iamfritz

Battle of 73 Easting the M-3 scouts found themselves within football fields of dug-in T-72s while the M-1A1s were way behind with the main group. Their engines were off so they didn't show up in the thermals, it was pouring rain, and the BC happened to spot it visually. The T-72s would start hand cranking the gun around and the Bradleys either scooted away speed of scared or sat there and plinked the T-72 turrets hoping for the best, and somehow survived. I'll have to look it up again to remember how they did. A bus driver in my home town who'd driven LAV-25s in Iraq in 1991 laughed when people criticized how close they often accidentally got in some skirmishes. Intel is never perfect, rain and cool metal enemy tanks, and fighter planes without GPS reporting enemy formations miles from where they actually were. "Fog of War" some obscure military writer once called it (Why did he write it? Oh, just be-Clausewitz). Said bus driver/vet said there HAD been some trench fighting nose-to-nose with Iraqi inf forces that was never reported to the news. So I figure, Fog of War and dense trees and radio jamming, etc., bad intel would/could/has put smaller units against bigger units and how did they survive? "Shoot the tube!" must be in a book somewhere. And d@##it, NO POLITICS IN MY THREAD. I'm asking about tactics, and my other question got de-railed first Reply by a small political book. I'M ASKING TACTICS. And no I don't wanna hear about how much threads get de-railed either. Gun-shooting tactics, or similar, please and only.

So I've read many a book, journal and military article about the 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq, and the Afghanistan War. And now, I'm watching the Ukraine War as closely as I can. It seems to me that it would not be innaccurate to make enemy forces inept (under options) for engagements. I mean, the US/Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts have tons of examples, Russia is struggling to conquer Ukraine, and the India/China Conflict. Acknowledging that follow-up insurgent forces were much better motivated, trained and equipped, these up front enemies (Republican Guard, Taliban, Russian Army) are, while still threats, are no real match for training, tech and tenacity. Your thoughts...?

And here's what happens when you accidentally open Illustrator and Photoshop while Steel Beasts Pro PE is still open, and tell your track's troops to mount up to move out...

So I've seen this in War Thunder (don't lynch me-my teen son plays) and now I've done this in SBProPE. Do they teach shooting the T-72's gun tube in Bradley tactics school?

Oh my gosh I'm so embarrassed.... I'm using a template where the first mission it came from, like 3 months ago, was an offensive mission where I wanted Red to defend and I attacked. They were all set to defend. <sigh> Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

I give them all a path to march, scout or assault.

So I've had the sim installed for 2 years or so now. I've noticed now that if I have a battalion or company of enemy units, they sometimes wont start moving until they are interacted with. Artillery, direct fire, something. Which if I've made a Blue Defend RPT A mission , its kind of a bust. A single platoon of BMPs will show up, and the T-80s which were supposed to lead the charge never move. Am I missing something or do I need to re-install?

Between shooting the gun on the T-72 out, my infantry fight up north, and the AAR.... I learned a lot about how much more this sim has to offer. As soon as I'm back on my feet medically and working again I'll update to the latest version. Plus, I've only been playing armchair Captain for 2 years sans West Point training. I know I have so much more to learn and emplot in sim. Surrender conditions, timed battles, mine fields, aviation assets... ...Fighting Germans a la The Ten Thousand by Harold Coyle.... I only wish the Damage indicator window in the little bottom right would specify just what systems were damaged. It would be awesome to say -and show- that my Bushmaster took out the main gun on that big bad Ruski. Maybe I watch my son play War Thunder too much.... but it would be informative.

Ah-ha. You were right. While I was embroiled in an infantry fight up North, two BMPs tried to join up with the T-72 and my Bradley and M-113s/Infantry dispensed them. One Ruski soldier was left, and he was the source of the plinking, not a survivor of the T-72. The first 10-12 minutes show my Brad taking on the two tanks. Then skip to 41:00 to see me discover the BMP attack and its associated pesky survivor.

I will. I never saw any soldier, but heard small caliber rounds bouncing off the track as they engaged.

Here ya go... Bradley survivability

The nearest enemy troops were over 3 miles away. This was amazing coding and realism.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! Afterward it stalled out in the open a couple miles after that. Its gun knocked out, no 12.7 (I hit with the Bushmaster too), I sent 3 M-113s full of infantry with pocket rockets to finish off the Ruski invader... but before they could even disembark and take up positions... The T-72 just blows up! The Brad's 25mm must have hit some component that started a small fire inside that finally killed it. But not even THAT was all- afterward I repaired the Bradley and fueled it up, and as they and the M-113s passed back and forth south to north, a single Ruski infantry man was shooting at us as we passed! That's right- the TC or driver or whole crew ran over to some trees and tried to ambush us with AKs. THAT's some brilliant AI, I say. Oh one of the M-113s just drove over there and .50 cal'd them. But still- WOW!

So my lowly, solitary M-2A2 was cornered out of gas (fuel leak) with a T-72 barreling down on me. So what did I do? I de-barreled it!

Yeah. Just played a game for five hours. Wanted to blow some stress so it was a non-realistic "To The Death/Last Man Standing" battle. Needless to say, I now have my own Jeeps Disease to get over. Here's a couple beauty shots of my mech infantry company a soldier who refused to get back in the Bradley when we withdrew. As the Sun was setting. Note his 1,000 yard stare, effectively modeled in sim.

*chuckles in flight sim

We all know about this, it's just nice to read about it from a different point of view. https://www.orau.org/health-physics-museum/collection/consumer/depleted-uranium/penetrators.html

Dragons at War: Land Battles in the Desert by Daniel Bolgar I'm reading this book. It's a fascinating look at how much training, circumstance and fog of war affect the chaos and outcome of land battles. It also portrays how one well-trained, motivated unit can stand to and save a terrible situation, even out-numbered 10:1. Finally it's very educational to the planning process and command structure. Recommend 10/10.

I had to put down my scientist dog.

I found in my 'ole binder full of yon Xerox copies of Infantry magazine that some of my pages have torn or faded with time and went looking for downloadable PDFs like Armor magazine has. Indeed, the web site is still there, but every archived magazine link results in a Bad Request error. I found this year's copies, but can anyone steer me toward archived magazines back to 1980s? (like they used to have) I did find this, but it has no archives previous to this year: https://www.dvidshub.net/publication/958/infantry-magazine It's part of: https://www.dvidshub.net/publication EDIT: I found the tiny litl button for past archives in upper right corner. Knock yourselves out. Post EDIT EDIT: Their archives only go back to 2012.

*Goes back and plays *Notices radio squelch *Hangs head in embarrassment, nigh shame

It was my first time using the 10x speed up too. I "lost track" of time. Chkl Ya the Abrams crew was working on it... 17 minutes or something to finish when I climbed in the M88. I guess teh M88 took 18. It was cool seein it turn the tank around and pull it tho.

I believe you but I'd like to know the specifics. Can you point me to an article or two somewhere describing the transition?

I did a regular Company vs Battalion attack and one of my M-1s lost a track. Once the enemy was all shooted up, I called my M-88s forward to tow the Abrams. I put the game in 10x speed to hurry things up, finally arrived and hitched the Abrams up to haul it back to the FLOT. After a couple minutes of towing, however, I noticed something: The Abrams crew had already repaired the track and the tank was no longer immobilized.

The had crank isn't that difficult irl. At a museum exhibit in Oregon here they had a BRDM on display that someone cut the locks on it. My middle school age boys climbed inside and cranked the turret around -with ease. But cranking those wheels was still a workout. I squeezed in and did it too. I feel the arrow keys is more accurate. Jus' sayin'.