Combat Commander: 20th Anniversary Edition Comparison

The Command Tent, 29 January 2026

One box to rule them all? Well, maybe not all but definitely all of the content originally intended to be in the game. Combat Commander: 20th Anniversary Edition (CC:20th) recently released by GMT Games is just that.

According to Kai Jensen, wife of the late Chad Jensen designer of the Combat Commander Series

This format, with all six nations and the full Random Scenario Generator, is how Combat Commander was originally designed and tested. Adding in counters specific to the minor nations and updating the scenario pages with the images for their leaders and units has been on my list for years. I am delighted that GMT has presented this opportunity and believe Chad would be very happy to see the game back together after all these years.

click images to enlarge

Combat Commander: Europe (CC:E) was released in 2006 and is listed as one of GMT’s top 20 best selling games. This was then followed up by Combat Commander: Mediterranean (CC:M) in 2007. These two games form the core of a series that has been expanded upon by eight ‘Battle Packs’ as well as a stand alone game set in the Pacific. The latest battle pack released was Battle Pack #8: Minor Nations (BP#8) which included reprinted scenarios and updated counters covering minor nation combatants from CC:E and CC:M. All this to say, CC:20th takes all the content from CC:E, CC:M and BP#8 and put it all in one glorious package. It makes sense that it was supposed to be packaged as one game as there was always plenty of extra room in the boxes for CC:E and CC:M. Not only does this now keep the game all together in its intended original state it also takes up less room on the game shelves.

The content inside of CC:E / CC:M and CC:20th does not vary beyond the updated scenarios and new minor nation counters, from BP#8, which are included in CC:20th. I feel like this option by GMT, to include the updated scenarios and country specific counters in the Anniversary Edition, as well as release them in a separate Battle Pack was a real courtesy to the fans of the system. You can update your games with BP#8 if you already owned both CC:E and CC:M and do not want to rebuy them in this new combined edition.

From what I can tell from my copies of the games there are very few differences between the CC:E/M and CC:20th beyond the inclusion of the minor nations updates. Probably the biggest difference to notice is that in this new combined edition the counters are all printed on a slightly thicker counter stock.  I am unsure whether newer GMT games are all printed on this thickness of stock compared to the print run I own of the two previous versions.

The other difference I found was in the make up of the player aid cards. The base CC:E game came with two 8.5 x 11 player aid cards. On one side was the Terrain Effects Chart (TEC) and the other side contained a number of charts and tables of helpful information such as attack procedures, victory points and die trigger explanations. The CC:20th edition unfortunately does not contain these two identical player aids.

All the same information is included from CC:E’s aids but they are now split into two separate cards and you only get one of each. On one there is the TEC and the back side is blank. The other player aid card is the charts and tables mentioned earlier and on the reverse side is a ‘Leader Table’ and ‘Fortification OB’, which is needed for reinforcement events and the random scenario generator, that was included on the back of the playbook in CC:E. I feel like this is a missed opportunity to include a set of these play aids for each player but is a small con in what is otherwise a box loaded with gaming goodness.

I would be remiss to mention the new box art for the CC:20th edition. While both the CC:E and CC:M box covers were adorned with emblematic art by the late Rodger B. MacGowan the new CC:20th edition has a new piece of striking box art as well as a story behind finding it that can be found in the back of the rule book. It’s a great personal touch that I’m glad they included. The last thing to note is that for those interested in picking up Combat Commander, GMT will no longer sell CC:E and CC:M separately but will only be selling and reprinting the CC:20th edition going forward. It’s a fantastic way to get the games for anyone looking to get into the series and a no brainer for us fans of the series wanting to replace our worn out copies of CC:E and CC:M!

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

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