[Thaeris]

That's right: new Combat Mission, and old-school Combat mission at that! Thus, for those of us who liked Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord and the various other WWII games in the series, this ought to be a welcome surprise for you. I regret to report that I'm not going to be trying this one myself, as my system specs can't quite compete with the requirements (1.6GHz is all I've got), but it looks at first glance to be a faithful reproduction of the functions and features of the old software, with new life breathed into it. New CM games also have a real-time feature, which I'll admit was quite unappealing to me after trying the modern/current warfare versions of the program (AKA Shock Force). It's possible they also reverted to the old-fashioned symbolic squads as an option (judging by one of the videos), which only have 2, 3, or 4 troopers to represent a squad of 9, 10, or 12. Seeing as this is a strategy game, I hardly see why this is an issue.

But, what I assume most of you want is, if interested - media:

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=275&Itemid=458

If you watch those pseudo-LP's from the beta tester, I have to apologise a bit - turning mute on wouldn't be a bad idea... I find him a bit noobish. As someone who really liked the turn based, real-time execution mode of the program, ...well, I suppose you might pick up the reason for my sentiments if you observe for yourself.

In any sense, I'm very pleased to see this out, as this is a perhaps one of the most unique and innovative stategy games I've ever encountered in any of its iterations. Units handle terrain accordingly, ballistics and armor data, not mere hitpoints run tank battles, etc. I just thought you should know.

P.S. - The original version of Combat Mission (Beyond Overlord) can be bought at GOG, should you feel nostalgia or system specs nagging at you.

[Anjelus]

Yep, I've been running five CMBN pbem games since May and I can say unequivocally that this installment is even better than the originals, and I've been a fan of the series since 2001. It's got everything cmx1 but in addition to that the new 1x1 scale isn't just visual, each and every soldier on the battlefield is monitored and kept track of by the engine. His position, ammo, morale, line of sight, etc. Borg spotting is gone, and you can finally perform realistic tactical maneuvers at the squad level. What CMx1 did for armor simulation CMx2 has done for infantry. They ironed out the kinks with Shock Force, CMBN is really something special.

Here's video of a particularly intense battle in CMBN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsKli8UOXUg


Also, they don't use squad symbols, every soldier is modeled at all times. The reason why you only see 3 or 4 men in some squads is either because they're enemy and the player doesn't have line of sight to all of them, theyre depleted from casualties, or they're split into a team. CMBN can be played real time but it's best played WEGO via pbem.

[Thaeris]

That sounds awesome.

I suppose a reason for why I thought the program allowed for symbolic squads was that the half-tracks in some of the videos on the media page were only porting four men... this is probably because they were Skdf 250's, not 251's. Speaking of vehicles, does CMBN have all the vehicles/infantry types CMBO had? You'd assume there'd be less due to the higher quality graphics... It would also be nice if you could see fighters in mission instead of just their shadow.

However, as I said earlier, my processor isn't all that mighty; last time I tried a program which was beyond my processor's capabilities (ARMA 2), the results were not all that good. Maybe someday, though.