Klementi Voroshilov

This story from the National Interest (a right wing pro-military spending blog) has a pretty good rundown on the Hetzer. Quite interesting is the very narrow range of fire (only 5 degrees to the right) which necessitated turning the tank to fire at moving targets.

Continuing my analysis of the scenario possibility of the Red Army's landings near Odessa at Grigor'evka, I'm going to look at the units involved and how a scenario designer can, with a little work, make his/her scenario most historically accurate. One problem with finding units for a particular action is that accounts are usually based on one side or another.  Certainly first person accounts have information on one side's units but generally lack any kind of detailed information on the other side.  Even operational studies frequently lack details, though it is usually possible to get general information about armies and corps.

A new View from the Trenches is out and it contains a vast amount of ASL esoterica .  This is very good stuff. There are helpful articles on halftracks, delux ASL and reports from tournaments.  Some pretty big names on these as well, as Ole Boe checks in.  As does grognard  Jeff Shields with a nifty analysis of the classic Cold Crocodiles. VFTT is free and I love it when people give stuff away that they could well be selling.  I think it is unfortunate that a lot of ASL players will buy crap that they will never play (sometimes selling it after it goes out of print on EBAY) and look down their noses at great stuff that is available for free.  Great work by my good buddy Pete Phillips (who I OWN.) True story:  on my first journey to Double One, my train was about an hour and a half late.  Tournament director and anti-private rail activist Derek Cox told me to file for a refund, as there was some sort of rule that they had to refund a propo...

I just spent a week and a half in Italy, Austria and Hungary.  To be honest, I spent the week in Italy watching baseball as it was the Europe/Africa qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. My BLACK-SS counter fans will be glad to know I was rooting against Israel, but it wasn't for any reason you approve.  First, they are in Asia, not Africa or Europe--playing in the E/A bracket they get out of playing the great teams like Taiwan, Japan and Korea.  Second, they are mostly American minor leaguers and really, Israel doesn't have a league to speak of, as opposed to Italy, Czech Republic and the Netherlands--who build their teams on home grown talent.  And finally, the underdog, South Africa, was such a compelling story.  In college I protested South Africa and today they field an integrated team. But enough about that, what about the ASL?

Holy Crap!  It's me at Wild West Fest 1995! Is that Matt Shostak I was playing?  Didn't matter.  I LOST!

The Krasny Krym is back!  I love it when I'm surfing around looking for history to read and something I kind of know about stands up on its hind legs and says:  "Dobray Dyne, Tovaritsch!"

While generally people think of the Soviet Union as backward in the running up to WWII, in fact, in many ways the Soviet Union was already a growing technical superpower.  The Red Army was working with clubs across the country prior to the war to teach skills in parachute jumping, creating a cadre for future parachute brigades.

I've been all over Europe over the last few years and been to a lot of ASL tournaments.  They've all got character and no tournaments are the same.  Some, like Lyon, Paris and Copenhagen have their distracting cities surrounding them.  Conscripts has its bucolic German countryside and incomparable beer.  Italy has a great laid back atmosphere and lots of great food.  (I will also add that Copenhagen has the world's sexiest airport security simply because my wife doesn't read this.)

The footnotes for Valor of the Guards says that the NKVD were Stalin's equivalent of the SS.  This is not particularly accurate.  If anything, the NKVD were the equivalent of the Gestapo.

Let's take a look at wire.  Barbed wire was patented in 1867 by Lucien Smith.  But the idea was proposed in France almost ten years earlier.  Primarily, it was seen as an agricultural resource as a way of keeping cattle from straying.  However, it wasn't long before the military application became clear.

It's hurricane season in the US and at Klementi Voroshilov we want to recognize the great work done by the US Coast Guard in keeping us safe from the hazards of heavy weather.  So let's take a look at the Coast Guard in an ASL context.

Here is a story I love! Operation Squabble

I make no secret of my distaste for air support in ASL.  It is far too available at the whim of a company commander and far too destructive against an enemy.  This report backs me up: