Last week saw the release of the version 3.0 upgrade to the current Combat Mission engine, an upgrade that is reflected in the standalone title Combat Mission: Red Thunder, which introduces Russian forces for the first time. Dave Tach joins Charlie Hall in this Overview to take a ride with a German armor group and see first hand the awesome firepower that a 70-ton King Tiger can dish out.
Just a little over a year ago Polygon profiled the team at Battlefront.com, makers of the Combat Mission series. Now well into its second decade, the series lets players take on the role of World War II commanders and fight out the great infantry battles of that conflict on their PC or Mac.
What makes Combat Mission unique is something called a "WeGo" system, wherein each side issues orders to their units and then commits them to action. At the press of a button a single minute of action plays out, and only at the end of that minute each side can issue new orders.
The result is a game that plays out like a classic war movie, where players control the camera angles and can fast forward and rewind the tape again and again before moving on to the next turn.
Edit: Combat Mission: Red Thunder was released in April of 2014. The v 3.0 upgrade to the engine was released in August.
