What to buy??

Take command of air and naval assets from post-WW2 to the near future in tactical and operational scale, complete with historical and hypothetical scenarios and an integrated scenario editor.

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wodin
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What to buy??

Post by wodin »

OK...now the original game is fairly pricey compared to the standalone expansions. So I'm wondering why it is and why I should buy it instead of a standalone.

Also say you have two standalone games, can they be merged into one game?

To those who have original and standalone s, knowing what you know if you where about to purchase your first Command game what would you do? Buy the original first? Or just pick your fav standalone games?

I have an anniversary coupon ready to spend.

Thanks

Jason
RedBunny
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RE: What to buy??

Post by RedBunny »

I was in the exact situation that you're in and I've seen your question asked and answered a number of times so I'll give you my opinion. If you're willing to play via Steam - and have a little patience - set up sale alerts for CMANO on Steam and on sites like fanatical.com. Both seem to have CMANO Steam license sales a couple times per year where you can get the full game for < $25. Being able to play games through Steam only makes some people nervous but I don't share these concerns.

Otherwise the standard advice is to get one of the standalone expansions to see if you like the game. Find the expansion that interests you most. I personally chose Shifting Sands as my first expansion because the subject matter interests me but other expansions are more popular.

When you buy an expansion you're only able to play the scenarios in that expansion. When you get the full game you can (of course) play the scenarios in the full game but you can also play the community developed scenarios and you can create your own. To play the expansion scenarios you'd have to buy the expansions. You also need to full game to play the Live scenarios.

Good luck!

(I didn't intend that first sentence to sound snippy)
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MikeJ19
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RE: What to buy??

Post by MikeJ19 »

I was also in the same situation and decided to try Northern Inferno first. This got me access to the Northern Inferno scenarios and all the tutorials. I believe it also gives me the ability to play the community scenarios. I'm working my way through the Northern Inferno scenarios and enjoying the challenge. I'm used to land based games and this is quite different, but lots of fun.

Also, the community on this forum has been very helpful.

Have fun!
Mike

Retired Gunner
BDukes
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RE: What to buy??

Post by BDukes »

Just buy whole thing. You get moneys worth unless cheap.
Don't call it a comeback...
Ancalagon451
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RE: What to buy??

Post by Ancalagon451 »

I was also in the same situation and decided to try Northern Inferno first

Mike, unfortunately the NI DLC doesn't give you access to anything other than it's specific scenarios (I commited that very same error back when I started in CMANO).

So after you complete it you'll have to fork money for the full game or call it done with CMANO (I recommend wait for a discount and then purchase it).

The other Standalone Campaigns are the same.
So I'm wondering why it is and why I should buy it instead of a standalone.

Wodin, the two must have items are the basic game (for the general scenario access license, without it you can't play user made scenarios) and the Chains of War DLC for the paywalled features (aircraft damage model, communications disruption, cargo operations and a few minor others, if you don't have it you can't play scenarios that make use of any of those features).

Other campaigns have some of them, but CoW has all of them and with it, you are sure to never found any unplayable scenario for lack of the proper license. The campaign itself it's OK if you are in the highest tech stuff, not the better but definitely enjoyable.

Of course any DLC scenario requires it's specific license to play it (no NI campaign without having purchased it, the same with the other campaigns and the LIVE scenarios that are purchased piecemeal).

But with only the two I named and the free Community Pack (also the Steam Workshop if you purchase it on steam) you'll have literally hundreds of hours of gameplay. There are also scenarios in this forum that haven't made it to the Community Pack for a reason or another but you'll have to dig a little in the "mods and scenarios" subforum to find them.

Ancalagon
LMychajluk
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RE: What to buy??

Post by LMychajluk »

Worth it - https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/1 ... e_Edition/

One purchased, go to the Steam Workshop and subscribe to the Community Pack.

There may also be a better deal w/ the Steam Summer Sale towards the end of the month, but you run the risk of the bundle above expiring.
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Schr75
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RE: What to buy??

Post by Schr75 »

Hi wodin.

The base game might seem a bit pricey, but it is SO worth the price.
I´m of course a bit biased because I have been playing this kind of games since the mid 90´s, especially commands spiritual ancestor Harpoon,
but since release of command in september 2013, I have been playing command almost every day.

So this have been hands down my best investment in a game/sim ever[:D]
It might look intimidating at first, but there are a lot of tutorials, to teach you the basics, and then smaller scenarios to get you started, without having to dive straight in to WW3[:D]
And when you are ready to play the more advanced scens, there´s literally 100s of free scens to download, and more are added every few days.

And you will not find a game/sim with a more responsive developer team. New patches are released all the time, and any bugs that may have snuck into a release are usually fixed in days, some times hours.

My point is:
If this is your first try in this category of game, any of the DLCs will do.
If you already have experience in this category, and are considering to buy the base game, then Chains of war is the way to go because then you will get all the extra features released with that DLC as well.

No matter wich way you go, i´m sure you will not regret trying command, and if you have any questions, you will find that this is quite a friendly forum.
There´s a lot of experienced players here that are more than willing to answer questions.

And just to be absolutely clear.

I have no economic affiliation with this game/sim at all[:D]

I´m just a very enthusiastic player and beta tester.[:)]

Søren

Edit: Where´s my manners? Welcome to the forum by the way[:)] Always nice to see new players.
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kevinkins
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RE: What to buy??

Post by kevinkins »

There is no easy answer. As a wargamer for at least 40 years my games were all ground warfare based until Command. My knee jerk response would be to just dive into the base game. But I did not do that. I got Northern Inferno and within a week purchased the base game. There is nothing wrong with going slow. Command is very unique and can consume you. You might not be able to play another sim after getting the full product. If you are into graphics, don't go near Command. But if you are into modern geopolitics and the combat that might result, Command will give you countless hours of fun.

kevin
“The study of history lies at the foundation of all sound military conclusions and practice.”
Alfred Thayer Mahan
LORDPrometheus
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RE: What to buy??

Post by LORDPrometheus »

In my opinion the key is the base game and the chains of war expansion set as it adds actual features such as cargo operations and the ability to use lasers rail guns EMPs and communications disruption. Other than that northern inferno is probably the best expansion going off scenarios alone so to try the game I would go for that one. Shifting sands silent service and desert Storm are cool but ultimately don't add anything that the community scenarios don't already add
LargeDiameterBomb
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RE: What to buy??

Post by LargeDiameterBomb »

I give one more cheer for the combination of the basic game and the Chains of War expansion.

I bought the game in 2014 and have been so impressed with the game itself and also the subsequent progression the game has had that I have bought all add-ons and DLC just to support the developers.

I would not recommend buying an expansion only. These scenarios are almost always large to very large and involves many, many units and have a much higher learning curve because there is so much you have to master from the get go.

Even though I must have several thousand hours in the game by now and can handle any aspect of it fairly well (Except some scenario-making programming) I still prefer small to medium sized scenarios, ie scenarios where I have control over around 3-6 ships, somewhere between 4 and 25 aircraft and perhaps one or two submarines and that lasts about 6 to 8 hours in game time. I like a fair amount of micromanagement to make units make optimum decisions (and might even add some extra units for my opposition to use against me when replaying a scenario that I found to be to easy when playing the highly optimized style i like).

The thing is, playing that kind of small-medium scenario is a very different experience than playing a large-very large scenario with for example 14 ships in three tactical formations (Two Carrier Battle Groups of five ships plus a Surface Action Group of four ships), 100+ aircraft and three submarines that takes 24 hours to complete in game time - which means you have to leave much more up to the computer to handle by setting up pre-defined missions for almost all of your units and run the game at fast settings (For instance so every 1 second in real life corresponds to 5 or 15 seconds in game time).

Of course, I do play the large scenarios too, but I enjoy them much less on average. The scenarios in the game expansions tend to be large/very large scenarios. Of course, you can micromanage these larger scenarios also by pausing the game every few seconds but then a hour of game time will take perhaps 5 hours of real time and the feeling of realism and having to take tactical decisions under time pressure will be lost. Even then, the Chain of war expansion is necessary because it adds game mechanics that makes the game much more realistic.

Now, I don't know what kind of games you will prefer, but probably neither do you. I can definitely say that you won't experience all the sides of Command properly if you just buy a game expansion.
Only the basic game gives you access to the large amounts of very good small-medium scenarios that exists and Chains of war, besides containing the extra game-mechanics, has some very good large scenarios. So together these will give you access to the most realistic mechanics of the game and give you access to a selection of scenarios that will give you a feel for all the intricacies of this wonderful game.
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MikeJ19
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RE: What to buy??

Post by MikeJ19 »

Large,

Good point. I've bought Northern Inferno and am enjoying it. However, my most recent scenario is very intimidating. I have lots of ships, carriers and planes and am feeling very overwhelmed...

Have a good day,
Mike

Retired Gunner
Dragnaath
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RE: What to buy??

Post by Dragnaath »

I'm weak [:'(][:'(]

Bough base game - then all expansions finally all "life" scenarios.

Really like Command, even though I'm a terrible player lol[:(]
Dimitris
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RE: What to buy??

Post by Dimitris »

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19
Good point. I've bought Northern Inferno and am enjoying it. However, my most recent scenario is very intimidating. I have lots of ships, carriers and planes and am feeling very overwhelmed...

Have a look at this playthrough: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads ... no.362211/
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