Russkies in Oklahoma!

[seabolt]

Just to clarify: "Nut graph" is journalism slang for the paragraph that best summarizes the most important element of a given piece of writing; i.e., it gets down to the nut or heart of the topic. I wasn't commenting on the rationality of your thinking.

(I've only ever commented on the sanity of myself and Walrus, and I certainly wouldn't want his tusked eminence to get electrotherapy. I greatly enjoy the way his posts ping wildly about in a nearly non-sequitur way when he's had too much caffeine. ;))

-- 30 --

[Walrus]

(I've only ever commented on the sanity of myself and Walrus,

That's almost like the blind leading the blind yeah?

and I certainly wouldn't want his tusked eminence to get electrotherapy.

Ironically enough I used to play in a band called Electro Shock Therapy..he he.. pretty much an Hendrix covers band...it later became a mostly reggae unit called Excellent Soul Therapy...EST was a good group of letter I thought...

I greatly enjoy the way his posts ping wildly about in a nearly non-sequitur way when he's had too much caffeine. ;))

Caffine! Ha!...most of my more interesting posts are done late at night...and there's not much caffeine left in the system.
Or what is left is being masked...hahahahahahahahaha ha cough

Hurrah!

BTW...I didn't coin Eye of God...it's a pretty common name of a 'look down' game IIRC
Glad you thought I had the nouse to think that up though.
You are close to the money.

If I ever get let into your fortress...country again, I'll hunt you down...ooops...look you up and shout ...you a beer, or better yet, some proper whiskey.

How do you cross out words..put the line through...that's a good trick....fess up!

Cheers

[seabolt]

Or what is left is being masked...hahahahahahahahaha ha cough

Most people would try to work that whole masking thing the other way around. I can just envision you at a pre-employment screening, proudly holding up a brimming urine-specimen cup. "You won't find a milligram of caffeine in there! *wink* *wink*"

If I ever get let into your fortress...country again, I'll hunt you down...ooops...look you up and shout ...you a beer, or better yet, some proper whiskey.

I'd be happy to introduce you to Knob Creek, which reportedly is an erratic bourbon, but I've only ever owned bottles that were surprisingly smooth stuff.

How do you cross out words..put the line through...that's a good trick....fess up!

It's real simple. You just pull out those words that used to make your mama growl at you.

-- 30 --

[Walrus]

I can just envision you at a pre-employment screening, proudly holding up a brimming urine-specimen cup.

Damn, you have an active imagination! What a horrible picture! BTW, in my profession drugs are obligatory ;)
If I ever have to provide a urine sample for anything...I'm not interested in whatever that was.
Above and beyond what's necessary IMO

I'd be happy to introduce you to Knob Creek, which reportedly is an erratic bourbon, but I've only ever owned bottles that were surprisingly smooth stuff.

Erratic Bourbon...only an American could come up with that
Used to drink Jack D when I was a lad...thought we were tough to do that. Deluded youth eh. What we were was suckers for marketing. I am partially cured now.
I put it down to the proper Scottish whiskey and a life of erratic anarchy :P

It's real simple. You just pull out those words that used to make your mama growl at you.

My mother could make a sailor blush with her words, if she chose. However she was genteel enough to never have to use that skill.
Cheers for the info.
Back to it!
Hurrah!

[seabolt]

TURN 14

As we enter the second half of this grand ideological scrum, the score stands at Yankee Imperialists 19, Anarchic Ex-Bolsheviks 2, with the Imperialists possibly holding a 2:1 edge in damage done, maybe higher.

And I had to get to a football practice, so I rushed through my turn, which made the mistake a bit ironic. In (real, American) football, many coaches at all levels (including myself) believe that the most important part of the game is the first 5 to 10 minutes of the second half. Both sides spend the first half uncorking their best, preplanned shots---and recoiling from the other guy's punch. You go in at halftime and figure out what's working and what's not. If leading at the time, you come out in the second half and try to immediately let the other team know that it's not going to be their day. You don't relax and let them enjoy a little success. Success breeds hope. Hope is the most dangerous emotion in the world.

Epoletov already had done his share to generate his own hope. The Ranger squad that spotted the rifle company just north of town ~500 meters west of VH 110,43 got pinned by an AT unit that it couldn't spot. (They have vision tests in the Rangers, right?) Then his rifle sections jumped in and chased my boys to death.

Epoletov also has been dropping cluster rounds nonstop on the east-west road pointing to 110,43 since my attack began. About three turns ago he had one of those miracle salvoes (we've all been on the receiving end of one) that evaporated a third of the troops in the area and eviscerated another third. I haven't mentioned it, hoping he wouldn't push his luck, but I certainly had to dial down the aggression. No fool, he finally pushed back this turn, isolated a reeling squad, and savaged it something fierce.

The only thing that didn't go well for him was an ill-advised ATGM potshot at a Humvee from Mt Acme, notifying me that yet another size-0 unit had escaped all of my attention on that drop zone.

Still, a good turn for the Russian. My chief goal should have been to not provide him any more hope. I only remembered that after the fact ...

The turn started out well enough. Last turn, in the southern LZ on the island, I had spotted a BMD and armored jeep, but couldn't reach them. This turn an Apache strolled in and killed each with a single burst. A little supporting fire here, a little there, and that situation began to appear under control.

In the northern LZ, the closest Rangers killed the last stubborn holdout from a recon unit, then a farther unit got one of the Spetsnaz units to waste its flamethrowing opfire at long range. A bit of z-fire and the special forces looked properly pinned. I moved in a full Fox for the kill. Bad call. At 100 meters, the Russians opfired with small arms. The LMG burst caused everyone to bail out of the Fox. The reverse positioning caused everyone to retreat toward the Spetsnaz unit. This prompted an MMG unit and sniper to surrender. (This was the first action in the entire match to cause me to start cussing. I don't recall this happening much in 2.5, but in 3.0 adjacent artillery fire and small arms routinely cause all of the occupants to come boiling out of an APC to get their heads caved in. Hello? Wasn't the APC invented to cross beaten zones? Who in their right mind leaves their bulletproof ride under MG fire?) Fortunately, the squaddies resisted the urge to surrender to 15 surrounded and bullet-riddled Russians, and killed the offending commando section. Still ... very expensive.

Epoletov still has the two infantry sections huddling behind 110,43. I opened up with an MMG on overwatch, just to keep them pinned. One of the other AA guns (the ones that eluded my inability to count to three) opened up from 2150 meters. I couldn't spot it, decided to squeeze off another burst to improve my odds of locating it. The resulting low-percentage opfire hit, killed three, and the last guy resigned his commission. I'm just hell on MGs this turn.

Finally, I tried a fourth route to move units out of the quiet zone at the far south of the map east of the river. Sure enough, Epoletov had LOS there, too. I did catch him in a little disinformation---there's at least two ATGMs up there---but that's small consolation for yet again getting pawned by that real estate. One of the most aggravating features of this game is the inability to pick a hex adjacent to a friendly unit and determine what the LOS to it will be before moving into it. This is pretty routine in real life; if I go down there that ridgeline will be visible to me thus I'm visible to it, that kind of thing. In SPMBT, as far as I can tell, it's trial and lethal error.

Anyway, three bad calls in a single turn wracked up the kills for my opponent. I did finally kill the parasniper on Mt Acme and cripple his ATGM buddy. (I will not, for the 17th time, declare that real estate cleared ...) But overall my hasty play gave my opponent a little more momentum. I should learn that my biggest gaffes happen when I try to squeeze in a round with one foot out the door. I'll work on that just as soon as I get that counting thing figured out ...

-- 30 --

[Narwan]

I moved in a full Fox for the kill. Bad call. At 100 meters, the Russians opfired with small arms. The LMG burst caused everyone to bail out of the Fox. [...] I don't recall this happening much in 2.5, but in 3.0 adjacent artillery fire and small arms routinely cause all of the occupants to come boiling out of an APC to get their heads caved in. Hello? Wasn't the APC invented to cross beaten zones? Who in their right mind leaves their bulletproof ride under MG fire?)

Got an answer for you there. The Fox isn't an APC. It's an armored car in the game. Armored cars carry troops on top just like tanks do.

I know, I know, that's a bit silly knowing what the Fox looks like. Happens when A) different people work on the OB's (and why Don and Andy don't let anyone lese work on them anymore with very rare exceptions); B) vehicles as the Fox (or BRDM's) are used and/or classified as armored cars in their own country.

It's an issue that's on the to-do list for now as there are quite a few of these units throughout the OB's with this problem. In the mean time, don't use armored cars as stand-in APC's

With regards to the Fox, could be it'll disappear altogether as it seems it is only used as an NBC recon vehicle. Not only does that mean it's stuffed with gear and leaves no room for troops but NBC vehicles don't really have a place in the game.

Narwan

[seabolt]

Armored cars carry troops on top just like tanks do.

I know, I know, that's a bit silly knowing what the Fox looks like.

I'd say that's a bit more than a bit silly, but your explanation perfectly fits the weird behavior.

You realize that this little bit of coding silliness has played a huge role in slowing my Stalingrad advance in our mirror, yes? I bought the German armoured trucks rather than halftracks to save a couple of points and try something different. They look like SdKfz 251s with wheels instead of halftracks ... but the armoured truck is an armored car clone in SPWW2, so my squads have been bailing at the first rifle shot and completely screwing my game plan. I guess they're sitting on top of that big bulletproof rear compartment rather than riding inside of it. :rolleyes:

Better to learn it now than never, I guess. Thank you for the update.

-- 30 --

[Narwan]

Hmm, that would suprise me. It's a clone class so that it can be given a couple of different characteristics (like carrying troops internally) from the one cloned. I just did a test myself with german armored trucks. I fired at them with rusian mmg's and they did just fine. The german infantry stayed indoors despite the trucks being hit repeatedly with mg fire. So they're not riding on top.

Narwan

[seabolt]

Yes, well, your Germans don't seem to bail at anything as quickly as my Germans. ;)

I incorrectly cited rifle fire earlier, but thinking back more carefully, what was usually causing premature bailing was nearby artillery fire. (And I dunno, maybe APC passengers bail quickly with artillery fire, too. I don't think they should, but I guess there's always the risk of a catastrophic direct hit on that 0 top armor.) Now, of course, no one's riding anything, but I had hoped to be about 500 meters deeper before things bogged down to the usual shooting of the tips of each others' noses off at 50 meters. It didn't take much artillery pressure to foil that plan.

-- 30 --

[seabolt]

TURN 15

Epoletov had even more than his usual difficulties sending me his last turn. It just would not arrive at my U.S. account. So I gave him my UK e-mail address, and binga banga, no sweat. There it is. Which can make a man speculate ...

Then I got busy on some deadlines so, you know, we're running really late here. We all know it happens. Even SPMBT has to play second fiddle to making money once in a while.

The replay showed the Godfather staying feisty. The troops at the extreme north, just above the urban hexes, kept pressing their attack, and a couple of rifle sections popped up farther north circa hex 92,10. The counterattack along ATGM Alley continued and Epoletov reclaimed VH 110,43. (There's only so much you can do when his cluster rounds have rendered a 500-by-500-meter zone west of the VH uninhabitable for anything larger than a virus ...) The Spetsnatz boys both north and south banged away a bit, though tellingly there wasn't a great deal of z-fire coming out of the dark woods. Then a real surprise as an ATGM fired at a hiding Fox ... from its 10 o' clock at hex 72,57. Uh, hello there. That's my turf and I haven't seen a transport plane get anywhere near there, you sneaky ex-Commies. Apparently I have more trouble lurking somewhere along the eastern shore of the island.

In short, this messy little fight just keeps getting messier.

So, to work. My counterattacking infantry gang-killed a Spetznatz section in the south, and pinned another. That may be all that's left of that landing other than a couple of crews and the inevitable ultraexpensive size-0 units hiding and hoping in the trees. I then had nearly identical results in the north: 1 dead, 1 pinned, and no opfire suggesting that there's much else left up there.

Meanwhile, the Apaches sniffed up and down the east coast like bloodhounds, to no avail. We've already well established that they're not exactly the bee's knees at digging out Epolotov's beloved size 0 sticks-in-the-eye, however. I tried to run one helicopter up north to reinforce the urban battle that's brewing, but a SAM tagged it. I'd love to leave it at that, but then I'd have to cry crocodile tears about losing one of my most valuable pieces. Truth is, Lady Luck decided it was time to make things even. That earlier Apache got dinged without getting fired at. This one bounced a SAM off its side armor. I've never seen that before, even though theoretically SAMs only penetrate 2 points of armor.

That's about it that I can talk about. Epoletov may have more than a rifle company up north; my SAM-charmed Apache will tell me more next turn. His paradrop zones are largely neutralized, but there's a mystery ATGM somewhere the heck out there, and who knows what's with it. And, of course, he still has plenty of cannons; in fact, parts of my half of the map are starting to resemble a lunar landscape. ;-)

-- 30 --