Quick Question: Combat Mission Beyond Overlord

Worthplaying? Saw it at Gamestop for 9.99, but couldn't remember any reviews for it. Seems like a deep turnbased WWII sim.

This is the first of this series and still a favorite for
many. It''s a ''classic'' to say the least and if you have
never played any of these, well worth the price
(although I think they packaged the first two together,
but I can''t remember the price. I''m sure it''s nowhere
near how cheap this is).

The game is truly awesome still. 3D train, real
LOS etc. When we were waiting for this to come
out a few year''s ago, there were some awesome
AAR''s from beta player''s that had us all going nuts

Anyway, you really can''t go wrong with that price
imho. AND if you have a pal, have him get one too
and play each other thru email. It''s set-up quite
nicely for that. See more at battlefront.com and
the many forums on each game there (and do a
search in this games forum''s to check out some
AAR''s).

"Donan" wrote:

This is the first of this series and still a favorite for
many. It''s a ''classic'' to say the least and if you have
never played any of these, well worth the price
(although I think they packaged the first two together,
but I can''t remember the price. I''m sure it''s nowhere
near how cheap this is).

The game is truly awesome still. 3D train, real
LOS etc. When we were waiting for this to come
out a few year''s ago, there were some awesome
AAR''s from beta player''s that had us all going nuts

Anyway, you really can''t go wrong with that price
imho. AND if you have a pal, have him get one too
and play each other thru email. It''s set-up quite
nicely for that. See more at battlefront.com and
the many forums on each game there (and do a
search in this games forum''s to check out some
AAR''s).

Thanks. The box said it has something like 100 missions, which makes me think this might be the complete copy.

Mmmm.. must bookmark that. I like TBS and can''t abide RTS''s. Thanks for bringing it up!

I think you are right. They added the patches and many
of the communities mod''s and scenarios when they
republished it. So this is indeed and awesome buy.

Check out http://battlefront.com tho'', even after
the purchase. Sometimes the discussion''s are
as interesting as any history buff of WW II would
want. Some very knowledgeable folks over there.

I was a big Squad Leader player in my boardgame days, and CM is as close as anyone ever has come to that game. I''ve had it on my hard drive since the day it came out.

Great game, great price. And it''s easy to find new scenarios, *and* it''s got a random or partly-random scenario generator built in. But the best part is...There are two sequels, each of which not only adds new areas and forces, but improves the game as well.

Hard to beat for overall wargaming goodness.

Robear

Great game. One of the few games I still play almost every day thanks to the PBEM feature.

The Combat Mission series is definitely worth a look unless you happen to absolutely dislike military strategy games. Of course, you could always head over to FileShack and the like to grab one of the demos, but at $10 there''s not a lot to be done wrong.

Tons of great scenarios online made by real grognards. A great game. I have all of the Combat Missions and play them still. There is a scenario for CMBB called ""Backs against the Volga"" that to date is the absolute best wargame scenario I have ever played. It was a scenario made by a fan.

I can highly recommend it.
Its deep.
Theres tons of stuff going on behind the scenes. For instance the armor values don''t just consider thickness, but also slope and location on the vehicle.
Just knowing that that stuff is going on while I''m playing gives me a warm fuzzy.

For 9.99 get it and enjoy. It and it''s follow ons are excellent. Warning: they are deep, tactical games and can be very daunting and time consuming.

Check out ""Boots and Tracks"" and the wargamer scenario depot for descriptions of some scenarios available to play.

Thanks for the info guys. I picked this up, and started playing with it. I say with it, because the AI is obviously well out of my league, since it kicked my ass ON THE TUTORIAL.

Other than the dated graphics and sounds, I have to say, looks to be a winner, if one hell of a challenge.

When you are ready for PBEM, there are about a half dozen GWJ Grognards that will take you to school.

One last: The best way to win in this game is as in real life: Localized fire superiority and a flanking movement.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

When you are ready for PBEM, there are about a half dozen GWJ Grognards that will take you to school.

One last: The best way to win in this game is as in real life: Localized fire superiority and a flanking movement.

Got it.

I have to say, this is as close to a computerized Avalon Hill game I''ve ever seen. Like playing Squad Leader.

Which is kind of funny, because from my understanding it was originally supposed to be advanced squad leader(I think). But the creaters and whoever owned avalon hill at the time had a falling out, and we got CM.
(Oh and if you want challenge from a ""grognard"" that won''t kick your ass send me a pm )
((Because I''m not very good))

CM is a revelation. After you get used to it, your WWII tactical game standards shoot through the sky, and you start sneering at other, less sophisticated wargames. It''s almost a pre-requisite for calling yourself a gaming Grognard.

Robear

"phragged" wrote:

Which is kind of funny, because from my understanding it was originally supposed to be advanced squad leader(I think). But the creaters and whoever owned avalon hill at the time had a falling out, and we got CM.
(Oh and if you want challenge from a ""grognard"" that won''t kick your ass send me a pm )
((Because I''m not very good))

I''m going to play through the first 5 missions to get the feel for it, then, I''ll take you up on that!

Not so much a falling out as a complete failure of management at Avalon Hill. They pulled out of the project, thinking it was not ""ASL enough"" and went on to self-design and publish complete poop. Meanwhile, the game went on to redefine computer wargaming. There were (are?) a number of scenarios that were exact replicas of ASL scenarios, down to the numbers, but AH, citing the ""sour grapes"" clause of business law, threatened anyone who made them, so they stopped openly naming them for the ASL scenarios they are made from. You may still be able to find some.
Also, there are a TON of graphical mods for CMBO that will make the game look great. Everything from vehcles to terrain, even explosion art. I find it makes my Shermans getting blown up more palatable when it is a pretty explosion....

"SwampYankee" wrote:

Not so much a falling out as a complete failure of management at Avalon Hill. They pulled out of the project, thinking it was not ""ASL enough"" and went on to self-design and publish complete poop. Meanwhile, the game went on to redefine computer wargaming. There were (are?) a number of scenarios that were exact replicas of ASL scenarios, down to the numbers, but AH, citing the ""sour grapes"" clause of business law, threatened anyone who made them, so they stopped openly naming them for the ASL scenarios they are made from. You may still be able to find some.
Also, there are a TON of graphical mods for CMBO that will make the game look great. Everything from vehcles to terrain, even explosion art. I find it makes my Shermans getting blown up more palatable when it is a pretty explosion.... :)

OK, so where should I look to update the graphics?

so where should I look to update the graphics?

Yeah I would appreciate some guidence in that respect.
I looked into it, but there are so many different textures and sound files by a lot of different people, I had no idea what to install.

http://www.combatmission.com/MDMP/mdmp.asp

This is pretty much the authoritive place for CMBO mods, and they have some good scenarios for all of the games.

http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/cmmos.asp

This is a Mod management file that I never used, but that many of the CMBO fans liked allot.

They have some mods for BB and AK, but personally, I think the models in those two are good enough and don''t need to be tweaked.

"SwampYankee" wrote:

http://www.combatmission.com/MDMP/mdmp.asp

This is pretty much the authoritive place for CMBO mods, and they have some good scenarios for all of the games.

http://www.combatmission.com/cmmos/cmmos.asp

This is a Mod management file that I never used, but that many of the CMBO fans liked allot.

They have some mods for BB and AK, but personally, I think the models in those two are good enough and don''t need to be tweaked.

Swampy, thanks for the links. I''ll check them out when I get home.

Now, can you mod out the audio? Maybe I''ll just mute it ingame, and put something suitable martial in winamp-KMFDM, Rammstein, etc....

Yes, there are some audio mods, but I never played with them as I found they were more than sufficient for my tastes. Keep in mind to that when you are watching the ""combat movies"" (action phas), that what the troops are yelling out is relevent to their morale and current actions, which may chenge from your orders given the TAC AI. If you change them, you would miss the cues.

In CMAK, when a US rifle squad is firing, they even have the distinctive ""ting"" of the empty M-1 clips being ejected. Cool. Well, cool for nerds...

"SwampYankee" wrote:

Yes, there are some audio mods, but I never played with them as I found they were more than sufficient for my tastes. Keep in mind to that when you are watching the ""combat movies"" (action phas), that what the troops are yelling out is relevent to their morale and current actions, which may chenge from your orders given the TAC AI. If you change them, you would miss the cues.

In CMAK, when a US rifle squad is firing, they even have the distinctive ""ting"" of the empty M-1 clips being ejected. Cool. Well, cool for nerds...

Doesn''t the planning interface give you those clues (Panic, Broken, Routed)?

Yes, it does. When I watch the action phase, when the yelling changes in relation to where guys are and what they are doing gives me some feedback on whether my orders were good, in as much as moving to avoid enemy fire, etc. Although you can have specific units highlighted in action phase and learn that too.