How did you hear about Combat Mission?

[Pelican Pal]

So discussion in the Combat Mission on Steam thread has got me thinking. Where do people hear about Combat Mission?

So I would like to make a poll of sorts. Detailing when you first heard of CM, the first game you purchased, and when you first heard about CM.

I originally read a CM:BB AAR in a Tom Vs Bruce article in Computer Gaming World. The magazine was a few years old, but I read it in 2008. I later found a copy of CM:SF in the bargain bin of my local gamestore sometime in 2009 and purchased it.

[umlaut]

I used to play Panzer General a lot, but was longing for a game that was more on tactical scale.

So one day in 2004 or 2005 I browsed through the games in a local game store - and stumbled upon CMAK. I bought it, and discovered that it was very close to what I'd dreamed about. Especially WEGO appealed to me (and still does). Only the setting - North Africa - wasnt ideal to me. So when I discovered there was also an east front title, I went out and found a copy in a old-games-on-sale box for around 14 dollars. Happy me!

The rest is history...

[Ultradave]

CMBO at my local game war-game store.

I grew up with board war-games starting with AH Tactics II, Bismark and Midway, and 1:1200 WW2 naval miniatures. As I got older (I'm 57 now btw) my board gaming got to be less and less but I still stopped in at a local game store.

When CMBO came out I had been visiting the local game store and the owner suggested it to me.

[Blazing 88's]

Saw an article in some gaming mag around 1999 I think or because of Flight Commander 2 I may have stumbled across CMBO at the Battlefront web site way back when. I didn't think much of CMBO at the time, late war and not a theatre I was interested in. I was intrigued with the 3D aspect though, being a former WWII table top miniature wargamer.

I was a Steel Panthers /Steel Panthers WaW junkie, then onto CMBB when it first came out. CMAK was next and I was in heaven having both the East Front and North Africa to pick from. 1941 to 1943 are my favorite years for WWII wargaming. Also, The CMETO mod was /is a good one as well.

Great times.

[gunnersman]

PC Gamer magazine. 2000-ish. They did a short review on it as they did on several games in each monthly issue.

I saw it.

I had to have it.

The rest is history.

I have never looked back.

[Lt Belenko]

I owned TacOps when it was a MAC only game 96 or 97. It took me a long time (2001) to move to PC and even longer to get connected to the Interwebs (2002). One of my 1st searches was for TacOps. It was partnered with BFC. Downloaded CMBB demo (6 hours at 28.8k) that day, ordered it the next.

[RMC]

I was on a 14.4 dial up connection at Albertshof (Hohenfels training area) in 1998. I searched for Computer Squad Leader and found Big Time Software was working on the game. A month or two later, Avalon Hill was toast and CSL became Combat Mission. Lots of moaning about that name on the old forums they had back then.

[Audgisil]

I found out about it right here when they announced it. At the time I was playing "Achtung Spitfire" and "Over the Reich."

[Apocal]

Close Combat forums, IIRC.

[wamphyri]

I'm not even sure how I heard of it. At the time that I found it and checked out the demo I was huge into the MMO Dark Age of Camelot. CMBO was unlike anything I had ever heard of and has kept my interest ever since. I tried to sell my friends on CMBO but they were much too twitchy and couldn't handle how in depth CMBO was at that time compared to anything else.

[Michael Emrys]

I found out about it right here when they announced it. At the time I was playing "Achtung Spitfire" and "Over the Reich."

My story is similar. I had been a customer of Avalon Hill since 1964. I think maybe some time around '96 I got a copy of Over the Reich from them and a year or so later got Achtung Spitfire!. About that time I got connected to the internet/World Wide Web and started visiting the BTS forum. AH had earlier contracted with Atomic Games to do a computerized version of Squad Leader, but Close Combat turned out to be not exactly that, so AH and AG parted company and BTS got the contract. But then their vision of the game was not the same as AH's and they too soon parted company. Meanwhile, the new game, to be called Combat Mission moved slowly forward for several more years. BTS changed its name to BFC. Eventually, a string of demos were released to ecstatic receptions among the cognoscenti, who were forming lines with big wads of money in their hands, eager to buy anything that BFC put before them. Finally, CMBO was released and there was much rejoicing in Mudville. The game received favorable reviews everywhere even though the genre was not at the top of the list of what the gaming public considered most desirable. Still, if you hadn't at least tried it, you weren't really cool.

So, I have been around since CM was just a gleam in BTS' eye. I can't claim any credit for its conception, but maybe contributed a tiny amount to its gestation and birth. You may burn incense on my altar now.

Michael

[Freyberg]

I was pining for the wargames of my youth and searched around until I found them.

[altipueri]

I saw by accident the RTS game Sudden Strike which looked just like the huge detailed table top WW2 games of my youth in the 1960s. That set me to looking for a turn based game but I came across CMBO and the WEGO system which I think is its appeal together with the now sadly dropped equipment lookup information which was just like the large folders of armour penetration detail we used in those pre computer days, together with 20 sided dice we made up ourselves as this was before they were available in shops.

Also the great random battle generator, now also sadly dropped as QBs are now a pain.

[Splinty]

I read a review of the CMBO demo in Computer Gaming back in '99. I DLed the demo and was hooked. I've been hanging around here ever since.

[H1nd]

Remember reading about the CMBO on gaming magazine. Dont quite remember if I noticed the release of BB, however it was actually my father who decided to buy the CMAK but he never liked it. I however got interested and later got around to get me a copy of BB as well. However I was quite young back then and while I was interested in these games I think the abstract presentation of infantry and wego (back then) were turn offs and I never became truly dedicated player. I remember that similarly I read about the release of CMBN from a magazine but it took me several years to gather the guts to actually buy it (we students are not known for our monetary fortunes..). I think I became dedicated player only around the release of 2.0 and CMBN:CW. So the interest was sparked long ago by a magazine article, wich btw are not made anymore around here (the only real gaming magazine in Finland has not taken any notice to the CM brand after the release of CMBN), and then the interest grew up gradually untill I became truly hooked up. It literally took years.

[Doug Williams]

I heard about CMBO before the demo was even released, back when it was supposed to be "computer ASL". Can't remember where....probably Computer Gaming World magazine, which I subscribed to for years. I had cardboard boxes full of them. After that, I made it my business to locate the BTS (now BFC) web site and follow the development. Been here ever since.

[Wako]

I think I saw something on comp.sys.pc.games.strategic about it or something back in 2000 or late 99.

But I think the responses drive home a very important point. All of the people responding to this are old school players/customers who started with CM a long time ago. Where are all the NEW customers? Where is the growth?

Put CM Normandy on Steam and I bet they instantly get 2x-10x the customers.... but sounds like this is beating a dead horse...

[bobo]

ASL. Computer ASL. TacOps. Flight commander II. over the reich. achtung spitfire. Close combat.

Comp.sys.pc.games.strategic.

All of these. Seems like many of us have been on the same journey...

Bobo

[vicco]

Started with BFC's air war games (Flight Commander 2, Over the Reich, Achtung Spitfire). Then, BFC announced CMBO. Didn't get it until 1 year later after reading all the good reviews. Bought all the CM WWII series since. May look into the CM modern warfare series if it's upgraded to the CMx2 v3.0 engine.

I also wish that Flight Commander 2 be updated, at least to let it run natively on the Mac.

[Juju]

Found the beta demo at BTS in late 1999. Installed it, had a good laugh, uninstalled it immediately.

Tried again a few months later and the rest is history.

[herr_oberst]

Was searching on the web for something like Squad Leader for the PC. Found some young upstart company (BTS in those days), and the Alpha AAR that was being played between (I think) Fionn and someone (apologies, but it was a long time ago, and I'm not getting any younger), and followed it (aah, the days of blockier models and the three stooges) the whole way through. Participated in the forums, waded in the Cesspool, the whole deal.

Pre-Ordered CMBO for the PC as soon as it was made available. Pre-ordered everything WWII timeframe since (CMBB, CMAK, and everything since CMBN -- some twice since I switched from a PC to a Mac).

[c3k]

PC Gamer or Computer Gaming World? One of them ran the preview article. I watched. I waited. I bought.

[Andrew H.]

I had heard rumors of Computer ASL, but then lost track of it. Then, in the fall of 2000, there was a review of CMBO in the NY Times (of all places). So I downloaded the demo and then the game.

[Fizou]

I found the CMBO demo on a PC gamer demo CD i believe. Really liked it but couldent find where to buy the full game. A couple years later I read a review on CMBB, found the full game, bought it and have been hooked ever since.

[A Canadian Cat]

I overheard a hallway conversation between two workers just after CMBN was announced (not released). They told me about the older games and I though it sounded great so I bought new copies of CMAK and CMBB and the three of us played those games while we waited for CMBN to be released. Then we switched to CMBN. One of us never made the transition and the other one had been playing with me for a couple of years but has fallen by the way side due to work / life issues.

If I had known about them when they were first released I would have been playing for years.