Whoever it was that said the computer wargame market is too small to be profitable ought to hurry over and tell Bill Gates, because Microsoft doesn't market where there isn't money to be made. Close Combat, MS's tactical computer game on the Arnhem campaign, is selling so well that Microsoft is working on a third chapter in the series.
The original Close Combat was a truly original design, one of the first "real-time" games (that is, time moves along continuously, without turns or other artificial breaks to interrupt the action), yet strangely un-satisfying. It was the only game I've ever played where you could emerge victorious by doing nothing; your units were so efficient that they could win a scenario without your distant interference, and what fun is that?
Luckily, Microsoft recognized the potential in Close Combat, spent a bunch of time re-doing the game engine, and, voila! the result is the best computer wargame that I've ever played. For sheer exciting, gripping action, it beats out even Steel Panthers and X-Com, and that is high praise indeed.
Close Combat's genesis dates all the way back to an old Avalon Hill project to put Squad Leader on the computer; after The Hill gave it up, Microsoft took over, and here we are. So you can imagine the scale - squad level with individual vehicles, guns, and crews. The individual soldiers are all named and rated for Physical State (healthy, hurt, dead), Emotional State (fanatic, stable, routed), and Fatigue (rested, winded, fatigued), weapons have distinctive sounds when they fire, vehicles rumble, smoke, and backfire... just some of the neat little flourishes that make CC such a winner.
The game uses a real-time system, meaning that time passes without turns or other breaks in the action. You are more or less in the role of company commander, giving your squads orders: move here, defend there, tire on that target,which they will execute (or not) based on their situation. A squad pinned down by a machine gun isn't likely to charge across an open stretch choosing the best way to accomplish your orders, usually ends up not quite what you intended. Much chaos ensues; squads wander off the roads and walk right into enemy tanks, individual soldiers become separated from their squads, weapons malfunction, your men panic and run away.
And that's it. No fiddly calculations, no computing the ultimate column on the CRT, no shuming stacks to check morale and Anti-Tank ratings. You give your orders, the grunts move out, and then you can only watch while your plans come unglued and you frantically try to reestablish contact with your men to pull them out of the mess you've gotten them into. The hard-breathing, edge of your seat excitement generated by this is amazing and you soon learn WWII squad tactics the hard way. Forget that John Wayne charge across a meadow, instead learn to keep the enemy's heads down with machine-gun fire, pop smoke, and creep around their flank.
Graphically, CC is a real stunner. Not the box-cover (probably used Microsoft Study Hall Art '92) but the game itself. The maps are hand-painted in great detail, based on actual aerial photographs of the locations circa 1944; the streets and even some buildings are individually named! The soldiers themselves creep through this landscape quite realistically, flitting from building to building or crawling across open fields. I have seen criticisms that the men looked like worms squirming in the mud, but I disagree. I found the stealthy, fleeting movements of the soldiers to be a very realistic touch.
The sound is great, too. The troops respond to your orders with "Roger" and "Moving out," delivered in appropriate German, British, American, and Polish tones. If you forget somebody, the squad leader reminds you with a plaintive "Awaiting orders." During lulls in the action, birds sing and crickets chirp; once the shooting starts, weapons pop, rattle, and blast quite realistically. The visuals and sound combine to create an atmosphere heavy with tension as your men creep into town, waiting for the unnatural silence to be broken by a blast of fire, the bark of a machine gun, and cries for help from the wounded.
And just a quick, complimentary note regarding the Game Manual. Computer game companies have a deservedly bad reputation for providing skimpy (or even incorrect) documentation, but the CC manual is a very useful, concise introduction to the game.
30 scenarios cover the Market part (that's the airborne half) of Operation Market Garden, sensibly avoiding the heavy unit density required for recreating the XXX Corps breakthrough and advance. You can play the individual scenarios, or a short campaign that ties the scenarios together so that success in one leads to the next in the chain. The campaigns cover the Brits at Arnhem, the Polish Drop, the American 82nd Division at Nijmegan, the 101st at Eindhoven, or the big enchilada. the Grand Campaign, the entire battle in a complex web of scenarios where Allied failure to capture the Son Bridge will catch up to them days later when the British are desperately holding the Arnhem Bridge without a trace of XXX Corps in sight (delayed by that blown bridge further down the chain).
You begin with an assigned group of units but are given resource points with which to purchase additional support, allowing you to somewhat customize your force. Defenders may wish to buy more machine guns and mortars for heavier firepower, or as attacker you can purchase more squads for additional manpower, or even a tank or two. This part of the game really peaks with the campaigns, where you can specify the amount of time between scenarios; the more time you take, the more resource points you receive to spend, keeping in mind that your opponent will be receiving reinforcements, too. This creates the very realistic situation where you are torn between pushing on towards Arnhem Bridge with what you have, not allowing the Germans to organize a solid defense, or resting your tired troopers and calling for help from the landing zones.
I really had a blast playing this game. My favorite campaign is Amhem Bridge as the British, where you begin on the River Road with a long push ahead of you to reach Arnhem. The first scenario drops you right in the soup with the objective of capturing the Rail Bridge before the Germans can blow it - very important, since grabbing the Rail Bridge means many more reinforcements later on, and I only managed to do it after the Germans hit the plunger but the explosives failed to go off! How's that for nail-biting ?
I was able to capture Arnhem Bridge, too, but then my embattled para troops had to hang on for days against waves of SS troopers, often with armored support, as they slammed against my desperate defenses. My Brits did hold the Bridge - barely - but it was very close.
Gaps
There are a couple of puzzling gaps in CC, namely the absence of "off board" artillery and air support. You'd think that with a real-time game these would be a piece of cake: call for fire, then the game calculates, random time interval and executes the fire mission, with opportunities for friendly fire being rampant. Yet the only artillery fire comes from on-map mortars. Perhaps the designers didn't want to overburden the players ?
The Artificial Intelligence in CC, while very good compared to most other games, is a mixed bag. In defense it is very hard to beat, being quite proficient at creating overlapping fields of fire and setting up ambushes along likely avenues of approach. On the offensive, however, it is much less imaginative, tending to launch frontal assaults repeatedly from the same direction without much in the way of suppressive prep fire. Still, the AI is capable of laying some big surprises on you -- just as I was getting cocky in my defense of Arnhem Bridge, the Germans rolled up a Hetzerflammen and gave me a blast of flame-thrower fire, roasting my best squad and only heavy machine gun, and that was the closest that I've ever come to panicking while playing the computer.
The game's one big weakness is that there aren't very many scenarios, and many of them are fairly one-sided; the remainder, once played a couple of times, lose their challenge. Internet play should be a big help here, however, and provide endless re-playability. So, be careful about which scenarios you choose, too, as some are very difficult to win, particularly the Polish Drop, where the Poles will have a hard time just trying to capture their drop zones. Realistic, yes, but still frustrating. This is also CC's only major drawback. There is not a lot of replay value here, at least while you're playing the computer. Many scenarios have one side practically unbeatable; as for the rest, once you play them a couple of times and learn where the Al tends to set up, the challenge is gone. There is multiplayer of course, where you can play a human via the Intemet, but I'm ashamed to admit that I don't do much of that and so can't comment on its advantages/disadvantages. Historically, this is the Squad Leader approach to WWII. so while the scenarios are historic, the forces and victory conditions are quite generic. If you can suspend disbelief and accept the British detending Arnhem Bridge with six squads and the Germans, you'll have a rousing good time.
As a game that recreates the nail-biting, claustrophobic, what's waiting behind that hedge nature of WWII tactical combat, Close Combat can't be beat. Long Live the King.
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© Copyright 1998 by Richard Berg
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