How did you find out about Combat Mission?

[Waycool]

I still miss playing PE online, those were some great guys playing that game online. What was your online name for PE? Anyone else from that community here? Had some amazingly fun and hectic battles w that community.

Hi LC was Waycool in the PE days as well. PE days were fun I really wish there was a PE II with current tech.

[nathangun]

I used to subscribe to PC GAMER magazine and found the CMBB demo on one of the discs. The rest as they say is history.

[Speedy]

In about '97 or '98 I read a small article (a couple of paragraphs) about a computer version of squad leader and thought that would be great but at that time the thought of searching the internet for more info never crossed my mind.

Then in late '99 (Oct or Nov) someone on the Delphi? flightsim forum mentioned it and I wandered on over to the BTS forums and never went back to the forum that led me here.

[umlaut]

It was like the first time I was with a woman. I had a rough idea what all the parts were used for (I'd read about it in books and seen a thing or two on dad's VCR tapes) but fumbled over the interface and combined arms tactics.

Laughing out loud

:-D

[Bonxa]

Found out about CM from something like SimHQ and got hooked reading the classic alpha AAR. Due to overseas studies I didn't get to play until the gold demo. Now I can't wait to replay Chance Encounter.

My best CM experiece to date is from the CMMC2v2 campaign on the soviet side. A ton of fun that!

[Krilly]

Really enjoying reading this thread, let's keep the stories coming.

[mike_the_wino]

A buddy of mine told be about this game late 99. D/L'ed the demo and had a blast with 'Valley of Trouble'. Actually got my ass handed to me on the first go, so I shut down it, reloaded the game and got pretty far before I realized that I was reacting to the setup from the last game and enemy forces shifted/ moved to counter my moves. That was a 'Whaaaaaa.....?' moment. Gawd I miss those days.

[Praetori]

I actually started playing when CMBO was released (though I cannot remember the year but it was straight of the shelf without any prior input, I went by the look of the box) but I didn't have the time or the computer to play it properly (was an active officer 2nd Lt at the time with a pretty slim paycheck). CMBB really got me hooked and I played it for hours on end with some of my colleagues (along with Steel Panthers in absurdum).

CMAK for some reason never appealed to me the way that CMBB did (and still does).

Today I'm mostly a CMSF junkie logging a few hours of gametime every other week.

I'm too lazy these days to buy any games in physical stores. I use digital purchased downloads for basically every game nowdays.

[Erik Springelkamp]

In 1982 an American physics professor at the University of Nijmegen introduced me to wargames. I played them during the 1980's through mid 1990's. I have 100's of them, including magazine games like Strategy & Tactics, and complete series, like the tactical combat series of The Gamers, and all of the Squad Leader series and ASL.

I also played miniatures wooden ship naval battles, in large teams, playing the great battles with over a 100 ships. And the Civil War Tactical battles of Richard Berg and those of The Gamers.

Then I moved to Groningen, and I lost my gaming partners - apart from the occasional long range visit.

In 2004 my son - who played a lot of computer games - turned my attention to Rome: Total War. I bought it and it got me interested and I searched the internet for computer wargames: I found good reviews of Highway to the Reich, and Combat Mission (CMBB and CMAK). I discovered they were not sold in the regular game stores, but I ordered them on the internet.

I played Highway to the Reich for a few months, but Combat Mission has since kept my full attention, with only a lull during the unfortunate introduction of CMSF, but reactivated by the British module.

[Frankster65]

What a great thread. It really brings out what we all have in common, brings back a lot of great memories through the years.

I've been a wargamer since I was a kid. I had most of the old board games like the rest of you had previously mentioned. Tactics II, Anzio, UpFront and PanzerBlitz to name a few. Used to spend hours with my brother and a few nerdy friends fighting battles with these games on a card table down in my parents basement.

Then computers came and I got into flight sims. Went hog wild on those for quite a few years. Then, I believe it was early 2002 or so, can't remember exactly what year I read about a demo of CMBB. I downloaded the demo and played the demo missions over and over. I thought wow...PanzerBlitz in 3D! It really brought back a lot of good memories. There was one demo battle in particular that really hooked me. It was the demo mission of the tank battle at Kursk. I had happened to have a book of the battle next to me and there was a picture of the German panzer waffe spread out among tall grass. I looked at the picture, very powerful, very intense picture, then looked at my game screen and there was the almost identical picture right there on the screen. It was amazing.

I bought the CMBB CD and from there have been a Battlefront customer ever since. I could not believe the depth and broadness of the game, the attention to detail. I could fight battalion vs battalion battles with this game, infantry vs infantry, combined arms vs combined arms...the sky was the limit. I was able to take the tactics I read about in the history books and actually use them in game, understand the how and why of those tactics used. I learned how to clear city blocks one section at a time due to CMBB and CMSF.

The game was not only a game but an educational tool on military tactics and history.

I've been hooked on Battlefront games ever since. I have all the CMX1 games. I have all the CMSF modules and will be purchasing all the WW2 modules. I have a particular fascination with the eastern front so will be doubly excited when those modules come out.

Thanks for the great game and teaching tool.

[LukeFF]

I was visiting RSColonel_131st a couple years ago over New Year's Eve (December 2003 / January 2004). He loaded up CMBB on his computer, I was fascinated by it, and so I ended up buying the special edition version of the game. Like Normal Dude, I found it to be the perfect game for those long, slow nights while on duty in the military.

[Manx]

I seem to remember coming across CM around the end of 1999. The promise of playing out WW2 tactical battles in 3D really appealed to me and i bookmarked the Battlefront site to keep an eye on it's development.

I think it was the early alpha/beta AAR's on CMHQ that really got me hooked. Fionn's well written AAR's (anyone remember "The Sunken Lane"?) were brilliant in building up anticipation, and i purchased CMBO the moment it came out.

I enjoyed it so much that i wanted to help spread the word about it and went on to setup a CMBO website called COMBAT MISSIONS. Originally i just hosted scenarios, then later mods (and plenty of them!!) and tactical articles.

Can't wait for CM:BN

[Mr Ed]

Being a former AH boarder as a kid, I read about the demo of Combat Mission Beyond Overlord on a web site. I tracked it down and while the 56k did it's thing, I ate, showered and watched few TV shows

After I started the demo, I thought the world ended and I was in heaven!!! Ordered the full game and have been a CM junkie since. I even got my twin boys (9 & 9) into it now.

[Vinnart]

I was introduced to it by an old army buddy around 2005. I tried CMBO after much prodding since at the time I was strictly an RTS multiplayer belonging to a clan for a game called Sudden Strike. I tried it, but still preferred the adrenal rush, and challenge of RTS online. Once Sudden Strike, and the clan faded, I was a bit more open minded toward turn base, and was looking to get in to something else. This time I tried Cmx1 CMAK demo single player, and realized what a brilliant in depth game Combat Mission was, and bought CMAK. My friend was pleased to hear I finally got into the game, and offered a challenge for my first PBEM, which I won by the way. After the first few turns I was HOOKED! Single player is fun, and good practice, but nothing like the challenge of playing against a human. I replaced the RTS adrenalin rush with the anticipation rush of a “cliff hanger” episode. Plus, I find WEGO a cerebral rush in getting to relax, and enjoy thinking about strategy. I have been playing Combat Mission almost exclusively since then with the present CMSF.

[hoolaman]

I was never a "wargamer" but in 2002 or thereabouts I was on a big WW2 reading/reasearch binge on sites like Axis History and I began to look into finding a sim that got into the trenches. I had M1 Tank Platoon 2 and Close Combat and Panzer General before this and always knew they were just not right.

I think I found a review of CMBO on a game website while searching for a realistic WW2 game. There was a screenshot there and knew I had found what I was looking for.

[noxnoctum]

I have absolutely no idea. My introduction to it though was the CMAK demo.

[Boris Balaban]

I have followed Battlefront from the beginig.

[Bertram]

Then I moved to Groningen, and I lost my gaming partners - apart from the occasional long range visit.

Should have known this earlier . I live in Groningen, and around the 1990's I lost my playing partners - we all finished our studie, and most moved west (though the guy I played most with ended up in Eindhoven). I think PBEM is the best thing about computers and internet - even more then fancy 3D and the solution to half finished games.

[StellarRat]

I saw the review in Strategy Games magazine around 1999. They used to do excellent reviews. I knew if somthing got over 90% I wouldn't be disappointed. It's no longer in publication. I believe I also received the demo on a disk in the magazine. Anyway, I was a wargamer since the late sixties. I played everything from D-Day by AH to Squad Leader to miniatures on a ping-pong table (Tacforce.) Computer gaming was the answer to a lot of problems (like needing a ref for miniatures, human opponents and arguments over the rules.) When CMBO came out I saw it as a logical extension to my hobby. I looked at it as computerized minitures except much faster and easier. Never looked back and BF has never disappointed me. Some of my suggestions were used in CMBO patches even. That really impressed me as most companies don't give a S*$* about what the customer thinks after their games come out as long as the code doesn't blow up while you're playing. BF has always strived for accuracy and logical rules.

[stikkypixie]

Looking for close combat 3D, did not find it. Saw review of CMBB on Gamespot, interesting mechanic + russian front = sold .

[BDW]

This thread makes me feel old! I used to play SL as a kid, and watched computer gaming evolve from pong and somewhere along the line (late 90's) I thought that surely someone must be doing a computer version of squad leader. So I looked on the web and found a company called Big Time Software collaborating with another company to do this, but then there were problems, and they split off to do their own thing, then they announced they were going to do it in 3D, then there was an uproar, and then I finally got my favorite game ever in CMBO! On the edge of my seat for CM:BN. Amazing how far these guys have come with these games! Thinking of the dice and charts, etc of SL, it seems like the friggin' stone age.

[PanzerMiller]

April 6, 2001...my older brother with whom I played SL / ASL back in the 70's and 80's (yeah, I'm an old geezer around here) sends me an e-mail saying "You gotta check out this new game called Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord..."

I did, and here I am.

[moneymaxx]

I never was a hardcorer wargamer but was always interested in the subject. When I was a child (in Germany) I never saw a board game like ASL, the only non computer game I knew of was Risk, which I liked. Then the Commodore 64 came along but it was not really suited for wargaming I guess and I do not remember any wargame that I played on it. Played Battle Isle and History Line on the Amiga but loved Harpoon which I accidentally bought from a bargain bin. When I switched to PC I played Allied General etc. but the first really exciting game was Close Combat. Probably searching for news on it I found the CMBO demo. I really liked it, but CMBO was not sold in Germany at that time and short on cash I was reluctant to order it in the US. I was lucky to find a copy of it on Ebay (the American version not the CDV one).

I must have played CMBO and CMBB for hundreds of hours (CMAK not so much). And though I play all kinds of computer games (a lot ), CMBO and CMBB are among the few really important highlights in more than 25 years of gaming.

CMSF wasn´t for me (asymmetric, desert, modern), but I did play it and with the latest patches I did enjoy it. Therefore I have high hopes for CMBN.

[Schlosskirche]

I have been a dedicated TW and COH fan for years. My father always (and still does) play all of the hex table top games. When I was a kid I used to commandeer his AH sports games and also his 1/72 minatures. To this day I still remember him trying to teach me how to play Squad Leader. He still plays hex games. I hope this game brings him into the computer realm.

And, oh, I can't remember how I found CM. I think it was a Google or Amazon search.

[Ales Dvorak]

In 2000 I found demo version of CMBO in may's MacUser... and I was hooked...