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I have recently gotten paid and I'm ready to buy another combat mission game. I am debating between buying the CMBN big bundle, CMFB, or waiting for the next CMFI DLC to come out that adds the Gothic line. It would be awesome if you guys could link some Pros and Cons for each as i am stuck deciding what to buy. Any help would be killer, thanks. Also if I'm Posting a lot sorry...

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At 13 posts? If you are trying to be annoying you are really gonna have to work at it harder.

Personally the CMBN big bundle is gonna have enough to keep you busy for a really long time and it has a ton of variety.  Hell I pre ordered CMBN and still have yet to play through everything.That gets my vote.

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If I was buying the series in stages I'd go with the CMBN big bundle. The amount of content is staggering. You would be getting series bang for you money. 

The game engine is the same in all titles - baring CMFI for the moment. So it really comes down to what WW2 battles you have an interest in the most.

 

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I'll take it another direction.... As the engine's capabilities have improved over the years, so has the quality of the maps and the AI plans. There are almost 5 years between CMBN's release and CMFB's, if I recall correctly. So, unless the CMBN bundle's price has come down to where it's about the same as Final Blitzkrieg's, I'd go with quality over quantity and get Final Blitzkrieg. Just my opinion.

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1 hour ago, Mark_McLeod said:

That is a good point, does a anyone know if there will be any DLC'a for CMFB that adds any other factions such as the UK and Canada?

 

Soon (tm) would be the response to that... They -will- eventually, but FI is next, then the eastern front needs love too... but certainly with time it will. 

I'm with sttp on going with the newer rather than the older... unless you have a special attachment to boccage fighting or the normandy/market garden ops, Final Blitzkrieg offers you the same late war equipment (with some new stuff on top), a variety of maps, and the latest engine improvements built in (with the exception of v4 stuff) - for a much lower price. As good as the series is, the big bundle would be over a hundred bucks on an older version brought up to current quality, as opposed to the newest thing. A great game? Certainly! But perhaps for a newer player a gentler price tag for entry would be the way to go. Especially as for the same price you could go for two games! 

Edited by Artemis258
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1 hour ago, Artemis258 said:


I'm with sttp on going with the newer rather than the older... unless you have a special attachment to boccage fighting or the normandy/market garden ops, Final Blitzkrieg offers you the same late war equipment (with some new stuff on top), a variety of maps, and the latest engine improvements built in (with the exception of v4 stuff) - for a much lower price. As good as the series is, the big bundle would be over a hundred bucks on an older version brought up to current quality, as opposed to the newest thing. A great game? Certainly! But perhaps for a newer player a gentler price tag for entry would be the way to go. Especially as for the same price you could go for two games! 

My previous (dry?) humour aside, this is actually my recommendation, as it's exactly what I did. 

 

I already had Black Sea (modern) and wanted to partake of WW2. Went through the same questions/posts/discussions you are, and ended up with FB (wanted quality over quantity). And  loving it.  And the previous poster keeps kicking my arse in it....  ;)

 

Edit: of course, unlike the previous posters, I don't actually have BN or its modules, so my opinion is somewhat biased in this case!  ;D

Edited by gnarly
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Mark_McLeod,

Welcome aboard!

Speaking as someone thoroughly familiar with tight budget issues, I'd like to offer some suggestions. I make mine from the perspective of someone who owns the CMBN Big Bundle and CMFB, but not CMFI in any form. Would further add that a head injury has severely limited my frequency of play, so this isn't coming from someone with lots of combat under his belt. PBEM has been limited by my limited ability to cycle turns, so much of what I've learned has been from QBs and reading other people's AARs and stacks of posts. 

With the above understood, below are my thoughts. My CM colleagues have made some excellent points. That said, I would ask you where does your heart lie? What appeals to you and why? What sort of combat experience are you after? What sorts of battles? The Germans in Italy, for example, are nothing like the Germans in Germany, for the fundamental dynamics of the war have changed. 

How important is terrain diversity to you? No mountains in CMBN. What about AFV choices and other weaponry, since these are very much delimited by the game you choose? For example, and I don't have a handle on GL AFVs in CMFI, CMFI covers an earlier period than does CMBN, which in turn doesn't cover what CMFB does. Do you have Panzer camouflage envy or a desire to see some unusual early American halftrack armament configurations, such as the T19? Then CMFI it is. Tank for tank, a 75 mm Sherman is much more powerful, relative to what the Germans have, in CMFI than in the other two games. Nor do the Germans have Panzerfausts. They didn't get the Panzerschreck until Anzio. This completely changes how the Germans defend vs later on. CMFI has a huge array of Italian AFVs which are unique to it. Is that  important to you? What about the Elefant? It, too, is unique to CMFI. CMBN finds the same Sherman in considerable trouble, and there are very few 76 mm Shermans. CMFB still finds 75 mm Shermans, but much of the force is now 76 mm Shermans, and the far tougher 76 mm Sherman Jumbo is now available, too. If you want Jagdtigers, then you have to buy CMFB, for only it has them. The same is true for the Pershing tank and the Chaffee. Do you have an affinity for some nation's units, troops and uniforms? As a case in point, there are no colorful distinctive Goumiers anywhere but CMFI. Likewise, no Stuka available (that I know of) in CMBN or CMFB. CMFI is the only game in which heavy Axis air attack is credible. 

If you're looking for additional scenarios and mods, then CMBN is the way to go, for it's been out there the longest, certainly has way more independently created scenarios than the others and has had more things which could be modded, so were. It is also the only game with a Vehicle Pack. Happily, a fair amount of the mods can be used in the other games. Vein's muzzle flashes, flames and explosions will, so far as I'm aware, work in all the games. What else can you do with the game outside of its original ambit? CMFI isn't just Italy, but Sicily, Morocco and Tunisia, too, should you choose to do so. Any interest? How patient are you? How long are you willing to wait for additional content for games which have little or none, as opposed to having the smorgasbord now? CMBN is the smorgasbord and CMFB the entree, with CMFI somewhere between them.

Not trying to drown you in detail, and I hope I didn't ramble too much, but I wanted to show you some things  you might not otherwise have looked at in deciding where to spend your hard-earned money. 

Regards,

John Kettler

 

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John, I just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your post: including many good points about the "real world" differences in the forces / vehicles being portrayed, rather than in the "games" per se.

 

As someone fortunate enough to have all of the titles, my favourite is CMFI because of some of the factors you bring out. Where else do you get vineyards! And where having a 75mm armed Sherman gets a "yippee!" rather than a "oh no!" It is distinctively different to all of the others, to my mind.

 

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10 hours ago, Artemis258 said:

<Snip>  Especially as for the same price you could go for two games! 

This is interesting.  @Mark_McLeod not sure if you thought of this.  Maybe get CMFB & CMRT.  You would be able to fight on both fronts this way for about the same price.  You will eventually end up buying them all anyways. :) 

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I want to point out that what was said above about the maps in BN are of somewhat inferior quality is not strictly true. It is the case that some of the maps originally issued with the game were definitely not up to the standards of later issues, say beginning with Red Thunder. But a couple of years ago Mark Ezra released a set of QB maps that were completely up to date, and the maps that came with Market Garden and the Battle Pack were also up to date at the time they were released with all of that time's latest features. So, I'd say that the difference in quality at the present time is not great. And as others have expressed, you get so much more content with the Big Bundle, including that it is now completely up to date with the v4 game engine.

Michael

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Mark_McLeod,

Happy to help. It occurs to me I left out something potentially important: Do NOT make your CMBN purchase based on the CMBN Demo, for it is ancient (1.03, I think, vs 4.0) and in no way reflects what the game is today and what can be done in it. Please watch videos instead, which are found in AARs and are plentiful on YT. 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Mark_McLeod,

Thanks to info in another thread and confirmed via my own download and direct examination, please disregard what I said above about the CMBN Demo. It was quietly (recall no announcement) to 3.12 as of February 19, 2016, placing it on par with my full CMBN, since I don't have 4.0 installed yet. In light of the radical improvement I've described, I now strongly recommend you give it a whirl so you can see whether you like the Normandy environment and its unique operating conditions. 

Regards,

John Kettler

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Mark_McLeod,

Glad to help. It would've been wrong not to speak up about the tremendous improvement in the CMBN Demo. Part of my argument to BFC was that the Demo was poorly reflective of the current CMBN in so many ways that, absent talking to us or watching videos and reading AARs, it's sad state and poor graphics might well cost BFC sales. As it is, I have no doubt the CMers have gotten BFC sales the CMBN Demo by itself would never have gotten.

Regards,

John Kettler

 

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