareness that something is not right…why am I on my back he ponders? He tries to get up. He cannot. He has no left leg. The realisation sends his mind into overdrive for a few moments, and his last conscious thought is simply an Oh my God before he lapses into unconsciousness and shock. Lying beside him are two of his men. One is killed, the other so severely wounded that he can only lay there in a heap, sucking air in a hideous rattle, before he shortly passes away. Chung’s RTO, on the verge of panic, drags his SGT back to the M113.  

It is the final part of this drama in miniature. As the mortar rounds continue to search out targets, the order from Pemberton is acknowledged across the net: the job was complete. Across the three BPs, the Scouts and Anti-tankers reverse out of sight, and then, slowly pick their way back to the rendezvous point.

Accurately assessing the damage was difficult, and Pemberton could only provide his new boss an estimate. The measure of success would only come in the following hour: the attack had been stopped cold, and the enemy’s lead element was barely a MRC in strength.


 
 

Come on, well past time to list what the game is we ordered so I can find the one I want easier, instead of clicking on every damn order to find it. Posted in truth but fun.
 
 

So, not really, since the above example was intended to be inside the scope of a CM battlefield - within perhaps 4 or 5km. The point of the forward recce element there is to screen and protect your main positions - which really means concealing them from enemy observation, indirect fires and making it as hard as possible for them to build an effective attack.
"Solid front" and modern combat are more or less ideas in opposition to each other. Even in current-Ukraine, the scale of the area means that the actual front is a lot more fluid than that, and it matters tremendously which 1km^2 box you're currently occupying, or even which exact treeline you're in. "Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man" and all that.

But the other examples you give are good reasons for the "and exploitation" part of "screening, reconnaissance and exploitation". Cavalry-type forces are small (and therefore easy to get moving in an operational sense), highly mobile, and usually have a vastly disproportionate firepower for their size. That means that they're usually going to be available and on-call to respond whenever this is needed. In a hybrid environment like CMSF then they're not going to be able to perform their intended role as efficiently as intended, but then that's true for every other part of the conventional warfighting apparatus, which is the whole point of asymmetric warfare, and the key challenge of CMSF.

For a WW2 example, consider the Commonwealth Carrier platoon. A carrier section consists of three Universal carriers, each carrying a small team. Each team carries a Bren light machine gun, one team carries a light mortar, and one a PIAT. The platoon consists of four of these sections.

That means that your Carrier section has about as many men as a regular Rifle section, but with a mortar pushed down to the squad level, a PIAT with every section, and three times as many light machine guns. That means that a platoon-sized element has significantly more firepower available to it than an entire rifle company, and has radios, mobility, and the ability to move under armour. Further, this element is embedded at the Rifle battalion level, so it's a very useful, powerful, and highly flexible asset which the battalion commander will be able to call on as an organic, ever-present part of his force.

The roles this formation can play are the same - screening, reconnaissance and exploitation, and the flexibility that this can provide as a mobile reserve to plug a gap, relieve a base of fire, or to take advantage of a fleeting opportunity are all CM-scale tasks that this kind of light, over-powered formation can provide, and the same applies to Cavalry and Cavalry-like formations up to and including the present.

It's certainly true that in some situations you're forced to go with what you've got - the entire theme of the British module in CMSF is that you're making do with what you've got to hand, rather than having the tools you'd actually want. Likewise the Stryker campaign in CMBS is challenging because you're trying to use medium infantry to confront a peer opponent. This is a real-world challenge and something of an unsolved problem, so it's certainly not "unfair", but it's no less difficult because of that. 



 

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

It's important to distinguish US Cavalry from that of other nations. Where the typical roles of Cavalry are screening, reconnaissance and exploitation, US Cavalry have a fourth role, that of economy of force missions (i.e., using them as a more conventional force, when the need arises). That's almost unique to the US, so it's not a "normal" capability in broader terms.

Some of the typical Cavalry roles are indeed above CM scale, and will therefore play a role in scenario design. Many of the missions in CMCW use Cavalry units, because they're likely to be first to the fight in a Fulda Gap scenario.

Nevertheless, *all* of the cavalry roles are also important on the scale of a CM battlefield, and that would be true regardless of equipment or time period.

To understand reconnaissance units in general, it's important to understand what they're for. Most reconnaissance units are equipped with fast vehicles and good optics - whether that's just a jeep, a pair of binoculars and a radio, the large open windows of the BRDM giving excellent vision whilst under cover of armour, or sophisticated suites of thermal optics and satellite communications.

Any armament they have is often secondary, but it's typically designed to deal with the threats they are likely to encounter - that of other reconnaissance units.

The British Scimitar is a great example of a reconnaissance vehicle. A company-sized force might have a pair of them in the Cold War, and this pair would roam ahead of the formation, possibly dismounting to spot when appropriate.

The job of this pair would be to screen - get advanced warning of the incoming enemy, and to do so in positions which do not give away their position to the enemy. They would do this by screening forward of the friendly positions, using their speed to get well forward.

Then, the first enemy they would be likely to see in this context would be a Soviet recon platoon - perhaps three BMPs. In this situation, the 30mm Rarden is in it's element, and two Scimitars fighting from successive hull down positions are a serious overmatch for three BMPs. 

So consider this scenario from the perspective of the Soviet player. They've sent forward their recon platoon, with the hope of finding the enemy position. Instead, a pair of Scimitars has engaged them from a position entirely unrelated to their defensive lines, and further has destroyed their recon platoon without giving anything more away.

That means that the only option for the Soviet player would be to turn their CRP from a force that's creating the conditions for the main body to operate - perhaps seizing key terrain or starting to shape the battlefield with artillery - and instead has been relegated to a probing force, slowing inching their way forwards without the information that the recon platoon should have provided.

This tiny screening asset has just had an outsized impact on the way this entire battle will unfold.

The "how" of Recon is better described by Bil than me (https://battledrill.blogspot.com/2014/01/reconnaissance.html), but there are two fundamentally different approaches to how you employ intelligence to shape your course of action. One is that you're relying on recon assets to form the plan - the entire early portion of the battle will be led by those assets, and you're intending to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy before you make decisions. This is the safer, more flexible option, but it's also very slow. It also represents the typical approach that a NATO force might employ in most situations. The latter method is that you lean heavily on your terrain and enemy analysis, and use recon elements in a much simpler role - to firm up that picture. Typically these would roam ahead of your force as per the Soviet example above, with the much simpler goal of working out where the enemy are. This is a lot more dangerous, but it's significantly faster, and it's therefore the approach that the Soviet armies should be using in CMCW.

Neither is "recon by death", although both obviously involve accepting some risk. Sometimes knowing where the enemy aren't is more important than knowing where the enemy are, and making sure that a route or a terrain feature is clear from enemy can be equally or more important than actually seeing them.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

An empirical study... Love the thread title 😉. This was the first time ever that I said 'time to work on my video' and opened excel instead of editing software 😅. Nice to hear you guys think it has some useful info, thanks.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

I think you'll find that almost all activity on this forum is contained in this thread. The forum isn't about CM any more, it's about the Russo-Ukraine war.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.

@Free Whisky has just released this excellent video on the use of artillery, showing the results of his experimentation: 
Some great stuff, such as how many guns of given calibers are needed to achieve a rate of fire which will suppress a given distance, the distances from impact at which units will be "pinned", the effects of regular smoke versus WP (regular smoke is better at obscuration), and the effects of weather conditions on smoke (turns out only wind affects smoke in CM, rain does not), and the efficacy of general versus personnel fire missions on infantry in the open, woods, buildings, and fortifications.