“Close Combat the Bloody First” released

Anyone here plan on giving this a spin? I love the old Close Combat games, but don’t want to dive in to this without lots of impressions.

Wow, I haven’t thought about this series since CC: A Bridge Too Far, which I loved. Microsoft published some killer games back then.

I watched the Steam trailer and I’m disappointed the units are still so small. Adding to watchlist to read more impressions later.

I’m in the same boat. Also concerned as the scale feels a bit too small.

I got a key for it and will be streaming it next week. Haven’t tried it yet myself though, but I’m excited!

Awesome!

On the one hand, I have been waiting for this game since it was announced like a million years ago so I am definitely getting it. But the reports of poor AI, reliance on RNG and some ugly graphic choices (black skyboxes? I didn’t think you could do worse than Combat Mission’s fugly backdrops) have tempered my expectations considerably.

Well the GOG launch week offer is completely useless to me, hah. I already own A Bridge Too Far, but I do appreciate the series going on sale (75% off) to celebrate the launch of The Bloody First so I can complete my collection of the older Close Combat games. Really tempting to just dive right on in; but I might wishlist for now, watch some videos and streams first, and see what the community consensus is like.

Until BrianRubin gets around to streaming it, there are a few decent videos already up on Youtube for anyone curious to see what it is like in action.

I am, or rather was, a massive Close Combat fan, but I might just wait this one out. All the games after the Microsoft/Atomic partnership were terrible, derivative, and the scenarios absolutely did not suite the engine. (pro-tip: maps with large, straight roads don’t work in an engine where the tanks can’t drive in a straight line for more than 10 feet).

CC2:ABTF was the pinnacle of the series. So I’ve no hope for this being any fun.

Tim Stone over at RPS is pretty negative about it.

TLDR:
Good: solid defensive AI, Generous scenario selection, nice graphics
Bad: buildings do not seem solid for vehicles, oddly ineffective heavy weaponry behaviour, AI seems omniscient but individual units may have overly short ~200 meter sight limit

I think I’ll wait for patches and/or price drops on this one.

The AI looks awful in that. It basically does nothing really and the player wins via two artillery barrages.

Ouch.

The review above mentioned Graviteam Tactics:Mius Front, which I had never heard of but looks interesting. Anyone play it?

We were talking immersion in another thread, and I think that black void around the superfluous 3D map would break it for me.

The interface is hell, but the game is fantastic.

Yes, I’ve played it a lot. The UI is very Eastern European (especially the campaign interface), but the game underneath makes the effort worthwhile.

Here’s the tale of Oberleutnant Kittler.

Which is part of this longer AAR.

For the last decade or so, Graviteam Tactics and Combat Mission have been the only game in town (heh) when it comes to realistic, small unit WW2 tactical battles. They both have a very different design philosophy to Close Combat.

Graviteam is about giving you a dynamic overhead campaign, where the focus is on putting together the right concentration of forces at the right time to win overall. The battle-by-battle tactical gameplay is not as detailed and you fight as many battles that are lopsided as ones where equally matched forces pair up against each other. Combat Mission is the opposite. It is all about micro-control over troops in tactical battles against an evenly matched opponent. But the trade off is the campaign is a series of these set piece battles.

I’m still diving into the new Close Combat so hard to say where it fits at this stage. It does feel like it has the potential to be very good indeed.

Do you disagree with RPS’s assessment? I felt that review was scathing.

I think Tim Stone was a bit harsh on the game. The fundamentals of small unit tactics in the game are solid CC fare. I’m sure the wonkiness with vehicles and detection can be worked out.

I’m hopeful because I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Did you do the hack to change your camera zooming capabilities?

I did but found I didn’t end up using it much.