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Osprey Books Armies of Russia's War in Ukraine released today


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I got it yesterday.  I think it has a lot of good information for CMBS games and mods/reskins, and TOEs for the various factions, even though the author acknowledges that they may not be entirely accurate given the situation.  I was intrigued by the "Hooligan Battalion" (do they wear Millwall shirts? 🙂) but there was no further info in the text.

I have actually read some of Mark Galeotti's books before - the one on the Vory (Russian criminals) was very interesting. I looked at his biography of Putin in the library and put it down as the sound of axes grinding got too much.

 

Politics Alert!!!!!

I am very doubtful of some of the information. Galeotti  works for Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) - a big hitting but very conventional think tank. His views are Western-centric and anti Putin. So the political analysis IMO in the above book is often wrong. I'll only give one example as I know we try to avoid politics here: I don't believe for a moment that the Russians assassinated their own warlords. Makes no sense. Who but the Ukrainians would have the motive to do so? 

Overall though - definitely a book that I would recommend to the CMBS gamers here, and anyone interested in Russian forces. 

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Have it and glad I bought it.  Its a good beginner's book to put some context around the game's situation.  But not an in depth study.

I have hundreds of Osprey books and very much enjoy them.  On the whole, they are good quality and very readable.  I tend towards obscure battles and hardware.  They have plenty of that.

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Yes,  this is a sort of "Hybrid War Game" (joke) - the real situation and info in the book (for example) allows us to use that information in the fictional CMBS scenario, and add to the "naturalism" of the game. In my view producing a more satisfying result. The TOEs mean you can actually name units that exist in reality in your fictional games and create skins of units - there are photos of AFVs with obviously home-made stencilled unit insignia, which will inspire someone here I am sure.

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On 7/3/2019 at 3:08 PM, JulianJ said:

I don't believe for a moment that the Russians assassinated their own warlords. Makes no sense. Who but the Ukrainians would have the motive to do so? 

It would make a complete sense, for example to maintain the credible deniability. Those "freedom fighters" imported from Russia knew too much and after the main hostilities ended, they become superfluous. I really doubt that the Ukrainians had capabilities, that would allow them to take down the separatists leaders - this would be the less likely probability for me. It could be Russia, but most likely they were killed in mafia style score settings, since in the post war reality, they effectively become the ring leaders of criminal organisations. Remember Arkan from the Bosnian War? He was also a warlord and a war criminal and was killed either by other criminals or by his former paymasters.

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@IvanovI think the mafia war scenario is more likely.  Even if the Russian found them superfluous to requirements in Ukraine, there's plenty of jobs for them elsewhere - Group Wagner apparently wants mercs;  buying someone off is a lot less troublesome - also hostilities may kick off again at any time. I don't think you want to get rid of effective fighters and demoralise their units?

I did read somewhere (can't remember where) that the US gave the UKies everything to off Zaharenko and all they had to do was plant the bomb - the CIA took care of all the rest of the op. I guess I am straying into politics and best to stop now.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On ‎7‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 11:17 AM, JulianJ said:

I think the mafia war scenario is more likely.  Even if the Russian found them superfluous to requirements in Ukraine, there's plenty of jobs for them elsewhere - Group Wagner 

I did read somewhere (can't remember where) that the US gave the UKies everything to off Zaharenko and all they had to do was plant the bomb - the CIA took care of all the rest of the op. I guess I am straying into politics and best to stop now.

LOL yeah best bet is to keep to what kind of items in the book are good for scenario design.  In a general comment though one thing to learn  that interestingly comes across really well in the US army history of Irag is that in an unconventional combat environment all sorts of s**t floats up.  Criminal elements, personality conflicts, power grabs etc.  It is the unconventional forces where it comes to the fore as there is no national organization to answer to.  This was part of the struggle for intel in Iraq that the US was failing so miserably at for several years.  

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I think there is a difference in Modern Era war and WW2.  Although SOF really took off then, and resistance/partisan warfare was a factor, particularly on the Russian Front, basically it was a war of conventional forces against each other. No big deal if you don't have any SOF around.

These days there are a whole gamut of "unconventional" forces at play in any conflict, from SOF, including bolstering lesser troops (clearly happened in Syria and Ukraine) in combat, PMCs (deniable), spooks, militias, gangsters and thugs, (in or out of uniform), crazies like General Butt Naked https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRuSS0iiFyo and "foreign volunteers" fighting on many sides. This needs to be represented to give a contemporay feel to this. I am glad that the CM community has stepped up to the task because it helps realism, but also distinguishes the game from WW2 games, so you can have a different experience of wargaming if you want to.

 

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