Best CM Game?

[roflcakes]

Hey guys,

 

I currently own Combat Mission Normandy, Final Blitzkrieg, and Shock Force. I'm just wondering what your favorite game is? I haven't played Blitzkrieg yet, just installed it yesterday. But I loved Normandy and Shock Force.

 

Did Fortress Italy release after Battle for Normandy? And if you were to pick only one CM game to play for the rest of your life, which one would it be?

[Mord]

That's impossible to answer for me. Each one is my favorite depending on my mood. I can say the one I am looking forward to the most, at this point, is CMSF2. I can't wait to experience it in its 4.0 glory.

 

Mord.

 

 

[roflcakes]

3 minutes ago, Mord said:

That's impossible to answer for me. Each one is my favorite depending on my mood. I can say the one I am looking forward to the most, at this point, is CMSF2. I can't wait to experience it in its 4.0 glory.

 

Mord.

I didn't know there was going to be a CMSF2, that sounds awesome. Any idea on a release?

 

 

[Mord]

Very soon, hopefully.

 

 

Mord.

[roflcakes]

Dude! Those models look sick!

[Mord]

LOL. Well, they aren't much different. But there will be some slight updates, I think mostly to the infantry models. Plus added terrain (bridges) and such that has appeared over the last 7 years or so. You can see the stream tile in one of the pics. Believe it or not the thing I am looking most forward to are the hit decals. The tiny bit of eye candy amps up the immersion for me by 1000.

 

Mord.

[roflcakes]

I didn't recognize any of the camo on the vehicles, looked pretty cool. I'll have to keep an eye out for more news. My next couple months are going to be spent really diving into Final Blitzkrieg, took me long enough to finally pick it up.

[Mord]

You definitely sound like a born again hard, convert! I always enjoy the enthusiasm of newer players when they catch the CM bug. FB has a nice, gritty feel to it. Keep posting and having fun with the game. We need more positivity and enthusiasm.

 

 

Mord.

[roflcakes]

Thanks man! I started out on Sudden Strike in 2000, moved to Company of Heroes, Graviteam Tactics, as many RTS games as I could play in between. Combat Mission definitely has grown on me as my favorite series from what I've played so far. Pretty much unmatched if you have the patience for it, which a lot of people sometimes don't have.

[Mord]

CM turned me into a WWII freak. I'd played Steel Panthers, Close Combat, Men At War, and a few others, but CM grabbed me like nobody's business and never let go. I'll have been coming here 18 years this October so that's gotta tell ya something. There's no other WWII/modern tactical games like it. The scope, the play styles, and the fidelity nail it. The game is very deep without breaking your brain. And with WEGO, there's just nothing out there that can touch it. WEGO kills it! WEGO has provided me with as much excitement, entertainment, and immersion as any movie ever could.

 

Mord.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Mord

[Artkin]

I actually just grabbed a copy of SPMBT last month. Fantastic games. It's been a long way since the pentium days! 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Artkin

[Bozowans]

8 hours ago, Mord said:

CM turned me into a WWII freak. I'd played Steel Panthers, Close Combat, Men At War, and a few others, but CM grabbed me like nobody's business and never let go. I'll have been coming here 18 years this October so that's gotta tell ya something. There's no other WWII/modern tactical games like it. The scope, the play styles, and the fidelity nail it. The game is very deep without breaking your brain. And with WEGO, there's just nothing out there that can touch it. WEGO kills it! WEGO has provided me with as much excitement, entertainment, and immersion as any movie ever could.

Yeah same here. After playing CM for a long time, it's hard to go back to other RTS games, since I constantly want to rewind and watch what happened. It's fun to be able to zoom down to eye level and analyze every single little bullet impact and ricochet from as many different angles you want.

It's hard to say what the best CM game is. They are all pretty much the same game anyway, but each one plays slightly differently since the army organizations are different. If I HAD to pick one and only one, it would probably be CMBN though. It has the most content for it. 

[Mord]

4 hours ago, Artkin said:

I actually just grabbed a copy of SPMBT last month. Fantastic games. It's been a long way since the pentium days! 

My brother was a SP junkie for a long time. And I am talking pre Pentium. I couldn't get him out of my house once I got it for Christmas.

 

Oh, and I meant to say Soldiers At war, not Men At War.

3 hours ago, Bozowans said:

since I constantly want to rewind and watch what happened. It's fun to be able to zoom down to eye level and analyze every single little bullet impact and ricochet from as many different angles you want.

Yep, so you don't miss something really cool, that you would have if not for the rewind ability. One of the only reasons I can play Total War games is they have a replay feature, though not near as good as WEGO. But man, what's the point of having all the killer 3D if you are going to miss everything you aren't looking at during the battle. How many times have you thanked the WEGO gods after catching something really killer because you bothered to rewind just one more time? A particularly dramatic vignette can make an entire battle and later you'll retell it like it actually happened. LOL. LOVE IT!

 

Mord.

[Bozowans]

9 minutes ago, Mord said:

Yep, so you don't miss something really cool, that you would have if not for the rewind ability. One of the only reasons I can play Total War games is they have a replay feature, though not near as good as WEGO. But man, what's the point of having all the killer 3D if you are going to miss everything you aren't looking at during the battle. How many times have you thanked the WEGO gods after catching something really killer because you bothered to rewind just one more time? A particularly dramatic vignette can make an entire battle and later you'll retell it like it actually happened. LOL. LOVE IT!

Yeah Total War is fun, but strange to me, since the devs for those games spend a ridiculous amount of manpower and resources to produce these state of the art graphics and slick motion-captured animations for the soldiers, yet when you're actually playing the game, the battles are crazy fast-paced, and you have to spend most of your time zoomed way out clicking and clicking and clicking nonstop. If you zoom in and watch the stabbing and nice graphics, you're likely to miss some crucial event and lose the battle. It's even worse with Warhammer Total War, since on top of all the normal stuff, you have to micromanage your heroes and wizards and all their spells and stuff. I want to zoom in and watch, but I can't, so it's like the game is pulling me in two different directions there. It's nice that it has a battle replay feature, but it's not the same.

In CM, there are so many crazy things that happen with the physics and ballistics, that I can spend a long time just rewinding and playing back some poor guy's death over and over. Like when a stray bullet from across the map ricochets off of a building, flies down an alleyway and smacks some guy in the face. Or a mortar shell falling into the open hatch of a tank, causing a giant ammo explosion. Or an AT shell flying between someone's legs without killing him. In my most recent game, an enemy AT gun fired at one of my tanks, missed, and the shell kept flying hundreds of meters until it slammed right into the window my artillery FO was looking out of, killing him instantly. I just don't get that kind of experience with any other video game.

[Bulletpoint]

16 hours ago, Mord said:

I'd played Steel Panthers, Close Combat, Men At War, and a few others, but CM grabbed me

I showed CM to a friend and he said "Oh, that's like Men at War". Then he showed me some videos and I thought "yeah... for grown ups".

[Erwin]

7 hours ago, Bozowans said:

Or an AT shell flying between someone's legs without killing him. In my most recent game, an enemy AT gun fired at one of my tanks, missed, and the shell kept flying hundreds of meters until it slammed right into the window my artillery FO was looking out of, killing him instantly. I just don't get that kind of experience with any other video game.

Or, a shell missing its target and flying toi the other end of the map and there killing a couple of vehicles thru sympathetic detonation.  

[Heirloom_Tomato]

If the best CM game is the one you spend the most time playing, then CMFI is in my experience the best. It has the longest time frame, July 43 to May 44, most varied terrain and weather, steep mountains to flat farm fields, baking heat to winter blizzards, hard rocky ground to deep mud. And the forces? In my opinion, the widest selection of any of the titles. Italians vs New Zealanders is not a battle happening in any other title. When the Rome to Victory module is released, all the features I just listed will be expanded upon further cementing CMFI as the broadest in scope.

And WEGO every battle, every time. After watching a squad leader run from cover to stand over his cowering squad mate, ignore incoming fire, burn off a few dozen rounds in the direction of the enemy and then escort his man to safety, I was hooked. You can't watch that a dozen times in a row in real time.

[roflcakes]

14 minutes ago, Heirloom_Tomato said:

If the best CM game is the one you spend the most time playing, then CMFI is in my experience the best. It has the longest time frame, July 43 to May 44, most varied terrain and weather, steep mountains to flat farm fields, baking heat to winter blizzards, hard rocky ground to deep mud. And the forces? In my opinion, the widest selection of any of the titles. Italians vs New Zealanders is not a battle happening in any other title. When the Rome to Victory module is released, all the features I just listed will be expanded upon further cementing CMFI as the broadest in scope.

And WEGO every battle, every time. After watching a squad leader run from cover to stand over his cowering squad mate, ignore incoming fire, burn off a few dozen rounds in the direction of the enemy and then escort his man to safety, I was hooked. You can't watch that a dozen times in a row in real time.

andddd now I'll have to buy CMFI as well.

[MOS:96B2P]

31 minutes ago, Heirloom_Tomato said:

When the Rome to Victory module is released, all the features I just listed will be expanded upon further cementing CMFI as the broadest in scope.  

Yes. THIS.   @roflcakes I don't know if you saw the below link.  Also added British Indian Army, South Africa, French Expeditionary Corps (including Moroccan Goumiers), and Waffen-SS.

 

 

 

[roflcakes]

What order did all the CM games release in? Obviously CMFB is the most recent, was Black Sea the first game? Might be a dumb question but I'm asking anyway as I can't seem to find the answer

[Bulletpoint]

6 minutes ago, roflcakes said:

What order did all the CM games release in? Obviously CMFB is the most recent, was Black Sea the first game? Might be a dumb question but I'm asking anyway as I can't seem to find the answer

I believe it goes like this:

CMBN

CMFI

CMRT

CMBS

CMFB

[Mord]

2 hours ago, roflcakes said:

andddd now I'll have to buy CMFI as well.

Of course you will! You are a true CM Junkie like the rest of us.

One of the advantages of having so many flavors of CM is that you can read a book, say on the Italian theater, or watch a documentary on Normandy, than go and experience it in one of the games for yourself. I look at CM games (and other good historical titles) not just as games, but as tools to explore and relive the history, a way to immerse yourself in another time and place and interact with the past. No other medium in the history of mankind has allowed that like PC gaming, not even reenacting. Depending on the game, you can delve into the politics, the economy, social constructs, and the warfare of the period. As far as WWII goes the scope of CM scratches that itch for me just fine.

 

Mord.

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by Mord

[roflcakes]

1 minute ago, Mord said:

Of course you will! You are a true CM Junkie like the rest of us.

One of the advantages of having so many flavors of CM is that you can read a book, say on the Italian theater, or watch a documentary on Normandy, than go and experience it in one of the games for yourself. I look at CM games (and other good historical titles) not just as games, but as tools to explore and relive the history, a way to immerse yourself in another time and place and interact with the past. No other medium in the the history of mankind has allowed that like PC gaming, not even reenacting. Depending on the game, you can delve into the politics, the economy, social constructs, and the warfare of the period. As far as WWII goes the scope of CM scratches that itch for me just fine.

 

Mord.

 

Well put Mord. Great stuff. I think I love that when I was a little kid I was obsessed with creating large scale battles and immersing myself with my plastic army men. Now CM gives me the ability to do that as an adult, and still be as involved and excited as I was all those years ago. I'm still reading the Band of Brothers book so I'll have to get into a market garden mission when I get to that part of the book soon!

[Bulletpoint]

4 minutes ago, Mord said:

not just as games, but as tools to explore and relive the history

Agreed. While CM games are graphically very primitive compared to some of the big titles today, I find they are really immersive.

[Mord]

55 minutes ago, roflcakes said:

I think I love that when I was a little kid I was obsessed with creating large scale battles and immersing myself with my plastic army men. Now CM gives me the ability to do that as an adult, and still be as involved and excited as I was all those years ago.

LOL. Yep, we are all basically still 10-years-old, playing in the backyard with a pack of army men, 'cept now we don't get grass stains on our knees and have to pick up a hundred figures and vehicles when it's time for dinner. I don't know how old you are but I grew up in the 70's and early 80's when Marx play sets reigned supreme. I had three different ones over the years, the last one being Navarone. So, I definitely get it!

 

Mord.

Edited March 1, 2018 by Mord