Schrullenhaft

What security/anti-virus software are you using ? You may want to list an exception (white-listing) within that software in case it is interfering with the game. It is a fairly rare to have security software interfering now-a-days, but it is a possibility. If you do a Ctrl-Alt-Del and open the Task Manager, do you see the CM executable listed at all ? If you do, then highlight it and click the 'End Program' button. Try launching again and see if that makes any difference. Have you rebooted your system lately ? If not, then do so and attempt running the games again. The CM games utilize OpenGL for graphics calls (rather than the much more common DirectX). The Nvidia drivers should support OpenGL just fine and there is rarely anything that you need to do to get the games to work with them.

I haven't run a Steam version of the game until tonight. After clicking the 'Play' button (in Steam), you should see a Battlefront logo (an M48 tank firing in the darkness) and then the actual main menu of the CM game should appear. The 'Battlefront logo' is actually the 'intro.wmv' media file playing for a few seconds. There's a slight possibility that this file is causing the issue you're seeing. Try launching the game directly and see if that makes any difference (the shortcut for the game on the desktop will actually launch the Steam launcher for the game). Find the CM game in the following directory (using Black Sea as an example): C:\Program Files (x86)\steam\steamapps\common\Combat Mission Black Sea\CM Black Sea.exe If launching the game directly doesn't work, then temporarily remove the 'intro.wmv' file found in the 'Data' subdirectory (put it on your desktop or somewhere outside of the CM game folder). If that still doesn't work, then we need to find out some more details about the computer you're attempting to run the games on. If your running them on a laptop, then there is the possibility that the video driver (often Intel) may not be supporting OpenGL properly for some reason or if you have a dedicated GPU in your laptop, then it may not be initializing the GPU properly (not detecting the CM games as needing the GPU).

There are some 2D graphical issues with Mac OS Monterey (that actually started with 'Big Sur') and they MAY affect the appearance of the installer. It's possible that the game is actually fully installed - look for a folder in your 'Applications' folder, in this case it should be 'CM Battle for Normandy. If that exists then try to launch the game by double-clicking the 'CM Battle for Normandy' icon/app within that folder (a white star in an olive drab roundel) and see if it runs.

I'm not sure what the answer to this issue will be. Do you have problems with any other CM games that you may own ? I'm not familiar with this particular battle, but is it fairly large, possibly larger (in map size or number of units) than you might normally play ? Do you know what video card and video driver you have installed ? Is this a Mac or a PC ? Are you running the Battlefront or the Steam or Slitherine/Matrix version of CMBS ? Do you have any mods (sound or graphics) installed ? There is a current issue with some AMD Radeon drivers. If you're using the latest driver it can cause some crashing (or possible freezes) in game. The suggestion in the thread is to down-grade to the 21.8.2 driver. To find the driver on the AMD site, after making the selections to identify your video card and getting the results list you need to scroll down and click on the 'Previous Drivers' text link. This will list most of the recent previous drivers in a list for Windows 10 64-bit (this is a list for a Radeon RX 470, but it should work with any RX series or newer Radeon). You'll need to scroll down the list to find the 21.8.2 (WHQL) driver. With the 'restarts' of the scenario, is this from the last game save or a complete start-over of the scenario ? Do you know if you are issuing orders to a particular unit when the problem occurs (if there is any consistency there) ?

Battlefront uses the Sharefile service, which is a distributed network (not sure who the actual network provider is - there MIGHT be several different ones depending on where in the world you're at). Local servers may not have the files 'cached up' or the network may be busy processing downloads/services for other clients (non-Battlefront customers). The only thing to do is what you've already done... retry the download at a later time. I can only guess that the local server for you is just really busy. If possible, try the download late in the evening (10:00pm or later) or possibly earlier in the morning in the hope that the local server may not be as busy at that time.

There is some documentation for PlayOnLinux and Grahics Card Drivers that you may need to look over. Do you know what video chip your laptop has (Intel being the most common) ? I'm not sure who may have been successful in getting any of the CM2 series to work with Linux. It MIGHT have happened in the past, but I didn't keep track of who may have been successful under what version/distro of Linux and Wine. I personally doubt that Battlefront will officially support any of the current Linux distros and the compatibility programs (WINE) to allow the use of the Windows versions of the game to run under Linux. Supporting Windows and Mac platforms is hard enough (with dedicated versions for each platform). With Linux there are a lot more "moving parts" that make supporting the games more of a crap shoot. With the huge number of Linux distros and patches; changes to WINE and its support in each of those distros; the limited number of video drivers it just becomes a massive support headache. You might get the games running with a particular distro and version of Wine with certain hardware, but then some update or changed libraries can suddenly makes things non-functional. Admittedly similar things can happen with Windows with certain video driver updates, but it is usually limited to that (and occasional issues with the licensing system). I don't think Battlefront will make a dedicated Linux version of any of the CM series either, just a bit too much work for the current/potential size of the audience.

Use the installers that are linked to the 'Upgrade 4 Big Bundle'. These should be the latest, including all patches (not absolutely certain on the 4.03 patch). For CMBN your current purchases cover the 'base' CMBN game and the Commonwealth module. To be fully up-to-date it looks like you need a CMBN 3.0 Upgrade license key to actually license the 4.0 Upgrade bundle. For activating CMBN you would need the 3.0 Upgrade license key, the 4.0 Upgrade license key and the Commonwealth module license key. The earlier 1.0 and 2.0 Upgrade license keys will NOT be necessary. For CMFI you also need the CMFI 3.0 Upgrade. Licensing would require the 3.0 Upgrade and the 4.0 Upgrade. The 2.0 base game license key shouldn't be necessary. For CMBN and Commonwealth forces there is the Commonwealth module (that you already have), the Market Garden module (Brit Paras), the Vehicle Pack (some Brit 'funnies') and I believe the CMBN Battle Pack has some battles with Commonwealth forces. For CMFI, the Gustav Line module introduces Commonwealth Forces and the Rome to Victory module brings in A LOT of Commonwealth Forces not previously covered in Gustav Line and furthers the TOE of Commonwealth Forces to the end of the war in Italy.

eLicense is no longer used for Combat Mission games. In 2006 or so Battlefront started using eLicense for their games, which included up to CMSF1 and CMA (Afghanistan). Starting around 2010-2011 Battlefront started using the current game licensing/activation system that is still in use. eLicense has an UNLICENSE feature that you use to preserve your two activations. If you're making a hardware change, you could unlicense you games/modules and then make the change and re-license the games/modules. This required having an internet connection to perform the 'unlicensing'. Unfortunately customers would forget to unlicense their games/modules and would 'lose' that activation (out of the two that typically came with a license key). This would sometimes require a customer to contact the Helpdesk to add back that now lost activation. The current licensing system does NOT have an unlicense feature. Instead you just 'burn through' the 4 activations each license key has. If more activations are needed (new hardware, new computer, reinstallation of OS, etc.), then you can contact the Helpdesk to add an activation to your license key(s) if you have run out of them. If you have a game that utilizes eLicense, you should still be able to activate those games (assuming that the activations haven't been 'lost'). Typically you'll need an internet connection to contact the license servers to activate the game. You do need a license key to activate the game (something you hopefully received if you purchased this game second-hand/used). Typically launching the game will bring up a license dialog box where you can start the activation process, which requires manually typing or copy-pasting the license key. Resetting a hard disk to 'factory conditions' typically erases everything on the hard drive and potentially reinstalls Windows and all of the other things that the manufacturer may have originally installed (a 'restore' option that many manufacturers had in the past). This will typically delete anything you have installed or created on that computer (that is on that drive/partition). So this would NOT be a method of 'licensing the game on a pc'. If you have issues with activating the license key there are some more details on the Helpdesk Knowledge Base pages: https://battlefront.mojohelpdesk.com/ If those don't help, you'll want to explain exactly what you're doing and what errors/problems you're running into in activating the license key(s).

La referencia a la versión 4.03 sugiere que en realidad se trata de CMBN en lugar de CMCW. Si tienes un "CD antiguo" de este juego, es probable que tengas una versión anterior del juego (posiblemente la 1.0) que no puede usar el parche 4.03 directamente. De hecho, la versión 1.x de CMBN no se puede usar con Windows 10 debido a una incompatibilidad con el sistema de protección contra copias, si esa es la versión de Windows en la que estás intentando ejecutar el juego. Los últimos parches requieren la compra de actualizaciones del motor del juego CMBN. Para la versión 4.03, necesitaría tanto la actualización 3.0 como la actualización 4.0 (asumiendo que la versión base del juego es 1.xo 2.x). La clave de licencia original no sería necesaria con la actualización 4.0. Si su copia de CMBN es una versión 1.x, entonces puede comprar una combinación de las actualizaciones 3.0 y 4.0 para usar el último parche: CMBN 3.0 + 4.0 Upgrade Bundle

Para ser claros, ¿tiene un problema con CMCW (que se lanzó recientemente este año)? Cuando ingresa la clave de licencia, ¿le está diciendo que no es válida o recibe un error diferente durante el proceso de activación? Si está 'sin activaciones', puede abrir un ticket con el servicio de asistencia técnica (haga clic en el botón azul, '+ nuevo ticket' en la parte superior derecha) y proporcione su clave de licencia y ellos pueden agregar una activación por usted. ¿Se trata de una clave de licencia impresa en una pegatina que viene con las compras de 'solo envío por correo'? Si su clave de licencia está en línea (listada en su cuenta de la tienda), y la está copiando y pegando, tenga cuidado con exactamente lo que está copiando (sin espacios en blanco adicionales, etcétera). El último parche para CMCW es 1.01. Aplicarlo no debería afectar la validez de su clave de licencia. No sé si la descarga completa está en 1.01 todavía.

My only guess is that it may have been a 'content issue' where the scenario or an unit in the QB is from a module that your opponent doesn't have. However I was under the impression that as long as one player had a license for the material and both opponents are on the same version (using an all-in-one installer so that all resources files are present on both sides) that it should have worked.

How are you transferring the files back and forth, simply as attachments to emails or via DropBox or some other file sharing service ? Typically it shouldn't be necessary (and it adds a bit more work to the whole process), but you can possibly have your opponent zip or compress their turn (with separate compression software, such as 7zip, etc.) before sending it to you and see if that makes any sort of difference. You will, of course, have to decompress that file before bringing it into the game.

Unless your purchase of the CMBN base game was at version 3.x or 4.x (or it was a Commonwealth/CMBN bundle), then YOU DO NOT NEED THE v. 1.0 LICENSE KEY. If your purchase of CMBN was a 'pre-order' or a 'download + mail delivery', then the license key was emailed to you and/or it is listed with your purchase in your Battlefront Store account (you'll need to find the order, which may be pretty old). The only items that got a printed license key were the 'mail delivery only' copies (I assume that is still the case).

The 'manual activation' process is DEAD as far as I'm aware. I think after the 2.0 Upgrade it didn't work anymore since it was a slightly newer copy-protection system and it no longer supported the manual activation process. It will point to a dead page on the site (or generate a '404 error'). What version of CMBN are you trying to activate ? If you've installed a 4.x version of CMBN, then the 1.0 Base Game and 2.0 Upgrade license keys are not needed and will not be recognized (as far as I'm aware). So I assume that may account for the error you're getting if you're trying to activate with the 1.0 Base Game license key. If you're installing under Windows 10, I would NOT bother to install starting from 1.0 and applying each module, upgrade and patch to reach 4.03 (which you would have to install in a specific sequence or you will find content disappearing). Just use the 4.0 Upgrade download to install. I don't think you're going to get any different of an outcome by slogging through all of the modules, upgrades and patches compared to just using the all-in-one installer. The 1.x version will not run under Windows 10 due to the incompatibility of the copy-protection system and you would be unable to activate any license keys while running as a 1.x install. If you're installing CMBN 4.x, then you only need the 4.0 and 3.0 Upgrade license keys to activate the base game (both will be needed for the game to work at all). The other license keys (Commonwealth, Market-Garden, Vehicle Pack, Battle Pack) can be activated at any time and they just activate the content that is already present. In other words the game can run without them, but you will not be able to access the specific content until that license key is activated. I'm not sure what may be going on in the game not coming up with a license activation process on launch, especially if it only does that sometimes. The license activation windows should come up as long as the base game is not fully activated (in the case of 4.x that would mean activating the 4.0 and 3.0 Upgrade license keys). Activations remain in place even when you perform an uninstall of the game. They only disappear if you reinstall Windows (especially if done 'from scratch'), upgrade your hardware significantly (this may result in a 'license error' or the game simply not running), possible version upgrades of Windows and logging into Windows with a different account than what the game was activated under (that was the case in the past, I believe).

As others have pointed out, yes, you can install the download version and use your CD-based license key. However, as Redwolf pointed out, what exact product is that license key for ? If this is the original 1.0 version of CMBN, then the license key is useless for a CMBN 4.x installation. For that you would need at a minimum the 4.0 Upgrade and the 3.0 Upgrade license keys in order to activate the base game. The 1.x or 2.x Upgrade license keys would not be needed and would not be recognized. If you were to install a CMBN 3.x installation, then the 2.0 Upgrade and the 3.0 Upgrade license keys would be needed. Installing and activating (or attempting to activate) the CMBN 1.x installer/license key will NOT work under Windows 10 since the copy-protection system for that version does not work with Windows 10 (Version 2.x or possibly 3.x would be the minimum that would work with Windows 10).

In the past (I'm not sure if this is the case currently), if you had USB headphones plugged in while activating the license key, then you would need those headphones plugged in to run the game. The USB headphones became part of the 'hardware ID' associated with the license key for activation. If things changed enough that the 'hardware ID' didn't quite match, then the game wouldn't run - most likely resulting in a 'license error', but it could also end up with the game not running. The 'hardware ID' was an effort to prevent the game from being copied to another PC and running it there. At some point with one of the Engine Upgrades the 'tightness' of the hardware ID info was loosened and that may have reduced some of the issues with USB devices (possibly). Is your 'new sound system' an USB device (headphones or external sound chip/amp) ? Is there no other sound card/on-board audio that is enabled with this system ? If your system lacked any sound, then I can only guess that CM considers sound a necessity and won't run without it (?).

In the past I've added profiles within the Nvidia Control Panel (3D Settings > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings tab) for CM games. This should usually get the game to run on the Nvidia hardware when it is launched. However it is interesting that CMCW is running fine and CMRT is having an issue (assuming that you don't have a profile already setup for CMCW).

As Redwolf was hinting at... You probably need to activate the 4.0 Upgrade license key. CMRT came out as a version 3.0 engine and the Fire & Rubble module requires the 4.0 Upgrade. There's a mild possibility that your base game could already be a 4.0 version (if your purchase of the base game was after the 4.0 Upgrade was released), but from what you're experiencing I would assume not.

With a download link, there should be a license key listed in your Battlefront Store account, assuming you purchased a 'pre-order' or a 'download + mail delivery' item. If the license key is not there, then contact the Helpdesk (click the blue, '+ new ticket' button in the upper right). You will probably need to provide your sales order number (or whatever proof of purchase there is) and they can possibly help you out with a license key.

For CMBN 4.x to work you have to activate both the 4.0 Upgrade and 3.0 Upgrade license keys. Depending on when you purchased CMBN the base game's license key could be anything from version 1.x to 4.x or you could have an Upgrade license key that is a combo of 3.x and 4.x. I assume you've had CMBN for awhile and you have the 3.0 Upgrade and 4.0 Upgrade. Activating those to license keys will get the basic game running (no modules). Use the 'Activate New Products' shortcut (located in the game's main folder/directory) to activate any further license keys (modules and packs). The 1.x and 2.0 Upgrade license keys are NOT necessary and do NOT need to be activated. For CMFI it is a similar situation where you'll want to activate the 3.0 Upgrade and 4.0 Upgrade license keys to get the base game running at version 4.x. And again using the 'Activate New Products' shortcut to activate modules, etc. The 2.x base game license key should NOT be needed.

Erwin is correct. The current copy-protection system does NOT have an unlicense feature and doesn't require an uninstallation of a previous install. CMSF1 and CMA use the eLicense system that supported up to 2 concurrent activations. With that system if you needed to install on another computer you needed to unlicense at least one of the previous activated installations. The current system (since CMBN) comes with 4 activations per license key and they just get 'used up'. If you run out of activations you can contact the Helpdesk and request an activation be added to your license keys (that you'll need to provide).

If you're downloading and installing the 'all-in-one' installer (CMBN 4.03), then you DO NOT NEED TO INSTALL ANYTHING ELSE. By installing the Market Garden module you're replacing the 4.03 executables with an older version (CMBN was at 2.x with Market Garden). The all-in-one installer already has the Market Garden content, you simply need to activate it with your license key using the 'Activate New Products' shortcut, which MIGHT be on your desktop or in your main game folder/directory.

Can you locate the file that you just downloaded (often in the 'Downloads' folder for most browsers) ? What is the name of that file ? Typically downloads will NOT be directly executable as some previous posts have pointed out. So your browser offering to 'run' what you just downloaded is not going to do anything. Your download is likely a compression archive (.zip or .rar) that needs to be extracted which will produce the actual installer files that you can run to install the game. Follow Sgt. Squarehead's advice above to get things running. If you have followed his advice, then tell us exactly at what point you're running into an error and what that error is.

On Windows, typically all of the games after CMBN will install a number of their files in the user's 'Documents' folder in a path like (for CMFI in this case) 'C:\Users\{user name}\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Fortress Italy\...'). CMBN also installs files in the Documents folder, but in a slightly different path. The main game executable, graphics and audio files (in .brz files) will be installed to the 'Program Files (x86)' directory (or elsewhere if you specified a custom directory), but the data files (scenarios, campaigns, saved games, mods, etc.) will be within the 'Documents' folder for that user account (even if you specify a 'custom' directory for install). Moving the data files from the Documents folder over to the game's main folder does NOT work (but I'm not fully certain on this). The files are expected in the Documents folder and the game will not look for them elsewhere, even if that is within the game's own executable folder.

Windows Update causes some mysterious issues sometimes. The KB5005031 update applies to Windows 10 Enterprise v. 1909. I have the Windows 10 Pro v. 21H1 equivalent (KB5005033) installed and I didn't run into this issue myself with the CM games not running. This fix primarily addresses a vulnerability in a particular print management system, requiring elevated permissions to install drivers/printers - something seemingly totally unrelated to the running of a game. However there are probably other little security fixes that may inadvertently affect other programs/functions. Were any of the games launched with 'Run as administrator' (typically requiring an 'acknowledgement dialog' before running the game) ? So with the update installed, using the 'Compatibility Mode' for Windows 8 allowed it to run, and then uninstalling the update allowed CM games to run without the compatibility mode setting, correct ?