Rating: 
Summary: State of the Art
Review: Rated 3 for fun, and 5 for overall value.
Prospective buyers are urged to check out the reviews of professional game reviewers for an indepth look at this game. I liked the game well enough to design several scenarios for it, which are included on this retail version, so take my comments with that in mind.
Combat Mission marks a new state of the art in computer wargaming. This game can best be likened to the old Squad Leader and ASL systems that many wargamers grew up playing from 1977 and on into the 1990s. Apparently some people still pull out the maps and counters and ten pounds of rules, but for many of us, CM is a fine substitute.
This game is superior to Close Combat and Steel Panthers in many ways. Firstly, the 3D world makes the action seem much less like a board game. Bear in mind the graphics are dated and clunky, but there are some pretty immersive effects as well, such as camera shake and tracer effects. The game itself is played, however, in simultaneous turns - an innovative method that was attempted by some board games but considered tedious. CC relied on real time which represented an unrealistic burden on a player forced to give orders to large numbers of units without pause; SP relied on alternating turns and allowed artificial methods of drawing fire and other "gamey" play. Both games relied on a dull top-down view of the proceedings.
Where CM shines is in replayability - with an ability to create random battles and maps at the click of a mouse. The scenario designer is given complete freedom to make use of any of the ingame resources to create situations of his choosing.
Drawbacks are lack of a campaign and no ability to import maps and men from one battle to the next with ease. Also, some interface problems, such as lack of convoy movement for vehicles.
Most realistic armour modelling ever attempted in a computer game, with realistic ballistics and penetration info.
Fully moddable sound and graphics, and can be done without special software of any kind.
Overall, the best tactical level WW II game on the market, and perhaps ever to see the light of day to this point in time.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent turn-based tactical wargaming
Review: The Combat Mission series is the best turn-based tactical level WWII simulation out there, hands down. What makes the game engine unique is the "we-go" design, where each side plots orders for their units and then the turn is resolved simultaneously, which can be viewed as a movie. The game has a tactical level artificial intelligence that allows for units to make intelligent decisions during the course of turn based on input from their environment. For instance, if you order a T34 tank to advance over the crest of hill and during the course of the turn the T-34 spots a Tiger tank in the distance, chances are the T-34 will quickly reverse behind the crest to save itself.The level of technical detail is truely top notch and Battlefront took a lot of input from military experts and hard-core wargamers to develop accurate models. The graphics are good, but not comparable to some real-time games on the market. But the emphasis of this game is realism, strategy and tactics - not arcade psuedo history shoot em up. An excellent scenario editor provides longevity to the game and hundres of customers publish custom scenarios. Buying this game is money well spent!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent turn-based tactical wargaming
Review: The Combat Mission series is the best turn-based tactical level WWII simulation out there, hands down. What makes the game engine unique is the "we-go" design, where each side plots orders for their units and then the turn is resolved simultaneously, which can be viewed as a movie. The game has a tactical level artificial intelligence that allows for units to make intelligent decisions during the course of turn based on input from their environment. For instance, if you order a T34 tank to advance over the crest of hill and during the course of the turn the T-34 spots a Tiger tank in the distance, chances are the T-34 will quickly reverse behind the crest to save itself. The level of technical detail is truely top notch and Battlefront took a lot of input from military experts and hard-core wargamers to develop accurate models. The graphics are good, but not comparable to some real-time games on the market. But the emphasis of this game is realism, strategy and tactics - not arcade psuedo history shoot em up. An excellent scenario editor provides longevity to the game and hundres of customers publish custom scenarios. Buying this game is money well spent!
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: The game is excellent, if your into the whole turn based strategy game elements. The historical accuracy is one of the highest aspects of this game, ranging from different values of armour depending on years and months as well as equipment for different nations and dates. There are mainly two different play types. A scenerio, and an operation. A scenerio can have up to 10 to 40 turns of combat, meaning while a Operation can have between 1 and 100 battles! It is truly excellent for those who wish to play for days, or even half an hour depending on what you want. Custom scenerio building is very excellent, giving even the most simple of you gamers out there the power to build an entire battlefield within the game itself. No extra programs, no extra hassles, just pure fun. The action is intense and sometimes even scary when you watch your defense line crumble under a computers, or another players, attack. Or exciting when your chasing the enemy's troops back towards their own. The manual is excellent, giving you a massive outlook on all of the hard work and dedication the designers put into the research. All of the pages are filled with detailed info and helpful hints. AS well, it explains some of the games concepts in a clear manner. The graphics, while not on par with such high rest super games, are great for what the game is about. The main focus on this game is gameplay, not graphics. But even so, the graphics are still really good when you watch a battle between 40 soldiers and several tanks crashing into eachother. It gives you so many options, and the skins for soldiers and tanks are very editable, as well as the sounds. Meaning that uniform nuts and bolt-heads will go nuts trying to reskin every detail into a simple .bmp. If your still unsure, try the demo at www.battlefront.com.
Rating:
Summary: This Is It
Review: This is the best tactical level wargame for the modern period on the market. The only close rivals are East Front and the Close Combat series and CCBB is a huge advance over either of these. My criteria for judging what purports to be a serious wargame is whether you can learn anything useful from it and whether what you do know about the tactics of the period can be employed to advantage. CCMB gets top marks in both areas. Others have commented on how well armored conflict is captured. I'm mainly into infantry myself, and here infantry and artillery get equally realistic and thoughtful treatment. On the defense, fortications are available including bunkers, pillboxes, wire, and mines. Siting your heavy machine guns to fire across the front instead of straight ahead pays off. Platoon size counterattacks are often rewarded. Ambushes can be realistically constructed. You can impose fire discipline on your troops such that they wait until the enemy is very close instead of burning all their limited ammunition at 500 yards. When attacking, you had better have flank security. You will appreciate the importance of having certain units "take the point" to avoid ambush. Fresh reserves can tip the balance for the attacker. There is a time to have some units provide covering fire while others cautiously advance. There is a time to flood the enemy's position with your troops in a headlong rush. Realistic artillery tactics apply. You want to rush the enemy's positions before they can recover from a barrage. Go in too quick and you will catch friendly fire. Artillery can be bore-sighted (pre-registered)for instant delivery instead of waiting 2 to 10 minutes for the request to go up the chain of command.
Use your mortars to cover a gap in the defense the infantry can't reach. On and on it goes. Strongpoint defense or continuous line ala Marine Corps in WWII? Watch green crews abandon otherwise functioning tanks. Shouldn't the captain be placed near the conscripts to steady them? Advanced squad leader computerized with animation. This is it. At last.
Rating:
Summary: This Is It
Review: This is the best tactical level wargame for the modern period on the market. The only close rivals are East Front and the Close Combat series and CCBB is a huge advance over either of these. My criteria for judging what purports to be a serious wargame is whether you can learn anything useful from it and whether what you do know about the tactics of the period can be employed to advantage. CCMB gets top marks in both areas. Others have commented on how well armored conflict is captured. I'm mainly into infantry myself, and here infantry and artillery get equally realistic and thoughtful treatment. On the defense, fortications are available including bunkers, pillboxes, wire, and mines. Siting your heavy machine guns to fire across the front instead of straight ahead pays off. Platoon size counterattacks are often rewarded. Ambushes can be realistically constructed. You can impose fire discipline on your troops such that they wait until the enemy is very close instead of burning all their limited ammunition at 500 yards. When attacking, you had better have flank security. You will appreciate the importance of having certain units "take the point" to avoid ambush. Fresh reserves can tip the balance for the attacker. There is a time to have some units provide covering fire while others cautiously advance. There is a time to flood the enemy's position with your troops in a headlong rush. Realistic artillery tactics apply. You want to rush the enemy's positions before they can recover from a barrage. Go in too quick and you will catch friendly fire. Artillery can be bore-sighted (pre-registered)for instant delivery instead of waiting 2 to 10 minutes for the request to go up the chain of command.
Use your mortars to cover a gap in the defense the infantry can't reach. On and on it goes. Strongpoint defense or continuous line ala Marine Corps in WWII? Watch green crews abandon otherwise functioning tanks. Shouldn't the captain be placed near the conscripts to steady them? Advanced squad leader computerized with animation. This is it. At last.
Rating:
Summary: Finaly a game for all you SL/ASL fans out there
Review: This is the game you SL/ASL fans have been waiting for since PCs became common. The above reviewers of "childish graphics" is not true. The engine is a bit dated by 'todays' standards, but still is not at
all bad graphically. With the plentiful mods out there, it nearly lives up to todays standards.
But the real reason to get the game is the realism of the combat.
There are no health bars on tanks, no twitching RTS fastest mouse
wins. It's a thinking mans game.
So if you liked SL/ASL or any otehr WW2 game on that scale, get this game, and the soon to be released CM: Afrika Corps.
Rating:
Summary: Best tactical level wargame series
Review: This is the second of three "Combat Mission" releases by independently-minded designers Battlefront.com, the other two being "Beyond Overlord" (the first one) and "Afrika Korps" (this year's release). Battlefront is now working on a new engine for a future series. "Barbarossa" is the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945, which starts in the first days of the Russian Campaign and also includes last-ditch scenarios in the ruins of Germany. The first release, "Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord" acquired cult status among wargamers several years ago as a revolutionary design in tactical-level wargaming, with its 3-D cinematic graphics (like the "Total War" games), the merging of real time movement with UGO-WEGO (moves are selected, followed by a 1 minute "movie" of the resulting action viewable from every angle), and decent AI on both a unit and operational level. "Overlord" was for a long time available only by mail, and spread by word of mouth. Unlike a pure real-time system, the Combat Mission system slices a battle into one minute turns. This seems at first blush to be less realistic than real-time, but after a while, I beleive it is actually more real since it punishes bad guesses and allows for excellent ambush possibilities. On the battlefield, armor crews are just not going to react that quickly as they do in the "Close Combat" games. Its amazing how quickly things can go wrong in 60 seconds. Also, it's a handy design for a simple "hot seat" one-on-one. Units are on the squad level with individual vehicles and guns. Armor and weapons modeling are as faithful as you see anywhere (there is a separate sound file for each as well). The battle "movies" are immersive and lend themselves well to headphones or cranked up speakers. How did you lose three tanks in five seconds while looking somewhere else? Just reverse the movie and play it back from a different angle. Hitting "shift" conjures up the dense background information on each weapons system. Replay ability is huge, and there are new levels of complexity and tactics to explore. Tigers are sure fun but bog down easily. Russian tanks are plentiful but take ages to respond to new orders (reflecing lack of radio), panic easily, and not as accurate. (You can even learn about optical systems). In 1941, the Russian T34s and KV-1s were the best around, but are very hard to manage, especially when isolated. And yes, there is a "human wave" option for Russians (ooohrah!). A few find fault with graphics, which are circa 2001 and clearly outdated as compared to Battlefield 1942. But this is a real thinking wargame, not "Halo" with grunts. The terrain modeling is fair, but heck, its the tanks that matter, and these are lovingly animated. The soldiers are more abstract and walk like stick men, but who cares? This is a clearly superior series to the more commercial "Close Combat." Other recommended war games: the other two Combat Missions: "Overlord" and "Afrika Korps", Matrix's "Korsun Pocket" (operational, turn based) and the "Total War" series (merging grand strategy with tactical ancient combat).
Rating:
Summary: Don't mind the graphics
Review: When I played the demo the major turn off for me was the graphics, only three men to a squad was just one of the things. Well, after wasting my money on games like G.I. Combat I wish I would have just bought this game in the first place. Most of these other reviews are spot on; if you're tired of standard RTS wargames and want to try something different, BUY THIS GAME.
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