How did you find out about Combat Mission?

[ZPB II]

I read about the demo in Pelit-magazine back in 1999 or 2000, whenever it was that it came out. Downloaded it and was instantly hooked. I was 13 back then but I like to think I had developed a good taste early on.

I think I started haunting the forums around the time CMBB came out. This might be the very best forum I've been on based on the quality of posters. My moment of glory here was "inventing" the Space Lobsters of Doom meme. There was a thread pondering the future direction of CM games, and wanting to sound outlandish, I voiced my view of what CMx2 should be like. Steve commented on this in his reply and the whole thing started snowballing.

[scottie]

I started with the CMSF release and quickly lost interest. My interest was reignited after the recent news on RockPaperShotgun as I hope that it will be a better starting time.

haven't played any other games yet, since the DRM system was always a turnoff, but with Empires of Steel going blank and the commitment to wargames you show, I figured I'd give it another chance.

Try downloading CMSF 3:10 to YUMA from the Repository, i think this is the best CMSF mission i have played to date. Like you i lost interest in CMSF after the first release only to be persuaded to re examine it last September. It really does have a its place and works very well.

[DaveyJJ]

Old hex-and-chit wargamer, me. Avalon Hill, SPI, Strategy & Tactics magazine. Tactical WW2 stuff was it for me then (Up Front! Ambush, Squad Leader, Sniper!, etc) and it still is (Valor & Victory, Combat Commander series by GMT, CrossFire). Somehow heard about the game coming out back before CMBO hit the streets (a Mac magazine or BBS posting?), grabbed it the moment it came out. Loved it. Played until OSX hit (and I was an early pre-release adaptor due to a friend high-up at Apple) (RAVE debacle still make me cry, grrrrrrr) and have missed it since. Looking forward to playing again, this time with my kids.

[Sakai007]

I played Steel Panthers III first, and enjoyed it very much. I was looking for something similar, and went to the Maine Mall to check out the game stores there (closest game store at the time) I found the Combat Mission Anthology, with CMBO, CMBB, and CMAK for $9.99 or something in the bargain bin. I said to myself, "self, three strategy games for ten bucks, company is called Battlefront, sounds cool, and it's only ten bucks". Well, I took it home, and it sat on the shelf for a couple months as I had a lot going at the time, and then I enlisted. Well, after all that good happy stuff, I came home and found the box and said, "well, lets give her a spin shall we". I was blown away, I couldn't believe all this gaming goodness had been just sitting on my shelf. Not a day has gone by where I haven't at least played a single scenario since. And I have also bought CMSF,Marines,NATO since and am anxiously awaiting my CMBfN. That's my CM story and i'm stickin to it!!!

[7thGalaxy]

I found CMSF on Gamersgate, the paradox version (I know that name has very negative connotations with some here, but hell, it got me into CM:SF) and was instantly hooked,

[Gurra]

CMBB on a demo disc in a PC-magazine, I guess 2002. Took me a couple of tries to get hooked. Then I surveyed combatmission HQ, and discovered the modding part. Then I was totally hooked and lost. And still am. Heck, my last CMBB mod was probably done a couple months ago.

[Baneman]

I was a regular wargamer ( miniatures even ) and loved the Steel Panthers series. Then one day I saw almost by accident a review for CMBO in PC Gamer magazine and thought "that looks interesting".

Bought it and was immediately hooked.

[rune]

All you late bloomers... Read someplace in a magazine that some company was going to try a computer version of squad leader. Came to Battlefront before the game was even in alpha and offered to test on various operating systems [i still do] after reading their manifest. Been helping the guys ever since, sometimes paid, mainly not. Got into scenario making from Wild Bill Wilder, research from Steve. [ask Steve abot the American T28 or the Spanish Blue Division.] I failed to get them in, but did manage to get German Rifle Grenades, the Hungarian TO&E in among other things. Worked on about everything Battlefront has published, at one point Madmatt had me working on 5 games at once. Not much sleep back then.

Rune

[Krilly]

Bit of the same deal. (meaing I was there pretty early, but I am nowhere so important as Rune ofc :-P)

Read somewhere on a 'WW2 forum' that some small developer was making a 'real 3d wargame' and got hooked on the BFC forum because there were such interesting discussions on WW2 tanks and tankwarfare going on there. Oh all the memories of all the intersting stuff I learned from these boards and all the WW2 books it made me buy. Great times.

Stuck around and saw the development from roughly the aplha - demo - till release.

I strongly remember playing the CMBO demo's to death and marveling at the level of detail happening automagically on my PC. CMBO seemed like heaven those days to WW2 tactical combat lovers.

I spaced out during the 'CMSF age' and now am back happily lurking and reading all the lovely discussions here. And I really hope CMBN will be just a great a joy / timesink as CMBO was for me. The previews sure made me thinks so :-)

[Cameroon]

Hmm... I was still in college at the time. No idea how I heard of it back then, but I downloaded the demo and fell in love with Chance Encounter in particular. Even once I had the full game I'd go play that scenario, always trying to out-do previous attempts. Played CMBO far too many nights instead of sleeping.

I pre-ordered CMSF but I haven't had the time to devote to CM like I did in the past and my favorite thing from CMx1 (QBs) works entirely differently, so it hasn't latched onto my time like CMBO and CMBB (CMAK didn't grab me either... maybe it's the desert).

I've been quietly waiting for the return to the western front and now find myself back here throughout the day.

[Magpie_Oz]

Yep I am a frustrated ex-ASL player too in fact I had been hunting a computer version of it since 1988 when these new fangled computer thingies came out that you could take home with you, Amiga 500 they were called.

It was only in the '0's that I finally found the Combat Mission series after some in tense Googling.

[Holman]

Back in the last millennium, I came across a reference to an upcoming computer version of Squad Leader. When I found the website I was hooked. I remember the Alpha screenshots well.

I joined the forum after lurking for a few months, but I lost my original join date in the great BTS server crash of June 2000.

[Lt Belenko]

I watched Combat on Tuesday nights in the early 60s. And had plenty of little green armymen and GI Joes. GI Joes are action figures NOT dolls.

Panzer Blitz in 1973-4 thru Squad Leader (basic) in 79 or 80.

Discovered girls/marriage and stopped wargaming for a while.

I bought MAC in 91 or 92. I found TACOps in a magazine and ordered it. I played that and the V for Victory games until my MAC LC failed about 6 or 7 years later.

It took me a few more years to get internet, around late 2002. One of my first searches was for TACOps for PC. I found BFC and downloaded CMBB demo (overnight) on a 24k modem. The next morning I ordered both CMBB and CMBO.

[Ron]

I recall an ad for BTS Software announcing the new 'Computer Squad Leader' in late '98 or early '99 I believe, and I thought WOW this is what I always wanted computer tactical wargaming to be. Steel Panthers was OK in some respects but a major disappointment in others, ditto for CloseCombat. I lurked for some time, following some very interesting discussions, before registering, as participating on forums and the internet were still a novelty. I pretty much became a permanent customer upon the release of the CMBO beta demo. Looking forward to returning to WWII with the new CMx2 engine.

[PAEZ]

I think I was reading the wargamers forum before the Alpha demo. so I was aware that the game was in developmet. Also, There was an article but I can't remember were that talked about an ASL in 3d game Been Buying battlefront games since then.

[TheGreatRadish]

I had no idea it existed until I went to University in September 2001. Sometime during Freshers Week, my new uni friends and I wandered into the Cash Converters shop just down the street from the halls of residence.

We went our seperate ways in there. Some guys started browsing the music collection, others the cameras and the VHS tapes etc. I went straight to the PC games section and picked up CMBO in a very bashed box. I read all the info and thought it seemed ok but was probably another game that would disappoint, I had wasted money on these types before. So I was about to place it back on the shelf when a very pretty Sales Assistant came over and said she was sorry about the condition of the box and that the CD was a little scratched but that if I wanted it £4 was the price. What the hell, I thought, and bought it. My new flatmates said it looked 'dumb' and that I only bought it because of the girl in the shop (they may have been at least partially correct).

Well, I got back to my new flat and installed it and that was that. I didn't reappear for days. I was absolutely overwhelmed with how easy it was to learn yet very deep, complex and varied as well as the replayability. I issued a summons to my best friend from home (some 200+ miles away) and he came up and we played hotseat over and over for the next week until he had to go home. I still play H2H via LAN on a very regular basis with this guy 10 years later.

By far the best £4 I ever spent.

[Barkhorn1x]

After putting ASL on the shelf for awhile to indulge my flight sim needs I was itching to get back into it and was searching the web for additional scenarios. I ran across an ASL site that had a section devoted to converting ASL scenarios to CMBO. What the??? Never knew the game existed.

I quickly read a bunch of reviews and ordered the game from BF. While waiting for the game I found a mod site called (IIRC) Tom’s HQ and downloaded just about everything as that guy had some pretty good taste in mods.

When I installed CMBO I watched the opening video and laughed – then modded the crap out of it – and played for years (CMBB & CMAK too) until I got a W7 PC.

[The_Capt]

Well pull up a chair and I will tell the tale of how The_Capt came to be.

It was early 2000 and the millenium had just rolled over. All the lights had stayed on, which pissed me off because I spent New Years Eve in a freakin Ops Center waiting for 747s to fall out of the sky...no life like it my ass.

A pudgy Bill Clinton was still in the White House and being jacked up for diddling with pudgy interns. The world was a different place. The Cold War was over and the balloon wasn't going to go up anytime soon.

Computer wargaming had drifted from the mainstream into the darker, nerdier corners of the cyber world. Come may say it really never left that corner, the rest of the computer industry just built itself overtop...layered on strata of porn of course.

I was a casual gamer. Having two small children meant 1) I did not have a lot of money and 2) was totally exhausted all the time. But I did try and keep up. I first heard of CM in a Computer Gamer mag. It was a small article on upcoming games. I thought the little Charlie Brown headed soldiers look silly but hey 3-d could be interesting and moved on.

At the time, I was a young idealistic..er Capt in the Canadian military posted to a small reserve outfit. I had been using steel panthers as a tactical teaching tool for Cbt Team ops for the officers and NCOs at the unit. The CF, being on the cutting edge of technology had gone out and purchased a license for TacOps and sent it out to basically everyone as a tactical simulator.

I wasn't a huge fan of TacOps to be honest and wanted something with a bit more "zaz".

It was summer of 2000 when I downloaded spme sort of Alpha demo of some shape or size and was totally underwhelmed to be honest. The graphics were terrible and the whole thing felt somewhat shabby. I was convinced that sending this company, which had to be based in Thailand or somesuch, would be pretty much paramount to sending donations to a Nigerian prince.

I was fall of 2000. A drunken former Texas Governer with an itchy electric chair trigger finger had just been duly elected thru a model democratic system. Up here in Canada we all thought "how quaint...how much trouble can he really cause?"

When I eventually, thru looking online for TacOps in the hope there was an upgrade that I found BTS, as it was called then.

I downloaded the final release demo and well the rest was history. Back then you got a CD in the mail with a manual and everything. I still have that CD, it is so scarred up it is a wonder it even ran after a yr or two.

In Nov of 2000 I finally joined the forum and when asked for a username...well there you go....I was really tired back then.

[MarkEzra]

Late Summer of 1999. I was playing SP and doing some beta testing for Wild Bill Wilder. He told me about this new game from BTS called Combat Mission. So I checked it out, waited for the Beta Demo, and have never stopped playing a CM product.

[gunnersman]

Another Steel Panthers player. A Bridge Too Far. My favorites. I had a subscription to PC Gamer. Somewhere in 2000 they did a review on it. Been hooked ever since.

Haven't looked back.

[Wodin]

2001 I believe...seen it in Liverpool city centre GAME...picked it up and loved it...so bought CMBB on release...

Before then I it was Close Combat...I joined BF at that point but soon after I was offline for a couple of years and when I got back on I couldn't remember my log in details, same for The Wargamer forum!!

[Greup]

Once upon a time I found myself totally addicted to the original Squad Leader + modules. I'll never forget my first Stalingrad SL scenario featuring Oberst Greup and a LMG team against hordes of Soviet 4-4-7s and those scary 8-3-8 guards some of which turned berzerk. Greup btw became my cardboard "hero" and much later my nick. When finally ASL came out I was already battle fatigued by the sheer amount of rules and rules extensions and more or less quit boardgaming in favour of women, something that needs entirely different infiltration tactics and close combat skills. Worth playing if you haven't tried it IMHO.

Anyways, along came computer games and Panther Games' Firebrigade circa 1989 (not as polished as their contemporary WWII games but very interesting at the time). I had a brief brush with TacOps and got hooked on Close Combat (being mainly a mac guy I even bought a windows box just to be able to beta test CC3 after Microsoft bought the game from Atomic). CC never evolved much beyond the two first games in the series though, but now CMBO was already released and I was immediately addicted for the second time. .

Once a hotseat quick battle with a friend almost cost me my apartment. The going went tough and we felt we were really there as artillery strikes filled the screen with fire and smoke - and it wasn't until smoke started entering the room we remembered that we'd left some popcorn unattended in the microwave on full power in the kitchen. The microwave looked like a T-34 in winter camo that had taken a direct hit by a 'schreck but I guess that's collateral damage you have to accept when enjoying CM games.

Been getting my WWII fixes the last 6 years by insane amounts of the Red Orchestra mods/games + Panther's outstanding operational games. But now... I feel a disturbance in the Force. The first *real* CM2 game (i.e. no modern crap - CMSF did nothing for me) is finally being released. Can't wait.

[ChrisND]

When finally ASL came out I was already battle fatigued by the sheer amount of rules and rules extensions and more or less quit boardgaming in favour of women, something that needs entirely different infiltration tactics and close combat skills. Worth playing if you haven't tried it IMHO.

A good propaganda campaign is essential as well.

[Phoenix]

Can't recall how I heard about it, but was a former Squad Leader player in the late early 80s, the Steel Panthers

was as close to SL as I had seen so I snapped it up. Got on the board at some point and waited and waited for

that beta demo. Jeezus, I must have played that thing for hoursssssssssssssss.

Quit playing CMBO many years ago, took up CMSF for several years, got all the modules but am burned out on modern stuff.

Even the Afghanistan module goes unplayed. I think the new one will keep me very busy though! I doubt I'll go back to CMSF.

[sfhand]

I was a rabid gamer back in the day... I had a subscription to PC Gamer (I think that was the magazine - I'm too old now to remember) and I saw an article on CMBO so I went online looking for BTS. I ordered the game and downloaded the demo. Like most here I still play a wide variety of games but the CM franchise is one of the oldest and of the oldest is the only one still in production which is quite a feat when one considers its closest competition, in that regard, in my game library is the Doom series.