No thanks Battlefront
Battlefront has been producing wargames for over a decade now, Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord (CMBO) was one of thier greatest gaming achievements. Combat Mission Battle for Normandy (CMBN) is considered CMx2 or understandibly the follow up to the award winning first game. CMBO back in 1999 came out with an abundance of scenarios, campaigns, extensive units, editor that was easy to use and make more battles and campaigns and followed the WW2 timeline of June 6 1944 to the capture of Berlin or Victory in Europe. It was a game that kept players happy for a long time playing and creating.
Now they make thier sequel that only follows a small portion of the WW2 battles in Normandy; 3 months, from June to August 1944. They don't include Canadian, British, Polish or free French forces like they did in CMBO they only include USA. That could be dealt with but they keep falling short again and again. They don't include German Paratroopers, strange, because Carentan one of the bigger or more well known battles after DDAY was held by German FJ's so the need to include them in this core release is necessary.
The lack of that Carentan scenario or campaign or the ability to supply the proper troop types is redundant though because the editor that came with the game is so difficult to use that only the most patient and ambitious will use it. There is real lack of scenarios or campaigns to play so making more is almost a necessity; its very difficult and perplexing to use unlike the editor with CMBO which you could easily jump in and use.
Another thing that I thought I'd mention; there is no scenario or the ability to make a scenario of the beach landings? Uh, hello? It's a game about June to August of D-Day from the American prospective, why wouldn't the ability to play Omaha or one of the other landings be made or edited? Battlefront did this with the original CMBO also, there excuse ---- It would not be fun, it's to hard or it was only small part of the war, WHAT? So anyway, the playerbase complain but deals with it, 10 years go by and they still can't do it in the sequel. Pathetic!
There are positives of course, the game is still fun and will improve over time as Battlefront releases more content. Thier already making Commonweath forces that will include Market Garden but will still only take you a few more months into the "real" battle for Normandy. Battlefront intends to make you make pay for everything over time and milk you for as much as they can instead of putting out a quality product like they did 10 years ago. I'm assuming after Commonwealth forces you'll see Battle of the Bulge and then Battle for Berlin. If they add the Eastern Front, Italy/Sicily and the African Front you could easily be paying a fortune to play.
Combat Mission Beyond Overlord came out over 10 years ago and was a great accomplishment with tons of content to keep you happy and busy. They followed up with two expansions; one on the Eastern Front and one in Africa that were also very good. Now they put out the sequel that doesn't even come anywhere close to satisfactory. By the time you pay into thier "just another module BS" you'll be paying four or five times the price of a game that could easily have been done just as it was 10 years ago; an excellent game instead of a big disappointment.
No thanks Battlefront, if I could get my money back from your game and return it i surely would.