Comments on: Combat Mission (2000)

By: Sid Meier’s Gettysburg (1997)

Sid Meier’s Gettysburg (1997) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:18:11 +0000

[...] Combat Mission, another game all about understanding the map before you [...]

By: Feature Series: Maps and Game Design

Feature Series: Maps and Game Design — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:14:17 +0000

[...] Comments Combat Mission (2000) on Europa Universalis series (2000-2008)Europa Universalis series (2000-2008) on Feature Series: [...]

By: cheeba

cheeba — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:31:33 +0000

@George: I’d single out sensible software’s Cannon Fodder as a good example of an anti-war game, or at least one with anti-war sentiments. Despite the seemingly light-hearted tone, there’s a lot of commentary hidden under there.

Like each of your soldiers having their own name, earning promotions as they progress, only to often die in random, stupid, throwaway fashion before getting their invididual little tombstone on a hillside, beside which a stream of replacements line up to take their place. You’re also faced with situations where your troops can be fatally wounded, lying twitching and roaring on the ground, where you have to decide whether to let them die a slow death or finish them off yourselves. It’s all presented in a stylised, cartoonish fashion, but it’s definitely still there. Every mission even ends with a slowly crawling list of the ‘heroes’ lost in action. The higher the rank, the flashier the tombstone they get as their reward.

For a game that was slammed by the tabloid press at the time for trivialising war, it has more human touches and real anti-war sentiment than anything I can think of since.

By: JonathanStrange

JonathanStrange — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:59:18 +0000

When Combat Mission first came out, I recall reading an essay titled, iirc, “How Combat Mission Killed Wargaming” whose theme was I believe that Combat Mission’s vivid portrayal of tactical combat combined with an attention to wargamerlike detail would seduce new wouldbe wargamers into expecting more exciting, dramatic depictions of warfare instead of the then current lethargic spreadsheet combats, ancient graphics, virtually nonexistent sounds, and overall “I made this wargame in my spare time from my CPA job” feel of many wargames. Wargaming didn’t die but didn’t experience a reformation either.

By: George

George — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:28:51 +0000

a lttle bit off topic: but you guys mentioned DEFCON on your last podcast… I think DEFCON was the first game where I thought: hm, that is really an anti-war game like any of the best anti-war movies. I don’t know any other *real* anti-war game. Of course you could argue that any realistic war game is also an anti- war game… but I think there has to be something more than realism to define an anti-war game.

do you know some other anti-war games?

cheers,
George

By: salwon

salwon — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:46:49 +0000

*I should have said, “going BACK to CM.” Afrika Korps and the hundreds of megs of textures that go along with it have, of course, never left my hard drive.