FYI for Combat Mission

[CountDeMoney]

Ground pounders never appreciate the armored angels on their wings.

See if I ever lay down smoke for you, pal.

That's what the cannon cockers are for. 

Oh yeah, and you want to trust their math?

[Ed Anger]

I wonder if the Italy module will have the hard fighting, atrocity prone Free French colonial troops.

[Ed Anger]

Hmmm, 55 bucks and no goddamn Brits or Juin's frogs? Screw Battlefront.

[Razgovory]

More info from this week's RPS Flare Path:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/29/the-flare-path-this-sporting-life/

Combat Mission: Wallet Assault

Only foot-to-ball fans as fanatical/ingenious as Battlefront would think to include a sly tribute to the Azzurri's redoubtable defence in the title of their next project.

Combat Mission: Fortress Italy was one of four upcoming CM games announced in a flurry of press releases and forum posts last Friday. Over the next 12 months, if all goes according to plan, the CMx2 engine will be...

a) Invading Sicily (the first game in the CMFI family)
b) Battling across Belorussia (the Operation Bagration focussed base of a CMBB sequel)
c) Going a bridge too far in the Netherlands (Module #2 of CMBN)
d) Exploring a hypothetical future falling-out between a Ukraine/NATO alliance and Russia ('CM: Shock Force 2′).

After years of fairly slow growth, the dramatic change of pace is as surprising as it is exciting.

Though the first instalment of CMFI (already in 'final beta testing') will only provide a two-legged Operation Husky (British, Canadian, and Fallschirmjager forces are due in later modules), the feature list makes enticing reading. Most Italian, German, and US unit types that shed blood amongst the blood-orange groves will be present. That means feather-festooned Bersaglieri, the baggy-trousered art lovers of the Herman Goering Panzer Division, and a host of unfamiliar/ungainly AFVs at our beck-and-call.

Just as significant as the new TOE are the promised engine improvements (also available separately as a paid update for CMBN). Back after an improbably long holiday are CMx1-style moveable waypoints, armour arcs, and target identification vagueness. Unit bases are still MIA but new icon categories, and a redesigned camera and orders approach, should make skirmishes considerably easier to handle.

Hopefully, there 'll be some first-hand Flare Path CMFI battle reports soon, but in the meantime why not read an official AAR and gawp at a screenshot featuring both WW2′s  loveliest lorry and its handsomest helmets.

Huh.  Thanks for the information.  I hadn't seen anything on shock Force 2 (which looks much better now that you are fighting a real country), or The Eastern Front game.  Leaving the Brits out of Fortress Italy is bullshit.  I didn't get Beyond Normandy until they put the Commonwealth forces in.  I imagine they already coded much of the British kit so why you would leave it out is beyond me.  The fact that you have to buy the "Upgrade" for CM:BN seems like bullshit, but at least it answers my questions.

Still, I like the idea of a shock force 2 with Russia as the baddie.  I would have also accepted Iran or China.  China would be the coolest I think, but data on their modern weaponry is somewhat sparse.  At least it's not in the fucking desert.

[11B4V]

Couple more screens of the 4th scenario (Assault on Bykovka) in the series. Tough nut to crack. Slow but steady advance.

PzKw IV's overwatch the grenadier's advance.



SS Panzergrenadiers advancing with a PzKw IIIL in support.

[Razgovory]

I had a lot of fun with that game, but damn it was ugly.  It was ugly for when it came out, and that's when they were first transferring to 3D graphics over sprites and everything was ugly.  It's like war of the log people.  I got the distinct impression though that the developers really only cared about armored warfare.  Infantry and artillery were really just an after thought.

Still it had flamethrowers, which worked surprisingly well on tanks.  I remember playing a play by email game where I had a flamethrower team in a burning building.  From my opponent's point of view it looked like there was a cottage spewing flames at passing infantry and tanks.

[11B4V]

I had a lot of fun with that game, but damn it was ugly.  It was ugly for when it came out, and that's when they were first transferring to 3D graphics over sprites and everything was ugly.  It's like war of the log people.  I got the distinct impression though that the developers really only cared about armored warfare.  Infantry and artillery were really just an after thought.

Eh maybe CMBO, never payed that one. I was a diehard Steel Panthers fan. Ugly is the word.  In fact SP was the first comp game I played. I bought Combat Mission BBSE and AKSE  and they sat on the self for several years unopened. Finally broke it out and it had "the perspective" that I was always looking for. Never looked back and have never played any of the SP games or spinoffs since. 

[Razgovory]

Well the Steel Panthers series started out back in 1995.  It has acceptable 2d graphics at the time.  Nothing special, but functional (also the arty just never did damage).  The Combat Mission were 3D.  That really helped with things like judging line of sight and distance.  Lots of games where shifting to 3D, but didn't gain any real game benefits from it.  Combat Mission did.  I could tell at a glance I was on a hill and could see spot the village on the next hill.  I also really like the Wego system. 

I played the Demo of CMBO and played a scenario where you try to traverse a valley with enemy bunkers on the other side.  My American troops were working their way around wooden bunkers and a platoon of Shermans was shooting them up.  I was close to capturing the enemy position when a single Panther crested the hill and started killing my tanks.  My heart sank.  I decided to move one of my remaining tanks around and hit from the back.  He sped up to about 30 yards behind the Panther.  Then seeing the might of the German war machine, the crew panicked started retreating and eventually bailed out only to be shot up by the ruthless Germans.  I only had one tank left a few infantry and a battery of 75mm artillery on call.  So I called the artillery down on the Panther.  One of the shells hit the turrent and it and the tank exploded.  My remaining infantry charged the hill and won.  I was sold.

I later bought CMBB (great) and CMAK (Not so great).  I even got Shock Force (which is mediocre).  The Shock Force engine is neater though.  Individuality soldiers are represented and artillery is much more flexible.  The down side is you are fighting Syria which has Soviet Kit from the 1960's.  It was also buggy as hell.

Combat Mission Battle for Normandy isn't bad.  It has the benefits of the Shock Force engine with a more interesting series of battles and some major improvements.  Still, it feels cut down in scope from Beyond Overlord.  Smaller time frame, not as many units, NO FLAMETHROWERS, the British, Canadians and SS only show up in the expansion and there is still no French.  Still it's fun, and Artillery really shines in this one.  So much that scenario makers frequently don't put it scenarios because a well placed bombardment of 105's can pretty much end a battle.  And there are great moments like when a very gutsy German creeps up and throws a grenade into a M8 GMC blowing it sky high or a lowly 60mm mortar team stops a platoon's assault cold.

[11B4V]

  The Combat Mission were 3D.  That really helped with things like judging line of sight and distance.  Lots of games where shifting to 3D, but didn't gain any real game benefits from it.  Combat Mission did.  I could tell at a glance I was on a hill and could see spot the village on the next hill.  I also really like the Wego system. 

This. So much superior than top down 2d veiw. Looking at fields a fire and deadspace for example.

For folks that never played this. This pic shows a relative open, flat sparsely wooded engagement area. If you look real closely, it is anything but flat.

The purple circle is the location of a T-34 doing a peep-a-boo just past the ridge's crestline. It managed to knockout a PzKw IV circled in blue. The red circle is a PzKw III duelling with it at long range. Not doing much but pinging the hell out of it, keeping it occupeid. The yellow circles are a PzKw III (left) and a Tiger (right) moving forward to engage it. The PzKw III is going downhill concealed by the clump of trees circled in pink. The Tiger is out of the T-34's view in this shot, because the T-34 isnt coming out far enough. Once it crosses the road to its front, the T-34 wont be able to see the Tigers approach because it will be in a low area. The Tiger will use a combo of the clump of woods, low area, and the building to mask it's approach going up the ridge crest. 

[11B4V]

Tiger making it's approach. T-34 is somewhere between the house and woodline to the right.





Gotcha
T-34 says 
Tiger says 

[CountDeMoney]

Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing.

[Ed Anger]

Berk is knocking on the hatches demanding thier orders while pointing at his watch.

[CountDeMoney]

Ripped out all the tachometers, replaced them with chess tourney clocks.

[Razgovory]

On of the things I liked about CMBB was that radios really mattered.  You give orders to a T-34-76 it may take half a minute to execute.  They just sit there stupidly.  Really hits home the importance of radios in tanks, and why that was fatal flaw in early T-34s.  I imagine whole companies of tanks could get flanked and wiped out without much resistance because nobody could coordinate a response.  Or even tell one another that they are under attack.

[Berkut]

Man, I loved CM so much. Probably still my favorite game of all time.

And yet, I cannot get excited about this at all. The restriction of the scope just seems like such artificial bullshit.

Which is fine to some degree - they have to make their money, and I get that. But to this extent? A game system that spanned all of WW2 in Europe reduced to this tiny slice of the pie?