Interface

Two-headed monster

More than one game has been ruined by a bad interface. Some are so mangled, it feels as if the gameplay is to fault. Fortunately, most games don’t fall into this category. The reason we bring this up is because wargames are notorious for having horrible interfaces. Beer and pretzel games like Panzer General aside, most are known for being too convoluted for the average gamer to grasp. Part of the reason is unfamiliarity with military hierarchy. Someone playing the old Western Front game from SSI for the first time might wonder “is 100 tanks in an armored division a lot?” Or even “what are the differences between a Corps, a division, an SS division, an armored division, an infantry division?”

Plot your course

Looks like the oilwells in Iraq

A foreboding sight

Fortunately, Combat Mission: Barbarossa to Berlin doesn’t ask the player to worry about the strategic details. Divisions only make an appearance in the purchase phase to set the ratio of points one is allowed to spend on armor and infantry, and in determining the delay between calling in an artillery strike and actually receiving it.

CMBB comes with an excellent manual, a real treat. There are two hundred fifty thick, solid pages with a large and easy to read font. The manual is about 8x5 inches (23x13cm) and is easily the highest quality manual we’ve seen since Falcon 4.0. It explains all the abstract gameplay concepts that are liable to be completely alien to most Combat Mission newcomers. The scenario design deservedly receives a strong 25 page overview which should prepare anyone for the challenge of creating or recreating a battle.

The manual, with a sharpie for reference

Poor choices

The two tutorials included in the game are great at showing how to play with the game but they do take for granted that players just know certain things about the war. The game is clearly aimed at wargame buffs who would know that a PzKpfw VI Tiger tank is deadly at any range to most tanks, but as the range closes, its advantage significantly diminishes. The same hardcore wargamer would know that it’s suicide to lead an assault on a fortified town with the same Tiger, since enemy infantry will be able to conceal themselves in buildings and spring close assault ambushes on the helpless tank. Other ideas, like Soviet numerical superiority (at the cost of early war inexperience) are glossed over and not addressed directly. All these missed opportunities are a real shame, since CMBB is so accessible otherwise that the average gamer could pick it up.

Halftrack APCs

Claim the hill

Wittman, the best tank commander of the war

A few other poor design choices creep up when we encounter the front-end and game control interface. Though ordering units around is very easy thanks to the plethora of commands available, including a handy “Line of Sight” utility, there is no way to customize the interface. Is the scroll speed tediously slow? Too bad, deal with it. Don’t like the default commands? Tell that to someone who cares. The front-end is begging for a back button. Once you are in a menu, you’re in there until you hit “OK”. There is no way to back out to the previous selection. That this basic feature, nay, necessity got overlooked is baffling.