The v1.20 patches for COMBAT MISSION SHOCK FORCE as well as CMSF MARINES are finally out now! The list of changes, additions, new features and bux fixes is impressively long as usual, below just a few snapshots of what's awaiting you in the latest free upgrade to the series:

• "Pop Smoke" can now be aimed using the Face Command or current unit facing.
  
• Floating icons for friendly units now briefly blink after sustaining a casualty.
  
• Spotters for indirect support weapons  are now able to target areas slightly outside of direct LOS under certain circumstances, such as when firing indirectly over a tall wall or just behind the crest of a hill.
  
• Muzzle flame, smoke, dust, and other effects directly attached to enemy unit behavior are no longer shown unless the unit is already spotted by at least one friendly soldier.
  
• Campaign players now have an option to switch between RealTime and WeGo Modes in between battles.
  
• Scenario game time limit has been increased to 4 hours

[ Click here to jump directly to the CMSF BASE GAME Patches section ]

[ Click here to jump directly to the CMSF MARINES Patches section ]

Jason Logue from the Australian military magazine "CONTACT Air, Land and Sea" has written up a comprehensive review of Combat Mission Shock Force and CMSF: Marines.

"Shock Force and the add-on Marines are a very worthy addition to the genre. It's as close as a wargame has got to simulating the environment thousands of troops are facing each day. A must-buy for wargamers." 

[ Click here to read the full review ] 

This brand new v1.11 demo showcases both the basic Shock Force game as well as the Marines Module, sold separately from the basic game. The Combat Mission: Shock Force Demo will require approximately 1 Gigabyte of free space on your hard drive in order to install.

DEMO LIMITATIONS:

• Includes three scenarios which can be played as either US or Syrian
• Includes a fourth scenario, "Demo Training" which was designed to only be played from the US perspective
• All multiplayer modes are active (TCP-IP, PBEM, Hotseat)
• You can access the full Game Editor, but the save function is disabled.
• The original full game manual is included as a pdf file
• The demo scenarios are only in English. See Game Language Info below for more details on how to play these battles in other languages.

DEMO SCENARIO INFO:

• Demo Training, a small training scenario designed to familiarize new players to Combat Mission before engaging in "real" combat. (Blue play only)
• Smashing Steel: A Syrian mechanized force heads south as an American Stryker and tank force heads north. (Battle begins before dawn in the dark, but as time progresses and the sun rises, visibility and lighting will increase)
• Going to Town: Stryker infantry mix it up with the Syrian forces as they enter a small town.
• USMC Going to Town: Marines combined arms force fights it out with a Syrian force in a small town.  The battlefield is the same as the Stryker based Going to Town scenario in order to highlight the differences between the units in each.

[ Click here to jump directly to the CMSF Marines demo page ]

Battlefront has just released the new v1.11 patch for Combat Mission Shock Force and CMSF Marines! It's so packed full with new features, massive AI improvements and the obligatory bug fixes that there is only one question - will it all fit under your christmas tree?! Here are just a couple of the highlights of v1.11:

• Turn-based action is pre-computed with a "blue bar" before the action is displayed. This allows for improved performance of large battles on older computers, and for convenient "skipping ahead" in the early turns of a battle before enemy contact.
• Suppressive fire: when you order direct fire at an enemy infantry unit, and that enemy unit later disappears from sight, the target order is not immediately canceled. Instead, your unit will continue to area-fire sporadically at the enemy's last known location for a short time if the LOS is sufficiently clear for area-style targeting (note that sometimes it won't be). Volume of fire is lighter versus open terrain, and shots will be taken at other targets of opportunity as usual. If the enemy reappears, it will again be targeted directly. If it does not reappear for about 45 seconds, the target order is canceled. A similar behavior applies to individual soldiers who have fired on enemy infantry without targeting orders from the player. They will continue to area-fire at their target's last known location for about 30 seconds.

For a comprehensive list, click on the "Read more" link below, or

[ click here to jump directly to the CMSF BASE GAME Patches section ]

[ click here to jump directly to the CMSF MARINES Patches section ]