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dmakatra

Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy

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The demo is out and the game is soon to be expected to go gold. Check out battlefront.com

Combat Mission is a series of tactical simulation games in the scope of platoon- to battalion-sized engagements. They're very realistically modelled but still relatively user friendly. You play using a rather unique WeGo-turned based system, where you and your foe pause the game every 60 seconds to give orders which are then played out without you being able to interfere. Since the last game in the series, Shock Force, which saw the introduction of a heavily revamped engine, you can play in Real Time too. I see it as a spiritual and more realistic successor to the good ol' Close Combat-games.

Haven't really followed the development process but I've been looking forward to this for quite a while now. Really like the mechanics of the new game engine since Shock Force (except the UI, gah!), but modern warfare didn't really feel all that interesting. So it's good to be back in WW2 where engagement ranges aren't across the entire map and the foe can actually put up some real resistance.

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Looks lovely. That's what I wished for :)

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I just had my first go at one of the demo maps and I must say that the game is incredibly horrible. After being used to Shock Force, where suffering even a single casualty I considered a personal failure, actually being thrown back to Normandy and WW2 really tears at you. People die like flies when they meet proper resistance.

I felt obliged to offer cease-fire after half a squad got wiped out by a German PaK and my Weapons Platoon being decimated by artillery fire.

Awesome. :p

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That game is just freakin' awesome !

The action beats Arm... (you know ;) ) easily and the graphics are great too.

Many small but great improvements over CMSF and WEGO is fun again like in the good old days of CMx1 !

I already wrote a little AAR about one of the demo scenarios:

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=96483

cmnormandydemo2011-05-6nzz.png cmnormandydemo2011-05-unc7.png cmnormandydemo2011-05-vnsg.png

@all

Al least try the demo !

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Had really fun here. And boy is stuff dying?! Got to keep reserves here for a completley other reason than in CMSF.

Also love the reinforced sense of C2 here, with radios being sparse and all.

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Definitely an epic game, not sure if it's going to come in above CMSF for me what with all the lack of Soviet kit but most certainly a keeper, I just wish they'd release it already! :D

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I just had my first go at one of the demo maps and I must say that the game is incredibly horrible. After being used to Shock Force, where suffering even a single casualty I considered a personal failure, actually being thrown back to Normandy and WW2 really tears at you. People die like flies when they meet proper resistance.

I felt obliged to offer cease-fire after half a squad got wiped out by a German PaK and my Weapons Platoon being decimated by artillery fire.

Awesome. :p

Reason why i liked to play as RED in CMSF, i easilly could send company into meat grinder and knowing that i would get promoted if there would be such thing in game :D

Combat Mission Afganistan is probably most Horrible experience for me. Soviets were really lacking manpower and forexample Airborne company might had just 5 men in each squad at start, so preservation of men became vital. One casualty in such squad dropped it's combat ability very much, often to limiting it's usefulness into firesupport role. One poorly made tactical move in battle could mean that company was rendered completely unable to combat for rest of the campaign.

So while in CMSF casualty preservation was more about moral stand point often and even luxury (why send infantry team/squad if you can send Javelin?), in CM Afganistan it was just practically necessary.

Edited by Second

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I did not realize this series is still active...

I used to play earlier WW2 versions for countless hours... Great game when played with a friend.

:)

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This game needs coop. SO MUCH.

And I'm often frustated by the fact I can't get more ammo for my troops (I loved logistic stuff in Men Of War)

+ I always hated time limits.

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Reason why i liked to play as RED in CMSF, i easilly could send company into meat grinder and knowing that i would get promoted if there would be such thing in game :D

Combat Mission Afganistan is probably most Horrible experience for me. Soviets were really lacking manpower and forexample Airborne company might had just 5 men in each squad at start, so preservation of men became vital. One casualty in such squad dropped it's combat ability very much, often to limiting it's usefulness into firesupport role. One poorly made tactical move in battle could mean that company was rendered completely unable to combat for rest of the campaign.

So while in CMSF casualty preservation was more about moral stand point often and even luxury (why send infantry team/squad if you can send Javelin?), in CM Afganistan it was just practically necessary.

Never did play Afghanistan. Might be worth taking a look at anyway.

JonPL: I'm not sure how it works, but sometimes the time limit is disregarded and the clock simply keeps ticking on but is marked in red instead. So time is usually not an issue. But I do agree that co-op would be welcome. In fact, all MP improvements would be awesome. Even though I usually play RealTime, I appreciate a good WeGo-session now and then and not being able to play WeGo in anything but PBEM is a bummer.

Also, units share ammo between themselves if you position them close to each other. Not sure about rearnaments, might be because the scenarios are too small or it might not exist. Maybe in Busting the Bocage-scenario. I heard somewhere there'd be resupply in that one for the American side. Not sure though, haven't had the chance to play it yet.

On another note, I'm a bit surprised by the lack of interest for this game on this forum. I've always seen this community as interested in realistic simulators/simulatorishs, and CM is wargaming at it's finest. I reckon people should give it a try. Both in RealTime and WeGo because it almost plays out as two completely different games.

Edited by dmakatra

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Yeah the lack of interest for this game in this forum is quite weird!

I was also surprised by the amount of trolling and flaming Combat Mission got in this thread, a while ago..

You would expect this game to be fairly popular or at least respected on a mil-sim forum.

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But flight sims seems and the like get a lot of attention on this forum, why not strategy games? Seems a bit narrow-minded I'd say, especially with all the derogatory remarks about "close minded CoD-teenagers" and whatnot that floats around here.

The game's been released by the way. Either via direct download or mail delivery + direct download.

Edited by dmakatra

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I tried CMSF a while back and it really was not the kind of game I enjoy. Granted, the only RTS I've enjoyed since Age of Empires II is Shogun 2.

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Its imho more a game for people who love to play more those slower-paced turnbased games and are happy with those graphics and mission/"action" places. Maybe you can call it "modern warfare chess"... ;)

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Yeah the lack of interest for this game in this forum is quite weird!

I was also surprised by the amount of trolling and flaming Combat Mission got in this thread, a while ago..

You would expect this game to be fairly popular or at least respected on a mil-sim forum.

Heh, I remember that thread now. First having to defend CM from some ArmA 2 players and then having to defend ArmA 2 from some CM players. :butbut:

I tried CMSF a while back and it really was not the kind of game I enjoy. Granted, the only RTS I've enjoyed since Age of Empires II is Shogun 2.

Well, it isn't really RTS, in the sense of what most gamers consider RTS. It's what's known as a 'wargame' and they can either be played in real time or be turn based and usually, but not always, hex based and can be tactical or strategic in scale. They tend to be have a good degree of realism and accuracy although it isn't always the case. A few titles are:

- Close Combat (used by the USMC as a training aid)

- The Operational Art of War III

- TacOps4 (Another training aid)

Its imho more a game for people who love to play more those slower-paced turnbased games and are happy with those graphics and mission/"action" places. Maybe you can call it "modern warfare chess"... ;)

Before CMSF the CM series was turn based (I never played before then) but with Shock Force and its new engine there was the capability for both to exist but it is primarily focused on real time these days.

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I used to play CMBB a lot with PBEM for many years. After that CMSF was a little disapointing. Enemy side was too weak for multiplayer and for PBEM, the savegames were too big. I bought this CMBN and feels very great so far. PBEM could be again too clumsy for this new engine, but I cant wait to test this in realtime multiplayer mode. Even in singleplayer, the AI gives a nice challenge now.

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I bought the full game last night. Is anyone up for a MP session? RealTime or PBEM is fine with me.

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A video AAR from Combat Mission Normandy I did of a PBEM.

It gets hectic at the end!!! Watch in HD.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

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Hello,

that is one awesome AAR. Well done !

Now this almost looks like a warmovie , it is still combat mission tho :tounge2:

I just wish we could do things like this in the Real Virtuality engine one day.

Another 'wargame' suggestion on a larger scale:

- Command Ops:BFTB

Edited by lwlooz

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