Discussion of Military, real or fictional

[The Old Hack 2,450]

So Russia just withdrew its Black Sea fleet from Sevastopol.

Think about that for a moment. A much smaller nation with no navy of its own just forced Russia to move its navy back to a safer port in Russia proper. What an amazing feat.

https://www.wsj.com/world/russia-withdraws-black-sea-fleet-vessels-from-crimea-base-after-ukrainian-attacks-51d6d4f5

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

 

The historic capture of Sevastapol & Crimea were essental in allowing late Tsarist and early Soviet Russia to regard themselves as a world naval and trading power.

When Kruschev transfered Crimea to Ukraine, more than a few Russians comforted themselves with the thought that everything Soviet was Russian.

The collapse of the USSR left a lot of people thinking that Crimea had been stolen.

A skillful diplomat in power might have found a peaceful solution to a populist crisis.

Vladimir Putin had other ideas . . . .

 

I very much fear those ideas include "If I can't have it, no one can have it!"  

 

[mlooney 3,423]

You are a gun geek if you under stand why this is Just Wrong

[ijuin 576]

First of all, shooting from the hip instead of using the sights is dumb unless you’re at point-blank range—and that optical sight appears to be out of alignment with the front and rear iron sights. Also, the forward grip on that thing is terrible.

[The Old Hack 2,450]

10 hours ago, ijuin said:

First of all, shooting from the hip instead of using the sights is dumb unless you’re at point-blank range—and that optical sight appears to be out of alignment with the front and rear iron sights. Also, the forward grip on that thing is terrible.

To be fair to the shooting from the hip thing, perhaps the shooter though they might as well because the sight was so awful.

[mlooney 3,423]

Happy Birthday NATO

[mlooney 3,423]

[mlooney 3,423]

[Darth Fluffy 302]

NATO. You need it more than ever.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

This does not end well for Putin. If Russia is having trouble taking the Ukraine, they are not going to fare well against a united Europe. And it will hopefully galvanize the US, as Pearl Harbor did, and eliminate the MAGGAT waffling. Once Russia backs down, he's toast.

A man with a limited skill set, slanted heavily toward 'bluster' . . . that sounds oddly familiar . . .

[mlooney 3,423]

The Baltic should be renamed NATO lake.

[mlooney 3,423]

I've been on a Sabaton kick of late. Don't know why

[The Old Hack 2,450]

So, I am going to grumble about logistics for a bit.

For large armies logistics are everything. Without supplies they cannot fight. It is entirely possible that they cannot even reach wherever they are supposed to go. This rule is even more important for modern armies but even for medieval or fantasy armies this holds true.

Now Tolkien was completely aware of this and did it right. He had both the strategic and operational scale covered. Strategically in that while Mordor was a terrible place for growing food, Sauron also controlled more distant and presumably more fertile nations who paid tithes in the form of food and valuable materials. Presumably this allowed him to keep large stockpiles of food in Mordor so he could keep his armies supplied. What is more, when he did move his armies he split them up and used different routes before they converged on their target (as seen in the battle for Minas Tirith). This made them much more manageable supply-wise; moving all his troops in a single column would have been unmanageably difficult. (David Weber also did this well in his Safehold series where he not only describes the logistics very realistically but also has them be the deciding factor in at least three or four of the campaigns described.)

Unfortunately -- and this is where my ranting begins -- not all authors are very concerned with this. Especially the Tolkien ripoffs have a tendency to have huge armies but not spend even a moment of thought on where they get their food from. A particularly egregious example would be Robert Jordan's massive The Dragon Procrastinating series in which Totally Not Morgoth™ has a massive army of Absolutely Not Orcs™ and I Can't Believe It's Not Nazgul™. This army somehow emerges fully equipped from a country described as being as about as welcoming as a WH40K hellworld and where you take your life in your hands if you try to travel as much as half a kilometer. There is certainly no possibility of growing food there for even a small settlement, let alone for a massive army on the march. Apparently Totally Not Morgoth™ pulled this huge army straight out of his arse.

There are of course numerous lesser offenders. They typically create a Mordor ripoff which can at least credibly serve as an industrial base for their not-Orcs but where the only vegetation consists of maybe two thorn bushes and a cactus. It is blindingly obvious that this country cannot sustain an army let alone the population needed to recruit it from. It is so frustrating to me and often destroys my immersion, changing my read from enjoyable relaxation into sneering at the writer's ineptness. (I can get fun from the latter, too, but it annoys me when the writer does not even try.)

In short: Armies need food. This isn't hard. Sigh.

[mlooney 3,423]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

So, I am going to grumble about logistics for a bit.

Armatures discuss tactics.  Professional discuss logistics.

 

[Darth Fluffy 302]

4 hours ago, mlooney said:

Armatures discuss tactics.  Professional discuss logistics.

 

Amateurs?

[mlooney 3,423]

14 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

Amateurs?

Yeah, not rotating coils on a motor.  My bad.