Combat Mission: Red Thunder

FANTASTIC game! Just brilliant! (I also have had the whole Combat Mission WWII series work with zero problems on a brand new gaming pc--so I have no idea why anyone else is having tech issues.) Anyhow, I played the original CM series (Barbarossa to Berlin and Beyond Overlord) quite a bit some 15-20 years ago. This series has far surpassed it in terms of realism and especially unit control and combat feedback. These games work by far the best in the hybrid turn based system rather than real time. Every 60 seconds, orders from each side are carried out in live time. But then there is a "turn" pause after each 60 seconds of battle to issue orders all over again, and then watch the next 60 seconds of battle and so on. The combat is very realistic, with line of sight being essential for taking out the enemy. Armor combat is extremely fun to watch, and it is based on real cannon and armor penetration capability. Lots of one-shot tank/armored vehicle kills if you or the enemy are not careful! I had a Jagdpanther kill 5 lend-lease Shermans in 5 shots! They were not careful. Sadly, while targeting a 6th Sherman at 3 oclock, a 7th Sherman flanked from 10 oclock and blew up my Jagd in one shot! The realism is great. I was able to hunt down 2 remaining Shermans with infantry that carried various panzerfaust weapons. Red Thunder is easily my favorite in the CM series and I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend it for any and all WWII buffs, or anyone that appreciates real tactical combat command. The other entries in the WWII CM series are also great, but I prefer Red Thunder over the others because I find the late war Eastern Front a blast! I have played a few of the game's stock scenarios, which are cool! But the most fun, IMO, is generating a random battle with selected parameters, and then "buying" whatever units you want for your own army. This has been the best part of the game because it allows a quick way to experiment with various units and weapons at will.