Combat Mission is a World War 2 based strategy game, with a unique, almost human artificial intelligence.

The game comes with 50 missions; these are split into two different mission types, Operations and Battles. Both of which are packed with loads of action, firstly the operations side gives you missions to "protect and defend"
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Examples:

1. You must capture a bridge and keep control.

2. Stop any enemy soldiers for getting through the mmroadblock (defend it with you're your life).

3. 101 1st ABN spearheads the D-Day invasion, mmlinking Omaha and Utah beaches.

4. Desert Rats exploit an opening in the German line.
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The battles sound straightforward at first, but they require tactics to survive.
You will find yourself sending your entire squadron into battle to start with, but you will quickly realise the game requires a more tactical approach.

CM is not your typical "you go, I go" strategy. Both you and the enemy have to contemplate your moves, and then you must pass out your orders. As the enemy is doing the same thing at the same time, you don't actually don't know what is going to happen.

The moment of truth is when both players are ready to go, all the action is in real time, and runs for 60 seconds. You will have to gather and reorder your troops, and make your next move. This works extremely well and is great to watch. The camera can go right down to ground level where you can really see the action clearly. The 60 seconds of action is replayable so you can look at different aspects of the battle in detail from different angles.

When ending orders to your troops you must know what type of weapons they have to make your attack as effective as possible.
Generally the most common troops you will have are rifle squads. These soldiers's are general man-to-man combat types. The other artillery available is as follows:
Piat, Various Mortars, M1919MMG, Flame Thrower, Sharp Shooter, Bazooka etc.

The platoons and individual troops vary in experience and intelligence.
The veteran troops are total war machines, and there is not much that will scare them or freak them out. But the regular platoon troops are not always as reliable. If things get too heavy in battle they may run off in a panic or even desert. This isn't good when they leave one poor soul to get annihilated.

On the artillery front Combat Mission doesn't let you down. The game has a massive array of period tanks, trucks and guns. The platoons all have vehicles for doing certain jobs, surprisingly they don't last very long when under heavy fire, although this does vary as there are some double hard tanks (generally German) in the game.

One of the most important aspects of the game-play is your soldier's line of sight. This may be stating the obvious, but, you can't shoot the enemy unless you can see them. Duh. The trick is to get a good LOS on your opponent without him being able to see you. If you can master this aspect of the game you're well on your way to victory.

Combat Mission is a serious WW2 simulation. If you're into strategy games, combat games or you just like War, then you should definitely buy this one.

If by reading this review, you are still not convinced about parting with your hard earned cash, let me just say Combat Mission comes with an extra disc featuring mods, new scenarios, units and skins….What more could you ask for?

9.0