Playing through all of my Combat Mission scenarios in chronological order, starting with CMAK

[Centurian52]

On 7/23/2021 at 8:53 AM, Erwin said:

It's great you are still enjoying CMAK!  

Back in early 2000's I spent months designing a 8Km x 4Km max size CMAK map "miniaturizing" the entire African theater from El Agheila to almost El Alamein.  Almost gave me a nervous breakdown and had to stop.  It's why I have not attempted to design for CM2 which is far more complex.

But, it's the sort of campaign one cannot do in CM2 due to engine limitations and processing power.  Also, CM1 has the wonderful "dynamic campaign" feature where one could play on a portion of the maximum size map, and the "window of play" would move depending on the success/failure of each mission.

Re the 88mm, what we don't know is did they start firing at (say) 3Km range and 10 rounds later got a kill when the tank had moved to 1Km.  Seems likely that when faced with dozens of tanks, the 88mm would start firing at max effective range where the tanks could not fire back with any accuracy.  So many variables like that could have skewed the video's stated conclusions.

 

Of course! CM1 holds up very well today. I Had to take almost a yearlong break to study for certifications and settle into my new job as a network engineer. But at long last I can finally get back to this. I still have thousands of scenarios to get through. It will take me years just to get through the WW2 content alone (I'll be crawling through in near real time).

For my first mission back I clearly have a lot of rust to knock off of my tactical skills (for the last 10 months I've been thinking more about networking and cybersecurity than tactics). I was soundly beaten by a French rearguard when I lost half my infantry in a single unlucky moment when a full squad was killed in their halftrack (I only had two squads of infantry to work with). I decided that, without infantry, there was no way my armored force could flush the enemy out of the woods and town ahead and that any sensible real world commander would withdraw. I pulled back to my start zone and hit "surrender" because apparently "ceasefire" doesn't work in CM1.

[Centurian52]

We get to see some R35s in action in June 1940 in this one, albeit in the hands of the wrong faction. I did have to deal with a couple of anachronisms, and like last time I have far fewer infantry than I'm comfortable with. But I am really enjoying the scenario so far.

It's a tad frustrating that CMAK technically has all of the assets you need to represent the French forces in 1940. Except their tanks are locked away as part of the Italian roster, and you can't fudge them into the French forces in a scenario because CMx1 doesn't allow Axis vs Axis. I really hope Battlefront gets into the early war content that was never covered in either CMx2 or CMx1 someday, such as Poland 1939, Norway, France 1940, etc...

[Centurian52]

 

[Erwin]

Pics would look even better if you disabled the colored bases.  I forget the keyboard command, but it is simple.

[Centurian52]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:01 AM, Erwin said:

Pics would look even better if you disabled the colored bases.  I forget the keyboard command, but it is simple.

Thanks, I think I found the command (I don't remember off the top of my head, but the hotkeys menu has been very useful). But I'll probably keep the bases on. I need to either have my units at the default exaggerated scale, or have the colored bases on, in order to find them on the battlefield. I kind of like having them at the realistic scale, so that means colored bases stay on.

The main issue I'm trying to figure out is how to eliminate (or at least reduce) the lag in the recording. There is no lag when I play, but the recording is choppier than a really enthusiastic chef. I suspect that part of the issue may be that I am trying to do this on my laptop (my desktop doesn't exactly have a working graphics card at the moment), which just doesn't have as much power to handle both gameplay and recording.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Centurian52

[Erwin]

On 5/31/2022 at 9:03 AM, Centurian52 said:

I need to either have my units at the default exaggerated scale, or have the colored bases on, in order to find them on the battlefield.

Totally understand that. I was simply suggesting removing the bases when taking pics.  (Am not a fan of gridded terrain either - spoils the immersion imo.)

Edited June 1, 2022 by Erwin

[Centurian52]

Ok, finally getting back into this after a few months (for real this time). We're still in France, but it's June now. I think I have another dozen or so scenarios set in France 1940 and then it will be on to CMAK's intended setting, the North African desert. Since, even playing most days out of the week, I'll be going through a bit slower than real time, I will probably be finishing up WW2 sometime around 2030 (and then I will finally be able to play CMCW (unless BFC has released CM Korea or CM Vietnam by then (current CMx2 engine can't handle that much foliage, but the next CMx3 engine might be able to))).

 

Edited August 14, 2022 by Centurian52

[Centurian52]

On to the actual combat!

 

[Centurian52]

 

[Centurian52]

 

[Erwin]

Nice to see CM1 still has life. A well-modded CM1 looks competitive to CM2 when viewed from levels 3 and above.  And it is SO much easier to create maps etc.

[Centurian52]

On 8/18/2022 at 10:55 PM, Erwin said:

Nice to see CM1 still has life. A well-modded CM1 looks competitive to CM2 when viewed from levels 3 and above.  And it is SO much easier to create maps etc.

I'd say it more than holds up. CM1 is still one of the best modern tactical ground warfare sim engines in the world, second only to CM2 (and has theaters that aren't represented in CM2 such as North Africa and Barbarossa (still no CM games (either 1 or 2) natively covering Poland 39, France 40, Norway 40, Greece 40/41, etc..)). And relative to other games the sprite ratio actually isn't so bad. A squad of 10 pixeltruppen is represented by 3 sprites, making a sprite ratio of either 3:1 or 4:1, whereas games like Scourge of War (my go-to for Napoleonic era combat) have a sprite ratio of 6:1 (battalion of 400 soldiers is represented by 67 sprites).

[Centurian52]

 

[Centurian52]

I had a lot of fun with this one. Played as the French this time. Stopped the 1st Panzer Division cold.

https://youtu.be/BFGrRG9rDn8

[Erwin]

It's great that CMAK is still entertaining.  Re your video, it's more fun to watch if you get some lower level views.  At least down to level 3.

[Cpt.Miller]

Hello. It looks interesting and I want to ask if you would share the scenarios and the like with me? I'm new to this forum but I've been playing the old Combat Mission for some time. I am only interested in old titles like CMBO, CMBB and CMAK. We can also play together sometimes. Do you only use the forum for communication or something else like Teamspeak3, Discord, Steam, etc.?

[NamEndedAllen]

Any progress to report on further scenarios?

[Erwin]

Haven't played CM1 in almost a decade, but I looked in my (very) old CMAK saved files and see about 1,000 scenarios (I think campaigns are all mixed in).  About 31 MB total.