Customer Reviews

Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the best tactical level wargame for the modern period on the market. The only close rivals are East Front and the Close Combat series and CCBB is a huge advance over either of these.

My criteria for judging what purports to be a serious wargame is whether you can learn anything useful from it and whether what you do know about the tactics of the period can be employed to advantage. CCMB gets top marks in both areas.

Others have commented on how well armored conflict is captured.

I'm mainly into infantry myself, and here infantry and artillery get equally realistic and thoughtful treatment.

On the defense, fortications are available including bunkers, pillboxes, wire, and mines. Siting your heavy machine guns to fire across the front instead of straight ahead pays off. Platoon size counterattacks are often rewarded. Ambushes can be realistically constructed. You can impose fire discipline on your troops such that they wait until the enemy is very close instead of burning all their limited ammunition at 500 yards.

When attacking, you had better have flank security. You will appreciate the importance of having certain units "take the point" to avoid ambush. Fresh reserves can tip the balance for the attacker. There is a time to have some units provide covering fire while others cautiously advance. There is a time to flood the enemy's position with your troops in a headlong rush.

Realistic artillery tactics apply. You want to rush the enemy's positions before they can recover from a barrage. Go in too quick and you will catch friendly fire. Artillery can be bore-sighted (pre-registered)for instant delivery instead of waiting 2 to 10 minutes for the request to go up the chain of command.
Use your mortars to cover a gap in the defense the infantry can't reach.

On and on it goes. Strongpoint defense or continuous line ala Marine Corps in WWII? Watch green crews abandon otherwise functioning tanks. Shouldn't the captain be placed near the conscripts to steady them?

Advanced squad leader computerized with animation.

This is it. At last.

This is the second of three "Combat Mission" releases by independently-minded designers Battlefront.com, the other two being "Beyond Overlord" (the first one) and "Afrika Korps" (this year's release). Battlefront is now working on a new engine for a future series. "Barbarossa" is the Eastern Front from 1941 to 1945, which starts in the first days of the Russian Campaign and also includes last-ditch scenarios in the ruins of Germany.

The first release, "Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord" acquired cult status among wargamers several years ago as a revolutionary design in tactical-level wargaming, with its 3-D cinematic graphics (like the "Total War" games), the merging of real time movement with UGO-WEGO (moves are selected, followed by a 1 minute "movie" of the resulting action viewable from every angle), and decent AI on both a unit and operational level. "Overlord" was for a long time available only by mail, and spread by word of mouth.

Unlike a pure real-time system, the Combat Mission system slices a battle into one minute turns. This seems at first blush to be less realistic than real-time, but after a while, I beleive it is actually more real since it punishes bad guesses and allows for excellent ambush possibilities. On the battlefield, armor crews are just not going to react that quickly as they do in the "Close Combat" games. Its amazing how quickly things can go wrong in 60 seconds. Also, it's a handy design for a simple "hot seat" one-on-one. Units are on the squad level with individual vehicles and guns.

Armor and weapons modeling are as faithful as you see anywhere (there is a separate sound file for each as well). The battle "movies" are immersive and lend themselves well to headphones or cranked up speakers. How did you lose three tanks in five seconds while looking somewhere else? Just reverse the movie and play it back from a different angle. Hitting "shift" conjures up the dense background information on each weapons system.

Replay ability is huge, and there are new levels of complexity and tactics to explore. Tigers are sure fun but bog down easily. Russian tanks are plentiful but take ages to respond to new orders (reflecing lack of radio), panic easily, and not as accurate. (You can even learn about optical systems). In 1941, the Russian T34s and KV-1s were the best around, but are very hard to manage, especially when isolated. And yes, there is a "human wave" option for Russians (ooohrah!).

A few find fault with graphics, which are circa 2001 and clearly outdated as compared to Battlefield 1942. But this is a real thinking wargame, not "Halo" with grunts. The terrain modeling is fair, but heck, its the tanks that matter, and these are lovingly animated. The soldiers are more abstract and walk like stick men, but who cares?

This is a clearly superior series to the more commercial "Close Combat." Other recommended war games: the other two Combat Missions: "Overlord" and "Afrika Korps", Matrix's "Korsun Pocket" (operational, turn based) and the "Total War" series (merging grand strategy with tactical ancient combat).

In brief, this game is not for those with short attention spans. Although some will find that the graphics lag behind todays standards, this is one of the few combat games where the player can command anything from a small platoon of soldiers within a city (German or Soviet) to entire regiments of forces on battlefields of monumental scale. Actual battles will unfold before your eyes across hours or even days. Of course, the game doesn't end here - an entire community of CM gamers awaits you on the internet to help you to upgrade or enhance the game - introducing everything from 1000s of historical engagements to new camoflage schemes for your Kampfgruppe. If you have an interest in World War Two, historical battles or simple small unit combat and tactics (military or civilian), this game has everything you need.

CMBB continues the Combat Mission franchise on the East Front. It covers, as the name specifies, the German invasion of USSR in 1941 through the end of the war. With Germans, Finns, Romanians, Hungarians, Soviets, and Poles as the nationalities, and weak 1941 tanks through 1945 heavy tanks, and terrain from the Arctic Circle to Sevastopol, there is a lot of variety. Between having easily-made scenarios and computer-generated Quick Battles, it is difficult to see ever getting tired of the game.

The game itself is a WEGO game -- each side plots its move, then it is shown as a movie. A big battle could have a lot going on, so the ability to watch it from different angles and rewind is very useful. The game focuses on creating a realistic playable game. The game is rather simple to play, but at the same time it can be very difficult. So, it is more of an intellectual challenge than a reflex game.

An interest in WW2 history is optional, and certainly not necessary to enjoy this exceptional game.

Perfect game, for those moving from ASL to computer games. AI is intelligent, play by email works well, play-balance excellent. If you enjoyed ASL, I dare say, you'll enjoy this game as well.

Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin is a fantastic addition to the Combat Mission line of games started in Beyond Overlord.
This is a game for people that really love in depth WW2 strategy but aren't opposed to some nice eye candy too.
It's a balance between hardcore strategy and pleasure to play.
The format is going to be unfamiliar to those coming from the RTS clickfests. In the game you issue orders for the coming 1minute to all of your units (your orders can however cover time periods lasting much longer than that, but you'll get another chance to revise them in a minute).
After you've decided your orders you hit your go button and settle in to watch a 1 minute movie that let's you fastwd rewind pause replay and gives you a fully mobile camera to watch the action from any angle you'd like. The movies alone are worth the price of the game.
There's immense detail in the engine and the setup of units.
There are complaints that infantry is somewhat abstracted (you get 3 figures standing in for squads) Still, it's a tiny concession to processing power and you'll rapidly forget that there's anything odd about it.

The game play options include hotseat, Player Vs CPU, PVP over lan,tcp/ip or via play by email which should not be overlooked as one of the most enjoyable ways to experience this game.

It's a great game to get the younger (not young) gamer into playing games that rely more on skill than speed and a great game for the old grognard in everyone.

Cheers

Best war game ever - hands down. Great against the A.I. - even better against a friend.

This is the game you SL/ASL fans have been waiting for since PCs became common.

The above reviewers of "childish graphics" is not true. The engine is a bit dated by 'todays' standards, but still is not at
all bad graphically. With the plentiful mods out there, it nearly lives up to todays standards.
But the real reason to get the game is the realism of the combat.
There are no health bars on tanks, no twitching RTS fastest mouse
wins. It's a thinking mans game.
So if you liked SL/ASL or any otehr WW2 game on that scale, get this game, and the soon to be released CM: Afrika Corps.

The game is excellent, if your into the whole turn based strategy game elements. The historical accuracy is one of the highest aspects of this game, ranging from different values of armour depending on years and months as well as equipment for different nations and dates.

There are mainly two different play types. A scenerio, and an operation. A scenerio can have up to 10 to 40 turns of combat, meaning while a Operation can have between 1 and 100 battles! It is truly excellent for those who wish to play for days, or even half an hour depending on what you want.

Custom scenerio building is very excellent, giving even the most simple of you gamers out there the power to build an entire battlefield within the game itself. No extra programs, no extra hassles, just pure fun.

The action is intense and sometimes even scary when you watch your defense line crumble under a computers, or another players, attack. Or exciting when your chasing the enemy's troops back towards their own.

The manual is excellent, giving you a massive outlook on all of the hard work and dedication the designers put into the research. All of the pages are filled with detailed info and helpful hints. AS well, it explains some of the games concepts in a clear manner.

The graphics, while not on par with such high rest super games, are great for what the game is about. The main focus on this game is gameplay, not graphics. But even so, the graphics are still really good when you watch a battle between 40 soldiers and several tanks crashing into eachother.

It gives you so many options, and the skins for soldiers and tanks are very editable, as well as the sounds. Meaning that uniform nuts and bolt-heads will go nuts trying to reskin every detail into a simple .bmp.

If your still unsure, try the demo at [...]

The game is excellent, if your into the whole turn based strategy game elements. The historical accuracy is one of the highest aspects of this game, ranging from different values of armour depending on years and months as well as equipment for different nations and dates.

There are mainly two different play types. A scenerio, and an operation. A scenerio can have up to 10 to 40 turns of combat, meaning while a Operation can have between 1 and 100 battles! It is truly excellent for those who wish to play for days, or even half an hour depending on what you want.

Custom scenerio building is very excellent, giving even the most simple of you gamers out there the power to build an entire battlefield within the game itself. No extra programs, no extra hassles, just pure fun.

The action is intense and sometimes even scary when you watch your defense line crumble under a computers, or another players, attack. Or exciting when your chasing the enemy's troops back towards their own.

The manual is excellent, giving you a massive outlook on all of the hard work and dedication the designers put into the research. All of the pages are filled with detailed info and helpful hints. AS well, it explains some of the games concepts in a clear manner.

The graphics, while not on par with such high rest super games, are great for what the game is about. The main focus on this game is gameplay, not graphics. But even so, the graphics are still really good when you watch a battle between 40 soldiers and several tanks crashing into eachother.

It gives you so many options, and the skins for soldiers and tanks are very editable, as well as the sounds. Meaning that uniform nuts and bolt-heads will go nuts trying to reskin every detail into a simple .bmp.

If your still unsure, try the demo at [...]