An introduction of an old game: Combat Mission, for wargamers

We have plenty of action/high-end-graphic-holic/pilot-addicted ... players here. Are they any hardcore wargamers here? I mean, strategy wargamer, old style turn-based strategy wargames, like Panzer Generals.

If there are some, then maybe this old but prevailing game may catch your eyes: Combat Mission series by Battlefront.com.

Combat Mission (CM) is a turn based 3D tactical level war simulation. The first generation engine (CMx1) had 3 different releases, each improved substantially over the previous release in game play:
Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (CMBO)
Combat Mission: From Barbarossa to Berlin (CMBB)
Combat Mission: Afrika Korps (CMAK)
The last of them (CMAK) was released 3 years ago. So it is indeed an old game. Yet, it is a game I kept playing for all these years.

The version I have is CMBB, which cover the entire eastern front from 1941 to the end of war (1945). There are many good things about this game, I do not want to waste my time to rewrite them again, instead, please refer to its own website:
CMBB/CMAK bundle

For me, the #1 striking point is the accuracy of the engine. This means two things: a) its OOB (Order of Battle) is thoroughly researched and based on accurate historical accounts, which is very impressive: when playing the game in different time, different threater, you DO get the feeling of being in that historical setup.
2) its TACAI (tactical AI) is relatively well-designed. I will write more in details about this TACAI below. But for now, it simply means that your units, for example, a panzershrecker, would behave pretty much exactly like a panzershrecker in the battle as you would expect: a more experienced one would fire the shot at better times and location and more accurate and deadly. At the same time, he himself will be less likely suppressed by enemy fire. But he won't have a strong ability to go against enemy SMG squads although he would offer a final hand-to-hand struggle at the end, if he was still alive by then. A green (less experienced) T34 would panic before a Tiger, yet a green Tiger might panic too, if surrounded by 4 experienced and fast moving T34 from all directions. And so and so forth... Isn't this exciting to a wargamer? Well, I do not know about you, I was excited at the first glance ... all the way till today. :)

The #2 (actually as strong as #1) striking point is the mechanism of a "TURN" in CMx1 engine. A turn in CM is defined by a minute in real life. A human vs. human game goes the following way:
1) at the beginning of a turn (a minute of combat time), player1 plots his moves of all his units for the next minute.

2) player 2 plots her moves of all her units for the next minute.

3) player 2's computer will calculate the outcome of this next minute of combat. (TAC AI) If this is a Play By Email (PBEM) game, a file is saved before player2 can view the results. If this is a real time connection between the two players (TCP/IP play), then both players will immediately be able to review this result at the same time. The result will be exibited in the following way:

4) (in a PBEM setup, which most games are in such ways) Player 2 will send Player 1 the file. Then player 1 enters his password and open the turn and view the "movie" ---- yes, it is a movie of 1 minute length, not merely some dices thrown and some1 died and some tanks blown up. No, that is not the way TAC AI works. TAC AI actually orders the units move according to your orders (you have complex list of all kinds of military orders, just imagine what a company commander would tell his soldiers to do. You are the commander, and the TAC AI is the brain of your little soldiers on the virtual battlefield.). Shots are being fired and hits scored. Every single shots are calculated individually by realistic physical models, i.e., a Tiger firing at a JS2 is NOT a dice toss, no. Instead, a Tiger will really fire an AP (armor piercing) shell from its deadly 88mm main gun and the shell will fly through the air according to the wind and/or rain condition of the enviornment with a real physical trajecture to the target. It may or may not hit. Even if it landed at the armor of the target, the exact spot of hit is also being calculated, the angle at which the shell hits the armor, the depth of the armor at that spot, the quality of the armor at that spot ...etc.. are all calculated accordingly, and then the TAC AI will decide whether the shell will successfully penetrate the armor of JS2 and whether it will further knock out the tank. Small arm fires are modelled slightly differently. But all major gun fires are modelled this way, including mortar fires. So do not be surprised if one lucky shot from enemy 81mm mortar fly right into the open top of your Su76 assault gun and knocks it out! (of course the worst thing is that mortar shell isn't really from the enemy, instead, it is from your own dudes. This happened to me in real game against others! )

5) Ok, now you watched enough movie (which you can replay infinitely many times as long as you want), you clicked ok, and the file is saved again and now it is your turn to send this file back to your opponent player 2.

6) Player 2 would view the same movie from her perspective (she will see different things from what you see --- you can only see what your units can see). And then a new turn begins. Repeat 1 ~ 6, until battle concludes in the end.

I love this mechanism, I LOVE it! It is called "WEGO" system. It is a huge step forward from the traditional "IGO UGO" system (which is I plot the moves and then have the computer run and see the results and send it to you and then you do the same. That way, you can replay the same turn as many times as you want, until you are satisfied with the results. Of course, this is not "supposed" to be the case, but hell, who is going to garantee that for you? ). There is literally no way to cheat in this turn based system. (Unless you spent rediculous amount of time to crack the encrypted code or figure out your opponent's password or something. But that is out of question)

The whole game incorporated fun game play, not-too-bad 3D graphics (comparing to other wargames, I would say, the graphics in CMBB is wonderful!) and highly secure and competitive human-vs.-human feature into one package. It is a animated ches*****oard with historical stories ---- it is as challenging as chess, yet it is as entertaining as a movie (a WWII movie though :D ).

If you are history buff (esp. WWII dude) and a chess lover, you will probably like this game. (the only warning is that the learning curve of this game is a bit steep. :( ... well, same thing for chess, right? :) )