I've never tried this series, but I'm intrigued.
In general, I steer away from real time stuffIs this a play style I should look into? Is it tactically fun wargame, or more like a FPS with control taken one step back?
Hi Sim,
This thing is a hybridized turn-based/real time tactical scale wargame. One issues orders to his various units hits the "go" button and
everything plays out in a one minute phase. It can be played against the computer AI, or TCP/IP (live, directly connected to another
guy's box) or even PBEM. (Play by electronic mail.) It's also got a built in editor so one can make up their own battles and
terrains from scratch. There are hundreds of user made scenarios availlable as well as hundreds of graphical and audio mods.
The latter two WW2 oriented games in the series, CM: Afrika Korps and CM: Beyond Barbarossa are much more robust
than the original, Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. But, for whatever reason, the original is the one I find myself
playing the most.
It's not a 'real time' clickfest at all.
The coolest part for me of the game is that there is the ability to replay the "film" of each turn from virtually ANY part of the
battlefield and from any perspective. For example, say you're watchin' the turn play out and while you're watching one of
your squads attack an enemy machine gun section, you may hear an explostion and wonder what it was as it occured
out of your field of vision, or on a part of the battlefield you currently cannot see. In Combat Mission, you can "rewind" the
play of that turn and find out just what happened and see it unforld exactly as it did the first time; from the perspective
of the tank commander whose tank just got shredded or the German grenadier who just panzerfausted it.
There's never been a finer wargame series made, period.
