Diving Into Combat Mission: Cold War – Battle Pack

Peter Robbins, 12 October 2026

One quick oddity of this particular DLC, it actually requires not only the core game Combat Mission: Cold War, but additionally you need to have installed the BAOR DLC for CM:CW. That is not a common way for Matrix to release a DLC, so, calling that out loudly before you get it thinking it’ll work with Cold War out of the box on its own. It needs the BAOR DLC loaded too*.

With that out of the way, what are you ultimately getting with this $9.99 quick update? Well, a semi reasonable amount of content. It’s decent content, but it’s a little anemic compared to the original BAOR DLC. Now, price wise, it’s fine. They’ve priced it relative as such. You are getting one and a half-ish scenarios per US Dollar, plus a campaign. You will have to determine if you can afford that much for that much. Also, a vast majority of the content is based upon BATUS, the British Army’s equivalent to the US Army’s NTC.¹

One good rule of thumb for any game or content’s “worth” is whether you are at a minimum getting One HOUR of play time per dollar spent. I absolutely think you will surpass that minimum with this new battle pack.

My TL;DR would be that if you are really into training center styled force on force ‘combat problem’ style scenarios, then this is the DLC for you. Is it worth it? Ultimately, I think Yes, but I’m near the fence on this one. I think just a few more hand made scenarios, and possibly one or two extra sets of kit or platforms would have sealed the deal for me, but again, it’s all in how much you enjoy BAOR content, half of which takes place in the BATUS training environment in Canada. 

I don’t want to just be a negative nelly here, let’s dig into what is provided by the DLC.

click most images to enlarge

What’s In The Box?!

17 Stand-Alone Scenarios

Take note that a handful of the scenarios are the same scenario with different nationality and kit for the NATO forces. Also, roughly half of the scenarios are BATUS environment bound. Decent scenery and topology throughout BATUS, but alas, it ultimately is a training center. Honestly, I was hoping for just a few more non-BATUS standalone scenarios. I do feel like it’s still worth the price overall if you are a CM:CW lover, and a BAOR one in particular. I’ve had fast food meals that cost more now-a-days. For me it feels like a no-brainer purchase if you are still playing the Cold War version of Combat Mission.

Bag O’ Shots

Look, there’s over 40 shots in this slideshow, so take your time…

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Campaign Play Thru – Scenario 001

Another slideshow, but this one’s only about 30 images

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PBEM Multiplayer Play Thru

This following set of screens shows the initial dispositions and table setup for the scenario Deadlock At The Ufelgen Lock, which I am in the process of playing through with one of the Matrix production team members in a manual PBEM format match online for this article*.  He was gracious to only gently kick my arse, but buggered me.

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For me this scenario is the best of the pack. It has good variety and a difficult combat problem to solve. Always a good combo for an online match with friends.

Final Thoughts & First Impressions

I’m going to be more blunt than usual here—earmuffs, Matrix!
I think that Matrix should have just provided this for free to existing BAOR DLC owners, and then placed the DLC on a 15% sale and called it the day (but called out the additional good content). It’s GOOD content mind you, but it feels like a trickle, and the fact that it’s directly tied to the BAOR DLC anyway, ummm. Yeah, I’m on the fence on this one.

I genuinely like Combat Mission Engine 4 games as a whole, and I particularly like CM:CW and am a huge fan of the BAOR addition, so, again, as I said way up top, it’s a tenner for blippin’ sake. I would easily pay it for the additional content. I don’t want to trample upon the hard work of the Matrix crew, so take all of this with a grain of salt. I know a lot of effort must have been put into the content provided, regardless of my perceptions here. So, vote with your wallet. Get it if you are still a CM:CW and BAOR fan! 

Am I going to get at least ten hours of gameplay out of the DLC? Absolutely, if not double or triple that. So, a tenner it is. 

I was kind of hoping to see a larger French, Belgian, West German, or Dutch addition to the Cold War mix. See: Flashpoint Campaigns – Lowland Lions on topic². Maybe as a “Euro Battle Pack” down the way? We’ll see. No matter how important we think we are as hobbyist wargamers (and we are!), CM is a niche within a niche, and it’s buttressed by a very solid PRO version of the application (govt subsidies at its finest). So, I’m happy to support the commercial version when I can.

Appendix

• Combat Mission: Combat Basics Tutorial Playlist by Usually Hapless (Stellar Tutorials**)
• BAOR: Troop and Platoon Tactics, Combat Mission Cold War (also by Usually Hapless**)
• Armchair Dragoons First Impressions of CM:CW BAOR DLC
• Wiki on BATUS

You can chat about this game in the Modern World section of our discussion forums

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1. ed note: you say that like it’s a bad thing!
2. There Matrix, I gave a free cross-plug!