Information concerning purchasing decision

[TeeWee]

I've been looking for a tactical turn-based game with simultaneous execution and CM has been brought to my attention as a candidate. It does look like it's a worthy game and have played two short sessions with the demo.

How does the demo version compare to the real game? In terms of performance (I still have a lowly AMD XP1700+ CPU, though I do have a recent graphics card), user interface, features?

How are the scenarios included? From what I can see, I have the impression that the modding community is still kind of active. Is that true? How will CM2 influence this (in other words, should I wait for that?)

If I were to buy CM, what should I buy first? CMBB, CMAK, both? Are they still easily available (in the Netherlands)?

So many questions... Can anybody help me?

[Kineas]

Welcome to the best tactical lever wargame currently on the market.

You can buy digital downloads directly from battlefront.com. I suggest buying CMBB first then CMAK, though I might be biased. CMx2 will be a very different product, and isn't about the ww2 era.

You'll find plenty of user made scenarios, but the game will ship with about ~30 scenarios and 5-6 campaigns.

As I recall the user interface and the performance of the demo is almost the same as the real version. This is an old game, your config must be enough for it. Don't worry about the strange user interface, soon it will be natural to you

[Misereor]

As you have already seen, the game is about content and not graphics.

You are unlikely to appreciate just how detailed the game is, if you've only played a couple of scenarios, but it will come to you as you play more. All the while, the user interface is deliciously simple and easy to use.

(Don't forget to check out the hotbuttons.)

Even without any mods whatsoever, I would recommend this game. If you take any kind of liking to it, there are many, many hours of enjoyment to be had playing the AI, and when you get tired of that, there is a vibrant community of people who design scenarios and campaigns, and will be happy to kick your butt in Play-By-E-Mail.

[Aragorn2002]

Order at http://www.dpluss.nl/ all three games for 29 Euro. It shouldn't be allowed...

[ June 06, 2007, 10:14 AM: Message edited by: Aragorn2002 ]

[JasonC]

The best of them is CMBB, the most replay value, etc.

CMAK is a reasonably close second. Its really big advance is accurately modeled dust effects, critical for desert fighting.

Don't worry about CMx2, it is quite a different item (modern, subsquads shown, etc). Yes it will also be worth playing, but it is not going to obsolete CMBB or get people to stop playing it.

There are literally thousands of community made scenarios, some of them incredibly detailed, intricate maps, etc. Also active "ladder" sites, tournaments, campaigns being run, scenario playtester groups, etc.

I've seen them packaged together for excellent prices, all over, so you don't really have to choose one.

CMBO is the only one with a somewhat dated engine by this point. The infantry fire (and MGs etc) modeling is much less realistic, for example. But the scenario editor is so general, you can recreate almost any CMBO battle in CMAK. (A few items aren't there, because CMAK is meant to cover MTO from North Africa to Italy and not all late-war weapons were used in Italy etc).

Given the age of the games you will not have any difficulty playing them on your system, or any reasonable current one for that matter. I mean these things ran on Pentium IIIs. At worst, the largest scenarios might take a little longer to gen a turn.

[JasonC]

As for demo vs. real game, you are playing the game as it is. What you don't have is the full wealth of scenarios, the quick battle generator to make endless additional fights, and the scenario editor to roll your own in full detail. Because you have only a fixed scenario (or two), you don't have access to all the weapon systems and infantry types etc.

So basically, all the replay value is in the real product.

[Aragorn2002]

Link fixed

[MikeyD]

CMBB's actually got a couple notoriously 'bad' demo scenarios so if you like the demo you'll LOVE the game! Where else can you pit Lend-Lease diesel Shermans against Sturmtigers... at night... in a blizzard!

Graphics may not be up to current industry standards but you can swap out pretty much ALL of the artwork with considerably more believable 3rd party skins. Graphics modding for CM has practically turned into a cottage industry. New buildings, ground, skies, faces, uniforms, control panels, icons, armor, etc. etc. The place to go for that is www.cmmods.com I swear some of those Theatre of War vehicle skins look suspisiously familiar

[Vergeltung]

I got both (CMBB and CMAK) from Direct to Drive (www.direct2drive.com). never looked back, 100s of playing hours later!

[Bartokomus]

I second Jason's sentiments; CMBO can be easily skipped in favour of CMBB/CMAK.

You truly won't regret buying these games; and as noted, the price for these titles is shamefully low.

Bart

[John D Salt]

Originally posted by Bartokomus:

I second Jason's sentiments; CMBO can be easily skipped in favour of CMBB/CMAK.

You truly won't regret buying these games; and as noted, the price for these titles is shamefully low.

Quite right. Far the best bargain I have ever seen in computer games.

The short answer to the original question is "buy it". The long answer is "buy it now".

All the best,

John.

[MikeyD]

Comparing Theatre of War with heavily modded CMBB

[Vergeltungswaffe]

^^^^^^

Thanks to him, and many other talented modders, BB and AK still look quite good after all these years.

Nothing has ever approached their longevity on my hard drive. They won't come off until CMx2 WWII comes out, somewhere down that dusty trail. They may not even come off then.

[Redwolf]

I disagree on the CMAK versus CMBB bit, I think CMAK is much more enjoyable.

Both suffer from too slow turn rates, too high bogging rates, partly stupid command delay system and other factors slowing things down in an unrealistic manner. But all of this has been made a little better in CMAK.

[TeeWee]

Thanks for all the quick replies! This shows at least that the community is still lively, which in itself also speaks volumes for the games' longetivity.

Though hugely incomparable, I have some experience with Close Combat (1 to 3; first time I played a game where soldiers could panic and not do what you tell them!) and Panther Games' Highway to the Reich (an operational level game; good game where you can delegate orders to the AI and the first game I played with orders delay). Though I don't play them heavily, I do return to them from time to time. Good war games seem to have good replay value!

I think I may very well look into this game. I'll have a few shots with the demo and maybe buy this over the weekend.

[The_Enigma]

If you do want to buy BB and AK i would suggest looking to see if its cheaper to get the combat mission anthology, which is all 3 games in a box

Other the great mod community and to all the scenario designers out there pumping out a shed load of scenarios (some which are based on historical events, some which make you fight for you cyber life etc) for you to download, there are also tournaments, campaigns, ladders etc which get run all the time too which add to the immense amount of fun.

As for the community, there is something like 16-20 active communities that i know of, but don’t actually visit all of them, as well as other sites dedicated to mods, scenarios etc etc

[Der Alte Fritz]

Buy it - you will never look back.

It gives such a wealth of tactical problems up to battalion level that you will get hundreds of hours of fun out of it.

Buy it today!

Go to CMMods and download the Scenario Depot scenarios packs 1-7. That will give you about 1,000 scenarios of top quality. Download all MikeyD DavidI DEY Gautrek UncleTgt Pat armour, Andrew infantry, GAJ terrain (Rocketmans if you want it gridded) Vossie or Tarkus user interface and get the McMMM mod controller to swap things in and out easily - and away you go!

Go to www.blowtorchscenarios.com and download the Russian training scenarios, play through them and that will get you started on the tactical side fairly easily. At the same site you can get some fanastic scanrios and campaigns.

cheers

[sross]

NWS online has the anthology for $20, best $20 I've spent. I've only had it for 9 months now, but I'm thoroughly addicted. As said above, get the AI mastered with the training scenarios and then hunt down some human opponents. PBEM is where it really shines. There are several communities online where you can find a plethora of opponents.

Can't recomend CMBB and CMAK enough.