From the press release:
Strategy meets Tactics:
COMBAT MISSION CAMPAIGNS!
http://www.battlefront.com/products/cmc/index.html
Battlefront.com and Hunting Tank Software are thrilled to announce
“Combat Mission Campaigns”!
Combat Mission Campaigns is an operational wargame where you command
forces up to a Division in size during the bloody nightmare of WWII’s
Eastern Front from 1941-45. By working in tandem with the award winning
Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin game engine, Combat Mission
Campaigns allow you to command your troops at the operational level and then
play out the resulting battles at the tactical level.
CMBB and CMC actually share information back and forth so the
disposition and status of troops, experience, fatigue, supply, terrain, weather,
time of day and more are seamlessly integrated into both games. Plan
your strategies, issue orders and deploy your maneuver units in a dynamic
3D isometric map and when units close to engagement ranges, CMC
actually creates the battles (unit positions, status, weather, time of day
etc…) to then be played in CMBB. Once the tactical battle is finished,
CMBB then sends the results back to CMC and play is continued at the
Operational level.
Put simply, Combat Mission Campaigns adds the Operational and Strategic
elements that fans have always wanted in Combat Mission at an
unprecedented level of detail!
CMC is in beta stage currently with a tentative release date of “when
it’s ready”… (but probably early next year)
STATEMENTS
Charles Moylan, co-founder and main programmer:
Following the success of the Combat Mission games, many fans approached
us with the idea of a “strategic layer” which would combine the
tactical battles of Combat Mission into one big picture. One of the most
clear, most detailed and exciting concepts came from Bruce Poon and his team
at Hunting Tank Software; it was so exciting in fact that we quickly
agreed to do our part to make this project come to life. Combat Mission
Campaigns takes the Combat Mission series to that next level that many
fans have hoped for! Starting with CMBB, it allows players to create and
replay large historical and fictional campaigns on the Eastern Front
using CM’s tactical and CMC’s strategic engines.
Bruce Poon, lead designer:
What we are trying to do with Combat Mission Campaign is provide the
operational level layer that Combat Mission players have always wanted.
Every feature has been designed to be as realistic, complex and
challenging as commanding troops really was back then, and to complement the
realism in Combat Mission itself. If we can provide a realistic and fun
game for Combat Mission players, we know that we have made a great
contribution. It could not have been done without great support from
Battlefront.
COMBAT MISSION CAMPAIGNS - GAME FEATURES
• Maneuver Elements of Platoon, Company or Battalion strength,
including Tanks, Guns, Vehicles and Infantry.
• A total force strength of roughly a division on each side is
playable.
• Commanders and their staffs rated for Leadership, Organization and
Aggressiveness, which impacts on both the operation and battles they
fight.
• The ability to define many roles within a single campaign, allowing
the player to interact with both humans and AIs on both sides of the
operation.
• An operationally focused Artificial Intelligence that can take over
the troops for one or a number of roles within the game.
• Multi-Multiplay support that allows for numerous human players
against either the AI or other people or a combination of both.
• A Multiplayer engine for coordinating the movement of multiple roles
and players.
• The ability for a unit to gain experience with combat success and
earn medals for successful actions.
• Tracking of casualties and awards throughout the campaign.
• The ability to save an Order of Battle at the completion of a
campaign.
• The ability to preview what units will appear in Combat Mission, and
their current state of readiness and experience.
• Accurate unit portraits based on Nationality, Division and Rank, and
the ability to have custom portraits for specific officers.
• Readiness system that combines fitness, fatigue and the actions and
battles a unit fights to determine an overall level of effectiveness.
• A range of commands including moving to attack, traveling,
entrenching, resting and all round defence.
• A command that allows a unit to be in Tactical Reserve, ready to move
to the assistance of other units in the area under certain
circumstances.
• Artillery in support of other units, resulting in the appearance of
Forward Observers on the battlefield.
• The ability to coordinate orders around ‘H Hours’ to move or begin an
assault.
• Transportation of troops using a range of vehicles such as Trucks,
Horses, Bicycles, Half Tracks and Motorbikes.
• The ability to direct subordinate commanders, human or AI.
• Exacting Fog of War system, showing limited information due to the
visibility of enemy troops, but also taking into account the time to
transfer information from one unit to another, the types of signals
involved, and the inertia in large units being able to respond to new orders.
• The ability to review the historical progress of the game, including
an ever improving operational view of ‘What Really Happened’.
• The ability to send messages in between commanders, including the
delay of those messages based on communication mechanisms used.
• Communications paths based on the use of radios of varying quality
and type including telephones, vehicles, horses, skiers and runners.
• A ‘who Can I See’ mode which shows the areas of the operational map
that are currently visible to each unit, and which therefore may contain
visible enemy units (depending on their size, orders and current
weather and time of day conditions).
• A ‘Who Can See Me’ mode which shows the areas from which each unit
can be seen.
• Scalable Fog of War settings to increase or decrease realism.
• Tactical Battlefields of up to 4 square kilometers in size, and
Operational areas of several hundred square kilometers.
• Victory Locations at the operational and tactical level.
• Varying weather and its impact on the Ground Condition, Movement and
Visibility.
• Battlefield sounds that reflect the environment and conditions of the
operation.
• An Auto-Combat feature for battles, for when the battle is not worth
playing out in CMBB.
• Supply Availability and the gradual depletion of resources, including
Ammunition; Petrol, Oil and Lubricants; and Basic Supplies such as
food, water, medical supplies.
• Full Map, Order of Battle, Turn, Time of Day, and Weather Editors all
included.
• Map Editor allows 9 Different Ground Conditions (Deep Snow, Snow,
Light Snow, Deep Mud, Mud, Wet, Damp, Dry, Very Dry) plus a variety of
terrain types including Cities/Towns, Villages, Farmlands, Marshes, Light
and Densely Rocky and Wooded areas plus Dirt and Paved Roads and
Railways.
• Map ‘extras’ allowing the Operational maps to be adorned with extra
detailed graphics like cows, sheep, telegraph poles and more.
• A weather editing program that allows historical weather conditions
to be accurately reflected in the game.
• An Order of Battle Editor enabling the selection of a range of German
and Russian troop types and formations.
• The ability to save and load standard formation types.
• A Turn Editor which allows for the game to run with several different
turn lengths (in hours), including the allowance of different turn
lengths for different times of day.
• A Time of Day editor allowing for different dark / light cycles in
different regions of the conflict.
• A Briefings editor that allows for scenario briefings to be included
for all players.
• Integrated Help Menus.