Pretty damn awesome I might add too... much has improved since the Shock Force days, which I still thought was good, but this is much better. I really really wish for a Cold War US vs USSR, but I guess this will do.

Now this is just from the training campaign missions... without reading or even opening the manual, just going on history... much to learn still, especially with all the support options.

Wow I can not wait to get this and get some games going Magnum!!

Love the Combat Mission games. Got all their WWII releases, but will hold off on this one until they get some UK forces involved.

Wow great shots!
I am still on the eternal download :/

Nice shots, my first download failed after 30mins and 700MB, restarted it and it's going really fast now maxing my download bandwidth.

Looking good. I'm a big fan of the CM series but have to admit I'm struggling a bit with the modern releases.

Thinking about getting this as it looks pretty cool. Am normally not much of a ground war guy so not sure yet. May be too tactically inept for it haha.

On the fence!

Looks like CMRT with new color sprites/overlays.

It'll probably be real fun then!

I went ahead and bought it hehe
Now running the download overnight on my super slow connection. Hope to fire it up tomorrow.

Awesomesauce!! Now to download it!!

Damn, with DCS FC3, Elite: Dangerous, and all other new games.... hahaha... PC gaming is dead! Yeah right!

Range Day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hkw5HWso3lE

Great vid Mags. Buying this tomorrow, it's now available on download only

part 2... no clue what I was doing with the air support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeIW_V1ZHQs

Sadly still unable to finish a download. Now on my fifth attempt. I wish they would offer a torrent or a split series of files to help people like me with a not super fast connection to their servers.

Download manager doesn't work either so have to start over at 0% each time it fails
Quite frustrating.

Did they finally fix the air support UI, so you can actually select what ordinance you want to call for rather then just light, medium, heavy?

-Jenrick

No... still light, medium, heavy.

Some things are missing. No dcpim artillery. No bm-21 grad. No cluster munitions for aircraft.

I'd imagine that it was a game design decision to omit DPICM, rocket artillery, MLRS and cluster munitions due to the scale of forces usually seen in Combat Mission and the map sizes.

It would only take a couple of attacks to destroy the opponents entire force.

Finally got it downloaded. Screenshot from the tutorial:



Is there anyway to completely hide the UI for screens? I disabled Icons and Locations and hit text for this one but would be nice to hide everything.

No way to hide the ui unfortunately, unless they have added it. Check the key commands.

Enjoyed playing around with the new weapon systems in the tutorial mission. Love the TOW, got a shot on a tank at the other end of the range

Nope... I've been asking since the beginning for a toggle key to turn off everything for great screens and videos, guess not important enough.

but I am LOVING the new CM.


(Still want a cold war one Battlefront! Been asking for that since Shock Force. )

Yeah loving the TOW and the Javelin, the presence of ATGMs really reduce the relative safety of armored units even at range compared to the WWII games.

I haven't found a way to turn off the UI for screenshots, but you can at least:
ALT-I turns unit icons off and on
ALT-H turns vehicle hit text off and on

For anyone with a GTX 970 or 980, I found that the nvidia DSR feature (at 3200x1800) really works well to make Black Sea graphics look good.

be sure to check out the reactive armor.

I've never played any CM games, but this thread has me inspired to check out shock force and black sea.

Nice shots of an Abrams SEP threading the needle and killing a T90.

"On the way!!!"






"Your smoke won't help you now Ivan!"

nice

Russian MBT learns how sharp the US M982 Excalibur Precision Artillery Round is!

Nice shots!

I would really like some of those graphic mods, especially the explosions and smoke... but trying to get them seems confusing and difficult over at Battlefront.

The easy way to install the mods is to create a 'Z' directory in your "Data" directory, and then unzip any of the mods into that directory.

Seems to work fine for me so far, here's a screenshot in case it helps:



Some excellent modders already producing great stuff over there on Battlefront

Ya, I know how to do it... just can't find working links... too popular.

Yes this is the same way I do it.

Chris over at Battlefront posted that they are working on the CM:BS repository on the website where all the mods will be available just like in their past games. Should be up within the next week or so.

copy, thx.

With the exchange rate, this game is going to cost me over $70 CDN. Would you say it's worth the $70?

only if your into the series, and like the modern stuff... imo, it's the best so far.

how does it compare to the Wargame series?

Completely different games IMO. The easiest analogy would be CM:BS = ARMA and Wargame = Call of Duty. Both good games in their own right, but where CM is more grounded in the "realism" side and WG is more on the "game" side. I personally like both games and play each but for different reasons. I play CM for my tactical/strategic/realisim fix and WG for when I just want a quick in and out game where I can blow stuff up.

I'm already bored with it.

It's a mod for the Combat Mission 2.0 engine, the same that was used with Shock Force many years ago.

If you're accustomed to the smoothness of the IrisZoom game engine you will be severely disappointed. In comparison, Combat Mission is bulky and outdated. They still haven't gotten shadows to work correctly.

There at no logistics in CM, but ballistics and weapon models are more realistic.

Battles are smaller, with larger battle being a nightmare to manage. You give orders at the squad level and cannot give precise group orders.

Edit: I've seen a few very nice AARs for Black Sea, but in every case i feel a sense that the author is playing their own game, a different CMBS than I'm playing. Each AAR has had a fictionalized back story imposed by the author with a narrative suspense, more creative than the game could ever offer.I just don't see it; I don't see how CMBS is any different than any of the other games (mods) that have been released.




Just curious as to why people think ArmA is realistic. I'd say it's on par with Call of Duty.

That's just my opinion, after 3 deployments to the Middle East.

Arma provides far more opportunity and scope to apply real world tactics and use of weapons than Call of Duty. Especially with the right mods.

That's the reason people say it's more realistic.

From my amateur play of both series:
Wargame focuses on great graphics and fun action more like a traditional RTS game.

Combat Mission has outdated graphics but focuses on detailed systems modeling of units, supply, communication and morale, and offers a great turn based WEGO model more like a traditional hardcore table miniatures wargame with lots of rules.

They are two good very differently focused series, I'm not even sure they should be compared against each other, sort of like comparing Company of Heroes to Steel Panthers.

I enjoy both depending on my wargaming mood, I just wish Combat Mission had Wargame's graphics, and Wargame had CM's detailed systems modeling and turn based mode.

Oh ok.

The ArmA base game is basically just Ww2 with different skins. No fire control systems in aircraft or vehicles, or accurate ballistics or damage modelling.

^ This. In the end they are all "technically" games, some are more focused on portraying "realism" than others. Obviously it goes without saying that nothing can 100% simulate actual combat other than actual combat. I understand that Devs need to have gameplay decisions that affect their product in order to appease the masses of gamers out there. I too have several deployments under my belt and to be honest I would hate to play a "game/sim" that faithfully recreated my military experiences. Not that it was bad or un-exciting, just that it was always 5% exciting stuff vs. 95% boring stuff. Imagine a game where you sat around in the Battalion Motor Pool PMCS-ing your Brad and laying out your TA-50 for the upcoming Change of Command Ceremony for the first 12 hours of the game.

You can also hide some of the text at the top of screen when pausing the game by pressing Shift + Esc.

The countless number of changes that have been made to the game since it was first released as CMSF hardly make the game out to be just a mod.