The newest Combat Mission from Battlefront is almost here. For those not in the know, Combat Mission is a pedantically researched series of games about combat specifically on the tactical level, with force sizes running the gamut of platoon to battalion. A stand out feature of these games is the use of a we-go turn system, in which both sides give out orders, and watch for a minute at a time as they are carried out. This title focuses on the Battle of the Bulge, from the American and German perspectives.
According to the game's website:
The demo was released yesterday, contains 3 missions, and can be found here:
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=344&Itemid=606
I've played two of them already, they both were a lot of fun.
According to the game's website:
Centered on the frozen battlefields of the Battle of the Bulge, Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg depicts the desperate struggles between Allied and Axis forces during the latter stages of the Western Front in 1944 and 1945.
Following the July breakout during Operation Cobra, liberation swept across France as the Allied forces rapidly advanced in the wake of German collapse. Wehrmacht forces, shattered from crippling defeats in August, reeled towards the German border so quickly that for a time the only obstacle holding back Allied forces from moving east was the inability for supplytrains to keep up with the advance. In an act of operational improvisation, German commanders began to stabilize their defenses in September, as Allied forces ran up against the Siegfried Line and various rivers such as the Rhine. Met with determined German resistance and often rough terrain, the Allies began their long, hard slog into Germany.
During summer and fall of 1944 the Allies had been almost exclusively on the offensive. However, the Germans had been preparing a massive counter-attack of their own for months. Named Wacht am Rhein, or “Watch on the Rhine”, this bold operation was designed to launch a fast armored strike through the rugged Ardennes in southern Belgium, repeating Germany’s triumph in 1940. The ultimate goal of the offensive was the port of Antwerp, which would cut off a vital supply sources and separate the American and British armies. During early December 1944, the Ardennes was such a quiet front that the Americans had taken to using it as a proving grounds for green divisions and a rest area for burnt-out divisions. Meanwhile, the Germans quietly gathered a massive, freshly reinforced and re-equipped force on the other side of the front lines.
On December 16, 1944, a massive German artillery barrage shattered the cold and quiet morning, signaling the beginning of the last great German offensive, and what would later become known as the Battle of the Bulge.
Key content for Final Blitzkrieg includes
- Base game covers the western front from October 1944 to January 1945, although emphasis is placed on the winter battles of December and January.
- Regions depicted includes the Ardennes, France, Germany, and Holland.
- Detailed, historically accurate formations for the United States Army, German Heer, Waffen-SS, and Fallschirmjäger, depicting combat formations from the squad to the battalion level.
- One training campaign, three historical campaigns, 25 standalone scenarios, and multitudes of Quick Battle maps to test your tactical acumen.
- Painstakingly researched and highly detailed combat equipment for the United States Army, German Heer, Waffen-SS, and Fallschirmjäger, including well over 100 vehicles and dozens of various small arms and heavy weapons.
- Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg is a STANDALONE base game. Final Blitzkrieg does not require any other Combat Mission products in order to play. Future expansions (modules and packs) will expand Final Blitzkrieg to include additional nations, forces, and equipment, and extend the timeline of the Western Front all the way to VE (Victory Europe) Day in May 1945.
Some fun new equipment!
- M4A3E2 "Sherman Jumbo" assault tank (75mm, 76mm, and flamethrower variants), clad in armor thick enough to rival heavy German tanks!
- M4A3E8 "Easy Eight" medium tank, the most advanced Sherman model of the war.
- M36 GMC tank destroyer, armed with the deadly 90mm cannon.
- M24 Chaffee light tank.
- Flamethrower variants of the Sherman tank.
- Jagdtiger, the heaviest armored fighting vehicle to see combat in World War II.
- Sturmtiger, equipped with a 380mm rocket launcher.
- Flammpanzer 38, a rare flamethrower-equipped Hetzer.
- Late models of many different German tanks, tank destroyers, and self-propelled guns, including the late Panther Ausf G equipped with chin mantlet.
The demo was released yesterday, contains 3 missions, and can be found here:
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=344&Itemid=606
I've played two of them already, they both were a lot of fun.
