Familiarization with Combat Mission

[ZackTactical34]

Because I have absolutely zero in-game experience with Combat Mission and Shock Force 2 demo hasn't released yet, what would be the best Combat Mission demo to somewhat familiarize myself with the controls and such (and yes, I understand that they are not updated to Engine 4.0)?

[Mord]

Black Sea. It's your only choice for modern, right now. CMA's setting is 20+ years behind SF.

It's not gonna be perfect but it'll give you an idea.

 

Mord.

Edited October 4, 2018 by Mord

[Pixel]

I agree the Black Sea demo is excellent and has some fabulous scenarios included with it.

[MikeyD]

CM Fortress Italy is less overtly lethal, though, for beginners, with less esoteric weapon systems. I'd advise just download ALL of the demos and have a blast fighting in Russia/Ukraine/Italy/Normandy and Belgium!

[SimpleSimon]

Yeah as far as the games go Fortress Italy was really friendly to beginners. The scenarios were generally well balanced and the difficulty of the campaigns mostly followed a logical progression. There was a lot less wunderwaffe stuff in everyone's scenarios and lower population-to-map size densities. 

[c3k]

^^^

Great advice. Heck, the Demos are free, so go for it. The control schemes are the same for all games.

[Vet 0369]

On October 4, 2018 at 2:04 AM, MikeyD said:

CM Fortress Italy is less overtly lethal, though, for beginners, with less esoteric weapon systems. I'd advise just download ALL of the demos and have a blast fighting in Russia/Ukraine/Italy/Normandy and Belgium!

What MikeyD said. In fact, the best thing about downloading all of them is they all use different tactics, formations, and equipment. For example, U.S. Troops in Fortress Italy are formations and equipment developed from lessons learned from the North African Campaign. Normandy is different with lessons learned from Italy. For Red Thunder, you have to force yourself to think like a Soviet Commander as in it doesn't matter if the victory area is occupied by only one unit with everyone else in the Battalion dead. Final Blitzkreig is much the same as Normandy/Market Garden with better armor. Black Sea is U.S. and Russian modern with DEADLY high tech, and a schizophrenic Ukrainian forces that were trained in Soviet doctrine then quickly trained in U.S. tactics. 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Vet 0369

[SimpleSimon]

After Fortress Italy, the difficulty goes up I think from Shock Force 1, to Battle for Normandy, to Red Thunder. Red Thunder has some notoriously difficult scenarios and the campaigns are titanic events that almost exceed the capabilities of a single player to manage. Shock Force was a relatively flexible game because the difficulty was almost a direct function of which side you decide to play. BLUFOR are generally much easier to play than the Syrians but the Syrians are super satisfying to win with if you're up for the challenge. 

I think what made Fortress Italy easier was that the campaigns and scenarios mostly followed the doctrinal thinking of each side. So everyone was being asked to fight really in-character for their respective side. If you understand the basics you'd be rewarded for that and as a result it's the best game to start on. 

[db_zero]

I own all and play lots of h2h. I'm by no means an expert, but from my observations any of the Modern era games Black Sea and Shock Force comes down to a simple fact. Anything that is seen can be killed and usually does get killed unless you move it fast. Period. The entire map is a killing zone.

The WW2 stuff is lots of fun too. I find you can expose your units at long range and get away with it. This can vary depending on what you or your enemy is using.

Things like vehicles and soldiers die very quickly in the modern titles. I also find that when things go downhill in the modern titles they go downhill very, very quickly-at least in h2h games.