A couple of CM2 questions...

[Scythe]

Hey guys... I've never played CM 1 or 2 but I'm considering buying CM2... it looks very good and has gotten oustanding reviews from all the major reviewers (Gamespot, Gamespy, etc...)

My only other computer war game is West Front, I enjoyed that game (though it did get a bit old after a while) and for me CM2 looks like a better, 3-d version of West Front. If anyone has both CM2 and West please compare these two for me

Now my next question:

How big is the online gaming community? How many people on average do you see playing when you log in to play? Is there lag online often or not? Is it easy to find a game online?

I'll be buying this game mostly for online play (I need a good strategy game for online play) and though the SP portion looks good (50-70 missions is huge!) I want good MP too. Plz give me unbiased opinions on my questions...

[flamingknives]

To answer some of your questions:

The online community is very big. If you want a game, you should be able to find one in short order - player vs player is one of the best ways to play the game.

The only caveat is that most people seem to prefer to play-by-email (PBEM), rather than TCP/IP.

Some people may suggest entering the Peng challenge thread or the Master Goodale Cheery Waffle thread (can be distinguished by some, all or fewer of these words in the title.)

Don't

At least not until you've been around the boards a bit.

MP is definately better than SP, as human opponents don't make the same silly mistakes (not to say that the AI is rubbish, it isn't. It just isn't on a par with a human player)

[Wildass69]

I have West Front, East Front II, plus the Pacific Version of the Talonsoft Campaign Series and had the Middle East version (names slip me). I love East Front II and played a solid 3 years of all versions. I Started playing CMBB about a year ago because I had pretty much exhausted the CS.

So I might be able to offer some comparision. I rarely play Humies and in that respect perhaps I can't help much but let's see if I can't offer some insite.

The unit scales are different. EFII/WF are platoon sized. You know what that means. A tank counter represented 3-5 individual tanks. Therefore the size of the battles could reach an operational level especially if well-crafted into a Linked Campaign. This made the Art of Maneuver Warfare great fun and a satisfying endevour. The games are geared to that end. I finally developed very effective tactic that often won the battle with several moves left over - another reason to move on. Nevertheless I play wargames as much for their Historical value as anything else and I learned a lot of history from the CS. I still like them and will probable return to them upon occation.

But they also fall short of conveying the true down in the dirt, blood and blast of battle. It was somewhat antiseptic to loose a few tanks out of a platoon but still come away with a platoon counter. Moreover the tactics were somewhat simpified by the scale of the game; surround - capture, surround - capture.

I still find it a bit intimidating to begin that first turn in CMBB simply because the tactics involved and stark cost of errors in CM are so much more imposing. And that is one of the values of CM. I dare say it takes guts to launch an attack in CM just as it did in the real battle fields of Russia. Tactics in CM are much more complex. The scale is down to squads or even sub squads and individual vehicles and guns. A tank will often take several hits but when its out it's out. There is no buffer of a counted to shield you from that loss. It makes you hard or you stop playing. It also gives you a little better taste of what the real commander may have felt.

I believe there is more of a learning curve in CM. I'm still not sure how some units are best employed. At first the mechanics of performing movement and action are going to seem very combersome and it is a lot of work for a mere sixty seconds of game play. But once you get the hang of it, it goes quite well. It goes without saying it's completely different from the CS. There are more dynamics between the units as well. In some ways this makes it much harder to come up with pat tactics that generally always work. But it can be done and it's very satifying.

When you read the CM manual (and you will) it will tell you not to expect what worked in other games to work in CM. It will also tell you that if you think something will work because it would have in the real world it's worth trying. Both statents are worth taking to heart. There is an enormous amount of realisim in CM by comparison. There is an even greater amount of challenge.

I love the CS. But now I'm playing CM (yes I have CMBO too and will pick up CMAK when available). I hope that's testimony enough.

Reflective WA