CMX2 - What Do You Find Most Frustrating?

Spotting, especially full spotting (able to target). The tendency to lose sight of already spotted enemy units (without either unit moving).

The is really bad in CMCW, as the spotting distance is so much less than the effective range of the weapons.

I have played every combat mission title and mostly enjoying it. Then I stumbled into Call to Arms gates of Hell a couple of years ago. CM engine as we all know, does not do is permit eyeball to eyeball gun sight view of your units. It's frustrating to maneuver your units in the CM world and then a bad guy pops up and you pray that your man or vehicle can get a shot off before they get you. Direct in the cockpit control. I am keenly aware of the RTS vs WEGO, real time etc.  It's a personal playing style for sure. For me at least, I often just want to blast me some enemy units and have a little less cerebral game play.

Happy to add here and this is for all the CM WWII variants... To be fair these games are the best available as they are but yes there is always room for improvement. This list may get out of hand from me and are not in any particular order.

- Availability for custom point distribution for PBEM matches. As an example it would be nice to allocate say additional points for defenders to use on defensive works outside of the force / unit purchases. I always want some but feel stretched if I allocate points for it.

- Infantry going prone when not in hide mode or under fire.

- When using the blast command they should blast and stay put unless given an additional move order.

- Engineers having the ability to lay mines in game.

- Armour able to un bog a vehicle or other tank.

- Tank crews able to retrieve ammo from other tanks and crew other tanks if its the same variant.

- AT gun crews able to walk away from the gun and later re man it.

- Being able to put foxholes and trenches up against hedge rows.

- Being able to lay mines individually.

- Inf not shooting through walls but proper openings only.

- Tree destruction modelled better.

- Additional security features that lock pbem turns from being able to be re played and re numbered.

- Would love to see motorcycles added for all factions.

- ** Continued MAC OS Support for those of us who are heavily invested in the franchise **

Might come back and add here but I think it's a good start.

Spotting and lack of burning buildings and terrain (cmx1).

- Spotting System

- Fog of War is not implemented consistently

- ATGs are not particularly useful

- Ambushes are difficult to execute

- And yes, the trees are simply annoying

Lack of "move to contact"-command like CMx1 has is infuriating. The hunt-command in CMx2 is just move to contact but implemented in absolutely retarded way.

With CMx2 hunt, units will happily keep on moving when they take fire and even casualties as long as they don't spot an enemy unit. Only way for them to stop is they properly spot something or take massive amounts of fire, enough to completely pin them. That usually just leads to massive casualties.

With CMx1 move to contact, units will immediately stop when they take fire even if they don't actually see anybody.
And since there already is a proper move to contact-command, the hunt-command in CMx1 is a useful variant of it.

Of all the Spotting issues, for me, the worst is not being able to target the first floor of a building solely because the ground tile isn't visible.

Not being able to place foxholes/trenches against hedges is another peeve, but what's worse (IMHO) is not being able to move into a hedge corner because of the alignment of the hedge.

Another one, not yet mentioned, is not being able to retrieve ammo from a truck once the vehicle has been immobilized.  I just found this one recently while playing a campaign where a truck was used as a prime mover for an AT Gun.  The truck had to drive off to hide from an attack and got stuck in a field.  After defeating the attack, I sent the ammo crew off to get more shells, and 🤬

This topic contains a good list of "irritants".  Hopefully, CMx3 and the new engine will fix most if not all.  Speaking of which, isn't it about time for Steve to talk about the year ahead?  Hopefully, that will contain some news on the progress of that project.

Good thread — I’ve been reading through the replies and it’s funny how many of us end up circling the same issues after all these years. A lot of the frustrations aren’t deal-breakers, just those little moments where the engine reminds you it has its own rules. Spotting quirks, terrain oddities, and urban fighting sometimes feeling a bit rigid compared to how we imagine it in our heads — I think most long-time players have had those “wait… what just happened?” moments.

Things I find myself agreeing with from the comments here:
• spotting and contact sometimes feeling inconsistent or short-lived
• hedge and tree behaviour that can be a little unpredictable
• urban fighting not always flowing as naturally as it could
• movement/command feel compared to older CM titles
• general “engine friction” that slows things down more than the tactical situation itself

On the improvement side, I’d really love to see more battlefield atmosphere and dynamic effects — things like fires in buildings, spreading fires, smoke and destruction evolving more over time, and urban areas feeling more alive as a fight develops. Nothing that changes the core DNA of Combat Mission, just refinements that deepen immersion and reduce those head-scratching moments. We’re all still here playing and debating this stuff years later, so that says a lot — we just want to see the series keep growing in the right direction. 😄