What should I play next?

[zaybz]

TLDR: I've played Devils Descent, Road to Montebourg and Road to Nijmegen - what should I play next? (Preference is playing as Commonwealth, or secondarily the US)

 

I’m a relatively new player looking for suggestions as to which Campaign to play next. My preference is to play with Commonwealth forces, but I will play as the US too. Really not interested in playing as Germany. I've worked my way through several campaigns already but consider myself a decent, but not elite, player.

 

These are the campaigns I’ve played so far, in the order in which I played them, with some brief comments:

 

Training Campaign - really enjoyed these scenarios.

 

Devil’s Descent (Major victory) great campaign. Enjoyed the small scale and role-playing elements, really suited the game engine and helped me learn the game.

 

Road to Montebourg (Major victory) great overall - one or two scenarios seemed needlessly punishing, but that’s okay I guess... I watched some of Totally Hapless' videos which helped guide me along the right path when I was stumped.

 

Road to Nijmegen (minor victory) - mixed feelings. The ambition of it and the attention to detail were great, but at times it felt like it was made to be difficult for the sake of it and so it  felt like hard work. Having said that it gave me some of the most epic / cinematic moments I’ve had with CM.

I restarted quite a lot of the missions, (e.g. when losing two entire platoons to artillery fire on the first turn during one of the Riethorst missions), which broke immersion. I missed out on the Hunner Park scenario (perhaps partly because I lost Heuman Lock Bridge after ceasing fire due to the bridge glitch, and ceased fire on the first turn of the final Riethorst scenario because: a) I had no AT assets at all remaining, which meant facing lots of tanks wasn’t going to be much fun, and: b) I was bored of that map, having fought on it 3 times already)............ I read someone say this campaign was designed for the game the designer wishes CM was, rather than the actual CM that exists - and that seems spot on to me. The time limits also meant that the scenarios felt unrealistically rushed - so once I got given the increased time limits I enjoyed it a lot more.

Also - I just played the Copse scenario with the Sherwood Rangers, which I found to be really great fun.

 

So, some possibilities for my next Campaign are:

 

Amiens Tonight - is this still fully functional? Looks tempting.

Courage and Fortitude - punishingly hard?

In the Fields Where the Poppies Grow - haven’t seen much written about this…

Lions of Carpiquet - 4 company scenarios? Too big for my taste.

Scottish Corridoor - punishingly hard? Short time limits?

 

Which would you recommend? Or am I missing a good option? Ideally I don’t want something as difficult as Road to Nijmegen. Thanks!

Edited June 19, 2021 by zaybz

[Erwin]

7 minutes ago, zaybz said:

Courage and Fortitude - punishingly hard?

Would definitely save that one for when you believe you have mastered the game.  I thought that the final mission with what seemed to be a Regimental TF to play with (so a huge mission) was one of the best scenarios I have played.  

[Warts 'n' all]

Sadly Amiens Tonight is cursed by troops missing from certain missions. But, if you can live with that it is still playable.

Courage and Fortitude is a work of fiction. But again, if you can live with that it is still playable.

Poppies  is fun, and worth giving a go.

Carpiquet is best played if you have a powerful comp, due to both map size and troop numbers.

Scottish is a realistic portrayal of Operation Epsom. Awful weather, and SS reinforcements being thrown in to the battle. "Punishingly hard?" No. A tough challenge, yes.

[Falaise]

On 6/21/2021 at 12:27 AM, Warts 'n' all said:

Poppies  is fun, and worth giving a go.

 

Driven by curiosity I went to see "the poppy grow"
Quite the kind of game I love with a role playing level
On the other hand once the game opens, surprisingly the platoons only have 4 tanks ???
in view of the level of detail I am surprised, it should not be a hazard

 

[Vacillator]

On 6/19/2021 at 3:09 PM, zaybz said:

I’m a relatively new player looking for suggestions as to which Campaign to play next

Does it have to be a campaign?  There are some excellent standalone scenarios - for example anything by @George MC. 

If it does have to be a campaign, I have had great fun (and pain) from Final Blitzkrieg campaigns, and also from an unexpected source which was @kohlenklau's Fortress Italy 'Wacht am Rapido' made I believe some time before FB came out.

Thinking about all of these, they all have great '3 dimensional' maps and the need to use or cope with elevation changes on CM maps is one of my favourite things about the game.

[Erwin]

If you are looking for huge scenarios that play like campaigns, "Mission to Maas" (CMFB) is also highly recommended.  I can't recall anything similar made for CMBN.  

Some of the German campaigns are also very good.   It's been a long time but IIRC It enjoyed: A Bloody Ride; A Moment in Time; Die Letzte Hoffnung; KG Engel...

 

 

[landser]

If you liked Devil's Descent, I'd recommend The Outlaws

https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4490522/re-combat-mission-campaign-compendium#Post4490522

Similar in scope to Devil's Descent. American paras, with some help from the straightlegs near the end.

[Warts 'n' all]

I seem to remember Outlaws being marred by the inclusion of fictional German armour. Ho hum.

[landser]

Sounds like a Battlefront issue lol. Fictional armor? How'd that make it in the game?

I guess you mean not present at the time and place being depicted? Anachronistic? Plagiarized proximity?

What specifically are you referring to? I played through it a couple times and didn't notice anything out of ordinary. Actually there wasn't much armor at all. I remember StuGs and halftracks, kubelwagenen and maybe some heavier stuff in the final missions. Been a while.

[Warts 'n' all]

It was a long time ago. But I seem to remember PzIVs in the last couple of missions. So they would be both out of place and time.

[zaybz]

Thanks all for the input. I will work my way through your suggestions.

(I only have CMBN, FWIW - and that will be the case for the foreseeable)

[Vacillator]

2 hours ago, zaybz said:

I only have CMBN

If you wish to try scenarios as well as campaigns and you're happy with those that are on the larger side, can I suggest both of the Wittmann scenarios in BN?  They're both excellent and both by @George MC.  Another great one which is also a lot smaller is Barkmann's Corner Revisited by @GhostRider3/3.  To be honest I don't remember if I played the original Barkmann's Corner, my bad.

There are of course lots of other great scenarios, they're just the ones I had a lot of fun with when I started.

[zaybz]

29 minutes ago, Vacilllator said:

If you wish to try scenarios as well as campaigns and you're happy with those that are on the larger side, can I suggest both of the Wittmann scenarios in BN?  They're both excellent and both by @George MC.  Another great one which is also a lot smaller is Barkmann's Corner Revisited by @GhostRider3/3.  To be honest I don't remember if I played the original Barkmann's Corner, my bad.

There are of course lots of other great scenarios, they're just the ones I had a lot of fun with when I started.

Thanks, I'll check them out. Do they come with the base game?

[Vacillator]

I think I got them at @Bootie's fine site here:

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/category/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battles-for-normandy/

I'm sure you've been there already, but well worth a look if you haven't.

EDIT (afterthought) - I think the ones I mentioned will all work with just the base game, but I did have the bundle at the time.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Vacilllator

[zaybz]

4 minutes ago, Vacilllator said:

I think I got them at @Bootie's fine site here:

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/category/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battles-for-normandy/

I'm sure you've been there already, but well worth a look if you haven't.

Thanks

I have been there - the site is a great resource, but I always find it a bit overwhelming. (I can't see an obvious way to sort by highest rated or anything like that.) I'll have a rummage!

[Vacillator]

There's a lot of content for sure, particularly for BN.  I grab everything without hesitation .

You could also check this out, if you haven't already:

https://www.combatmission.lesliesoftware.com/

Great work by @IanL .  A lot of the download links are Kaput, but the info is good.

Edited July 1, 2021 by Vacilllator

[A Canadian Cat]

Yeah, I did it when the repository was still alive. The Blitz links are all pooched too. 

I have plans for updating and fixing. I even had some help from @Falaise. I will let everyone know when it's fixed.

[GhostRider3/3]

I will have to upload Beckmann's Corner Revisited soon.  I added another AI advance just for replay-ability.  If you do not see it in the warehouse send me a PM I can always give you the btt. file.  

Cheers, and happy hunting!

 

James.

[Rinaldi]

  

On 6/20/2021 at 11:27 PM, Warts 'n' all said:

Sadly Amiens Tonight is cursed by troops missing from certain missions. But, if you can live with that it is still playable.

Uh oh! Would you happen to remember the details Warts? I'm planning a replay of this soon, so I'm hoping I can unpack and patch it personally for myself.

The above bug not withstanding I would recommend Amiens Tonight, if only for the lovely change of pace from the usual CMBN campaign. If you want something mechanized and 'slash and dash' then this campaign definitely gives it to you in the final portions. I loved it, JonS really outdid himself.

If commanding a sizeable armour and motorized force is not what you're looking for, I would recommend Operation Deadstick. It's about the eponymous operation to seize the bridge over the Orne-Caen canals (Pegasus). It's based on ASL so it has a few  design decisions I found personally curious (re: troop quality that can seem artificial at times), but its otherwise fairly historically accurate and played really well. 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Rinaldi

[Warts 'n' all]

18 hours ago, Rinaldi said:

  

Uh oh! Would you happen to remember the details Warts? I'm planning a replay of this soon, so I'm hoping I can unpack and patch it personally for myself.

One problem I definitely remember I found that in Mission 2 which is meant to feature a full platoon of Infantry you are light in numbers because they come in a truck, and you can't fit a whole platoon in one truck. So you are either missing your 2-inch mortar, your PIAT or some pixeltommies.

And I encountered the same problem again in some of the later missions as well. Although I think there was a thread some years back where the designer did say that he hadn't encountered the fault during testing. So perhaps I got a dodgy download.

[Lethaface]

Over the last few weeks I managed to finish the first mission in this campaign (never got to finishing it earlier). It is quite the test of discipline imo, or in other words quite a lot of work but it is a solid scenario imo.

I had just arrived at the second mission, not started it yet but it seems I do indeed only have two squads while the briefing mentions a full platoon. Not sure if it really is a problem for achieving the mission though, as you also get two tank platoons.