Return to Riesberg (Remembering the very first Combat Mission demo)

For many, the love affair with Combat Mission began with Chance Encounter and Valley of Trouble, the astonishingly replayable CMBO demo scenarios that showcased Big Time Software’s brave new world of 3D WeGo wargaming so well. It’s easy to forget that this genre-jolting trial had a predecessor.

Unfortunately, CMBO’s short-lived ‘beta’ demo doesn’t seem to be readily available today. Just about the only way to get a taste of the tempter that created such excitement in the embryonic CM community back in 1999 is to play the versions of its scenarios that come with the full game.

Riesberg was arguably the weaker of the two beta demo battles. A fictional late-war US attack on a “small, rather non-descript, hamlet” believed to be defended by Volksgrenadiers, its venue was – by BTS’s later standards – somewhat short on character.

Your force of four Shermans and four GI platoons starts astride the east-west highway upon which the one-horse village of Riesberg sits. The vast majority of the map is undulating ‘open ground’ dotted with potentially useful scraps of ‘woods’, ‘tall pines’, and ‘scattered trees’. For unknown reasons, the cartographer refrained from using fields, barns, hedges, and walls – terrain types that might have given the settlement’s surroundings a more organic feel.

Topography, and the positions of deployment zone and victory locations, encourage fairly unimaginative tactics. It’s a testament to CMBO’s unorthodox turn structuring, unpredictable AI, and abundance of combat subtleties, that the scenario managed (and still manages) to produce such gripping action.

There are a couple of surprises I won’t spoil just in case you’ve not Riesberged before.

Despite the map flaws, the battle did a fine job of teaching CM initiates the importance of ground-level battlefield inspection. Unless you take the time to view the lie of the land from a grunt’s or tank commander’s perspective, there’s a good chance you’ll miss the numerous small ridges and gullies that, cleverly exploited, make advancing less perilous. If you’ve never played first-generation CM before, after the idiosyncratic camera controls, the lack of a toggleable contour lines overlay, may well prove to be one of the biggest irritants.

While it’s not all that difficult to understand why BTS dropped Riesberg when they put together the later ‘gold’ demo, the replacement of its companion, Last Defense, must have been a harder decision.

As its title suggests, this thrilling beta scenario casts the player as a desperate defender. It’s August 1944 and, in response to Operation Cobra, German forces have mounted a spirited counterattack against one thinly defended portion of the American breakout. Initially, you’re asked to hold the line against advancing, armour-supported Waffen SS troops, with nothing but two rifle platoons, and a gaggle of support teams.

The cavalry eventually arrives in the the shape of a trio of Hellcats, but even then – assuming your bazooka teams haven’t excelled themselves – you’ve got your work cut out.

With its commanding high ground in the north, exposed forward VLs in the south, transverse river, and various walls (all features under US control at the start of the 30-turn engagement), the Last Defense location is more thought-provoking and evocative than its companion.  Although it’s another fictional setting, artful cartography makes it easy to believe you’re reenacting a historical clash.

I don’t think it would be giving too much away if I mentioned that the playthrough that produced the accompanying screenshots reminded me just how vulnerable the M18s are to mortar fire, and just how useful CMx1’s ‘hide’ order is/was.

Revisiting CMBO’s advance guard also reminded me why the game is one of my all-time favourites, and why today I’m more likely to reach for one of the original ‘CMx1’ titles than their more intricate successors.