Bin Laden Dead!

It's all around the news right now ... the CIC to speak shortly.

Great news!

Bin Laden was killed inside Pakistan (Abbottabad, see map below) by an special operations forces team.


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Cheers,

ArmA 2 - There is turret down and then there is CIV turret down!

Virtual armor commanders know well the advantages of the turret-down position. Basically used for observation, it allows the commander to watch over a crest with the armored vehicle fully protected from enemy fire and (hopefully) observation.

The turret of an M2A3. The thing on top of the turret, to the left of the screenshot is the commander's independent viewer (CIV). Note how the CIV is higher than the gunner's acquisition system (also on top of the turret, near the AT missile launcher).

ArmA 2 is no armor simulation, but nonetheless I took an M2A3 Bradley for a training exercise on turret down positions ...

F/A-18E Addon for Flight Simulator X, by VRS Products

I am always inspired by Jomni's stories and pictorials of simulated flight in Flight Simulator X (his site is in the blogroll), and when I saw the F/A-18E addon (AKA "Superbug") by VRS Products at my local BestBuy I just couldn't resist.

ArmA 2 - Old Dog, New Trick - Be Every Soldier in the Squad!

The dog is me and the trick is likely not new, but it's so cool I thought of sharing.

Close Air Support - Dive Bombing with the Ju-87B "Stuka"

Dropping JDAMs from the DCS A-10C in close air support missions can be challenging. But all the gadgetry of this aircraft makes WWII  close air support look archaic ... Or does not? I just needed to try the old way.

It's not a derailed train of thought ... it's exploration of warfare through the ages! Just kidding. Something is derailed, without thought or train ...

Short interruption in the other scheduled blog entries: Ju-87B (AKA "Stuka"), close air support by dive bombing.

500 Entries!

I'm not a guy driven by numbers and stats, but this given that 500 blog entries sounds like a mini-milestone I wanted to stop a little and thank you for reading this blog. You are the fuel that moves this engine and I am thankful for having such a wonderful readership.

Cheers,  

The Whole Theater of Operations at a Glance

Off topic ...

A couple of months ago something killed my good old XP computer (an aborted Windows update or a bad MSVisualC++ runtime installer part of a game package, don't know exactly). I finally resurrected this old bad boy, which happens to be connected to two monitors ...

Rise of Prussia, by AGEOD. Saxony, you will be getting it!

I didn't remember how much it helps me to have all the counters in one screen. This scenario is for a campaign waged in the north-south axis. My two monitor setup would not that good for an east-west axis.

I think I need one of those big flat screen TVs instead ...

Cheers,

DCS: A-10C Warthog - High Payoff Target at Nal'Chik - Part 1

(In case you are wondering: no, the tacky narrative is not included in the simulator.)

In the twisted power struggles between warlords, alliances shift unpredictably. Overextended over these lands of eternal conflict, the Coalition forces were walking the thin line between calculated risk and gamble. The region south of  Mozdok was under control of a handful of chiefs that more or less were aligned under the same hatred for their northern cousins, whom they considered extremists. Friendly to the Coalition forces, the southern combatants provided a comfortable buffer zone and allowed the Coalition forces to focus their counterinsurgency efforts elsewhere.

A late September incursion into this buffer zone by a hundred northern insurgents unmasked the feeble state of the loyalties.

IL-2 Cliffs of Dover - First Patch is Out

At the time of this entry Cliffs is still an untamed beast with a voracious appetite for stunning visuals who tries to chew too much at a time but ends up choking on the most basic features.

The screenshot above is taken from a low-level flight last night. The level of detail of trees, roads and towns is fantastic, but imposes a heavy toll on performance. I wonder how relevant for a combat flight simulator is to have such level of visual detail in the country side.

Please find below a few more screenshots.

Panzer Campaigns Tunisia '43 - Ignore that open flank, commander ... it's just a small scenario - Part 1

I played the Jebel el Guessa scenario today and got a draw. Victory conditions apart, I am getting too used to the many war gaming  tactical excesses I am  allowed to commit just because the battle map is a small chunk of the whole battlefield.