Profile of sluzbenik

Hey, I was both looking for Soviet mentoring and had a mentee, neither mentor nor mentee have shown up...Give them till the end of this weekend I guess?

Ya I lost to him doing this strat...But I think he messed it up a bit this game.

I did the same thing vs. that Zero7 guy who's been streaming lately. But it is sniper-penal-NO car-then rush for M5 car with guards/sniper, then two t34s.

I have no idea why he built two M5s, he had to know the PzIV was coming...

This is going to be a thought-out and long post. You have been warned.

I'll say, that even as a Westerner, the campaign left a bad taste in my mouth. I did not enjoy playing as the Russians, given how they are portrayed. Is that portrayal accurate though? Certain facts are indisputable, and the reaction to it is evidence that Russians are still trying to process their own history.

Do I think Relic's portrayal is an accurate representation of what it was like to be a solider in the Soviet army? No, in fact. I think they went overboard with a typically Western perspective that shows how difficult this war is to understand, even today, for Russians and Westerners.

Can anyone but a Russian understand what it was like to be fighting for the very survival of your country, while at the same time being led by one of the most brutal dictators of the 20th century? Did the average soldier consider Stalin to be a good leader (I think they did, actually) and the order 227 unnecessary and cruel? What was it really like? How can we even begin to understand this unless Russians explain?

I think we just don't understand. I think Relic certainly didn't understand and bit off far more than it could chew. For Westerners, it is actually easier to understand Nazi Germany than Stalin's Russia. Sure, the Nazis were fanatic, genocidal xenophobes, but they did not kill blonde, blue-eyed Germans. At heart, they were nationalists, pure and simple. But Russians were killing Russians by the millions, all under the guidance of an equally cruel dictator, and they waged their war in a way that made clear the life of the individual Russian was worth absolutely nothing in comparison to the goal of winning and pushing back the Germans.

We don't understand the collectivist mindset of Soviet Russia that led to the state of affairs portrayed in the game. We don't understand the continued Russian need for a strongman that has been commented on by many historians, and is still in evidence today with the popularity of Putin, despite his political machinations that have made democracy in Russia a thinly-veiled joke.

Nothing Relic portrays in the campaign is wrong. But I sure as hell don't think they got it right either. The Russian soul is far too complex a subject for a video game. In any case, Relic would have been criticized however they handled the campaign: if they had papered over the war's realities, and made every Russian officer a hero, they would have been vilified by the Western press for avoiding order 227 and the barbarism of Stalin's Russia as well.

Jumping on this one for casting!

Gah awful base rush...

I think you can beat it if u concentrate on one side, I was all over the place.