Hello there!
First thing is first. Before playing Combat Mission FORGET everything you have ever learned from wargames of the past. It will only serve as a quick lesson in how to lose units unnecessarily. Instead, play CM with the greatest degree of intuition and application of real life tactics as you can. If you think something should work from a realistic standpoint, try it. If you think something should work simply because it works in other games, don't try it. This is no overstatement. We ourselves have lost MANY King Tigers and Panthers before we learned this lesson!!
Combat Mission is intuitive enough that not much instruction is needed for general game play. However, there are dozens and dozens of cool features lurking beneath the surface that are not mentioned in this documentation. If you don't think some critical aspect of warfare is simulated, or question how we simulated something, you are welcome to check out our discussion forum to get more info. All we ask is that you use the BBS' "search" feature first. There are now over 10,000 posts that cover most aspects of Combat Mission, both obvious and obscure.
Wait for the page to load and click on "Discuss" in the lefthand frame. Please remember that we are no looking for bug reports, only discussion of the game itself. However, if you have hardware conflicts there is a thread entitled "Demo Driver Conflicts" where you can post to.
Beta Demo vs. Final
Starting Up a Game
Navigating In the Game
Accessing Unit Info
Winning/Losing The Game
Orders
Unit Experience
Unit Morale
Unit Fatigue
Splitting Units
Casualties
Command & Control
Headquarters
Leaders
Ambushing
Armor Penetration
Chance of a Kill
This section helps you understand the very basic elements of starting up a game of Combat Mission.
Combat Mission is still BETA by our definition. Although many things have been extensively tweaked, no values or graphics are final yet. However, this Beta Demo does show you the depth and richness of CM. It also shows that form and function can coexist in the same package, giving you unparalleled realism and a rich graphical and audio experience. And dare we say that Combat Mission is also fun? Yes we do :-)
We have obviously limited what is in the Beta Demo. Here is a short list of some of the features that await you in the full, final version:
OK, so when is the final version going to be released? When it is done, and not before. When is that? Hopefully before the end of the year. Trust us, nobody wants this to happen more than us, but we refuse to boot our hard work out the door before it is ready simply to shave a couple of weeks off.
Double click on the Combat Mission application. When the main menu screen loads, click on "Play Scenario", an Open dialog will come up, and you will see two files. These are the two, fictional battles included with the Beta Demo. "Riesberg.cmb" is a US attack, "Rearguard.cmb" has the Germans on the attack. Chose one or the other, read the Scenario Briefing, select the side, read a side specific Combat Briefing, and there you go!
The game starts out with you looking at the battlefield from a predetermined viewpoint. The map and/or your forces are spread out before you, ready to be placed on the battlefield. Before you can proceed with getting your units set for battle, you must first learn how to move around in CM's battlefield and interact with it...
When no units are selected you will see the scenario information panel at the bottom of your screen. This tells you information vital to the particular scenario you are playing. The "Morale" value tells you the condition of your Global Morale, which adversely affects your troops willingness to fight as the number drops (this happens with each casualty you take). The "Victory" score simply tells you the percentage of Victory Locations currently under your control. There is a "Hotkeys" button in this panel, and it contains ALL the hotkeys in the game. This is a very important source of information as many features can only be invoked through keyboard commands.
Each "camera" position (i.e. view of the battlefield) is numbered 1-8 and has the same corresponding keyboard shortcut. Camera 1 is at ground level and looks parallel to the earth, while Camera 8 is more like a high altitude satellite. Although each player will develop their own camera position preferences, here is our recommendations for their use:
Cameras 1 and 2 - cool playbacks and really sensitive spotting information.
Cameras 2 and 3 - plotting short distance and tweaking moves.
Cameras 3 and 4 - plotting long distances and getting the lay of the land (esp. Setup)
Cameras 5 and 6 - plotting short distance and tweaking moves.
Cameras 6 and 7 - plotting long distances and getting the lay of the land (esp. Setup)
Camera 8 - getting a sense of the BIG picture and also good large moves in Setup.
Note that increasing the units' visual size helps in some cases. Use Shift-C to toggle through the sizes.
The major camera motion is achieved by using the arrow buttons and "mouse scrolling" (placing the mouse to the edge of the screen). If you want to micro control your position, there are various keys to do this (see the Hotkeys display for these). A cool thing to do is to select a unit during the Action Phase and hit the Tab key. This will "lock" you onto the unit and you go where it goes. Tanks with turrets are especially cool if they are shooting and on the move! Try this with Camera 1 especially. The Tab key also helps when you wish to reposition the camera to center on a unit very quickly. Any movement of the camera after locking on to the unit will free it.
Do not fear CM's 3D aspects. Some people are going to have a hard time getting out of the "overhead" way of thinking, but they will have to or will suffer the consequences. Combat Mission simulates 3D space, so if you are looking at the game from the traditional 2D perspective ALL the time, you will most likely be at a disadvantage. At the very least you will need to drop down and make sure that a tank, for example, is safely below a ridgeline, or where the best spot for your FO is BEFORE he moves there.
The most important information about a unit is located in the Unit Display Panel at the bottom of your screen. The information there is pretty intuitive, but here is the full story. From left to right, top to bottom, the elements are:
Unit Name - Unit ID - Command and Control yes/no - Unit Type
Experience Level - Physical Condition - Active Men - Incapacitated Men (casualties)
Ammo Load - Special Squad Weapons (usually blank for US units) - Unit State
Action - Terrain related to Action - Morale
All units have a secondary "Info Panel" which contains additional information for each unit. This is accessed by hitting Return while a unit is selected. This tells you what weapons the unit has, firepower ratings at different distances, armor information, etc. If you click on "Kills" it toggles the display to show what KNOWN casualties your units have caused. Clicking outside of this box, on anything but a unit, dismisses it.
When you select a unit a line draws from itself to its HQ. If the line is maroon, the unit is in C&C (See the radio icon in top row too), otherwise the line will be black to show that the unit is out of C&C. Teams have no permanent HQ and will be automatically attached to the nearest HQ unit. Squads, on the other hand, can only be commanded by their own HQ or a higher HQ (like Company or Battalion). Make sure you pay close attention to C&C. Delays and other penalties abound without C&C, but vary greatly from unit to unit depending on their Experience Level. Note, all vehicles are independent and do not benefit from HQs in any way.
CM's unique game system often leads to battles that are won or lost through a few instances of bad luck or poor planning. We had one tester play Riesberg as the Germans and he scored a Total German Victory. His conclusion was that the game was unbalanced in favor of the German side and/or that he was a much better player than the AI. We asked him to play again and tell us what happened. He doesn't know how it ended because he wound up SURRENDERING the battlefield half way through as the US forces overran him like he wasn't even there! A little bad luck can spoil an otherwise well played game, just as it can in real war. Keep this in mind as you are playing. There is no one right way to play, no one way to win or lose. Lady Luck is the Queen of the battlefield. If she smiles upon you in the right circumstances, you are more likely to carry the day. If she frowns in your direction, and smiles at your enemy... you might as well start thinking of what you are going to tell your Commanding Officer when he asks why you lost!
Combat Mission is divided up into 3 Phases; Setup, Orders and Action. The Setup Phase is a one time occurrence which allows you to position your troops at the beginning of the game, the Orders Phase is where you issue orders to your units, and the Action Phase is the automated 60 second resolution of those orders.
This is, without a question of a doubt, the most important aspect of Combat Mission. Do not rush through this Phase or you will likely regret it. Although the default positions are carefully laid out to be positive ones, you will at least want to see if they are in positions that allow you to execute your own plan of action. Keep the Combat Briefing in mind while you do this and you will likely play a better game.
Notice that all of your units have a colored square (Base) underneath them. Also note that there are dotted lines of the same color/s sectioning off parts of the map. These are Deployment Zones and the units which have the same colored bases are assigned to that particular zone. You are free to move any unit anywhere you like within that zone, provided the terrain you are trying to move the unit to is "legal" (i.e. don't try moving a tank into a river or house). Zones can be any size and shape, with up to three different colored zones per side. For example, a squad with a red base can be positioned within the boundaries of a red zone. There may also be more than one red zone to choose from, so any red area is fair game even if they are not attached. However, you cannot put a red unit in a blue Deployment Zone.
There are two exceptions to the deployment rules, however. The scenario designer can "lock" units into place so that their deployment positions must remain exactly where the unit currently is. Such units have orange bases. The scenario designer may also place units outside of a Deployment Zone. These units have gray bases and may also not be repositioned.
To position a unit simply right-click on it (Mac folks can Option-Click), then use the menu or keyboard for it to be ready for relocation. Choose the "Place" or "Move" order. A line will draw from the unit to your cursor. Move the cursor over the terrain you want and click. The unit will instantly, and without any penalty, move to the terrain so long as it is allowed to be there (i.e. a gun can not be put in Tall Pines). If you used the "Move" command you will then see a purple colored line drawn from the unit to your mouse. Wherever you click, the unit will face. If you use the "Place" command, you will NOT be asked to choose facing. This is good for doing quick, rough placements.
You can also change facing, "Hide", or "Button Up" a unit during Setup by using the keyboard or menu. Units may be "Embarked" or disembarked at will, provided that such actions are allowed by the units involved. You can also check out LOS to make sure your units have clear fields of fire.
Note that most orders have key equivalents noted in the unit's menu. You can use these keys to issue orders to the selected unit instead of bringing up the menu.
Position and reposition your units as much as you like. Once you have your units in place, click on "Go!". This either bring you to your first Orders Phase (single player or second player in multi-player) or switch the turn over to the other human player (if playing a hotseat or PBEM game).
This is where all your thinking comes into play. What you do in this phase will determine what will happen during the Action Phase AND, more importantly, future Orders Phases.
Your units can perform many different possible actions and functions. The exact range of choices depends on the selected unit and sometimes its condition. Generally speaking, there are two parts of an order; selection and designation. This means you tell a unit to do an action, then click on the place/target for that action. Example, to make a unit "Move" you hit the "M" key and then click on the place to move to. If you want a unit to target something, hit the "T" key and then click on the enemy unit or terrain (area fire) to shoot at. The unit's menu is context sensitive, so it always tells you what you can and can not order the unit to do at the moment.
Notice that most orders draw a line from the unit to the cursor. Each line is color coded for a specific order. The mouse also gives important information while an order is active. Some orders, like "Pause" and "Hide", are instant the moment they are issued. Use Shift-P to toggle the display of all movement orders on or off.
To issue an order click on the desired unit, then either use a hot key or the menu to select an order. Once the order is issued the unit will be ready to carry it out. If the order involves movement there will be some sort of delay to start the action. This delay is displayed in the unit interface and will vary depending on the unit's nationality, experience, type, condition, and if the unit is close enough to its HQ. Targeting orders don't normally cause delays, but off-board artillery has its own delay built in.
The most important aspect of the game is moving units. We feel Combat Mission has the most intuitive, powerful, and flexible system in any wargame ever made, so this should be an easy thing to pick up on ;-) Simply select a unit, issue an order, and then LEFT-click (Mac single click) on the map to choose a destination. Alternately, to make waypoints, RIGHT-click (Mac Option-click) and the movement line becomes "anchored" and a new movement line formed. To change the current order type your cursor is ready to plot, ust use the hot key for the desired order and the change will be immediate.
When you have a movement path plotted you can edit it without totally starting from scratch. You will notice that there are white pyramids at each waypoint and a cube at the end of the path. To edit a leg of a path the unit must be active first. Then you can simply LEFT-click on a waypoint and then use a hotkey or the menu to change it to a different movement type (i.e. "Run" to "Crawl"). This will change the path previous to the waypoint. These changes can be done any time during any Orders Phase without penalty. There is no delay or penalty for changing an order in this way.
You can also reposition a waypoint by RIGHT-clicking (Mac users can click or Option-click) on it and dragging it to a new location. However, in subsequent turns you are restricted as to how far you can move the waypoint because your unit is committed to the whole path (note: you can still change the TYPE of movement as stated in the previous paragraph). Waypoints that are part of an active path are colored red. Normally the end point is also Red. You can, however, make new orders at the END of an active path, but your unit will take its delay before starting on the new path.
After each Orders Phase CM computes both side's orders and resolves them. After it is done you can watch the action using standard VCR type playback controls. The 60 second movie can be replayed as many times as you like, but once you have clicked on "Done" you will be in the Orders Phase and the movie will no longer be available to watch.
This Phase is completely interactive in the sense that you can click on any unit you like, reposition the camera, toggle various features (see Hotkeys for these), replay the action, etc. However, the actions and results you see unfold before you will NEVER change no matter what you do. No orders may be issued, no matter how large or small.
Everything you see gives back some useful game information, whether it is a unit hitting the dirt or something changing in the Unit Display Panel. The results are also very self explanatory, even if the underlying causes are not immediately understood. There is a lot to take in sometimes, and that is what the "rewind" button is there for ;-) If you are like our testers, after a game or two you will really know what is important to watch and when. However, it will probably take a couple dozen games before you stop replaying each turn 10 times from 10 different angles!
One fun thing to do is click on a tank that is in motion and targeting stuff, then hit the Tab Key and the "1" (one) key. Cool for infantry on the move as well.
There is *so* much to Combat Mission that these instructions don't even scratch the surface of what it has to offer. If you don't find an answer in this documentation, see if you can figure out what is happening (and why) yourself. If you know a lot about WWII combat you should be able to pick up on many of the more subtle elements within the game. If you are still puzzled, go to our website and search through the more than 10,000 posts that have gone up since January. Still can't find the answer? Post a question and someone will give you an answer.
During the Orders Phase you can give a number of different orders to your units depending on what they are and what state they are in. This list is always accessible in a context sensitive menu by using the spacebar on a given selected unit. Here is a brief description of the orders available to you:
Movement Orders
Special Orders
Targeting Orders
Unit Experience is of the utmost importance to you. There are 5 levels, but only 3 are represented in the two demo scenarios. They are:
The three others in the full version are Conscript (below Green), Elite (above Veteran) and Crack (above Elite). You will notice right away that you can rely on the Veterans more than your other units to get the job done.
Keep in mind that your units think about self preservation all the time, and therefore will abandon your orders if they see it (from their perspective) as being in their best interest. The main factors are enemy fire, exposure, casualties (both recent and since the beginning of the game), Experience level, Physical Condition, and Morale. Morale is one of the single most important factors in Combat Mission, as it affects practically everything that your unit does.
In general your units are gear to do exactly as you have ordered. However, units will routinely ignore your orders if you lead/leave then in serious harms way. This can be as minor an alteration as hitting the dirt for a couple of seconds and then continuing on, or as serious as running for home. Worse still, your units can surrender. The chances of something happening depend heavily on the individual unit and the specific circumstances it is under. General rule is that the poorer the unit Experience, the more trouble it is in, the higher the chance that the unit will do something other than what you want it to do.
Panicking is a temporary state that even seasoned units can suffer through if the going gets too rough, but Broken is much worse and has serious consequences for the unit. The better the unit, the less likely either of these will happen. However, when it does happen, unit Experience partially determines how quickly the unit will get its act together. If a unit is either Panicked or Broken, it will not pay any attention to you until it has pulled itself together. HQ units with strong Morale ratings can help speed this process up if they are close enough. If a unit Breaks and then recovers, you will see a red "!" icon next to its Morale rating. This signifies that the unit has already Broken once, and is therefore much more likely to Break again. Recovery from a second round of being Broken is very slow.
The faster you move your guys, and the worse the terrain, the more tired they will become. Best to let them rest up every so often if the going is tough. And if you don't, they will. Units might ignore orders depending on how tired they are. If you tell a really spent unit to run from A to B, don't expect them to even budge. They will sit there and wait until they are rested or you give a more acceptable order.
There is no special accumulation of fatigue from turn to turn. This pretty much happens on its own. If you have been moving your guys and having them do heavy combat turn after turn after turn, they are going to be pretty much used up. So if you don't pace yourself, all of your troops might be exhausted in the first couple of turns. It can take several turns to recoup unit condition (Exhausted units take about 2 turns to get back into shape). However, the demo goes easy on you as the weather is dry and warm. Deep snow is a very different experience!
Units generally are serviceable for the whole game if you use "Run" sparingly, don't get them into tough firefights, or put them in situations were they can panic. Realistically combat conditions make it difficult to keep men on the move and actively engaged without running them down. CM reflects this all too well.
Oh, and certain units will tire more easily. For example, a US .50cal team moves like molasses AND tires out fairly quickly. Same for a 81mm mortar team. So slow pace and constant rest periods are necessary for these guys. Definitely makes tactics more interesting.
CM allows you to split a squad 50/50 at any point in the game. There is NO choice about who gets what weapons, instead CM divides up the weapons as evenly as possible. HOWEVER, there are penalties to be paid...
A unit whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Both halves lose some fighting effectiveness since they are used to relying on each other and each other's weapons. Because of this a section is really ONLY good for scouting, not for fighting. Split off sections may only rejoin with their original other half. This happens automatically when both halves are positioned next to each other without any orders.
Combat Mission does not differentiate between WIA and KIAs. Rather, any man that is incapacitated enough to be "Ineffective" is subtracted from the squad. This can be through wounding, death, or total panic. The reduction of effectives makes your unit weaker, not only because of the individual weapons lost, but also because the unit is more likely to panic under extreme punishment (or not, in the case of poorer units). Also, the rate of casualties is also a factor in determining things like panic. There is a huge difference between losing 3 men from one shell than losing one ever 3 minutes.
All enemy units start out hidden from view while in the Setup Phase. Once you enter the first Orders Phase all bets are off! Units from both side will instantly attempt to spot each other. To minimize the chances of this happening, you can order your units to Hide during the Setup Phase.
As the Action Phase unfolds units are constantly keeping their eyes on the lookout for the enemy. The specific unit type and current action/condition of BOTH spotting and enemy units largely determine if the other is spotted. It is far easier for an unsuppressed squad to spot a tank than a tank to spot a squad. Distance, cover, intermediate terrain, and luck also play key roles.
Once a unit has been spotted your units must identify it. The better the conditions are (terrain, distance, etc), and the higher the quality of your spotting unit, the greater the chance that you will identify the unit sooner rather than latter, correctly instead of in error. There are various levels of spotting, all the way from sound contact to nearly full knowledge. The feedback in the game shows this graphically.
You may turn off "Fog of War" in the Options panel accessed from the startup screen. This makes both side's units visible to the other. It also disables the "Ambush" command since you can't very well have an element of surprise when everybody knows where the other is.
One of the most important aspects in CM is Command & Control. This simulates your units' ability to communicate with each other and be effectively led. All units normally have a penalty for starting new orders, depending on the unit and its Experience level. Units in C&C have shorter delays than they if they were out of C&C. Also, units in C&C can benefit from their HQ's special abilities (denoted by icons and listed in the unit's Info Panel) such as Morale Bonus keeping units calmer under fire, or helping them recover more quickly when Panicked.
Each Squad is assigned to a specific Platoon HQ. When you click on a Squad a line draws from it to its HQ. If you click on an HQ it draws lines to all units under its command. A unit in C&C has a dark maroon line while a black one shows that the unit is out of C&C. A small radio icon in the Display Panel also shows if the unit is in or out of C&C. The distance a unit can be from its HQ, and still be in C&C, changes depending on terrain. Woods make communication more difficult, so men have to remain closer than if they were in an open field.
Teams behave like Squads in terms of C&C, but typically have shorter delay times and have no single, assigned HQ. Instead, Teams are automatically attached to any nearby HQ. This is because Teams were more independent and were supposed to be left on their own. However, it is better if a HQ can be nearby to keep them steady in the face of combat, or aid them in retreating faster if need be.
Formations in real life have HQ units, starting with the Platoon and going up. A Platoon HQ unit varies in size and effectiveness, some being almost the size of a squad, others are just 4 men. They are armed with light weapons, such as SMGs and Rifles, giving them some combat value. Combat Mission does not simulate, for obvious reasons, the various non-combat attachments such as field kitchens, carts, horses, medics, etc
The problem with HQs is that you must keep them in the front in order for them to be effective, but you must also try and protect them. This does not mean leaving them behind the lines. However, it isn't a good idea to put your Platoon HQ in the lead Halftrack, for example. If you get ambushed, and the HT burns up with your HQ, then you have 3 leaderless squads. You won't be happy if this happens. Put the HQ in the 2nd or even 3rd HT, but not the 4th (too far away from the 1st). Still very much in the front lines and in harm's way, but with a slightly minimized risk of destruction.
More senior HQs (Company or Battalion) are also very useful in the front lines. But again, not in high risk situations. It is a good idea for a Company HQ to have a small reserve clustered around it so that these units can be dispatched with the least amount of C&C delay. It is also its responsibility to act as a second rallying point and to help keep slower moving units, like HMGs, directed when on the march. Stick such HQs under a rock at the edge of the map and you get no such bonus.
HQs are made up of men, so they are on foot. They are depicted as a single figure with a pistol. If you want to stick them in a vehicle, go right ahead. The scenario's designer decides what vehicles are given to the player. So if you have no Jeep or Kübelwagen for your HQs, you are just going to have to deal (like a real HQ would!).
We decided a LONG time ago that simulating individual "leaders" in the RPG (Roll Playing Game) sense was NOT a good idea at CM's scale. There are just too many men to pay attention to. If your leaders were never killed or wounded this wouldn't be such a problem. But considering that you can have something like 60-100 units, each with their own leader, the turn over rate after only a few turns in combat would be too much for any sane individual to care about. MAYBE you might get to know your guys a little bit during setup, but by the time you finally identify with an individual man, he is gone for good and a new face takes his place. So take that 60 unit game and you will probably have seen 300 leaders by the time the scenario is over.
Your units will take casualties, but they won't suddenly renamed and have different stats. For example, if we did individual leaders Sgt. Jablonski's Squad might change three times and wind up at the end with 4 men under the command of PFC Jones. This would be utterly confusing, to the point where you won't care about your units any more because it makes your head hurt. The way CM does it is that Sgt. Jablonski's Squad is still called that all the way until the game ends or the unit is snuffed out with 100% casualties. But the nature of the unit's effectiveness, weapons/ammo, and willingness to continue fighting *will* change during the course of the scenario. THIS is where your focus should be, and that is why we have done what we have done. You will notice your units as uniquely individual and plan accordingly. There is also a high level of "attachment" to units this way to. Trust me, you won't want your only decent platoon to be hacked to pieces...
There are basically three ways to ambush an enemy unit:
The downside of an Ambush Point is that you basically have to assign units to hold their fire and not take any opportunity shots that may come up. This is realistic. Also note that the more cautious the enemy, the more likely things will not go as planned and opportunities may be lost because Ambushes were either bypassed or neutralized before they could spring into action. Ambushing is one of those features that separates the good players from the bad, the exceptional from the average.
Also keep in mind that holding fire until the right moment takes a great deal of discipline, so don't be surprised if your Green units fire a wee bit too early!!
Note that Ambushing is not possible when Fog of War is turned off.
Here is the "nutshell" description of how Armor Penetration is calculated in Combat Mission.
Combat Mission does not compute or use any sort of generic kill percentage. There are no mushy average of various armor sections to arrive at a generic conglomerate armor strength. This concept does not exist in Combat Mission. Please erase it from your minds.
What CM does is determine where the shell strikes, e.g. turret side, hull glacis plate, lower rear hull, etc. It is not figured down to the square centimeter or individual polygon, but instead a target plate is selected which corresponds to the positioning of the target relative to the firer, and which plates are visible from that angle and to what degree. Then the armor of that plate, and that plate only, is considered in the resolution of the attack. If you fire at a tank from a 45 degree angle off from the front, you might hit the front or you might hit the side. You might hit the turret or you might hit the hull (upper or lower). And a shot hitting a turret front will generally behave quite differently from one hitting the hull side, as you might expect.
Toss into this the fact that CM is 3D, and therefore the angle of the target and firing unit also counts in terms of how it sits on the ground. A tank on a side of a hill at, say, 15% leaning TOWARDS the shooter effectively subtracts 15% from its armor slope. At 15% away from the shooter there is 15% added to the slope. Also relative angles mean rounds do not hit armor perfectly perpendicular to the armor, but to some variable degree to the left or right. This can cause a round to "slip" off the armor instead of otherwise penetrating it.
There are also a TON of factors simulated, but you should already get the picture that CM is unlike any wargame, or even tank sim, that has ever been encountered in the commercial market before.
Crew casualties are also considered, and even if the tank sustains no significant physical damage, if a crew member or two becomes a casualty, the crew might bail out. (Sometimes elite crews won't bail out after only one casualty).
The following are slightly cleaned up posts we made on the Combat Mission Discussion Forum. There were 10,500 posts since January at the time of the Demo's release, so chances are if you have a question it can be answered here.
Figure Count for Squads/Teams
Unit Behavior
Campaigns
Making sure of accuracy
No to big bombardments
Even *IF* the high end of today's computers could handle a 1:1 representation on the monitor, I really doubt it could do so for more than, say, a Company sized force on either side. Battalion for each side? Forget about it. The point here is that we aren't talking about doubling the number of polygons, but tripping it and perhaps even quadrupling it. The new 3D cards are fast, but they aren't THAT fast. Charles is using one of the brand new ATI 128 cards, and although it improved his frame rate over his old one (an older ATI 3D card), we are talking the need for exponential frame rate improvements. We have tested CM on a 400MHz G4 (Intel's equivalent would be something like a Merced at 500MHz) with a good 3D card and the FPS for a medium sized battle was about 40fps. So, even the upper end would be crushed by the weight of a 1:1 representation, not to mention the bulk of wargamers that don't have the latest and greatest computers. And this is with our current relatively low polygon count 3D models even, not the high count ones people also want to see. Computers simply aren't in a position to simulate EVERYTHING that we can imagine. Although computers have come a long way from the Apple II days, they still have a long way to go before we can do all that people want us to do.
In short, what you have for a computer won't do what you want it to do, even if we coded it up. But even if it could, there is the other big problem. Doing a 1:1 representation would mean having a 1:1 GAME representation of each soldier. This means all new AI, all new grid system, all new everything basically. A whole new game. And the thought of making an AI capable of moving upwards around 3000 individuals (both sides) in any logical way would require CPU time in such quantities that gamers would fall asleep inbetween turns. And the UI would be horrible for a 1:1 representation as well. First of all, graphically enlarging unit figures is still necessary (this problem won't be solved until monitors are better than 72dpi). This means that the graphics for a squad of 12 men would probably fill an entire 20x20m area. This is an area that could easily hold a platoon. So now picture 40 figures all in the same spot! Unplayable. And where would we get the CPU power for all of this finer resolution and map detail? As stated above, the system will already be broken by a 3-4 fold increase in graphics without this stuff (and no model improvements), so there is no extra horsepower to draw from...
I think this is probably enough food for thought. Sometimes things look very easy and doable to gamers, when in fact they are anything but. This is the difference between a gamer and game developer. What you dream about we have already dreamed about, talked about, tried to find a way to do, found that we can't do all of it, and come up with a system that does work. We don't mind explaining this to good, open minded and humble gamers, but we don't like the ones that stick their fingers in their ears, clamp their eyes shut and scream "NNHANAHNANHAANHANAHNA I can't hear you!!!!! NAAHAHANAHANAH AHNAHANAHNA" when we have to explain that they can't have what they want. Some people have no respect for reality, so we have little respect for them
Yeah, Marshall is generally not thought of too highly these days. Can't say that I have ever read his original works in total, but of course have read bits and pieces, along with PLENTY of commentary, over the years. In general, we don't agree with his findings either. Like you say, not totally off base, but the statistical stuff he came up with has largely been shown to be horribly flawed from a scientific standpoint, even if some of his conclusions are not.
The upshot is that soldiers were often not so gungho about shooting. If you make noise and threatening actions, this draws attention to you. "Attention" in war is most often something you don't want ;) CM's units are programmed to fire when they feel that they can really hit something and/or are in a life or death struggle. The player can override this to a certain extent, but not always. For example, if you tell a unit to Hide, and an enemy unit pops up 10m away and is shooting at something, your unit will likely try to shoot back if possible. Thinking here is "we'd better get 'em now before they get us".
In general, CM's units think for themselves, and think OF themselves first. Worse the unit, the more "selfish" they are going to be. If you tell an Elite unit to run across a MG fire swept field, they might do it. But a Conscript unit? Dream on!
Now on to your other questions...
1) Unit behavior follows a Fuzzy Logic continuum. It is the polar opposite to systems like ASL and probably most computer wargames. This is why we can't just put out a chart and say that if x happens y will happen. It is far more "natural" than that. Units can duck and cover (thus not firing) without panicking or breaking. All depends on the unit and circumstances (terrain, enemy fire, casualties, length of time, etc.)
I forget all the various states a unit can be in, but one is called "Alerted". This means the unit is hyper aware of danger as it relates to their current position/order. Generally this is when a unit will start to question your orders as perhaps being not in their best interests. The unit can make its own orders (always for reactive self preservation, not proactive offensive action) under perfect self control, lose it and do whatever they feel like at the time, and things in between. The possible behavior includes hiding, running to cover, crawling to cover, stopping to fire, etc. Basically, when you play just think realistically and things will work as you expect.
2) Isolation does play a role, but not necessarily squad/team by squad/team. Separation from their HQ is the number one form of isolation. This is a problem for the unit in a bunch of different ways. But the unit is also sensitive to how much fire, and from what direction (cross fire), is coming their way. So if you have one squad, all alone, and it runs up against 3 enemy squads, firing from a wide arc, the defending squad is going to feel VERY alone :) But if you had 2 more squads defending they would be able to absorb some of the attacker's attention, and counter fire, thus reducing the volume of fire and the scope of the cross fire. So although we do not specifically have code in there for isolation, it is simulated very well. And again, what I mentioned in answer #1 comes into play here too.
3) Panicking in CM terms is a temporary state. The unit is allowed to work through it, which can take several turns depending on how far the unit ran and its quality. The chance of that unit panicking again is not increased unless it took casualties. So if Unit A runs away in panic and loses 1/3 its strength, then it will be FAR more likely to panic again vs. Unit B that ran away and suffered no casualties. Breaking is a different story. I unit that has "Broken" will be able to recover, but will have a "black mark" for the rest of the scenario. This means is that its threshold for panicking is lowered. What might not have phased the unit before Breaking might now send it off running. You need to treat such guys with very senstive gloves, especially if they have taken casualties. Better to leave them out of the frontline.
It seems that there is still misconceptions of what Combat Mission's Campaigns will be like. Many people have a fear that they won't get to carry units from battle to battle, which is an important part of wargaming. This is not true, but we aren't doing a copycat Panzer General / Steel Panthers / Close Combat system either. This is obviously why people are having a hard time understanding what we ARE doing.
Let me first define a couple of things here:
Core Units - this is a term that was coined from Panzer General. It is an abstract form of having central units go from one battle to another, gaining experience and so on. Close Combat followed this to some extent, with the addition of many RPG type elements (awards and so on).
War-Wide Campaign - this takes your core units from one historical battle (ex: Arnhem) to another (ex: Bastonge). When you get to the new battle you pick up some attachments based on whatever game factors are being used (Prestige in PG terms).
OK, Combat has neither of these and will not have them no matter what. First of all, they don't work very well in terms of game balancing. I don't think I need to go into details here, but it is plainly obvious that this screws up game balancing quite a bit. This was, BTW, one of the biggest complaints about Close Combat 3's campaign system, which is the most recent example of this Core Units approach to War-Wide Campaigns. The fact is that it is VERY hard to account for random, variable, and highly diverse introduction of units from battle to battle. So far nobody has done it right so far as we can tell.
The second thing here is that CM simulates roughly 20-60 min engagements. Nearly any battle you have ever read about consisted of many of these engagements. So to have the Battle for Aachen be represented as a single 30 turn scenario in a big War-Wide Campaign is just silly. You don't get any sense of accomplishment of fighting in Aachen for the big prize. Instead you just slug it out for a house or two and then move off to some other major battle. Boring!
But the big problem for us comes with realism. NO UNIT survived from one major engagement to another intact. Unlike Steel Panthers and Close Combat your units in real life didn't fly off the battlefield and wait for some new epic battle to be tossed into. They were fighting all along the way. This means casualties. Since most units had turn over rates of at least 100% (some into 300% range!), by the time your units got to the next battle hardly anybody original would be left. More importantly, no one set of units went to more than probably one or two major battles for the entire war. So to have your same guys go from St. Lo, to Caen, then off to Arnhem, and over to Aachen, over to Bastonge, down to Remagen, etc. is just plain silly. Toss in the fact that the US forces and British forces didn't fight in the same battles most of the time (i.e. Brits did Arnhem, US did Bastonge), and their units are VERY different from each other, makes going from battle to battle ridiculously ahistorical. Combat Mission might be a game, but it isn't a silly one :)
OK, so now hopefully you understand what Combat Mission ISN'T doing, and more importantly, WHY it isn't following the lead of Panzer General. Now to briefly explain what Combat Mission does and why it gives the player everything that the above is SUPPOSED to do, plus historical accuracy, and an overall BETTER sense of attachment to your units...
A Combat Mission campaign is a string of many battles from a single engagement (fictional or historical). There is no War-Wide Campaign or artificial Core Units. Instead you get one set of units and fight for an entire battle (Aachen for example) for something like 6 sub battles (count is up to the campaign designer). What this means is that you get to fight with the same units from start to finish, without totally ridiculous abstraction and gamy conventions that often lead to unbalanced battles.
The best part about this is that you fight on the same map. The map can be HUGE, 5000m x 3000m. Each individual battle will be fought on a section of this big map, with the attacker's objective to be advance, advance, advance until the far end is reached. So each battle you fight, with the same troops, brings you closer to the mission objective. The attacker can even be pushed back and LOSE ground. Night and day can be passed through as well. All of this with your SAME units pursuing the SAME overall objective. This is 100 times better than having some abstract group of units going after some abstract goal that is labeled "Aachen" and then labeled "Bastonge". You WILL feel like you are slugging it out with your men to archive some really important objective, instead of just saying, "yeah, I rolled over that Remagen thing in a couple of turns. Don't see what the big deal was about it". In one battle you might try to take a pillbox line, get your ass kicked, and then have another shot at it in the next battle. Now you can apply the knowledge you accumulated from the previous battle to take on the pillboxes again. In Panzer General you could do this too, by restarting the game and playing the same scenario over again ;) Yawn...
You will also come back to the next battle and see guys where they were before. So you come in and there is Sgt. Santos' squad, right were you last left him, all set and ready for another go. No abstracted Core Units thing, because there he is, right there on the map already. You will have some ability to reposition your troops, depending on circumstances, and of course you can get reinforcements (either between battles or during them. Depends). Ammo replenishment and replacements come in too, depending on settings. If you managed to keep knocked out vehicle crews alive you might even get a chance to have them man a new vehicle, or perhaps you can recover a slightly damaged one from the battlefield.
There will also be no unit experience gain between battles. A couple of 30- 60 min firefights are not enough to make a unit go up in experience. They would need to fight for weeks of sustained combat to go up even a single notch. Remember, Elite troops have been fighting for YEARS in some cases, so it doesn't make sense for some Green unit to obtain Elite status after a couple of minor scrapes. And it is impossible to simulate such large gaps of time at Combat Mission's level. So if you have a Green set of units, you will have to learn what to do and what NOT to do with them during the course of the campaign, and to keep applying those lessons each battle. They won't magically become better.
Finally, for those how STILL want some War-Wide Campaign, it isn't going to happen. For all the above reasons we simply do not support it. Every game concept that gamers REALLY want is inherent in our system. What is more, we have things in our system that NO OTHER computer wargame simulates. I don't know about you, but I have never played a computer wargame that allows you to dynamically advance the map based on your real game progress, including maintaining your units in their last held positions. All I have ever seen is the "warping" type thing like in Close Combat. Not the same AT ALL.
In the end we have a system that maintains balance between scenarios (a real problem for all the other games) and is historically accurate instead of just plain silly. The only thing we don't have is the gaining of experience and the brag factor of having played x and y and z big historical battles all in a row. We are sure that you won't miss either of these last two things one bit after you play one of Combat Mission's campaigns.
In terms of the map data, what you see is what you get. In other words, CM's terrain stats are all built off of the physical model of the map. There is ZERO chance of map errors like those found in some other games. If there is a steep slope in the map, it is there in the data too. Also, cover and protection are indeed different in CM. Wheat is a great thing to hide behind if eyes are aimed at you, but does it do much for you if a 155 round goes off 10m away? Nope!
CM also has a few data advantages over other games. Since Combat Mission is modeling vehicles in 3D, and in great detail, all statistics are applied from real world numbers. Armor thickness, type (spaced, hardened, poor quality, etc.), slope, etc. are all scooped out of dozens of books lying around our offices. They are as good as they are going to get because they are REAL values. No tweaking a Jagdpanzer IV's frontal armor from a 3.5 to a 3.65 to simulate several statistics at the same time! We have the correct real world values in there for the top and bottom hull, as well as the mantlet. Of course we have all the other stats in there as well
Making a highly accurate game is the developer's job, not the customer's. This is the way it SHOULD be for ALL games. We are hardcore, dedicated researchers with plenty of development and research experience under our belts. But of course we aren't perfect. What we miss our hardcore, dedicated testers are likely to pick up on. What we all miss will be patched whenever someone can document a mistake.
Say you are playing Combat Mission one day and you see something really odd, say a 13 man German rifle squad (note: we really have this stuff correct <g>). Well, something is wrong with that so you send us a note or post on the boards here, supported by documented research. We check into it, find the error, and the correction will go out ASAP. Or if people tell us that the HMG42 seems to be too weak, and cite some good examples of how this is so, we will explore changing even that sort of data. Simple as that.
The point here is that we are the gate keeper for all of CM's data. We really don't like the fact that other wargames come in 100 different flavors due to "mods" and "hacks, some of which probably contain their own contradictory and flawed data. This kind of "historical chaos" is an unnecessary mess we are going to avoid. We don't think that the customer should be responsible for making a game live up to its marketing hype.
Short of it is -> we want to get it right, and we fully expect that we will. The few things that slip will be corrected when identified. No fuss, no calling our customers "morons", no trying to defend Elephants with MGs... you get the picture.
You're right, someone out there might be able to come up with a good way of employing the big stuff. That's why we are including them But I have no idea how this would work...
The problem is that such a heavy bombardment is, at CM's scale, decisive. In other words, it is NOT a tactical weapon, rather a strategic one. Think of one salvo of the big stuff being the same as several batteries of normal (105-155) stuff firing all at the same spot at the same time. Devistating firepower like this was RARELY available for tactical support.
If one side gets hit by these things, it had better have LOTS of replacements. And if that is the designer's plan (i.e. giving the victim lots of extra units) then the guy with the big stuff had better score a good hit or so long once the reinforcements come in! Not sure if this would be fun or not.
Yes, soliders did survive even the most lethal pounding. But this was on a higher scale sometimes. In other words, let us say a divisional front was attacked. In some cases an entire company might be effectively eliminated, but that still leaves 11 other infantry companies. However, at CM's scale you might only have ONE company, so whatever stragglers came out of it alive would be combat ineffective. So what is the point of that in a game?
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