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Project: Close Combat

TheFjordFox

Novice
Joined
Oct 15, 2021
Messages
32
Hello there, good people!

So, let me cut to the chase! I have recently taken upon myself a mission. Perhaps a calling even, some may say.

Are we talking a noble pursuit for the betterment of mankind? ...No. Certainly not! If anything, quite the contrary! I have decided to fight my way through all the war that the Close Combat franchise has to offer! Well... All the war that the singleplayer grand campaigns have to offer, anyway.

My goal is: Play through every single Close Combat game to ever exist. With both factions in the longest campaign the games offer up, on the hardest difficulty there is, making things even harder for myself than the developers originally intended for it to be, as we move along!

I figured, instead of posting about each game separately... Why not have a project collection, where everything can be located as it comes out? And so here we are! I might even throw in some reviews of the games as time goes by, as I certainly am getting a good sense of what is what, and the differences between the various iterations as I progress through my personal mission!

Now, I am a seasoned veteran of the franchise, and have been playing Close Combat games for, at the time of writing this, around a decade and a half. My first experience with the series was with the Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far demo. This was back before everyone had "the internet". Whatever that place was. However - a friend of mine, when I was in my early elementary school years, had gotten his hands on the demo from a CD in a gaming-magazine! He told me about it, and I through it sounded amazing. So we went to his place, and I was not wrong! Instantly hooked me right in like a true sucker! And here I am, 25 years later and still playing these dang games! I have for a while been considering playing through them all with both factions, and put the playthroughs out on youtube. And well, I finally got to it! Why the heck not, right!? It's somewhat of a niche game, and some of it's iterations barely have any LPs of them, so I enjoy the thought that one day, anyone will be able to come to my youtube channel and have all the games laid out for them to choose from in a let's play type format! With some reviews, when the time comes, and heck - even some of the better mods out there being played through as well!

Why do I bother with this? Well. As you will surely figure out for yourself if you watch any substantial amount of these videos, it is simply because I am insane, and don't have my priorities in life straight!

Close Combat. A love and hate relationship that has it's ups and downs. It has me jumping out of my seat screaming in joy at unsuspected victories. It also, on the other end of the spectrum, have me close to beating a hole through my screen at the utter unbelievability of it's BS at times! So... come along from the rides, and see the best and the worst sides of me as the journey goes!


I will now list the four playthroughs I have already got out there below. In the future, more will be added. If there is a specific CC game you'd like to see next, that I haven't played already, I am certainly open for requests on that part. However, I am likely to finish the vanilla games before I dip into the glorious mods that are out there! You can suggest those too - it will just take a while until I get to them!

Either way! I will list them like this; the aggressor in the campaign first, then the defender second. So for the Normandie landings - the Allies, then the Germans. For the invasion of Russia - The Germans, then the Russians. Alright! Here we go!


Close Combat: Wacht Am Rhein (Axis Grand Campaign)


Close Combat: Wacht Am Rhein (Allied Grand Campaign)


Close Combat: The Longest Day (Allied Grand Campaign)


Close Combat: The Longest Day (Axis Grand Campaign)



That is the four iterations of the franchise I currently have available out there at the time of making this post. More is sure to follow soon, and I hope some of y'all will want to come along for the ride! If you got any questions, suggestions, hate or love, I am receptive to it all! Let me know what you think, wether you think I'm doing allright, or you think I need to make some changes to how I do things! For all I know, you might be right!

Oh well! If you're still reading at this point, I would like to thank you for your attention, and I sincerely hope your time spent with this does not feel wasted! Y'all have a good one, folks! And may Cthulhu bless you!

Cheers!
 

TheFjordFox

Novice
Joined
Oct 15, 2021
Messages
32
Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem (Allied Grand Campaign)


Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem (Allied Grand Campaign)


Close Combat 3: Cross Of Iron (Axis Grand Campaign)


Close Combat 3: Cross Of Iron (Allied Grand Campaign)
 

Luka-boy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 24, 2014
Messages
1,689
Location
Asspain
:love:
Godspeed you maniac.

I'm wondering if in Panthers in the Fog which has multiple variants of the Grand Campaign with different starting conditions (two historical ones and three what-if ones) you're going to play them all too or just plan to play the most interesting scenarios.
 

TheFjordFox

Novice
Joined
Oct 15, 2021
Messages
32
Thank you, good sir! :)

Well, that is an interesting question. I'm not sure yet, but if there is a definite "this is the grand campaign", I'll probably play through that one. If it is not like that, and there is significant difference between them, I guess I might have to go for several of them!
I don't have a whole lot of PITF experience, it is probably the CC title which I've spent the least time with, as I personally don't like how you select units for the battles in PITF and GTC. It really bums me out quite a bit that they went the direction they did with it. :/

Oh, and I would like to correct my initial post - apart from possibly horrendous sentence structuring, I also blundered a bit on the part where I say I've played the games for a decade and a half. It is in fact two and a half decades!
 

Luka-boy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 24, 2014
Messages
1,689
Location
Asspain
Heh, I'm really looking forward to PitF someday (at your current pace, it won't be a long wait) just to see the live opinions of another veteran who finishes a whole walkthrough. Even if it's just to see if I'm crazy in thinking it's decent for a non-remake CC game.

If I remember correctly, the two historical campaigns are pretty much the same only one starts at midnight and the other in the early morning. I only remember two of the three semi-historical ones, with one being the Germans having the advantage because Operation Lüttich was more successful than in real life and another one with the Allies being in a more avantageous situation because Operation Cobra kicked even more ass. They sound good for either a challenge run or a power trip.

And yeah, the way you move around units and select troops for battles was kind of a pain in the ass to get used to. Makes me miss the simplicity of CC2 and CC3 even more. At least it introduced back permanent soldiers, so teams aren't generated from scratch every time you add them to the list of teams you will use in a battle and you can keep track of a soldier from start to finish of a campaign. Not as cool as CC3 since you don't build your companies from scratch but definitely a step in the right direction.

Also consider giving this a try once you decide to play it. The explosions in GtC were beautiful and one of the few things I liked about that game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=494786473
 

TheFjordFox

Novice
Joined
Oct 15, 2021
Messages
32
Like Charlie Sheen!

The battle of Son... well, with the allies the Germans blew the bridge and vacated the area, so... sorta? With the Germans I definitely won, after numerous fights for the bridge where the allies were unable to claim it!

Or was it some other sort of winning you were thinking of? Son was a win in my book at least!
 

TheFjordFox

Novice
Joined
Oct 15, 2021
Messages
32


I've just started playing through one of probably the top 10 CC mods of all time - Meuse Crossing for The Longest Day. And I must say, it's a treat! Such a beautiful gem of a game! Contrary to most other vanilla CC games, this one is set during the invasion of France in 1940, as opposed to late-war like most other, if not all, official games of the franchise focused around ww2. It's such a blast using early war equipment, and seeing French tanks I've never seen before!
 

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