CMANO or CMO?

[McKinstrey]

Hey fellers, I am thinking about buying one of the Command games, and I don't know which one would be better. What's the main difference between them two. I see a bunch of reviews about if you have CMANO don't buy CMO, but as I see CMANO is no longer available on Steam, except if we buy it at another website for example Gamivo, or G.2.A. I'd love to know which is worth more and why. Thanks for the comments and have a great day!

[SSerponi76]

CMANO is dead (long live to CMANO) and has been replaced by CMO, which is an improved and back-compatible version of CMANO.
I don't see any reason why you should consider get the old version, go for CMO and live happy.

[stilesw]

For some background, I played Harpoon from the week it appeared as a MS-DOS game in 1989. Hundreds of hours with the included scenarios and subsequent scenario packs. And I loved it.

Feeling nostalgic in 2013 I did a search for its status and came upon CMANO v1.0. I gave it a try and was hooked. It has much more depth and realism than Harpoon albeit with a fairly steep leaning curve. There are a couple of hundred scenarios included in the "Standalone Scenarios" and "Community Pack" folders. These scenarios are forward compatible with CMO.

When I thought things could not get better they came out with CMO which sometimes has been profiled as CMANO 2.0+. In my opinion it is probably at least one order of magnitude improvement over the original CMANO!

More than a game it is an intricate and accurate simulation of real world military operations. It is continually being updated by the developers to improve operations, add features and available units (ships, aircraft, ground, etc). The "Professional" edition is used by the U.S. military in training.

So, if you are interested in what is probably the best military simulation available anywhere then I believe you will enjoy CMO.

-Wayne Stiles

[McKinstrey]

Originally posted by stilesw:

For some background, I played Harpoon from the week it appeared as a MS-DOS game in 1989. Hundreds of hours with the included scenarios and subsequent scenario packs. And I loved it.

Feeling nostalgic in 2013 I did a search for its status and came upon CMANO v1.0. I gave it a try and was hooked. It has much more depth and realism than Harpoon albeit with a fairly steep leaning curve. There are a couple of hundred scenarios included in the "Standalone Scenarios" and "Community Pack" folders. These scenarios are forward compatible with CMO.

When I thought things could not get better they came out with CMO which sometimes has been profiled as CMANO 2.0+. In my opinion it is probably at least one order of magnitude improvement over the original CMANO!

More than a game it is an intricate and accurate simulation of real world military operations. It is continually being updated by the developers to improve operations, add features and available units (ships, aircraft, ground, etc). The "Professional" edition is used by the U.S. military in training.

So, if you are interested in what is probably the best military simulation available anywhere then I believe you will enjoy CMO.

-Wayne Stiles

Wow. The fact that the U.S MIlitary itself is using this software in their training is awesome. And can simple folks like us purchase the Professional edition?

[SSerponi76]

Originally posted by McKinstrey:

Wow. The fact that the U.S MIlitary itself is using this software in their training is awesome. And can simple folks like us purchase the Professional edition?

CMANO Pro was available only for "professionals". Not 100% but I guess the same apply for CMO Pro too..

[stilesw]

Yes, the Professional Edition is generally only available to entities such as DoD and perhaps some associated contractors. You can find some more information here: https://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=3822

[McKinstrey]

Originally posted by stilesw:

For some background, I played Harpoon from the week it appeared as a MS-DOS game in 1989. Hundreds of hours with the included scenarios and subsequent scenario packs. And I loved it.

Feeling nostalgic in 2013 I did a search for its status and came upon CMANO v1.0. I gave it a try and was hooked. It has much more depth and realism than Harpoon albeit with a fairly steep leaning curve. There are a couple of hundred scenarios included in the "Standalone Scenarios" and "Community Pack" folders. These scenarios are forward compatible with CMO.

When I thought things could not get better they came out with CMO which sometimes has been profiled as CMANO 2.0+. In my opinion it is probably at least one order of magnitude improvement over the original CMANO!

More than a game it is an intricate and accurate simulation of real world military operations. It is continually being updated by the developers to improve operations, add features and available units (ships, aircraft, ground, etc). The "Professional" edition is used by the U.S. military in training.

So, if you are interested in what is probably the best military simulation available anywhere then I believe you will enjoy CMO.

-Wayne Stiles

This game is on my wishlist since its release, and this is the very first time it's on sale if I remember right. Now, I really like simulation, and military-like games, you can take a look at my profile if you want, but I don't know if this game would be... I don't know.. fun, I guess? I am really into this stuff, but I don't know how much information do I need to get it going. I mean of course a little bit knowledge about the military, how it works, weapon systems, tactics are required, but how much? Is this game can still be fun for those, who are interested and know bunch of things about the real life? If you know what I mean.

And Thank You for the tremendous help.

[stilesw]

Hi McKinstrey,

CMO does have a steep learning curve to get acquainted with all of its features. However, it does come with at myriad of scenarios that run the gamut from fairly straight forward simple operations to 15 scenario length campaigns.

These have been created with the CMO scenario editor/creator with author expertise ranging from new folks like yourself to retired professional military people.

I, myself, am retired from the USAF (non pilot) but have gained a huge background in land, naval and air operations by playing and creating scenarios.

If you enjoy running military simulations and creating scenarios as you learn the mechanics then I believe you will love CMO. Online research is a great tool for gathering information you may want to learn about. You can also find a lot of material at the Matrix Games forum: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/mypage.asp . The members there, which includes CMO developers, will be happy to answer questions and/or refer you to appropriate information.

So, to get going, dive into CMO. You will learn as you play and will probably start to create your own scenarios before you know it.

-Wayne Stiles

[McKinstrey]

Originally posted by stilesw:

Hi McKinstrey,

CMO does have a steep learning curve to get acquainted with all of its features. However, it does come with at myriad of scenarios that run the gamut from fairly straight forward simple operations to 15 scenario length campaigns.

These have been created with the CMO scenario editor/creator with author expertise ranging from new folks like yourself to retired professional military people.

I, myself, am retired from the USAF (non pilot) but have gained a huge background in land, naval and air operations by playing and creating scenarios.

If you enjoy running military simulations and creating scenarios as you learn the mechanics then I believe you will love CMO. Online research is a great tool for gathering information you may want to learn about. You can also find a lot of material at the Matrix Games forum: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/mypage.asp . The members there, which includes CMO developers, will be happy to answer questions and/or refer you to appropriate information.

So, to get going, dive into CMO. You will learn as you play and will probably start to create your own scenarios before you know it.

-Wayne Stiles

I really appreciate your help, and Thank You for Your service!

[X4A_Mazzi]

I'd love to see HARPOON V available on Steam!

[Desdinova]

Originally posted by X4A_Mazzi:

I'd love to see HARPOON V available on Steam!

I'm of the opinion that CMO has replaced the Harpoon line and just plain does it better. Part of the appeal of Harpoon was the took a massively complex paper and dice war game from GDW that could take a gymnasium and weeks to play and put it onto the computer. GDW has been out of business longer than it was in business and the video game version hasn't had a new release for more than 20 years.

Just like Cities: Skyline has replaced SimCity. Even if Electronic Arts put out a new SimCity that wasn't utter crap like their 2015 attempt no one would touch it because the Paradox Interactive game exists.

[SSerponi76]

Originally posted by Thistle Honeymead:

Originally posted by X4A_Mazzi:

I'd love to see HARPOON V available on Steam!

I'm of the opinion that CMO has replaced the Harpoon line and just plain does it better. Part of the appeal of Harpoon was the took a massively complex paper and dice war game from GDW that could take a gymnasium and weeks to play and put it onto the computer. GDW has been out of business longer than it was in business and the video game version hasn't had a new release for more than 20 years.

Just like Cities: Skyline has replaced SimCity. Even if Electronic Arts put out a new SimCity that wasn't utter crap like their 2015 attempt no one would touch it because the Paradox Interactive game exists.

Fully Agree.