Hmm...which one 2 get....

[I am Evil Homer]

This has puzzled me for a while.After playing both demos, I will very likely order Combat Mission, but which one? Thing is I would rather pass on the bundle pack cuz for what I know its a highly replayable game and 1 is plenty, plus if I found I lost interest quickly I would end up wasting 60 bucks rather than 30 or 40.

I would like to go for CMBO cuz historically the Western front(I think it is) would be cooler and the demo appealed me. But I might go for CMBB cuz its the sequel and although its a bit more complex, it has many improvements and more realistic infantry tactics I believe. The CMBB demo sucked to me as opposed to CMBO but I did hear that the CMBB demo was a paricularly bad representation of the game so...hmmm...I dunno yet.

BTW I posted here cuz there is some sense of tactic/strategy in wisely picking the one 2 buy and cuz if I posted in CMBO or CMBB forums people would vote in on whatever that particular forum corresponds to.

[Mud]

I'd suggest CMBB due to all the engine improvements, including but not limited to vehicle crews now having morale, better modeling of suppression and varying rates of fire from machineguns, better modeling of cover versus movement (the last two combined make infantry charges a lot less viable than in CMBO, as they should be), modeling of physical conditioning, et al. If maximal realism matters to you, I'd side with CMBB.

On the CD, you'll get a more varied set of scenarios, units and tiles than was in the demo, of course, ranging from nasty urban firefights to armor assaults over steppes.

[Gen. Longstreet]

I believe it depends on your interests.

I've only got CMBO because I'm more interested in te Western front.

I have played the CMBB demo, but it's not my thing.

[CombinedArms]

Well, I have to say that the smartest move would be to get both, start with CMBO, then move to CMBB when you want to try something new. I've always been West Front oriented and wasn't sure I'd like the transition to the East but now I'm totally sold both on the interest-level of the front and on the game.

BUT--if you insist on getting just one game, you could start with CMBO. It's a real bargain at the marked down price and will give you weeks-months-years of fun. You can always buy CMBB later if you want.

[Martinios]

I have both of the Combat Mission games and i personally prefer CMBB. I usually play as Germans so it is much easier for me to win yet still not be frustrated. Also, the detail is better and the best aspect has to be that machine guns can actually hit what they're aiming for. But the decision is yours.

[JeremyCupit]

Get CMBB.

Nuff said!!!

PS. I just drunk four pints o' guinness so me spelling and finking is a bit buggered.... Friday lunch time an' all that...

Jeremy

[Björn Eriksson]

I definetly vote for CMBB. It has all the good things from CMBO, plus some more stuff like realistic MG's, more movement commands, more units, more realism, more players and last but not least, Überfinns

When I heard that CM2 was going to be about the eastern front, my first tought was that it was a very, very bad decision. Anyway, I decided to read a few books about the eastern front, just to get a feel of what the fighting would be like and realized that it was not a bad decision at all.

If you feel that the eastern front is less interesting than the western front, I recommend you to do what I did and read a few books about it. You won't regret it

[Redwolf]

CMBB is has a lot of smaller additions, especially for player control, and more varied gameplay. CMBO has a very serious realism problem with its MGs, including vehicle MGs and berserk infantry movement, with overly precise and deadly small AA guns and a number of items more.

On the other hand, in my opinion most of the features new to CMBB are not as well thought out and not as well implemented as the functionality that is in both. The quality of the old commands (which are still in CMBB) is noticablity better. I also have issues with vehicle turns rates, added automatic pathfinding, and movement in difficult ground.

I always defended the CMBO TacAI as adequate to good, but in CMBB it annoys me. TacAI problems are ephasized by some of the new or changed functionaly, to a degress that crosses my threshold of annoyance. In my opinion the new CMBB functionality would have required to introduce SOPs at the same time to keep player control at the same level.

If I had to choose now I would choose CMBB. But my CMBO times were noticably more fun than the CMBB times (and I am not an infantry player exploiting the CMBO bugs).

[Eden Smallwood]

I also played both demos ad nauseum, and I ended up buying just CMBB, when for a few more bucks I could have gotten the FullPack, and also, (quite validly, grogs), I find the W front more entertaining/immersing/something like that.

You say the CMBB Demo sucks, and you're right, but only in regards to one aspect- the scenarios are not as intriguing or replayable, say, than the CMBO demo scenarios. But it does demo for you the difference in play, the diffs between the games.

Since there are clearly very many excellent scenarios for you to play in CMBB, (trust us), regardless of the shortcomings of the demo, your decision should be much like mine, I would think:

BO: Immersing W Front(***), Intriguing implementation(***).

BB: Interesting E Front(**), Ineluctable implementation(*****).

The question of Front is swamped by the difference in game engine, for me personally.

Bought CMBB, therefore, and haven't regretted it, although I have two years to wait for anything other than E... So ask me in six months, maybe I will say I should have gotten both, though I doubt it. At any rate, buying only CMBO strikes me as not an option. Hth,

Eden