Following the events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in 2014, the Kiev government and Russia continue to clash over the status of the contested regions. This culminates several years later in a dramatic announcement by Ukraine that they will be joining NATO and the EU. Tensions explode as Russia perceives a direct threat to Russian citizens and deploy troops to the Ukrainian border again, while Western governments, welcoming a chance to expand NATO and EU influence eastward, mobilize as well. The escalation continues until the summer of 2017, when a large firefight erupts between Ukrainian and Russian troops in the Donetsk region. The next day fighting flares up on the border, and on a dark early morning in June 2017, pre-positioned Russian and NATO forces roll forward into Ukraine.

Ukraine, June to August 2017. For our first Black Sea release, the emphasis will be battles fought in central Ukraine, in the region around the Dnieper River. Ukraine features a wide variety of terrain for modern forces to battle in, from open farmland to rolling forested hills to dense urban environments.

New Features

• Combat Mission: Black Sea includes the following new or enhanced features. These are just major new features. The list of tweaks and smaller changes to the simulation of modern equipment are too numerous to list here.
• Amphibious vehicles: Water is no longer an obstacle! Most Russian and Ukrainian vehicles are now capable of swimming across the surface of water obstacles, giving them enhanced tactical utility.
• Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): The time of the combat drone is here. Available as a special type of air support for United States and Russian forces, the UAV is a game changer on the modern battlefield. From the toy-like hand launched RQ-11B Ravens to the lethal MQ-1C Gray Eagle, UAVs will prowl the skies of Combat Mission battlefields while they search for the enemy.
• Electronic Warfare: Don't want modern radio and satellite communications nets for your scenario? Shut them down! A new scenario environmental setting that simulates electronic warfare attacks allows you to degrade or completely disable electronic communications, forcing even Information Age forces to communicate without the benefit of modern technology.
• Precision Artillery: Your fire support is now a surgical tool. Laser and GPS-guided artillery munitions allow most off-map artillery support and 120mm mortars to shoot precise single round fire missions, with a high probability of a direct hit on enemy vehicles, buildings, or defensive positions. For extra effectiveness, pair precision artillery with UAVs roaming the enemy's rear area.
• Active Protection Systems: As weapon systems have become more sophisticated in order to destroy combat vehicles, so too have the defense systems designed to defeat them. Combat Mission: Black Sea features a variety of activate protection systems that detect and defeat incoming projectiles before they even have a chance to strike their target. Trophy, Arena, and Zaslon active protection systems protect some tanks and infantry fighting vehicles from weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles.
• Airburst Munitions: High explosive shells fired from many ground weapons are now even deadlier thanks to their ability to airburst directly above the target, or even just behind cover such as a wall or building window! This capability is possible due to the proliferation of integrated laser rangefinders, targeting computers, and programmable munitions. Airburst capability is available at the squad level to United States rifle squads in the form of the M25 CDTE (nicknamed the "Punisher") as well as to vehicles such as Abrams tanks, and Russian vehicles such as the BMP-3, BTR-82A, and T-90AM.
• Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMs): Combat Mission: Red Thunder introduced anti-air capability to the game. This features continues in Combat Mission: Black Sea with the addition of SAM units capable of denying your enemy his UAV or air support. Systems included in the initial release are the Stinger, Igla, Igla-S, 9K35 Strela-10M3, and Tunguska.
• Expanded Soldier Night Vision Systems: Darkness is not the impediment to combat that it once was. Individual night vision gear for soldiers has proliferated rapidly in recent years. United States soldiers are equipped with the state-of-the-art AN/PSQ-20 Enhanced Night Vision Goggle (ENVG), a device that fuses night vision and thermal imaging systems, while their weapons are equipped with more lightweight thermal imagers. Russian and Ukrainian troops can be equipped with both monocular night vision goggles and weapon-mounted night vision sights. What's more, these night vision systems are now automatically equipped in low light conditions!
• Major Formations: The initial release of Combat Mission: Black Sea depicts the following brigade unit types:
  • United States Army infantry, armored, and stryker brigade combat teams.
  • Russian Ground Forces motor rifle and tank brigades.
  • Ukrainian Ground Forces mechanized infantry and armored brigades.
  • Future expansions of Black Sea will add more Russian and NATO forces!

Black Sea uses Version 3 of the Combat Mission game engine. Consequently new features are focused on bringing our modern equipment up to date as opposed to general engine changes.

You can pre-order Combat Mission: Black Sea now!!