Combat Mission Basics: How to PBEM

Just how do you play turn-based multiplayer in CM?
Some useful links:
Combat Mission Discord / discord
The Few Good Men www.thefewgood...
Combat Mission Reddit: / combatmission
The Official Combat Mission Discord / discord

[@MilesStratton]

Thank you! My friend and I were rather intimidated to try the PBEM system but this seems to be much easier than we thought!

[@EnRandomSten]

Honestly this was the one of the main reasons I've not gotten into the game yet. Now I dont have any excuses anymore lmfao

[@burningphoneix]

DON'T FORGET "WHOSE TURN IS IT" ITS NOT JUST CM Helper. Also, it's CRITICAL that the first file ends with 001 or it will break the save.

[@aanders1990]

Battlefront should pay you for these

[@hamishneilson7140]

Awesome! Thank you so much for making this video! My brother and I were having a hard time setting up games which really discouraged both of us from playing, I'm glad I can send this to him now and we can start playing!

[@andreass2301]

I'd love to have a go at PBEM. Sadly I lack the time. And the talent.

[@EmperorLjas]

Time is rarely a true obstacle, since you can easily give your turn orders in under 10 minutes, especially on tiny maps. Maybe it's not as fulfilling as meticulously planning every single turn, but most of the time the broad strokes are more important anyway. Talent is, of course, not a requirement either.

[@rikwilliams6352]

Play against the AI, think of it as a training tool as well as watching after action reports on KZbin. As to not having time, have the battles as small as you like & the beauty with PBEM is you play your turn & send it of when it's convenient to you.

[@andreass2301]

@@EmperorLjas That's true - I do tend to forget how quick one turn's orders actually are. As for talent, at m current skill level I suspect a cabbage would provide better competition!

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Trust me, everyone begins as a cabbage ;)

[@burningphoneix]

lack of time is the great thing about PBEM. You can put in your turn whenever if you agree with your opponent. I've had turns where I didn't do it for nearly a month and my opponent the same and we're trucking along. As for talent, I'm a talentless hack and I still enjoy the game lol.

[@joshc1394]

This was my excuse for no PBEM on discord...now I have no excuse!

[@ottofin3178]

After playing PBEM, I never went back to singleplayer.

[@LookUsArts]

I wish the internet/lan set up would be easier. Me and my friend bought the game just to realise we cannot play multiplayer games... This method is acceptable but its still too old school for my taste. Great video tho

[@Roman9441]

I enjoy most of you video i play CMSF during my university i make many mistake during play because the tutorial is quite confuse haha. I'm plan to grab CMSF2 and Blacksea on steam again. Since bought upgrade and took too steam is almost same price as buy new one :|. They sell so expensive. Really detail will keep watch more of your video

[@rikwilliams6352]

Any chance you could explain how to knit the replays together for a continuous string? Software required & process involved?

[@usuallyhapless9481]

So, currently the only software that exists to do it well is the CM Replay Tool which comes with CMPE and only works with that (believe me, I've tried!). The only alternative is do it manually- that is, to film each turn individually and then stitch them together using whatever editing software you like. Which takes forever.

[@rikwilliams6352]

@@usuallyhapless9481 a no then, pity. Thanks for replying 👍

[@hamishneilson7140]

Another quick question though, is there a way to do a real time game? I know there's an option for it, but does it work?

[@usuallyhapless9481]

So, yes... but I remember it being a pain. IIRC, it involves using Hamachi to set up a fake LAN and a load of other stuff.

[@fanaticureshusbando]

Thank you for the explanation. I found out about CM from stumbling onto your channel and I'm very interested it trying it out. Do you have any advice for a new player getting started with CM? Since CM: cold war is the most recent I was thinking of getting that one on steam.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

The quick answer is to pick whatever time period or theatre that interests you the most- all the games (eventually) get updated to the same standard and should all be coming to Steam.

[@Wolfman2598]

I started with combat mission shock force 2 which in my opinion is the easiest of the game (other then maybe black sea). And has the most content with all the DLCs. Cold war might not be the best to start with do to its large scale and it being WW3 a lot of dead and burning men a vehicles. The WW2 tilts are a different ball game altogether, being a different time period but if you like WW2 even a bit maybe go with battle for Normandy. All that to say my favourite is final blitzkrieg. Happy gaming!

[@bah8925]

Come to Discord for a true multiplayer experience.

[@Danmossman1981]

Hiya. Have you ever done a ‘buyers guide’ for new players looking to get into the series? I looked but could not find one. I know there’s a lot of info out there but that’s sort of the problem. It’s hard to know which to trust and I know from watching your content that you’ve got good info to share. Cheers.

[@burningphoneix]

Honestly, its best to simply buy whichever campaign setting you like best. The games all run on the same engine so they're easy to transition between. Battle for Normandy and Shock Force 2 have the most players though.

[@AbacusManify]

Thanks for making this. My friend and I have had a load of trouble with Quick Battles that involve force selection - sending the turns back and forth during that process seems to break the saves more often and we have to set up the scenario several times before it will work; once we're actually in the battle it's smooth sailing again. Are there any known gotchas with this part of PBEM, or are we just being dumb? :D

[@usuallyhapless9481]

The only consistent failure I've seen is when there are module mismatches- if one player is bringing units the other guy doesn't own the game doesn't like it. If that's the case, you can still play- if you press spacebar in the force selector it'll show you which units are from which modules so you can make sure you're both using the same ones.

[@AbacusManify]

@@usuallyhapless9481 ahh, that has almost definitely happened to us as I tend to buy all the modules and he doesn't... I'll keep an eye out! Thanks so much for replying, your videos keep bringing me back to the games!

[@Duck1en]

Hey, does your oppenent need to have the map you are playing? Or does it send it with the save file? Me and my friend having trouble with map not loading for my friend

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Honestly, I've heard both so usually a good idea for both to have the map.

[@Duck1en]

@@usuallyhapless9481 thank you

[@Duck1en]

@@usuallyhapless9481 turns out you don't need the map, its with the save file The camera was looking the opposite way, turns out there is no bug. The map was here :D

[@KaiserHabsburg]

I love the game already day 1. HATE THE FACT THAT MULTIPLAYER IS ESSENTIALLY USLESS IN EVERY REGUARD. Why in 2021 with new versions can we not have a fucking actual connection and turn by turn right after eachother. why for the love of god is it file based?

[@chrisdude2675]

damn why cant they just fix it on steam

[@Maverick-ie4dj]

Too old and hard method. Just host "quick battle" and choose "2 players internet/LAN turn based",then tell your IP and Port to you opponent and play. You both will give commands at one time and then watch the action 1 minute, after you both click "continue". I don't know if it normaly works through the internet, we just used Radmin VPN (like Hamachy, but better). And it also works with unlicensed version. " Edit-1) Ok, I understand, this is possible only in few last CM games. Edit-2) Ok, now I understand, that sometimes, when you do not have much time or you want to record some gameplay it is better to use PBEM. ))