So, I finally decided to buy this game, and for the last couple of evenings I have been struggling to learn how it plays. All of you here are probably familiar with it, but I thought I would share some impressions anyway, just off the top of my head.
First of all, it's a very challenging game to learn. But thanks to youtube videos, the in-game tutorial, and plenty of trial and error (and googling), I'm slowly improving. The sometimes broken English in the menus and on the forums only help to set the mood of the Ostfront. Ze Russians.. zhey are ztill ze zame.
It's a very different game than Combat Mission. It feels more realistic in some ways, and less in others. The engagement ranges are much greater, but the weapons also feel more real and deadly. For example, a LMG42 is a very powerful weapon out to 1000m range in Mius, whereas in Combat Mission, it struggles to hit anything at 300m+. In Mius, interlocking machinegun fire arcs actually control ground. So while the maps are bigger, and the amount of platoons smaller than in CM, you defend more by setting up strongpoints than in CM where it's more of a continuous front line.
The explosions and other effects are also much more rough and realistic and gritty than in any other game I played. Seeing a KV1 tank break through the trees and rampage straight through one of my platoons was a pretty terrifying sight - especially as it crushed several of my troops right in their trenches, while their friends could only watch in despair. The ground even deforms as the tank moves over the trench - very impressive when coming from Combat Mission that's still caught in the dark ages in the graphics department.
Another thing I noticed is that in Mius Front, infantry is pretty helpless at close range against tanks, whereas in CM, they quickly take out tanks with hand grenades. I don't know if my troops could have thrown a grenade bundle if they had had a bit more courage, or if magnetic mines and such AT weapons are in the game.
However, for all its advantages, Mius also has some annoying flaws. The setup phase has all the squares of the map colour-coded according to concealment levels, and the strong garish colours are harsh to look at, and unit icons are hard to find on such background. The graphics look quite good when down at ground level, but they look pretty weird when zooming out - each tree and bush casts a completely black shadow on the ground, which gives the landscape a kind of psychedelic feel.
Many of the sounds are very good (at least to my civilian ear) But the sound of incoming mortars is so poorly done that it almost turned me off playing the game. It sounds exactly like they just recorded cheap fireworks going off. I eventually found out that this sound would disappear when I disabled the "advanced sound modelling" or some such thing in the options. However, that also seems to have degraded the other sounds, so it's a mixed blessing.
Well, so far I have played the campaign set in the Saur-Mogila tumulus area several times, but always quit once my mistakes cost me too dearly. My Marders eventually ran out of ammunition because their incompetent commander (me) didn't learn how to resupply them yet.
Interesting fact: It turns out the very same hill where the campaign took place in WW2 has now again come under fire in the Russia-Ukraine war. The memorial the Soviets built on the summit was destroyed by artillery a few years ago, and the statues were scattered in pieces just as the men they were built to honour. History does repeat itself....
First of all, it's a very challenging game to learn. But thanks to youtube videos, the in-game tutorial, and plenty of trial and error (and googling), I'm slowly improving. The sometimes broken English in the menus and on the forums only help to set the mood of the Ostfront. Ze Russians.. zhey are ztill ze zame.
It's a very different game than Combat Mission. It feels more realistic in some ways, and less in others. The engagement ranges are much greater, but the weapons also feel more real and deadly. For example, a LMG42 is a very powerful weapon out to 1000m range in Mius, whereas in Combat Mission, it struggles to hit anything at 300m+. In Mius, interlocking machinegun fire arcs actually control ground. So while the maps are bigger, and the amount of platoons smaller than in CM, you defend more by setting up strongpoints than in CM where it's more of a continuous front line.
The explosions and other effects are also much more rough and realistic and gritty than in any other game I played. Seeing a KV1 tank break through the trees and rampage straight through one of my platoons was a pretty terrifying sight - especially as it crushed several of my troops right in their trenches, while their friends could only watch in despair. The ground even deforms as the tank moves over the trench - very impressive when coming from Combat Mission that's still caught in the dark ages in the graphics department.
Another thing I noticed is that in Mius Front, infantry is pretty helpless at close range against tanks, whereas in CM, they quickly take out tanks with hand grenades. I don't know if my troops could have thrown a grenade bundle if they had had a bit more courage, or if magnetic mines and such AT weapons are in the game.
However, for all its advantages, Mius also has some annoying flaws. The setup phase has all the squares of the map colour-coded according to concealment levels, and the strong garish colours are harsh to look at, and unit icons are hard to find on such background. The graphics look quite good when down at ground level, but they look pretty weird when zooming out - each tree and bush casts a completely black shadow on the ground, which gives the landscape a kind of psychedelic feel.
Many of the sounds are very good (at least to my civilian ear) But the sound of incoming mortars is so poorly done that it almost turned me off playing the game. It sounds exactly like they just recorded cheap fireworks going off. I eventually found out that this sound would disappear when I disabled the "advanced sound modelling" or some such thing in the options. However, that also seems to have degraded the other sounds, so it's a mixed blessing.
Well, so far I have played the campaign set in the Saur-Mogila tumulus area several times, but always quit once my mistakes cost me too dearly. My Marders eventually ran out of ammunition because their incompetent commander (me) didn't learn how to resupply them yet.
Interesting fact: It turns out the very same hill where the campaign took place in WW2 has now again come under fire in the Russia-Ukraine war. The memorial the Soviets built on the summit was destroyed by artillery a few years ago, and the statues were scattered in pieces just as the men they were built to honour. History does repeat itself....
