For anyone interested in realistic simulation of the battlefield on a tactical level (including the psychological level of combat stress) perhaps no better game has ever been made. I understand that this game is difficult to appreciate from looking at it. In fact, I even played the demo a couple of times and the controls were so complex yet the graphics so simple looking that I thought it was just a really simple game with crappy graphics and overly complex controls. However, once I figured how much of a hardcore realistic battlefield simulator this really is, it very quickly became my favorite game series of all time. There is in incredible amount of deep simulation going on in this game and its sequals. It is like playing army men but with the exact level of real life fire power, spotting abilities and combat efficiency of every infantry man, combat vehicle and stationary gun modeled to be perfectly accurate. All of the war machinery is modeled perfectly as they are (or were, as the game simulates WW2 combat) in real life with the exact same armor thicknesses, angles, weak points, level of reliability, weight, accuracy, rate of fire, velocity of rounds, armor penetrative power, blast radius (for killing infantry), likelihood of becoming mired on varying terrain, turret turning speed, optics quality, etc. I could go on for an hour at how creepily accurate this game is at modeling and recreating the course of relatively small scale battles with all the different factors it models but the fact is you can play if for years and still learn more about the strategy of real life war everytime you play it. That's why it is used to train soldiers in real life. For instance, you will fight an hour long battle with your 8 shermans vs 3 tiger tanks, you can win if you use the true to life tactics that our soldiers did (leading with infantry, keeping our tanks hidden until you find the enemy tank and then attempt to flank, theres no way a sherman can penetrate frontal tiger armor or even side or rear armor unless rather close) but if you just drive up your tanks on top of the hill, expect to be quickly decimated and rendered a combat ineffective force very quickly. The game accurately models what it takes to be effective on the battlefield: wits, tactical awareness, intelligence, effective recon and knowledge of your enemies' equipments capabilities. The satisfaction that you get from successfully overcoming an enemy position with the exact same tactics used by our family members who served in WW2 (as well as getting a feeling for the inevitable cost in human lives) is a feeling you can't find in any other game. If you are into incredibly true to life strategy, tactics and unbelievably accurately reproduced military equipment of all types, you really ought to check this game out. Stick with it long enough to learn it and many of you will realize what an incredible gem this series is. FYI, the enter or return key is very useful as it displays what each units combat abilities and firepower are. This is especially important for seeing the capabilities of tanks; infantry are mainly just disposable sets of eyes that spot for the more powerful weapons. This is the first game in the series and the others (Combat Mission: Afrika Korps, CM: Barbarrossa to Berlin, CM: Shock Force) have improved graphics and even better realism and most importantly: more tactical control over the battle, although not by a huge amount. This game is unfortunately the only one of the series my old computer can run without significant slow down. I also am not one of those people who loves handing out 5 star reviews for games which I just think are pretty good. I love to point out the flaws in games but frankly the games uniqueness and nailing of the most core component of a game like this, the tactical simulation aspect, makes the minor flaws pretty insignificant in comparison. The game could in fact easily be improved in a lot of areas, however, unfortunately the game is essentially one of a kind. The Combat Mission series provides a tense first hand look at the extreme tactical difficulties, necessary sacrifices, and heroics our troops encountered fighting the Nazis. Of course, you could also play the role of the germans and experience just how their technologies' dominance allowed them to often roll over their opponents with ease.
