Does this game support 2 vs 2 multiplayer or larger than that?

[SFODA371]

I hope so.  

 

This is the last thing I want to check before purchase Since I have lots of friends wanting to play this great game together. 

 

If not, I and my friends may have to begin a tournament.

[Schrullenhaft]

No. It is strictly either solo or 1 vs 1 (PBEM, HotSeat or TCP/IP). Of course there are human mediated systems, but there is quite a bit of effort in setting up such games.

[womble]

The human-mediated system of multiplayer at its most bascic involves the players on each side passing a save of the replay phase from last turn and another save of the uncompleted current orders phase between themselves and having an agreement on which elements they're allowed to tinker with. The last person on a given side hits the red button and sends the resultant turn file to the first person on the opponent's team, and a save of the replay to their own team members.

[_Itchy]

Not really so much effort in setting up and well worth it.

Much more fun to be had when planning your moves with a team mate.

[Stagler]

Multiplayer functionality is in dire need of development in my opinion.

 

We need a lobby system first of all, then we can look at multiple players

[Vinnart]

Multiplayer functionality is in dire need of development in my opinion.

 

We need a lobby system first of all, then we can look at multiple players

 

+1

[IanL]

Yes, this is an area with opportunities for improvement for sure.

There is no specific support for multiple players per side but there is a manual process you can do using play by email (PBEM) - no one uses email anymore though, use a file sharing site like Drop box to move the turn files around. Here is an example of what you can do. This works for quick battles or scenarios. Fire up the scenario in PBEM mode. Make sure each side agrees on how the control of the forces will be setup and start out as usual - first turns in a scenario are often just pick the password so we'll just skip to the setup phase. The first player on that side should setup and give orders to their portion of the force and the save the game (no pushing the big red button BRB) and pass the saved game (the .bts file found in <your documents folder>\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Black Sea\Game Files\Saved Games) to their partner who opens the saved game and sets up their portion of the force and give their initial orders. When they are done the push the BRB and generate the .ema file which the send to their opponents. The first opponent opens the .ema file and setups up their portion of the force and saves the game (no pushing the BRB) and passes the .bts file to their partner who does their setup and initial orders and pushes the BRB. The resulting .ema file is then send back to the first team and on from there.  So if Jane and Amy are playing against Bill and Fred once the game gets going things will look like this:

• A new turn (.ema file) arrives for Jane and Amy: both players watch the new .ema turn to see what happened and begin to think about what they will do.
• Jane presses the BRB after watching the turn.  She gives her portion of the force her orders and saves the game and gives the file (.bts) to Amy.
• Amy closes the game after watching the turn and waits for the .bts file to arrive from Jane (she pesters Jane incessantly over chat to hurry up)
• Once Amy has the .bts file she opens it and give orders to her portion of the force and presses the BRB which generates a .ema file which is sent to Bill and Fred
• A new turn (.ema files) arrives for Bill and Fred....

Continue from step 1 but with Bill and Fred instead of Jane and Amy (except Fred is much to nice to pester Bill)

 

So, a manual process with some room for screw ups but pretty doable - as long as your friend Amy does not drive you nuts.