Close Combat?

[noxnoctum]

I never played these games but heard a lot of good things about them. Are they worth going to?

I'm having a hell of a time finding tcp-ip opponents for CMBB and sometimes I just want to sit down and PLAY for a few hours, without having to schedule a match a week in advance .

How's the AI?

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I absolutely adored CC2: A bridge Too Far. But even though I played it for a long long time, it's now just too old to truly satisfy. If you get them cheap you should give CC2 and maybe CC3 a try, even if just to say you played them. The others, I'd stay clear off altogether.

There have been a few re-releases which I haven't tried, but since they are all remakes of the lesser titles I'd be very wary of them, if I were you.

[Gpig]

Elmar, you wouldn't happen to have the original maps (or jpegs of) from CC2, would you? Or access to them? I'm planning to remake them for CMSF:N when it's out.

Having also loved CC2 to death, and particularly the enjoyable maps, I can't wait to recreate them in 3D.

Cheers,

Gpig

[para]

CC2 best game i ever played

[hoolaman]

Having played CM first, CC never seemed worth the time to learn though I did try with the Bulge one which may not be a shining example. 2D just doesn't seem to work right, the ranges are compressed and the forces are massively scaled down to platoons. It's far more like Company of Heroes than CMBO.

[stikkypixie]

Infantry against infantry battles are CC strongest point in my opinion (almost unrivalled, except for maybe CMSF when the odds are even). Vehicles don't work that well in CC.

[Affentitten]

Vehicles don't work that well in CC.

Amen. The number of times I nearly threw my monitor through the window because of the friendly AI vehicle pathing and endless fiddling before shooting....

Another criticism is that the nature of some of the maps and the progressive control of them leads to set-up zones that are nothing more than a turkey shoot. Battles can be over in 30 seconds. Or else 90% of units are blown away in the first 10 seconds and then you spend the rest of the time crawling round in the bush looking for a single squad to eliminate.

[Michael Emrys]

I got CC1 when it first came out. Even got my first CD-ROM reader so I could load it onto my computer. I hated it from the beginning and it never got any better. Just about everything about it was insanely frustrating. Trying to control multiple units in real time without any ability to give orders during pause was just crazy from the get go. Plus the AI massively sucked, so you couldn't count on it to help.

It was almost a relief that they stopped making it for Mac, so that the temptation to be disappointed all over again was removed.

Too bad really as the original concept as it was hyped sounded great. But it turned out to be just another loser. Thankfully, CM didn't.

Michael

[ASL Veteran]

I played the Soviet CC (was that 3?) and the Bulge one (was that 4?) with a friend. We used to play it vs the AI until we finally decided to fight a battle using a direct connection over the phone lines. It was totally insane. When playing against the AI you would get a few pot shots fired and there was a lot of scattered gunfire because the AI was totally incompetent. Holy cow though - when my friend and I played our first game against each other it was like a totally different game!! The crescendo of gunfire was crazy as we were always blasting each other to pieces. We both commented about how crazy it was after our first game against each other. The gunfire was so loud and sustained that I was afraid my neighbors would check in and see what I was doing. Sound was the one area that CC beat CMx1 hands down.

I don't play it anymore, but my friend still actually plays it. The main thing I don't like about it is how small the battlefield is. After playing on CM sized battlefields it's just hard to go back to something so ridiculously close range. The tanks always danced around too so that didn't help any.

[Mike Churchmoor]

I never played these games but heard a lot of good things about them. Are they worth going to?

At least worth trying IMO.

In the 90's Close Combats were The War Game for me (well, Steel Panters-series was almost equal). They were really beautiful, sounds were great and at that time they were realistic enough for me. Specially CC3 (Russian Front) against a friend using dial-up was great fun indeed.

Then came the Combat Mission.

After CM:BO was released I tried CC 4 and CC 5. I kind of liked the strategic layer of 4 & 5 but then again I just couldn't "get it" anymore. Last time I played Close Combat was when CC3 was re-released and it is still what it was in the 90's: small maps, vehicle-AI could be better and setup zones are sometimes too small and/or too close to enemy.

But then again...I can still imagine myself playing CC against a human opponent. Few beers and CC3 campaign maybe? Yep, why not.

So you should absolutely try Close Combat. If nothing more it is a Classic.

[Secondbrooks]

Thing which still shines in Close Combat series is Bridge Too Far with it's dynamic campaign.

Ofcourse game is getting old but battles when fought between infantry forces are still great, as has been said.

I checked it out 2008 last time.

[Gpig]

I can still remember one battle in particular. I was the Germans defending against the Polish paratroops on the Oosterbeek cathedral map. I was well setup in a small stone house (near the centre of the map) with an MG42 team with what I thought was a wide field of fire.

After waiting for what seemed like forever for my opponent to do something (birds singing occasionally in the background), suddenly a 3 man recon team of para's burst in the back door and Sten-gunned my MG team to death in like, 3 seconds. It was so shocking and awesome. He'd snuck them the whole way through the scattered trees. I never saw 'em coming.

Gpig

[para]

Thing which still shines in Close Combat series is Bridge Too Far with it's dynamic campaign.

Ofcourse game is getting old but battles when fought between infantry forces are still great, as has been said.

I checked it out 2008 last time.

there is just something about cc2 that brings me back to it time and again.

btw a remake of CC2 called Last Stand at Arnhem is due for release late summer