Best guess for 1st CMX2 module?

[Tarkus]

Originally posted by V:

First two:

1. Normandy Campaign

2. Barbarossa to Moscow

???

Definitely a main stream orientation, but all the more plausible. After all, the main purpose of the first title (appart from gathering boatload of dollars and other currencies) will be to illustrate the capabilities of the engine and make people dream about what could be done with it.

I don't know if it will be Normandy, but now that I seriously think about it, my guess is that at least the first few tittles will be mainstream like Normandy or Barbarossa. Then, on with some more obscure theater of war.

I'd personnally be happy with an early war game. Say CM:FW (which every early war grog will recognise as a brilliant suggestion for Fall Weiss) with a follow up module naturally titled Fall Gelb.

Bah. It's CMx2 and I'm a Fan Boy. Why do I care?

Cheers.

[Kingfish]

My guess would be a FPS of 101st Airborne in Normandy, because it would be oh so original

[Bigduke6]

The BigDuke6 Theory of Wargame Developement Says: "Cool Armored Vehicles Sell Games".

The "How You Milk It" corrolary argues that if you want to maximize your computer wargame sales income, you split up the releases so that each new release contains a previously unreleased combat vehicle, because to impress wargamers you need either a really spiffy engine, or cool war vehicles to play with.

The biggest gamer market is ww2, and the coolest ww2 vehicles are Panther, TigerI, and TigerII; not necessarily in that order. TigerI and Panther are roughly the same time. TigerII isn't.

Panther and TigerI give us a time window, roughly, of late Spring 1943 to Fall 1944. There's two of them so that's double the cool factor, so that means the first game must fit that window.

That leaves BFI the options of Italy, Normandy, France '44 for the basic engine. I agree with the Tom Hanks factor: it's obvious they'll pick Normandy.

It is true the real Second World War was decided during the late Spring 1943 - Autumn 1944 time frame on the East Front, as that encompasses everything from Kursk through Bagratian. It would be great if CM2 developement went by historical importance.

But Tom Hanks never rode in a T-34, so tough tankies to that idea. It'll be Normandy and I am sure the hedgerows will be pretty.

[Splinty]

I think the Mediterranian would a good place to show off all the new features, you get something of everything, mountains, grassy plains, cities, tanks, infantry, etc. But not enough folks would buy it as a first release, except us here of course.

[Brent Pollock]

This is a more detailed version of the guess I'm going to put forth:

- it will have tanks (non-amphib)

I'll go even further out on a limb

- it will not have helicopters

Originally posted by Bigduke6:

The BigDuke6 Theory of Wargame Developement Says: "Cool Armored Vehicles Sell Games".

The "How You Milk It" corrolary argues that if you want to maximize your computer wargame sales income, you split up the releases so that each new release contains a previously unreleased combat vehicle, because to impress wargamers you need either a really spiffy engine, or cool war vehicles to play with.

The biggest gamer market is ww2, and the coolest ww2 vehicles are Panther, TigerI, and TigerII; not necessarily in that order. TigerI and Panther are roughly the same time. TigerII isn't.

Panther and TigerI give us a time window, roughly, of late Spring 1943 to Fall 1944. There's two of them so that's double the cool factor, so that means the first game must fit that window.

That leaves BFI the options of Italy, Normandy, France '44 for the basic engine. I agree with the Tom Hanks factor: it's obvious they'll pick Normandy.

It is true the real Second World War was decided during the late Spring 1943 - Autumn 1944 time frame on the East Front, as that encompasses everything from Kursk through Bagratian. It would be great if CM2 developement went by historical importance.

But Tom Hanks never rode in a T-34, so tough tankies to that idea. It'll be Normandy and I am sure the hedgerows will be pretty.

[Thomm]

By the way: I would not mind if CMx2 had miniguns in it!

[Scipio]

My guess is a WWII game. Yes, BFC has spend 9 years with it, and they are tired of it. But they are completly familiar with it, too, so it wouldn't make sense to make a lot of studies for something completly different when they have a lot of work with the new engine already.

It will not be the Pacific, since tanks are not really important here, and I bet my arse that BFC want to show us fancy tank battles in the first release.

I also believe that US troops will be involved, for a simple marketing reason: just to attract the US customers. Seriously, who would be interested into the film 'Saving Private Ivan' except a few grogs?

Next point, I think it will be something that enables them to release a module, just to show us the possibilities of this new feature within time.

Another point: it will be a very popular and well known battlefield.

And finally, there must be something completly new, something that a lot of the old CM folks praid for, that just looks really cool in the magazines/screenshots/demos and can attract new customers, too. Something like a beach landing for example plus Paratroopers falling from the sky.

So let me see:

Kursk offers a lot of tank battles, including the Tiger and early Panthers, but no US troops.

Bulge would be a candidate, but I just have no idea what kind of module should be added here, and a Winter setting is not the best thing to start with.

Sicilly covers most of the points above, so it's a possible candidate - but Normandy covers them all. So I would be surprised if it's something different.

[Wartgamer]

The first game/module must have some mass appeal. It must sell in numbers to support the effort already put into it.

I would be very surprised if it were not US-centric and set in WWII.

If the first release was something that did not interest me, I would just download the demo (to see the new 1:1 modeling, C&C, etc) but would probably wait till a module I liked came along.

I would like to see a Normandy game that focuses on the Airbornes epic battles in particular. Since the game will be somewhat limited due to a downsizing of the number of units; I would think Hedgerow battles would be a perfect venue.

Edit: Maybe Market-Garden since it has US paras also.

[ June 08, 2005, 09:27 AM: Message edited by: Wartgamer ]

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I'm thinking Market Garden.

You've got the US, and even better the 101st which has a high saleability factor. And even a US audience will reckognize and want to play the Red Devils too. And the Germans and possibly XXX Corps provide armour. Ofcourse Garden might be an add on instead but sizewise it should definitly fit in the "nearer to Normandy then St.Lo" criteria.

And the battle of Arnhem contains enough units to form the basis of either a Normandy or a Rhine Crossings/Reichswald battle down the line.

Won't we all have egg on our face when it's the Ligny/Quatre Bras/Waterloo battles.

[Pzman]

Market Garden sounds good to me, but then so does a Normandy Airborn battle, since I just watched BoB again last week.

[Dirtweasle]

I'd be happy with CMFB, Fall Gelb - Race for the Channel, or if the modular concept means an even smaller scope, say some portion of that, say the Army Group A break out and collsion with the French Second Army perhaps.

[Wartgamer]

Part of the CM charm was not only newer games jumping to new theatres, but also improvements in the game (mostly the the CMBO to CMBB jump).

Multimodules about France 1940? I would not buy a portion of that nor a whole Fall Gelb.

[Michael Dorosh]

edited

[MikeyD]

NW Europe - Eastern Front - Mediterrainean. Y'all seem to expect BFC to immediately repeat themselves!

My guess for first release is... Pacific theater!

The armor load is manageable. Maps could be fun to make. Battles would definitely favor company-size infantry actions. For all we know (and we don't know much) CMx2 may have an amphibious aspect they'd want to show off. On the minus side of the argument Matt's never been the biggest fan of the Pacific. But he'd probably prefer the Pacific to modeling the War of the Roses!

I'd frankly be surprised if they EVER return to the Eastern front - unless they screw up their courage and tackle a Stalingrad game. Maybe down to producing a halfway accurate map of the city.

[Hortlund]

Normandy.

1st game will be "Carentan to Falaise" and cover June 10th-August for US and Krauts.

1st module will be "Bloody Caen" and introduce the Commonwealth from June 7th-August.

2nd module will be "Soldiers from the sky" and will introduce various D-Day stuff (fill the June 6th-June 10th hole for both US and CW, making landing-scenarios possible) but will otherwise mostly focus on airborne units in Normandy and Market Garden.

$10...any takers?

[Dirtweasle]

Lt. Hortlund, I'd pay for that too. Only preference I'd have would be to release the "D-Day" thing first then Carentan >> Falaise Airborne module and a Caen scenario pack.

[MikeyD]

Ugh. Normandy... again. I'd of course buy it to experience the game engine but without much enthusiasm for the theater. If it has to be NW Europe I'd prefer ro see them start with the Rhine crossings and on into the Ruhr. When it comes to the peculiarities of Bocage fighting - been there, done that.

[throwdjohn]

hell yeah id bite on all 3! But remember, first you must buy the basic game, how much might that cost?

[Dirtweasle]

My crystal ball says; $44.95 plus shipping, add $5- for a full bore manual, and $7.95 for a mouse pad.

[c3k]

Yeah, I'm guessing France '44 as well. Mainly for mass appeal (hey, we save the ungrateful french - AGAIN!), everyone knows the name Patton, Sherman, Caen, Falaise Gap, er, okay, only the first few. Plus, the venue has been thoroughly analyzed by BF.C.

Hmm, it seems like such an easy choice, it'll be funny to see how far off it is.

Ken

[kipanderson]

Hi,

Yup… I agree that NWE is due again, Normandy or Bulge. A NWE game to introduce CMX2 then an Eastern Front game to add live team play, cooperative play I think Steve calls it. Once a couple of classic wargame settings are out of the way, with modules following, BFC will have the peace to get on with some of the stuff they really want to do.

Probably the first two games will be classic wargame settings. Really get the money in, then some odd-ball stuff, Space Lobsters of Doom, then contemporary wargame.

Anyway… out of a possible five plus “games” with CMX2 if there are two-three titles that interest my, plus the related couple of modules per game, I will be happy for years to come.

NWE is due, and it would be unthinkable not to do Eastern Front some where in CMX2, so I am optimistic .

All the best,

Kip.

[Halberdiers]

add an early war isn't a bad choice...

"Normandy US beachheads" plus "Blitzkrieg in poland" would be perfect as "First Game".

After that BF could develop all the "modules" about all theaters of operations of WW2 including modules of east front or pacific front: Stalingrad,Okinawa,Cassino,etc,etc

furthermore we can see in this first game what we can expect about:

Tactical bombers

sea landing operations

Paratroopers

Cavalry

etc.

Then BF will be free to make NEW GAMES:

1-Game about "post cold-war": as "Kuwait War" plus "Falklands war".

2-Game about "Rifles & Sabres": as "Napoleon in Leipzig" plus "Gettysburg".

3-Game about "Swords and Chariots": as "Attila and the Battle of Chalons" plus "Alexander and the battle of Gaugamela"

etc,etc,etc.

a mark of "Game" or "Module" could be:

-a "new game" could be "two campaigns".

-a "module" could be "one campaign".

I think

[Pvt. Ryan]

Space Lobsters of Gettysburg

[V]

Originally posted by Scipio:

My guess is a WWII game. Yes, BFC has spend 9 years with it, and they are tired of it.

Is it possible to get tired of WW2? (assuming you are not living through it, of course.)

[V]

Originally posted by MikeyD:

Ugh. Normandy... again. I'd of course buy it to experience the game engine but without much enthusiasm for the theater. If it has to be NW Europe I'd prefer ro see them start with the Rhine crossings and on into the Ruhr. When it comes to the peculiarities of Bocage fighting - been there, done that.

I don't think there will be a big wait between the first "module" and the second. I bet they come right after the other, within a couple months of each other.