While tank, air and naval combat simulations are reaching new heights these days using incredible 3D acceleration, stunning graphics and photo-like environments, it seems that the "classic" wargame of tactical land combat is forever bound to be stuck in a highly abstracted, turn-based hex-grid environment. Fortunately, there is hope.

With Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord, Big Time Software (known for award-winning strategic air combat games like Over The Reich, Achtung Spitfire! and Flight Commander) is introducing a tactical squad-level WWII combat simulation in a true 3D environment for both PC and Mac users.

As the name implies, it is set in NW Europe after the D-Day landings in the Normandy. Published by Battlefront.com, a new independent internet wargame publishing company, this game sets out to boldly go where no man has gone before (oops, wrong genre...)

At a first glance, Combat Mission is a classic wargame, allowing the player(s) to control squads of infantry and single vehicles like tanks and armored cars, using military tactics and strategy to defeat the "enemy" in combat. But that's about all that the game has in common with other computer wargames like West Front, Close Combat or the famous board game Advanced Squad Leader.

The basis for the game's revolutionary approach is the "lack" of a hexgrid. Instead, the battlefield is represented in a true 3 dimensional environment. Infantry and armor are not restricted anymore to 6 possible facings, do not have to be squeezed into artificial "movement rates" of X hexes per turn, and do not have to worry that their line of sight (LOS) is blocked by a hexside which happens to have a couple of houses on it. Instead - units can face all 360°, can move meter by meter and can track their LOS in between and over buildings, trees and hills.

Using the in-game camera tool, the player can move freely across the battlefield, pan and zoom, move up and down. Want to see how it is lying in a trench with MG tracers zipping over your head? Move the camera down to ground level and enjoy. Want to ride along on a tank as it moves into battle? Lock the camera behind the tank and watch. Even overhead views are possible, similar to traditional hex-based games, but once you see the action unfold hovering a few meters above the battlefield you will rarely use them.

But the implications of a hexless environment are reaching much further than "looks" alone. Freed from the constraints of an artifical hex overlay, the game designers are able to drop pretty much any convention of "traditional" wargames for the sake of higher realism.

The 3D game engine allows for accurate tracking of every shell from muzzle to impact. Physical realities can be (and are) simulated. One example.. shells are not flying in a straight path but follow a distinct trajectory, just like they do in real life. And it depends on the firing weapon, too, which means that the dreaded 88's with its high muzzle speeds have a much flatter trajectory, increasing their hit chances tremendously.

Same is true for the targets of such deadly fire - tanks and their crews, for example. Since tanks are true 3D objects in the game (as they are in real life), a much more detailed approach can and must be taken to represent them in the game. "Gamey" values like armor ratings become a distant shadow of the past.

Every vehicle in Combat Mission uses real life values, not only for distinctions between various parts of armor (e.g. front hull, front turret, sides for hull and turret, top armor) but also for other important things like ground pressure (with an impact on the chances to bog down), silhouette height (how easily is it spotted) and many more.

Armor thickness, slope, different types of steel and weapons, the angle of impact - just to name a few - are all part of the equation in Combat Mission's calculations of hit and penetration chances. The impact on realism is tremendous - small variances in armor thickness and impact angle (we're talking millimeters here), for example, which would be thrown into one abstracted rating in other games, DO have a big impact on the chances to kill enemy armor - again, just as in real life.

The graphic below has been generated by repeated firing of a US 76mm gun against a King Tiger. The different colors show various chances to achieve a penetration. Similar graphics will be included on the CD as handy reference for the player.

All this really only scratches the surface. Non-penetrating hits that can stun or injure the crew, unique characteristics of various tank models (e.g. soft spots on the King Tigers front armor) and much more is in the game. Pointing out all the details of Combat Mission's 3D engine over traditional 2D wargames is by far out of scope of this preview.

Now one would expect that such a detailed 3D setting can only show off all its glory in real time. Well, it does - but there are still "turns."

What this means is a mix between Orders phases (in which the game is paused and both sides issue their orders) and Action phases (with a real time execution of the given orders for BOTH sides simultaneously). Every action phase is 60 seconds of real time combat, and the players have no influence on the actions taken by their units during that time. Their units may or may not obey the orders given to them during the Orders phase, depending on the situations they find themselves in.

If you order a rifle squad to charge into a known MG position head-on without suppressing fire, you might find that the squad finds that a rather easy way to get killed - and instead chooses to rout away to the rear. What is happening here? Combat Mission is using fuzzy logic to determine the actions of your soldiers during the 60 seconds Action Replay. They may hit the dirt when facing heavy enemy fire, they may run away or heroically storm forward - the so-called "tactical AI" is leading the actions of your men during the action phase, based on your orders, the experience and training of the men and the situation.

Above. A combat scene right out of the game. A company of US infantry, supported by tanks, is assaulting a line of pillboxes. The shot has been taken from the German perspective, therefore you see a generic US icon in the picture, indicating that "movement" has been spotted in this area but the unit(s) were not identified.

Notice the two pillboxes in the background and the tracers from an MG42 positioned between them. Notice also a prone US squad near the road which was pinned just seconds before. The three US soldiers in the foreground represent a whole 12 men rifle squad. This abstraction was necessary to allow for battalion size battles under current hardware restrictions.

The mix of Orders phase and real time Action phase indeed seems a very good compromise between the disadvantages of a pure turn system (with sometimes unrealistic and "gamey" ways to win games) and a pure real time strategy game (with little time to use in-depth strategy and tactics while the clock is ticking away). It also helps simulate "Fog of War", in that the player has no influence over his units for 60 seconds, thereby limiting his possibilities to unrealistically use his all-knowing "Über" position to micromanage the course of a game.

One example.. no longer can you move one unit forward at a time, using the newly won intel to move the remaining units around enemy positions. You have to move them all together - and so does the enemy.

That doesn't mean, however, that the player has nothing to do during the action replays. In fact, he has a lot to do - moving the camera around the battlefield, clicking on units to see how many men they just lost from that artillery impact or that MG fire and if they panicked or became pinned. You must also track enemy movements to foresee the future strategies of the opponent, or you can simply enjoy the sights and sounds of a WWII battlefield. Various buttons make sure that you don't miss any action - you can reverse, fast forward and pause the action, very much like on your VCR.

If you think now that such a highly realistic and complex game must mean a high learning curve, endless tables and an interface overloaded with buttons and options - you're dead wrong. The designers of Combat Mission have put great emphasis on an easy to handle user interface, which conveys all the important info to the player but keeps things simple and overseeable.

All orders in the game are given by simply selecting a unit, calling up the unit orders menu and clicking on the one you want to issue. Movement and fire orders are then followed by clicking on the desired spot on the map you want the unit to go to or fire at. Hotkeys are available also for those familiar with the interface.

After the order is given, a color-coded line appears, showing which order has been issued. You can use waypoints for movement, too, by simply right-clicking (instead of left-clicking) on the map. In later turns, you can cancel or modify your orders, e.g. change a "crawl" order to "run." You can even move the pre-set waypoints within a certain area in subsequent turns, thereby changing your orders slightly to face a new situation and avoiding having to replot everything from scratch.

Every line is color-coded to display the different orders given to this platoon of M4 Shermans. Pink: reverse. Light blue: move at maximum speed. Blue: hunt (which orders the tank to move forward until an enemy unit is spotted, then stop and engage the target). Orange: fire (if the target would be an enemy unit the line would be red). Dark blue: move (at medium speed).

By clicking on a unit, additional info becomes visible (the firing Sherman is highlighted and the type of fire and the distance are shown). Notice also that this screenshot is darker (the scenario is pre-set to dusk) and the color of the trees (yep, it's fall).

Most important, unit information (like headcount for a squad or ammo loadouts) is always displayed at the bottom of the screen, and a detailed description can be accessed by simply hitting the ENTER key.

Other information, especially about command&control, is shown directly on the map by using color-coded lines which extend from a unit to its parental HQ. If the line is black, the unit is out of command (which not only lowers the morale of the unit but also results in a time delay before being able to execute the player's orders); if the line is brown, the unit is in command and can react quicker and benefit from the special abilities of its HQ, e.g. improved morale.

This easy and well thought out interface can be seen all throughout the game. While providing the player with all the necessary information, it allows him to focus on the strategy necessary to defeat the opponent.

And there will be countless opponents without any doubt, due to possible play against the AI or human opponents via PBEM, TCP/IP or Hotseat. Besides a high number of pre-made scenarios and campaigns that are planned to be included with the CD, CM comes with a highly flexible and powerful map editor, which allows the creation of one's own maps, scenarios and campaigns.

The editor provides a vast choice of terrain features, TO&Es and scenario types. Meeting engagements, full-scale assaults, victory flags (and here also dynamic victory flags, i.e. the attacker determines secretly which flag is his REAL objective) and map exit zones are featured.

Terrain features include three different types of woods, stone and wooden houses as well as city blocks, paved and dirt roads and railroad tracks, bridges, brush, hedges and the "bocage" hedgerows, just to name a few. TO&Es are in for all six nationalities that can be found in the game: US, German, British, Polish, Canadian and Free French.

Especially the German TO&Es include a vast number of different formations, e.g. SS, Gebirgsjäger and Volksgrenadiere. Not to speak of all the different vehicles included in the game, from the Kübelwagen to the Jagdpanther to the Crocodile and many many more.

Scenarios ususally last up to 120 turns (or two real-time hours) on a map of up to 3 kilometers square. The maximum force for each player is roughly a reinforced battalion. Campaigns have their own meaning in CM. They consist of a number of battles on a single, but very large map. Each battle takes place on one part of the large map and depending on the progress of the battle, the front line shifts back and forth. Hence campaigns simulate relatively small scale battles over the course of a few days, rather than a mega campaign over several years.

Combat Mission introduces a tremendous number of innovations, most of them never-seen before, some (like the order/action phases) brought to new life. The beta version used for this preview seems already very stable (in fact there hasn't been a single crash), and the AI, although unfinished, already puts up a decent fight (watch those flanks!).

Combat Mission seems to keep its promises (an incredibly realistic simulation of tactical land warfare in World War Two), although it cannot do so without several abstractions (e.g. no single men are tracked, i.e. the smallest unit is the squad or team).

Overall Combat Mission holds great promise for the wargaming genre. Steve Grammont, President of Battlefront.com, and Charles Moylan, President of Big Time Software, have announced that they will provide a public beta demo for download to enable people to judge the new system for themselves. On release Combat Mission will be available via Internet ONLY, with the CD provided via mail.