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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

The Old Hack

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Posts posted by The Old Hack

  1. Posted

    On 11/23/2022 at 7:08 PM, mlooney said:

    https://www.forgottenweapons.com/perdition-to-conspirators-magnificent-14-barrel-flintlock/

     

    Apart from weighing a ton it must have taken sodding forever to load. But its single volley would have been brutal.

    If I wanted something that could put a terrifying barrage of fire into the air, I think I would prefer a Glock-19. If I could get one, that is. A bit lighter and more concealable.

  2. Posted

    On 11/17/2022 at 9:15 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

    Hopefully that can be accurately expanded out to "An obstacle that doesn't stop the enemy is not an obstacle, and an obstacle that is not covered by fire does not stop the enemy". That would make sense.

    Hm. This is just me but I would count defences that slow down the enemy as obstacles, especially if they are placed so as to allow the defenders more time to shoot back at the attackers. Barbed wire, trenches with earthworks, caltrops, minefields -- none of them really stop the enemy. But they do buy you valuable time. Or possibly even invaluable time.

    On 11/17/2022 at 9:15 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

    At least until we foolishly crank out the Terminators that kill us all. I suppose you could consider them as 'manning'.

    To stay with the terminology, maybe we could consider them 'terminating.'

    Darth Fluffy reacted to this

  3. Posted

    On 11/17/2022 at 6:27 PM, mlooney said:

    AA guns went out of fashion a while back, but are returning with some force as anti-drone systems.  While stopping a munition carrying  drone is a good idea, it's a bit hard to justify using a $X missile against a drone that cost $X/10.

    Unfortunately sometimes you have no choice if the drone's target is valued at $X*100.

    As to that counteroffensive, it reminds me a little of Hitler's plans for invading Germany in "The Producers."

  4. Posted

    25 minutes ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    In a related vein, the famous image of the flag being raised at Iwo Jima was staged. The flag raising actually happened, but the image we all know, the photo, and the statue based on it was staged days later. It still has plenty of impact.

    Propaganda is a weapon. Your enemies will use it. You may as well push back with your own.

    Admittedly, recently Russian propaganda has been so awful that it is very nearly possible to do all the pushback you need just by republishing it.

  5. Posted

    12 hours ago, mlooney said:

    Was this a scheduled on, or one that the leader of the ruling party called?

    Sort of the latter, but our PM had no choice because one of her support parties demanded it and threatened to leave the government which would cause it to fall anyway. They did get their just reward for being prats, however. They lost more than half of their MPs.

    What we will get is kind of still in the air, but it looks like we're getting either a center-left or a centrist government. This suits me well. Last thing we need is our right wing morons, some of which make the Tories look like models of sanity.

  7. Posted

    6 hours ago, mlooney said:

    My neck still hurts. Not sure if laying down is going to help, but I'm going to try.  If it doesn't I'll watch videos on Godzilla or maybe do some data entry for Project X.  I suspect videos.

    Ugh, this sucks. Somehow this always turns into a cascade of annoying pains. You can't lie in your usual position which means you twist up something else, et cetera, et cetera.

  9. Posted

    5 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    the performance of the Wagner Group

    I think it is time and past time that Putin switches to the lesser known Beethoven Group, which consists of deaf artillerists known for firing barrages to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth, or sometimes his Ninth. I hear he tried to get the Tchaikovsky Group famed for their mercenary marching bands but the Ukrainians got to them first and they are now accompanying the Ukrainians where they spend most of their time playing Marche Slava Ukraina.

    10 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    Armies loosing the will to fight.

    The absolutely most hilarious example from the Iraq war was when a squad of hapless Iraqi surrendered to an Italian camera crew (which was of course unarmed.) Unhappily I do not recall whether they were placed in a POW camp run by Italian TV. At least they could be fairly sure of excellent pizza and pasta during their captivity.

    Darth Fluffy reacted to this

  15. Posted

    On 10/25/2022 at 3:21 PM, ijuin said:

    The list did say specifically “since WWII”, which would tend to exclude events from before 1939.

    I apologise. It's just that we have a real dearth of revolutions in recent Danish history. The last one we had, in 1849, was even worse than the 1784 revolution as it involved no bloodshed at all.

    It consisted of a delegation of concerned citizens that went to King Frederik the Seventh and informed him, "Your Majesty, if you do not immediately grant us a Parliament and a Constitutional monarchy, we shall have to be extremely disappointed in you. We may even go as far as to express our disapproval of you in severe terms, possibly in a stern letter written to the public."

    Frederik VII, who had the determination and governing competence of a sea cucumber, thought "Oh dear. They are serious. I'd better let them have their way."

    And so the modern Danish Constitutional monarchy was inaugurated, and Freddie Seven had a statue of himself erected with the legend "The love of the people is my strength."

  16. Posted

    23 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

    It seems odd that the two largest and two smallest were all civil wars, but around half are civil wars, and of the rest, most are post breakup 'We want to make this stick' or 'not stick' or 'We don't agree with how we divided this'; including the current one of interest.

    I notice that the Danish Revolution of 1784 is not mentioned, possibly because the only bloodshed during it was the Crown Prince punching his half brother in the nose while fighting over the key to the King's bedroom.

    Darth Fluffy reacted to this

  17. Posted

    23 hours ago, mlooney said:

    DU rounds are the best current solid shot rounds.  The best US version can penetrate about 1400mm RHAe.  The best armored Russian tanks have about 1200 RHAe armor, so angle of shot matters a lot.  Most of them don't have any where near that armor.

    The A-10 is worthless against the frontal armor of most tanks.  On the other hand, it doesn't attack the frontal armor of a tank, just the much thinner top armor.

    Darth Putin:

    Have given my tank crews armor that can't stop western missiles. Out of fairness, am giving my soldiers body armor that can't stop western bullets.

    I remain a master strategist.

  18. Posted

    6 minutes ago, mlooney said:

    Hmm.  Back in my day if you were asleep while in a place that could have alerts you were expected to wear something close to uniform colors.  Green or black tee shirt (depending on which year) and you slept in your uniform pants.  They may have changed the rules.  And yeah, can't fault his readiness.

    Maybe he earned a citation for his combat efforts and demerits + KP for his dress code violations? :danshiftyeyes:

  22. Posted

    I started to think about some military matters that I feel do not belong in the politics thread and am therefore creating a new thread for it.

    Recently I started to think about the use of conscripted troops versus volunteers, training and equipment (or absence thereof), and situations they are deployed in. (Disclaimer: I myself was a volunteer and I personally find the use of conscripts highly problematic. Still, I can see that there are times where grim necessity may compel their use.) All else being equal, volunteers tend to be superior to conscripts. But there are situations where conscripts may function quite serviceably. This happens if:

    1. They are well motivated, for example if deployed in defence of their homeland.
    2. They receive a decent amount of training.
    3. They receive equipment and munitions that are if not necessarily modern at least capable of keeping up.
    4. They are not used beyond what may be reasonably expected of them. (Holding a pre-prepared defensive line is good. Frontal assaults, not so much.)

    This is all of course subject to change. Conscripts may also battle harden, for example, and as time passes, they may gain in capabilities and receive better training. And taking time to build their morale is never a bad idea.

    Unfortunately not all leaders have the foresight to use conscripts in such a way. In a certain war I do not think I need to name one side has found itself being driven out from areas it seized in the opening months of the conflict. It has suffered painful losses in equipment and experienced troops and the morale of its troops is... not good. The Great Leader of this side has determined that the correct response is to engage in, shall we say, a leveé en masse, in which a large number of civilians is conscripted into fighting. Few of these have had any active military experience for years, some of them have never been trained. They are being shipped to the front line in a haphazard way, their organization is poor, they have a desperate shortage of NCOs and what equipment they do have available is old if not obsolescent. (I must point out that 'obsolescent' is not quite the same as 'obsolete.' An aging bolt rifle might fairly be considered obsolescent. A muzzle-loading smoothbore musket? Probably obsolete.)

    The scenario they are headed for is not a happy one. They are facing a smaller but much better motivated and trained army largely consisting of volunteers, one with half a year of battle hardening to bolster it. Its leadership is superior and they are riding high on a wave of recent victories. They are pushing their opposition back and have momentum on their side. I am having trouble seeing any scenario in which the conscript forces, large numbers notwithstanding, is headed for anything but disaster. If their leaders do have the foresight to have them prepare a defensive line and attempt to hold it, that might help. Some.

    I can see only two hopes for these hapless conscripts. One, the weather might provide it with some cover; autumn rains might turn the fighting zone into a morass of mud and temporarily slow or halt fighting. This might buy them time to train and get at least some improved weaponry. Two, there could be agreement on an armistice or a peace. The latter is hard to see happening but I do not wish to rule it out.

    I'm interested in hearing the opinions of other posters, if you can either spot any mistakes I have made or if you can add anything. Discussion of different scenarios in which conscripts are employed would be very welcome.

    Lastly, this is a general thread for discussion of matters military, be they real life, speculative fiction, wargames and computer games. Go nuts. Humor is also welcome.

    Thank you all for your attention. :)

    ~tOH.