Combat Mission Anthology
Today folks, I present to you, something a little bit different.
Major Howard has landed with some units of D Company, 6th Airborne just off the orne river. I pan up, ahead I see the town of Benouville, just in front however is a problem, a German Pillbox and a stone one at that. I don't think my PIAT's are going to be enough, and worse I know the Germans are being reinforced with armour later.
What would you do in this situation? Panic? Rush? Fall back? Combat Mission gave me another option, I didn't actually have to nock the pillbox out, all I have to do is capture the bridge it's defending. My solution? Easy I order a private to wing a smoke grenade in front of the 'box, his field of view is broken, if he can't see me he can't fire at me.
Combat Mission is a turn based ww2 strategy with a clunky, ugly engine, long load times and ferociously difficult AI; but it does have it's bad points. I first came across this game when I read a review of the second in the series, my purchase was sealed when the anthology (conatining all 3) was on sale in my local gamestation for a fiver. Bloody bargain.
The pillbox eliminated Howard and his men are on a thin strip of land between two rivers, his orders are to take the bridge on each river, the only problem is he hasn't many more men. His men are ordered to fan out, into the trees to shelter from the MG34's which just opened up on them, bullets wizz around the battlefield; my men should be dying but somehow their still firing back.
One of Combat Mission's unique points is the way it handles combat. Essentially it is much more realistic then it's rts brethren. Instead of the usual "your men fire at their men but their men have more health so your's always die" of strategy combat CM takes the approach of "your men fire at their men, they fire back, but both of your blokes miss becasue their just raw recruits but then your bloke gets lucky and hits the enemy, who then hits the deck and runs off towards that building over there". Battles in CM can take hours, and frankly you don't need to kill enemies, you can capture them, make them run, or simply force them to ground where they can make no impact on the battle.
I've got more men now, another glider full of troops has landed on th other side of the bank, I don't see the glider the engine can't really handle that but my men take the far bridge anyway without a shot being fired. My first group have set up a vickers and have got the germans heads down, even taken a few prisoners. It's time to rush the bridge, I need to capture it before those German tanks arrive and my men are running low on ammo. I bunch them by the pillbox to take cover before ordering a full on charge, the Germans open up and my first few men drop like flies, dammit this won't be as easy as I thought.
CM has an excellent interface, just right click on the unit you want and a list of possible actions appear, walk, run, set fire/cover arc, creep, go prone. Whatever you wan't to do you can probably do, using tanks to shelter troops on the back is one of CM's guilty little pleasures.
The men on the bridge are panicking, worse the smoke has cleared and that bunker has opened fire on the fresh troops on the far bridge, they leg it, some to the trees and others into a trench, my mortars are down, altough I've captured this bridge the men on it won't be able to help the others on the other bank. Damn. A few mouse click take me to the soldiers height level, skimming over to my men dieing in the field of view the ground shakes as an 88 targets a group of them, they hold fast though, their battle experince and training paying off. However, I sit there unable to save them, even to order them around.
Even the turn based combat is uncoventional, instead of doing it in an Advance Wars style CDV (that's the blokes who made it lads) have taken a less empowering approach. You set you men orders, tell them where to move, to fire and then hit "go". You then have to watch a minute of combat which you can not influence; you just watch the men carry out your orders. Or at least try to carry out your orders, these men is clever. The number of times I've been screaming at my moniter as my soviet tank hunters have got caught in crossfire and instead of throwing their molotov's at the Panzer have instead decided that discretion is the better part of valour and legged it.
Saved! A group of commando's arrive with their Churchill tank fresh from Sword beach, it's armour is to think for these puny Nazi weapons, BOOM! The 88 is on fire and it's occupants are fleeing from my machine gun fire, rallying, the men on the bridge try one last desperate rush. The commando's tip the ballance and the bridge is mine, those Germans who survived are fleeing back into the town. I took the bridge before the German tanks arrived and I've won the day, the pillbox is easily taken down with my Churchill's massive armamament.
Armoured combat is modeled similarly to infantry, except that hull thikness and even shape are taken into account, CM pulls no punches with the realism, every type of tank from every army that fought in the west (and Russia) is there in every possible composition, even those which seem pointless. Apart from nothing's pointless, that little wasp flamethrower carrier may have no armour or ranged protection but give it enough protection and it'll easily take down a Tiger, easily triple it's own points value. Not much is as satifying as the look of horror on your freinds face during your hotseat match when his puny Pak anti tank gun get the "Ricochet" on your advancing T 34s because their hull repels hollow charged projectiles.
BUT THAT DAMN ENGINE. It's the real downer here, if you can't stand ugly grapgics then don't even bother here, no particle effects, no shadows, no simple way of managing more then one unit at a time making convoys damnably tricky.
nine out of ten
If you can look past the clunky engine you get the best strategy money can buy, and battles are real stories with real emotion invested in your men. Only the best military minds need apply.
Major Howard has landed with some units of D Company, 6th Airborne just off the orne river. I pan up, ahead I see the town of Benouville, just in front however is a problem, a German Pillbox and a stone one at that. I don't think my PIAT's are going to be enough, and worse I know the Germans are being reinforced with armour later.
What would you do in this situation? Panic? Rush? Fall back? Combat Mission gave me another option, I didn't actually have to nock the pillbox out, all I have to do is capture the bridge it's defending. My solution? Easy I order a private to wing a smoke grenade in front of the 'box, his field of view is broken, if he can't see me he can't fire at me.
Combat Mission is a turn based ww2 strategy with a clunky, ugly engine, long load times and ferociously difficult AI; but it does have it's bad points. I first came across this game when I read a review of the second in the series, my purchase was sealed when the anthology (conatining all 3) was on sale in my local gamestation for a fiver. Bloody bargain.
The pillbox eliminated Howard and his men are on a thin strip of land between two rivers, his orders are to take the bridge on each river, the only problem is he hasn't many more men. His men are ordered to fan out, into the trees to shelter from the MG34's which just opened up on them, bullets wizz around the battlefield; my men should be dying but somehow their still firing back.
One of Combat Mission's unique points is the way it handles combat. Essentially it is much more realistic then it's rts brethren. Instead of the usual "your men fire at their men but their men have more health so your's always die" of strategy combat CM takes the approach of "your men fire at their men, they fire back, but both of your blokes miss becasue their just raw recruits but then your bloke gets lucky and hits the enemy, who then hits the deck and runs off towards that building over there". Battles in CM can take hours, and frankly you don't need to kill enemies, you can capture them, make them run, or simply force them to ground where they can make no impact on the battle.
I've got more men now, another glider full of troops has landed on th other side of the bank, I don't see the glider the engine can't really handle that but my men take the far bridge anyway without a shot being fired. My first group have set up a vickers and have got the germans heads down, even taken a few prisoners. It's time to rush the bridge, I need to capture it before those German tanks arrive and my men are running low on ammo. I bunch them by the pillbox to take cover before ordering a full on charge, the Germans open up and my first few men drop like flies, dammit this won't be as easy as I thought.
CM has an excellent interface, just right click on the unit you want and a list of possible actions appear, walk, run, set fire/cover arc, creep, go prone. Whatever you wan't to do you can probably do, using tanks to shelter troops on the back is one of CM's guilty little pleasures.
The men on the bridge are panicking, worse the smoke has cleared and that bunker has opened fire on the fresh troops on the far bridge, they leg it, some to the trees and others into a trench, my mortars are down, altough I've captured this bridge the men on it won't be able to help the others on the other bank. Damn. A few mouse click take me to the soldiers height level, skimming over to my men dieing in the field of view the ground shakes as an 88 targets a group of them, they hold fast though, their battle experince and training paying off. However, I sit there unable to save them, even to order them around.
Even the turn based combat is uncoventional, instead of doing it in an Advance Wars style CDV (that's the blokes who made it lads) have taken a less empowering approach. You set you men orders, tell them where to move, to fire and then hit "go". You then have to watch a minute of combat which you can not influence; you just watch the men carry out your orders. Or at least try to carry out your orders, these men is clever. The number of times I've been screaming at my moniter as my soviet tank hunters have got caught in crossfire and instead of throwing their molotov's at the Panzer have instead decided that discretion is the better part of valour and legged it.
Saved! A group of commando's arrive with their Churchill tank fresh from Sword beach, it's armour is to think for these puny Nazi weapons, BOOM! The 88 is on fire and it's occupants are fleeing from my machine gun fire, rallying, the men on the bridge try one last desperate rush. The commando's tip the ballance and the bridge is mine, those Germans who survived are fleeing back into the town. I took the bridge before the German tanks arrived and I've won the day, the pillbox is easily taken down with my Churchill's massive armamament.
Armoured combat is modeled similarly to infantry, except that hull thikness and even shape are taken into account, CM pulls no punches with the realism, every type of tank from every army that fought in the west (and Russia) is there in every possible composition, even those which seem pointless. Apart from nothing's pointless, that little wasp flamethrower carrier may have no armour or ranged protection but give it enough protection and it'll easily take down a Tiger, easily triple it's own points value. Not much is as satifying as the look of horror on your freinds face during your hotseat match when his puny Pak anti tank gun get the "Ricochet" on your advancing T 34s because their hull repels hollow charged projectiles.
BUT THAT DAMN ENGINE. It's the real downer here, if you can't stand ugly grapgics then don't even bother here, no particle effects, no shadows, no simple way of managing more then one unit at a time making convoys damnably tricky.
nine out of ten
If you can look past the clunky engine you get the best strategy money can buy, and battles are real stories with real emotion invested in your men. Only the best military minds need apply.
posted by Anonymous at 11/17/2005 05:15:00 pm
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