Chudacabra

It's amazing that Vice has become one of the most interesting and critical media outlets. It's certainly more entertaining than Democracy Now.

Perhaps it's time to dust off that copy of CMBB and see what great scenarios dwell in the past?

I think this is just footage of the Polish military moving about. Notice that the foliage changes with the scenes. It looks like some of this is from the summer.

From playing CMAK and CMBB, I recall a particularly strong sense of satisfaction whenever I managed to destroy an opponent's flame-belching, steel beast.

Are there plans to make the in-game volume adjustable? It's not a huge deal, but I usually listen to music while playing CM and it would be nice to be able to turn down the explosions and screams of terror, but not turn them off completely.

Based on previous games, does anyone know how much shipping to Canada for this will be? I may hold out for the digital copy.

I bought it on sale for $5. It's pretty good for what it is, but doesn't compare to CM in terms of gameplay. Even though there's a wide variety of units, a lot of them are functionally interchangeable. I also found that the gameplay is too fast to set up interesting plans, and as with most RTS games there's a lot of swarming. It's not a bad game, but I've just become so accustomed to the Combat Mission family that I usually depart from strategy games completely in favour of the occasional first-person shooter when I want to play something else.

Very interesting. I am currently finishing up The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food by Lizzie Cunningham, and it's a great and informative read. It is incredible that the Soviets were able to fight and produce on a diet severely lacking in calories and nutrients.

This is quite remarkable. Is this at the University of Saskatchewan? I'm at York presently and used to go to the University of Toronto and there are no courses even remotely like this at either university. I feel like many history departments more or less ignore WWII, let alone get into the nitty gritty tactical stuff.

I would like to have a turn-based mode return to TCP/IP games and AI that won't just sit there or drive around blindly.

I think that the AI in CMx2 is the game's biggest weak point. I feel it is consistently extremely poor and only challenging when static in a strong defensive position.

Wow, what an excellent AAR! You've done a great job of adapting to the loss of most of your armour.

I would really like to see the ability to play turn-based LAN games. I believe you cannot save LAN games at the moment either.

Overall I agree, but I think that the sheer numerical disparity in some of the battles in this campaign makes them not particularly well suited to H2H play. While it is often somewhat unrealistic, in my experience more balanced forces (though not too perfect) make for much better gameplay against a human. While there is some improvement over CM1, I unfortunately don't feel the AI in CM2 is hugely improved.

Great AAR! I am currently at the beginning of the fourth mission of the this campaign and it is really quite excellent. The third battle was downright harrowing at times. Sheer numbers do a good job of making up for the AI.

I will keep this in mind. All told, I believe "Blut Und Ehre" will take about 6 months to complete with approximately weekly LAN sessions. At least it has allowed ample opportunity to get through my Kids in the Hall DVD boxset and consume the fruits of my local brewery. It is quite fun to move battalion level units in CM, but sometimes becomes a bit tedious. My friend described the operation as not so much a meat grinder, but more of a meat fan constantly chopping units of both sides to pieces.

Great blog and interesting post. I wonder if we'll see this contraption in future CM games...

I am currently playing a 12th SS against the Canadians campaign against a friend (http://www.the-scenario-depot.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=5). We're both mature students, so there's no extra money for new computers to run the newer Combat Missions. Despite the graphics, CMAK continues to be an incredibly playable game. This campaign in particular is simply excellent, although the scale (about an infantry regiment, several dozen tanks, etc) can be a little overwhelming at times. I haven't really seen much in the new game that uses such a large scale. I still enjoy CMBB too, but I'll hopefully have enough scrilla to buy a new computer sometime within the next few months and step into the future.

I believe Bil has a platoon of Panzer IVH's, but they're not visible in the screenshots so far. I might be mistaken though. Should be an interesting battle though. I think I would have bought AT mines over bunkers if I were playing as GaJ though.

Wow, this looks great! I am currently slugging out this June 7 operation as the Canadians with a friend in CMAK: http://www.the-scenario-depot.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=5 It is an excellent operation and the map is great. Admittedly CMAK looks a little primitive these days, but the gameplay is still great. Panthers, 17pdr's, flamethrower halftracks, oh my!