What is the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign?
If you've wandered into this site and aren't participating in the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign (CMMC), or even played Combat Mission (CM), all the terms can be a bit baffling. I hope for this page to be a kind of FAQ about the CMMC, with links to sites that answer questions in more detail. If you wish to suggest additions or changes to this page please write one of the site meisters: Admiral or Jason.

1. What is Combat Mission?
The computer game Combat Mission, developed by Big Time Software, is at the heart of the CMMC. Combat Mission is, in short, a turn-based squad-level wargame set in Western Europe in the years 1944-1945. It is revolutionary for two reasons: First, uses a simultaneous-movement "we go" system rather than the "I go, you go" system which alternates player turns. The players simultaneously plot their turn's movement, and then it is resolved into a "movie" which you can play out as many times as you like, from any angle. This leads to the second remarkable aspect of Combat Mission, which is that it is set on a 3-D battlefield, which gives players a whole new perspective over traditional god's-eye views and hex-based systems. Coupling these two things with extreme attention to realism makes Combat Mission one of the best wargames ever made, as its many glowing reviews from computer gaming magazines and Web sites attest. If you would like to know more about Combat Mission, there are many fan sites devoted to it, but the best place to start is at Battlefront.com, the Web site of CM's publishers.

2. What is the Combat Mission Meta-Campaign?
The Combat Mission Meta-Campaign is a multiplayer, role-playing operational-level wargame which uses Combat Mission's engine to resolve battles. Usually, battles in Combat Mission take place at the company to battalion level, with forces of a few hundred men and half a dozen or so vehicles on each side. Some people (read: freaks) got together and thought it would be interesting to fight with much, much larger forces - say, a whole division or corps in size. That's tens of thousands of men and hundreds of vehicles! This presented a few challenges to CM's engine, which is not designed to resolve such massive battles. (The largest maps you can currently make in CM are about 2 x 2 km in size.) Even if it were possible within CM, it would have been very difficult for a single player to account for every single squad over an area of several hundred square kilometers. So that's where the multiplayer aspect of the CMMC came in. The battle is conducted by dozens of players, each of whom have distinct, authentic responsibilities. At the top are the Game Masters (GMs), who control all aspects of the CMMC, from setting up battles between battalions to resolving the rules for operational movement. On each side there is an overall commander, who, after consultation with other members of his staff, devises an overall plan and gives orders to his subordinate commanders. The subordinates then give orders to their battalion commanders, who actually fight the battles within the CM engine. As you can see, it is a chain of command which imitates real-life procedures. After individual battles are fought across the front line, the information flows in the opposite direction: the battalion commanders send their situation reports a level up and so on until the overall commander has the big picture and the cycle begins anew.

3. How are operational aspects of warfare handled by the CMMC?
Combat Mission handles fighting at "the sharp end" - that is, at the forward edge of the battle area. But if you've read any military history books you know a lot is going on behind the lines. There are supplies to be distributed; units come out of the line and go into reserve; they move up to reinforce a sector that is in trouble; they receive replacements or repair broken-down vehicles; air raids disrupt movement; areas are hit by artillery which aren't necessarily under direct attack. Rest assured, these elements of warfare have not been overlooked. This is not the best place to go into detail about how these issues are resolved; you would be better served by reading the comprehensive CMMC Player Manual, which can be found, along with a lot of other instructional material, in the Academy section of this site. Basically, a lot of the burden for that falls on the GMs. There are rules and tables for resolving each issue. Tools are being developed all the time to make this easier on the GMs and players.

4. What is the time scale / turn structure of the CMMC?
The game is divided into CMMC days, and CMMC days are divided into CMMC turns. There are three turns per CMMC day. The morning turn is 0600-1200 hours. The afternoon turn is 1200-1800 hours. The evening turn lasts from 1800-0600 hours. Each turn begins with an administrative phase, where orders are passed back and forth between players and GMs. GMs then resolve the turn's movement and set up the battles between players. During the actual execution phase, players receive their battles and fight them. This is an extremely simplified description of what goes on. If you want to know more, I highly recommend the Player's Manual in the Academy. The correlation between how many real days a CMMC turn should take is not yet set in stone, since the "real" CMMC has not yet begun, but they have tended to take between two and three weeks during the Command Post Exercise.

5. What was the Command Post Exercise?
The Command Post Exercise (CPX) was a trial scenario for testing the CMMC's rules. It started in September and ended in March. In the CPX, two divisions duked it out over an area near the Moselle River in southern France. The entire scenario was five turns long. Soon there will be a comprehensive debriefing and review of the rules. Now the "real" CMMC, which will feature several divisions, will be planned. The most entertaining way to read about the CPX is certainly to visit the Newsroom, where you can find Allied and German newspapers reporting on the course of the battle (from their point of view, naturally!). You can find links to both sides' forums in the Comm Center. Also, there are some situational briefing papers available in the Academy. Finally, there are strategic, operational and tactical maps of the battlefield in the Map Vault.

6. How can I participate in the CMMC?
All battalion command positions within the "real" CMMC were filled long ago. But there is still a reasonable chance you could land a posting if you really wanted it, since the sign-up period for the CMMC was quite some time ago and it is likely that some people will have had other commitments arise in the intervening time. Even if you do not want the glory post of battalion commander, there are many things you can do to take part in the CMMC. Some divisional and corps-level staff positions are still available, and we are always looking for GMs. Finally there is the Press Corps, which is always in search of writers to cover the CMMC. There are a few important qualities applicants should have. The most important is dedication. The CMMC requires a serious commitment of time and everyone will be counting on you to make your deadlines and give things your maximum effort. Also important is a certain degree of maturity and the realization that you will be taking orders from other people with whom you may disagree. You should have some willingness to take part in the RPG aspects of the CMMC. Of all the qualities some knowledge of military affairs is the least important, but it will help. If after reading this you think you've got the skills, e-mail James Bailey, the Head GM of the CMMC, and state your case. Inquiries about the Press Corps should go to Pål Woje.