landser

Yes, and a LOS tool that allows you to place the mouse cursor anywhere and see the LOS from that position through map shading.

That's deep But you have a point, and good thing that we DO know about it, for us. It's a pity for the folks who have no idea, and that's an issue for Battlefront to address innit? But honestly, a game like this could be plastered all over and still there'd only be a small cross section with the requisite refinement to play. It's niche for a number of reasons, not least because many have a lower standard In all seriousness though I recommend CMBN to most folks who ask. If we set aside the particular focus of any Combat Mission title, be it Normandy, the Bulge or Syria, which is rather important, but if that isn't factored in CMBN has a lot of content. Not just in modules, units, battles and campaigns, but in mods as well. Along with Shock Force 2 I think CMBN gives the player the best bang for his buck. I really like Red Thunder for a number of reasons, I'm foxhole-deep in Blunting the Spear as we speak, but I'd rarely recommend it to a newish player over Normandy unless he asks which is the best East Front 1944 World War 2 Combat Mission game. Then it's a bit more clear.

Indeed it was. Better. After a fairly long break and a new PC i recently got back in to Combat Mission and started with CMBB and CMAK. There's little you could do that would do a better job of driving home the differences in CMx2 than this. It's one thing to remember and recall (tinted by nostalgia), but quite another to play one after the other, unmodded. It's come a long way, but then..... More or less. Much has changed and then again a lot has not. Still the finest tactical wargame in my view. Best advice is to get the title which covers the theater you're most interested in. Failing that, get CMBN Edit: Play a few demos and you'll know which one to get.

Yes, indeed, thanks to Bootie too!

Having recently reinstalled CMBN I ran in to the same thing as the OP looking for Juju's UI mod. Was coming here to ask where to find it but decided to run a search first. Got it now and thanks Warts for the help!

Thanks for the reply, I was wondering how it went in the end. Has there been some indication that one or the other system is to be dropped? Or is the speculation based on reducing the workload going forward? Something else? I'm another who would be disappointed if WEGO were dropped, but as it's such a fantastic system for this sort of game I can't imagine Battlefront would consider it. Switching from tactical genius to nervous spectator every few minutes never gets old. Aside from all of the other things that make WEGO great, like endless replays from any angle, it's a system of action and consequence. It forces you to live with your decisions. I joked once that RT is eraser mode, allowing the player to quickly abort blunders, but TBF my time spent in real time is limited, and certainly it requires skill to actually play scenarios of any size this way. Fair play to those who choose this route, but personally I can't imagine Combat Mission without WEGO.

Cheers for that. Feared I had put foot in mouth, but 76mm and yourself have set it straight. I'm wondering if 76mm and/or Dynaman had any luck getting the resolution squared away? I see Steel Panthers getting mentions. This was my first wargame all those years ago. It's the same on the Matrix boards for War in the East/West. So many of us cut our teeth on that game. Any CMer's play War in the East/West? Over the past year I've played through three WitE grand campaigns, and whenever I shudder at the micro in another battalion sized CM campaign, I think of the Grigsby games and realize it could be worse My preference is for tactical wargaming, especially COmbat Mission, but on the grand operational scale it's hard to beat War in the East in my view.

OK, thanks. I posted to him on that board that you don't see his ticket. Hopefully he'll do so again. I was just hoping to help him get up and running, but I will leave it to the professionals. Thanks for your replies.

The fellow having trouble now would have submitted the ticket in the last 24 hours. I used this thread since the error message is essentially the same as what he is getting, although it's for FB. Maybe he should try downloading it again.

Yes, and thanks. I had advised him to do just that of course, and he's done so, but was hoping to help him. We'll wait and see what the helpdesk says.

Does anyone know what might cause this error? Someone at SimHQ is getting the same message while attempting to install FB and I'd like to help him. Not sure why I think that this thread would get an answer simply because I bumped it but it's worth a shot. Maybe someone else has dealt with it since the OP posted.

Thanks Michael, that's one I haven't read and I appreciate the recommendation.

OK, that's great then. Yes, you need to run that utility, and yes it's true full screen with no borders.

Awesome 76mm. Is it running in the right resolution for you? Full screen? Not stretched? Lots of old-school Combat Mission goodness right there. My posts made me wonder if the GoG version is cool with Battlefront? I haven't been around much and I would temper (edit: or remove) my comments if perhaps there's any contention there.

OK cool, and CMBB actually has 18 operations included I think. 8 is what comes with CMAK. OK, sorry for the derail.

It's well worth it, peanuts at that price, especially for all you get. Let me know how it goes if you wouldn't mind. I'd be interested if it works as you might expect.

Atkinson's a good writer. His WW2 trilogy is a good one. Haven't read through this thread and it's likely been mentioned already. My latest is re-reading Two Sides of the Beach by Edmund Blandford. I have hundreds of books on WW2, and of all sorts. Tactical. operational, strategic, memoirs, technical and on and on. But the stuff I like the most are the first hand accounts like this book. It focuses on the experiences of Commonwealth and German soldiers on D-Day through Totalise. These first hand accounts are always interesting, a view from the foxhole as it were. I can't get enough of this stuff really. If I were to identify a common theme, it's how almost every account begins with a comment on the noise. The terrific din of battle. Well, of course. But it struck me how many of these men mentioned it, and usually right off.

Well, nothing I did really, and not sure it will work with a 'legacy' version. As mentioned I got the GOG version since I built my new PC without the foresight to include an optical drive, rendering the fact I held on to my disks all the years useless. So I bought CMAK and CMBB on GOG ($12 total). These include a DX utility in the install directory. I installed the game, let it go to default res and ran the game once so it created whatever necessary files or folders it might need to. Exit game, ran the DX utility and chose 1920x1080, and I also set the setting right below, aspect something or other, to disabled and fired it up to fullscreen widescreen. Works splendidly I must say, and I will also say that if not for that, if stuck with a non-native, non 16:9 ratio, that I would not find it quite as charming as I do So if you don't have the GOG version I'm not sure if you're able to do the same. If you go for the GOG version you'll have this included. ANd perhaps it can be imported in to other versions, but not sure of the legalities of this.

I've done exactly this in search of a campaign fix. Have played (and re-played) through a number of operations in CMAK and CMBB now and really enjoying it. Sure, there are things I miss from CMx2, but on the other hand there are things I like from CMx1 that aren't in the later games. Graphics are more primitive too yes, but it runs beautifully in 1920x1080. Loads fast, plays well, no technical issues at all. Lots of content too. Got the GOG version and CMBB comes with about 8 ops and 150 battles. Plenty more on the inter-web of course. I get it that some folks won't be tempted, but some might also be pleasantly surprised by how well these titles have aged

Thanks all the same, with your user name perhaps I assumed too much I've managed to play through several operations by now, and will grab a few new ones from that link. Operations aren't perfect, but I like them. Static and advance operations work well enough, I like that preservation of force has some meaning, and how the front line moves to reflect your success or failure. I haven't worked out how the new front line is calculated. Seems to be somehow attached to your force's 'mass'. Tied to where the bulk of your forces end the previous battle. Not really sure, but I like how it allows you to capture key terrain and benefit from that in the next battle as well as deny it to your enemy. For example in the Op Dergatschi Roadblock there's about 1000m of mostly open ground before you reach the edge of Kharkov, but if you can get there, you'll have buildings to deploy in for the start of the next battle. If not, you're left deploying once again in open ground.

Thanks Gerry, that's helpful. I looked here already, but didn't see the advanced search where I could filter by operations, so cheers for that. I'll be trying some of these shortly. Which CMAK and CMBB Operations are your favorites? Ideally for me it's around company-sized, but I can work up to a battalion if it's a good one.

Sheesh, leave for a couple of years and the British are their own race now. That's quite the trick, but congrats, I guess. Lots of hyperbole in this thread. Comments like the reason BFC won't add staff is because they will suddenly start making COD games, or comparing an increase in staff to Star Citizen, which is the most extreme case you can think of. Like there's no middle ground. I have no advice for Battlefront. Steve and company can proceed however they see fit, and I can say with my wallet whether I find their path appealing, and have done by skipping a number of titles, while purchasing others. The rub of it is there really isn't any satisfactory alternative at this level of tactical gaming for me. We all have our pet ideas (campaign system being mine) that we would like to see implemented, and detailing these isn't a complete waste of time I don't think. But stating some form of doom will befall us or BFC by more ambition strikes me as odd. If they don't want to 'expand' that's their call, and rightfully so, but why automatically assume the worst outcome if they do?

Over the weekend I dove in head first and played through three or four CMBB Operations. Good stuff. Running CMBB in 1920x1080 seems like witchcraft. But it all plays great, runs great. It brings back so many good memories, starting a battle or operation and seeing the map and reacting like "I remember this one!". It plays differently than CMx2 of course, and some things are missed as CMx2 spoiled me in some ways. Spotting, as mentioned, is the biggest difference for me. What I wouldn't give to transpose relative spotting in to CMx1! Command delay is a great feature I think, especially on the East Front, where it has a telling effect. I miss the more robust artillery mechanics from the newer games too. On the other hand, I like how you can plot indirect fire on areas of the map with no LOS. It was one of my first complaints when playing my first CMx2 game. In CMx1 you can drop rounds for instance anywhere, regardless of LOS. See a crossroads on the map that you want to shell? Have at it. Accuracy is affected as the fall of shot is unobserved perhaps. But it can be done. In CMx2 it's tied too strictly to LOS. A perfect example is an AT gun poking through a hedgerow on the other side of a field. You place a mortar in a hedge with LOS to the opposite one and call for fire. Round after round drops 5 feet short. You cannot place the fire just behind the hedge since you cannot see it. Mortar fire for example should be allowed anywhere within the weapon's range, with of course accuracy penalties for unobserved fall of shot. As it is I can't shell that crossroads on my map because I can't see it through the copse of woods. But it's right there on my map! Can't I transmit co-ordinates or something, like over the radio? Any object should be considered an aiming stake for indirect fire. Even if I know that place is full of enemy, I can't get mortar rounds in there unless I can see the spot. I can't lob rounds over that barn to hit troops behind it if the mortar squad or a spotter cannot see that ground. In CMx1 you can, with varying degrees of accuracy, and that's good in my view. Can anyone point me with a link to the best places to grab Operations for CMx1 games?

Indeed. Devil's Descent and Kampfgruppe Engle for CMBN are two that come to mind that I really liked. There are plenty more when you consider all of the Combat Mission titles. And frankly, my issue stems more from quantity than quality, which, combined with limited replayability and the fact that not all campaigns appeal to me ( regardless of quality ), leaves me with little to actually play. Some are simply too big for me, some too urban, some may lack appeal for others reasons, such as weather or night battles, etc etc. These things don't make the campaign bad, but perhaps make it unsuitable for my tastes. As I said, I feel my tastes are fairly broad, but certain things are in my wheelhouse. For example I like what I call reinforced company sized campaigns. A force centered around an infantry company with an appropriate amount of support, perhaps a platoon of tanks, a battery or two of off-map artillery and some heavy weapons teams. I like rural type maps with elevation changes. I like good weather These aren't requirements per se, but just the sort of stuff that appeals to me the most. If I then filter available campaigns by these type of things, the list grows rather short doesn't it? So instead of playing the sort of things I like, I also play campaigns which are not my style, simply because they exist. I'm thankful for that. I'm grateful that community members take the time to do it, and more than that, make them available for us to play ourselves. But as I plod through another battalion + sized campaign I can only wish for ones that are more suitable or more my style. I made a post here last year pledging to put my money where my mouth is. I am willing to pay for it. But a handful of eager players doesn't make it profitable necessarily. Paper Tiger spent, if I recall, around 800 hours making Road to Montebourg. This is a good one. But 800 hours is a massive time investment for just a single campaign. So one issue is that the tools don't exist for streamlining the process. What if in 800 hours 10 campaigns could be made? 20? 40? Time is money. So while I would support such an idea, it misses the mark slightly in my view. Players are still tethered to the supply chain, getting their playable content from others, relying on their productivity, enthusiasm and skill. On one hand I'll take what I can get. Beggars/choosers. On the other, I still feel the way forward is a way for the players to generate it themselves. And I have two axes of advance on this matter.... I'm not a programmer, and as a result cannot know of the technical requirements of the things I propose. And partly I hesitate to write it at all, as by definition it is critical of the fine work done by Battlefront, or maybe more accurately, what they have not done. But this is a wishlist type thread after all, and I want to see the series evolve. And I want more suitable campaigns to play. The first one is have something akin to the QMB interface that generates something akin to Operations from CMx1. Since the post I made a few days ago about this matter I decided to go back to operations. I bought both CMBB and CMAK, as I built a new PC without the foresight of knowing an optical drive might come in handy, rendering the disks I've held on to all these years impractical Imagine we could generate these ourselves, by setting each parameter. Number of battles, force type and troop quality, map details, weather, reinforcement probability, resupply and so on. I envision an endless supply of focused suitable content to play. A huge map, persistent forces, dynamic front line. The second one is more ambitious, and I think like CMC was supposed to be. At it's core, it would be an operational level map not unlike what we had in several of the Close Combat games. The player has a number of battlegroups (selectable scale) as does the enemy. These units are moved on the map. When two forces enter a sector on the same turn a meeting engagement occurs. If occupied for one previous turn, an attack. And if the enemy had been there longer, an assault. Tactical battles fought in concert with a larger operational goal. It should include resupply and logistics, reinforcements, a support pool and so on. Lines of communication can be cut. These ideas aren't new, but it's two possible ways forward. As I said earlier, it would all require a new AI which is another matter entirely. I know it's easy to throw fairy dust and wishes around, and that it would require hard work and time and money, none of which are mine. But it sure would make me happy

In respect to the OP, me too. Not content to simply lament the state of campaign play in CMx2 games, I got all proactive about it Bought CMBB and CMAK for the operations. I played CMBB religiously through about 2008, but for whatever reason I had skipped CMAK. Having a discussion about it on another board the thought struck me that maybe, just maybe, CMAK has operations too! Not sure why it took me 15 years to realize this, but I am now one happy campaigner with all of these new (to me) operations to play. I got the GOG versions, and technically they are sound, as I was worried I could run in to issues. So far so good though. Sure, there are things missed from the newer games (relative spotting and mouse wheel camera elevation at the top of the list for me), but no problem to look past it's datedness and just enjoy it for what it is. The wave of nostalgia rolled over me when I hit the main menu screen, but it's deeper than that. These games are simpler, but retain the tactical appeal and stand the test of time, and far better than just about any other games from their era, aside from Falcon 4 perhaps Plus, they have Combined Arms setting in QMB! Eventually I will be seeking new campaigns and operations to try, but with all that are included in the base game I'm set for some time to come.