Finally, a war game that perfectly melds strategy, tactics and action. A truly revolutionary game.
When you think of pc wargames images of hexes and counters come to mind. Basically a board game transposed to a pc screen.
Well Combat Mission chucks that out, brings in the miniatures but does it one better! The soldiers, tanks, and half tracks all move, shoot , fall and die or explode.
But, this ain't no RTS clickfest. There is sound strategic planning involved, line of sight issues are at play, the armor thickness of the tanks and vehicles are all accurately modeled, as well as the ballistics of the armaments. Combat Mission has all the trappings that would please a grognard, but what makes this game special is what happens next. After all the planning, you hit the end turn button and your orders are played out in real time along with your opponent's orders. What you get is one minute of action that you can only watch play out. And what a nail biting minute it can be. Will your orders be carried out perfectly or will things go totally fubar.
I'll never forget at the Battle of Arnhem scenario where I was trying to get my mg trooper to cover in a church. He runs across an open field evading all kinds of fire, and just when he's about to get to the building a lone soldier pops out from behind a bush and guns him down. Ouch, but what a moment.
This is one extremely entertaining wargame. Something I could never really say of any game in this genre before Combat Mission along.