Hello FGM'ers!
A final update on my CMANO discovery tour! I have put in 40 plus hours on CMANO so have a reasonable idea of how to use the UI and appreciate the gaming experience. The initial experience of CMANO is daunting. A little like walking into a library with the books spread all over the floor! Where do you start?! The CMANO V1.0 manual has the feel of having many different authors, all with english as a second language. IMHO in an otherwise brilliant game, this is a major flaw and I'm sure has put off many prospective players.
However, as some posters have mentioned the community have come to the rescue and placed the important books in a smaller room! There is still a perseverance factor involved but authors such as Baloogan have produced some very useful Youtube material, and I also like Bunyap for how he organises his attack. Once you get your head around the Mission Editor, (note not for making scenarios but instructing your units what to do) you realise that the UI works very well, in fact the mechanics are well thought out. Plus community authors have produced tutorials that are in suitable bite sized chunks for the average bear to digest.
In the end, there is nothing like game time and repitition. The reward is a military gaming puzzle that provides a credible simulation of the real deal. Scenarios have good replayability and the solutions are many and varied. You will fail a lot! But that just means you have to dig into the detail and find the clues to getting your missiles on target. Sometimes this will be a UI feature - like how to plot the course of the Tomahawk missiles to use terrain to mask their approach, or it maybe a characteristic of the enemy's sonar you need to dig up - only having HF sonar - in the comprehensive database which is readily accessible via useful hyperlinks.
As the title suggests, this game is about command. Most of the gameplay (90%) involves planning the attack with the assets at your disposal and letting your troops do most of the tactical stuff. Of course, your big picture view of the battlefield allows you to change plans on the fly as new data is obtained. There are opportunities for tactical involvement, but at the initial stage concentrate on the basics of the Mission Editor. Plenty of gaming hours to be had if this style of game suits you.
The Silent Service expansion allows more tactical involvement by the player. Plenty of additional material via offical products and the community.
There is an unofficial version of multiplayer and there was talk of developing a WEGO multiplayer version - which I think would suit this game.
I have had a go at editing parts of the manual and added some material that should be of interest to players. Bit of an ongoing project -
My Command Manual.