CLOSE COMBAT Steam sale

[Ludwig]

Trivia:    CLOSE COMBAT was one of the first Microsoft games that REQUIRED WINDOWS to be played. I *REALLY* wanted this one because it was akin to Avalon Hill "Squad Leader" for those of you over the age of 50. So they have made several games from supporting companies, independent companies (ATOMIC Games comes to mind?) but after about 4 or 5 of them it went dormant for a lot of years. Then when everything became DLC they popped up again with some new games on the same format. 

SO... STEAM has the whole kit and kaboodle on sale. It was $259.00 for a long time and I thought about getting it, but I had a couple of the games already and that soured the idea. SO today out of boredom killing time before work I checked again to see what I might get singly and there it was 85% off... and I got all the games I was missing for the price of one. 

This is a most excellent system and is easy to learn, GUI is intuitive and the part that separates it from the rest... is one....  it is not turn based... this is on the fly commanding. Two, it is morale based so if you don't have leaders, or expect these guys to fight to the death they will give you the #$% and leave.  Does an EXCELLENT job of frustrating the #$% out of you and uses real LOS and does a reasonable job on the side of the AI.    Snaggle and I played this back in the early 90s and enjoyed it a great deal. 

So if you like infantry armor squad level tactics this is a really good deal. 

I got the four games I did NOT have for $45.00

(PS I had to install WINDOWS on my 486 Dx33 to play the original and give up DOS...  a decision I still question.) 

[Shadepiece]

I absolutely adore this series, minus the newest 3D one, but all of the others are amazing in their own way! I am gonna look into the sale for sure, so thank you for the tip!

I also have all the old ones off of GOG, and they run great on my system! 

[Ludwig]

Good for you! I really enjoy the system and don't mind beating up on the AI. The new one I had never heard of "Modern Tactics" is HUGE. The map is probably DOUBLE teh size of the normal maps. It goes FAST.  Everything has misslies, airsupport, off board artillery, Seen a lot of modern Soviet armor, you can load and unload troops and probably towed weapons but have not seen that yet.... but the HUGE map....  was not ready for that. 

[Maushake]

Always loved those games, and still play them!  Haven't tried the modern one yet, but the WWII ones are brilliant evocations of small unit actions, creeping through the Normandy hedgerows, fighting house to house in Arnhem, trying to move your tanks along the narrow, muddy roads in the Ardennes ...

[Britchot]

Oh man! I had a version of this from a smaller company and it wouldn’t save game progress, so I quit trying. Definitely going to grab it and take a trip down memory lane.  I played these a lot when I was in the airborne infantry, loved A Bridge Too Far.  Best memory is the way the personnel are awarded and tracked. I would get so attached to some of the teams and nearly heartbroken when some decorated Sergeant/Unterfeldwebel would die. 
 

Thank you for the heads up!

[Ludwig]

I played the "Bloody First" which I was looking forward to because it was a new one....  but unfortunately, it is the 3D version of this series and the GUI was painful. They had the right idea.... but should have left it alone and stuck with the original format. Someone should take all the hard work that they did with this version and change it back to the original. I know...  akin to changing a Honda to a Subaru....  but a shame for it to go to waste. I would call this one pretty much unplayable. The rest of them in the new format including the NEW TACTICS are all good. That NEW TACTICS or MODERN TACTICS... I forget....   that moves at a FAST pace...   things are popping around you so fast it is really hard to keep up. Firepower/lethality in this is SO much greater,  it reflects it. You go to move a unit and it's already gone. Someone is going to do this on Ukraine.... one of these days and it will be really interesting. 

You know... that those crazy guys over there are still shipping models. I am really impressed that they are hanging on and hanging in. I get DORA WINGS and ICM models and I cut off the postage labels and put them inside the box with the date and Kiev stamped on them. 

[Shadepiece]

@Britchot I once had a Vickers machine gunner in Arnhem who had over 100 kills by the time he was finally killed. I had him in this killer building where he could cover the main road, and he held the city for two days almost entirely by himself. It was some ridiculous hero level stuff that you only get in a Close Combat game, and I don't think anyone has ever done a game better. You really do get some amazing moments in the game. Something about how the core system is built is one of the most accurate systems ever developed and i cannot believe it did not have more copycats both on PC or on the table.

@Ludwig I was so damn excited for the Bloody First. I had heard about them starting development as far back as 2013. In 2017 I actually applied to be a tester because I was so excited to see what they had made, but after an hour of play I knew that all those years were wasted waiting for this game. It was so bad I never even tried to post about my complaints in the tester forum because they would have had to literally make the game from the ground up to save it from what it became.

I couldn't help myself, I picked all of em up. It's just too good. It was hugely influential to my childhood, and I want every last one. I even have the CC2 disk from the 90's still...

[Britchot]

I also picked it up and have been playing it when the kids all have their own thing going. Already made it past the first operation in Cross of Iron. 

Back in one of the original titles, I had a recon squad whose leader went berserk after losing his team and ran through the enemy lines, killing a dozen+ in close quarters and hand-to-hand before regaining his senses and running back to safety. He expended all his ammo and resorted to knife at one point. 

[Ludwig]

Man....  I never had any of the guys on my side do that stuff. I always get the one with 7 acts of cowardice.  Snaggle and I played "Bridge Too Far" campaign from start to finish Multiplayer and it connected flawlessly and ran smooth, I don't recall ever have a problem with it and that was back with the magnificent 28,800 baud modem. I remember when the vehicles had the "Bee dance" bug... but they got that solved. They can keep making them, I will get them. I should think North Afrika would be next. I thought I read once that they were looking at doing the Pacific, that would be a hoot. The way things are making a comeback.....  Tamiya has begun re-releasing the 1/12 scale Formula One cars from the 70's and 80's and OH MY! the prices....    YeeeeEEEEEEOUCH !   Beautiful kits are magnificent race cars. Italeri got in on it as well with the Rennault Re-20 turbo. The detail is incredible.