paxromana

Note: The Romans didn't do their business transactions using Roman Numerals ... they had quite an effective Abacus analog ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_abacus ... heck, even the Babylonians and Greeks had abacus analogs!

Of course, the unstated problem even with having 'hundreds' of First Line tanks in reserve is ... crews ... Unless all the crews of all the destroyed tanks survive uninjured ... which is extremely unlikely (with manned tanks, at least, and the issues with 'drone' tanks have been alluded to here already). How long does it take to train a Tank Crew from scratch? Many months, I expect. Retraining already experience Ukrainian Tank Crews on western equipment seems to have been much quicker. So those 100s of tanks aren't necessarily as useful as they might seem.

Chemical Warfare?

Mirror imaging. That's what would happen to Ruzzians under those circumstances ... Phil

Only a little ... it was loss of a large chunk of their experienced soldiers (training was largely at unit level ... no centralised training units, except, in a limited way, for a small number of officers) plus a confluence of other events. Recovery was slow ... but it did happen.

That's what did the East Romans in for the next couple of centuries after the disaster at Adrianople. Not enough experienced soldiers left to be a cadre.

One thing I found when practising Grenade Throwing in the Army Reserve was that it was *amazing* how far you could throw the darn things even from inside a nice walled and bunkered pit ... you didn't want the darm things to land anywhere near you ...

Doesn't mean you shouldn't work some way of doing it ... otherwisse those nice long straight trenches become death traps if the enemy takes even one section.

Even Comms trenches should zig-zag for the same reason fighting trenches should.

Alien Space Bats! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_space_bats It's a long time since I hung out of soc.history.what-if ...

It would be even better if the crew would simply run away from the Ukrainian summer offensive and the Ukrainians could have it parade in the streets of Kiev on world news ... and see the Russians try to spin that ...

Stringier than Ork I guess ... of course you can keep cutting off 'prime' bits and then they grow back

Ork flesh is so untasty ...

According tro the stated thinking f the Labor government is explicitly about China ... if we didn't believe Chinese expansionism wasn't a problem, we wouldn't be buying them.

Spend a buck (with the US) to get a buck ... The Poles are demonstrating a 'can do' attitude unlike Germany's 'can't do' and France's 'don't wanna do ...' (Yes, I know ... somewhat unfair, but perceptions are what perceptions are and Scholz and Macron haven't [and aren't] doing their countries any favours ... heck, here in Australia our government has been more openly supportive in many ways\ ... and we really don't have any skin in the game to the extent they do.)

Goes back o=to the 14th century! But more commonly from the 17th. British Monarchs were reknowned for being out for number 1 even when treaties were involved (not that am aware that any other Medieval or Early Modern monarchs were any better ...)

More mobiks in a metal coffin!

Big Julie NEVER proclaimed himself emperor. Not even close. His adopted heir, Augustus, didn't, either -- he was Princeps -- 'first man' or 'first speaker' (he got to speak first in the Senate so the other Senators would know which way to vote - if they wanted to survive) and had 'maius imperium' and 'tibunician potestas' ('superior command' and 'tribunician immunity & veto') which made extremely powerful, but he very carefully did not declare himself Rex/Emperor. The Principate lasted till AD 284, only then being replaced by the Dominate ... where the Princeps became 'Dominus' (Lord) and Emperor in name as well as fact.

What about the Know Nothings?

As I understand it this has always been the case since at least WW2 and probably even WW1 and under the Tsars

So how does he explain the Kharkhiv and Kherson successes ... not a lot of artillery heavy ops overall in either and not a lot of 'well trained' (I assume be means western trained) Battalions in either. Or is it more of his displayed penchant for wishful thinking and overestimation of Russian prowess?

In my (limited) understanding of recent Chinese history and some of the half-arsed weapons prgrams they have 'developed' (poorly) it would be a reasonable guess that, however much, it's nowhere near Russian/ex-Soviet levels. Maybe just enough to take on Taiwan (or what they think will be needed to do that ... but I would hazard a guess they are banking on a quick victorous war ... perhaps not quite as delusionally as Putin, but lots of wishful thinking because the Great Leader has a bee in his bonnet ... )

If Putin had done this, the Special Military Operation would be over now and Ukraine would be de-nazified. AKA NATO needs to take a hint ... if Putin was more competent, or is replaced by someone more competent ... they need to spend all those 'peace dividends' if they don't want to be caught flat footed ... or worse.

Similar 'Experts' to those who believed Russian conventional forces were a steel steamroller? (An Aside: Even if the Russian Nukes have an extremely low serviceability rate ... even 10% of them working, heck, even 1% working, would be disastrous for the West ... but Russia would cease to exist as a functional state in the Western retaliatiory strikes as I rather expect Western nukes would have a much higher serviceability, though not 100% if one believes some of the rumblings that have emanated over the years)

Well, at least its not the early, open topped version! Though the way things are going for AFRF ... won't be long ... mid 2023?