Matrix Games has released its first patch for Close Combat Panthers in the Fog. The current version is 1.0.1. Changes are not significant enough to warrant restarting any multiplayer campaigns you have started, although it may be advisable to avoid glitches. Download the PITF_Patch_v1.0.1.zip.
o Enhanced path-finding handles tight terrain better (bridges, tree / hedge-lined roads).
o Added a help dialog that displays when you first enter the multi-player screen.
o Added additional labels and a CHAT button to help clarify the UI on the multi-player screen.
o Multi-player connection between two players will now use a direct connection if possible. If prevented by firewall/router or other issue, an indirect connection via the lobby system will be used.
o AI tweaked to increase the chance the AI will choose to act aggressively.
o Added an option to turn off the fog visual effect in the General options.
o Ger map elevations corrected.
o Game font size no longer affected by Windows global font scaling.
o M8 HMC hull shadow fixed.
o Replacement animation for marker smoke (artillery, mortar support) added.
o Added some extra information to the Battle Group screen (selected unit type, weapon name tooltips).
o Fixed a bug where swapping battle groups could lead to multi-player sync issues on the strategic screen.
o Fixed a bug that could cause a vehicle to report 'We're Stuck' when moving on low cost terrain (like paved roads) when very close to the next internal waypoint.
o Fixed a case where vehicles would use reverse on a move involving multiple internal waypoints and then turn around at the destination to face as if they had move there going forwards.
o Fixed a case where movement orders for an infantry team would not complete even when the soldiers all considered themselves at the final destination. The order would eventually time out, and the soldiers would behave normally, but the order dot would still be sitting there.
o Multi-player chat on the Strategic Screen repositioned and area reduced.
o Fixed a case where a team with a damaged vehicle could re-appear in your roster with the name “Vehicle Crew”
May 13th, 1940, morning. Mouzon is a French Major Supply Depot. Reinforcements will spawn in the bottom left corner. Currently the French 5eRDP BG (AI) pinned down by PzRgt.1/1Pz on in that small corner. Morale is on and the battles are set at 15 minutes. You own all the commanding features including the two story house next to thier deploy zone. You have full LOS everywhere.
The Plan
Keep the battlegroup pinned in the corner. The AI can have the bridge, but not the North end of it. The two story house is a bonus, but you don't need it. Take some some armour or anti tank guns to cover the North end of the bridge from vehicles. You will be mostly static in this fight. The units you should focus on bringing are mortars, MG34s, only two command teams (left & right flank), an anti tank or inf gun and remainder riflemen.
Disband or not?
Keep in mind this battle is vs the AI with morale on. To disband this unit you will not need to capture the VLs. A straight up firefight across the river will drop his morale significantly enough to push the AI off the map. The bonuses to this are not in your favour except the fact he loses all 15 units. Next reinforcement phase he will regain the full attack square deployment box. You will be pushed back beyond some of the houses covering the bridge.
On this particular map, keeping him on the map whittling his forces down piecemeal every battle is in your favour. Your forces get to stay in cover all the time, while he has to march forward on pavement. You only have to concentrate on covering the North end of the bridge. You may have to capture the bridge VL to push his deploy back every now and then. Doing this you have to be careful of his morale. Keeping your men on ambush the entire time and only opening fire on the men coming to the North end of the bridge is key.
If this battle was vs a human opponent your tactics will have some changes. First of all morale will most likely be off, so to disband him you will have to capture the VLs or destroy every last man. This is also not in your favour. In this example, its only day two of the entire campaign. You have to let your unit sit and eventually die (due to attrition) on this map to hold him in that corner. This tactic could also force your opponent to disband his unit at the strategic phase in order to get a better start when a new unit spawns. Manually disbanding works out in your opponents favour in this case.
In Disbanding Part Two, we'll go over the differences in disband rules from CC5 to TLD and the best ways to make disbanding work for you throughout a campaign. There are major differences due to this rule being fixed for The Longest Day.
Panthers in The Fog was released on December 6th, 2012. You can purchase the game at Matrix Games for the electronic copy for $42.99 CDN or $52.99 CDN for the boxed & electronic copy. Third party reviews have been so-so to average, when you get down to it, its still the familair Close Combat we all know. Following the release there were many problems reported about save game files crashing out with an "Internal Error" message. A hotfix has been released which you can download here. The online lobby was said to be extremely laggy and virtually unplayable for most everyone. Since then, the lobby has been fixed however there are still some players reporting of lag issues continuing. The online lobby provided is the only way to play head to head. You cannot use GameRanger, Hamachi, LAN connection or any other of the traditional methods for connecting.
A patch is in the works. It will fix the save game issue and give you an option to turn the fog off in game, rather than editing the campaign.txt file. If you want to turn the fog off now, visit this turning off the fog, be aware though, as it will change all days of your campaign to clear skies. Thank you davidss for this work around.
Wacht Am Rhein has also been updated to WaR v45015b. This is a small update addressing save game crashes, weapon calculations and other minor bugs. Refer to the Whatsnew.pdf file included for all the change details.
Tejszd's Meuse Crossing mod has been converted to work with The Longest Day. If you are unfamilair with the Meuse mod, it takes place in the early days of the German invasion into France, 1940. An entire new strategic map, with maps are added. Included are operations and GC's for playing the AI and H2H. For each side you will be able to use historic equipment which include many of the battles light tanks and vehicles. Ensure you have TLD v5.50.14b installed. Installation of Meuse is simply unzipping and running the installer. An icon will be placed on your desktop to play. Download Meuse Crossing 1940 v3.5.0
Last Stand Arnhem has also been updated to 5.60.53b. Several major issues are fixed with this update. These mainly include fixes to the grand campaign and operation supply lines and battlegroup movement. Read the Whatsnew.pdf file for the full list.
Cross of Iron has been updated to v3.60 in June of 2011. Included with this patch are improvements to the pathing of vehicles and soldiers. AI was modified to take advantage of the pathing changes also. Download the Cross of iron v3.60 patch.
A small application has been added here for editing your saved games. This is a simple save game editor for, WAR, TLD, LSA and PITF. It is a small unfinished EXE file in alpha version. You can change sides, realism settings, battle ending conditions and difficulty levels. Download the Save Game Editor
I have been catching up on some old business here at the site. Updating the trouble shooting guide for common errors and keeping the mods and patches current in the download library. You can bypass the Matrix Games support section and download all the latest Close Combat patches here now, all the old patches are there as well if you login via FTP. The downloads section continues to be streamlined with a naming format the same across all versions.
Panthers in the Fog was announced back in April 2012. Matrix Games has licensed Slitherine Games to develop this new version of Close Combat. This will also be the last version using the existing game engine. Panthers in the Fog (PiTF) will recreate the German counter attack named Operation Lüttich taking place between August 7 to the 13th in and around the town of Mortain. The counter attack was ordered to push the Americans back after thier gains made during Operation Cobra.
There is some new changes and rehashes of things we have learned to expect from these new versions. Some of the changes are open to wide interpretation until we can get some more information. I'll summarize what I feel are the most important good or bad changes and the continuations.
- You can control up to 21 units with up to 10 soldiers
- 32bit graphics which you can see the screenshot examples included below
- Non customizable force selection
- Intergrated multiplayer lobby
- Two player
- Fog can hide enemy units
- Holding high ground enables you to see distant troop movements
So theres a few things to hash out and hopefully gain some more details on soon. Visit the Panther in The Fog forum to discuss. There has been a public request for beta testers over at Matrix Games. It may not be too late, CCPiTF Beta Testers.
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone out there has a good Christmas with friends and family. For those of you who are deployed, best wishes to you, call home on your Iridium on the 25th and come home safe in 2012!
Close Combat has been a bit low key over the past few months. There is certainly a back log of new submods and patches to add as well as some old files that have been rediscovered. Matrix Games has some obscure news to report on also.
Visits to the site are still steady. Mod downloads have been going steady as well. Part of my plan for CCS in 2012 is expanding the number of guides and continuing to restructure the downloads FTP area. Yes the FTP is still open for anyone wanting to mass download every single mod or to just download older versions that are not available on the website. This plan is my way of future proofing Close Combat mods. In the years to come, as numbers dwindle so will the knowledge of how to make these mods work. CCS will be providing a clean, secure and straight forward site to help anyone through the task installing and playing any mod. Lets face it, mods are not easy to install anymore.
Tim Stone from www.rockpapershotgun.com has written up a great AAR from Close Combat 2 A Bridge Too Far. Have a read of his first two paragraphs, the entire article is linked below.
``This week’s battle broadcast comes to you from a picturesque Dutch city on the banks of the Rhine. It’s September 1944, and a beleaguered force of British paratroopers, clinging by their fingernails to positions around Arnhem’s strategically-vital road bridge, are about to participate in what could well turn out to be their final action. All that stands between the Red Berets and total annihilation is a couple of 6-pounder anti-tank guns, a flamethrower, two PIATs, a few dozen Stens and Lee-Enfield rifles, and one mediocre wargamer who has known and loved Close Combat 2: A Bridge Too Far for the best part of 14 years.
If my 40 men are to survive the coming onslaught, they’re going to need to demonstrate as much discretion as valour. We start in nominal control of seven of the map’s nine victory locations. If the German attack is as ferocious and tanky as I suspect it will be, the Brits have little chance of holding onto all of these. Rather than fight for every stuccoed villa and leafy square, I aim to draw the foe into the maze of streets and parks beyond the main north-south bridge road. The more claustrophobic the fighting, the better chance my lads have of ambushing armour and splintering infantry assaults.``
Battlefront has released the new Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy (CM:BN)! The new tactical turn-based/real-time WWII wargame is available immediately for both the PC and Mac OS X platforms, as download or mail delivery, starting at $55. This game is not sold in stores and can be only purchased directly from www.battlefront.com. You can download the demo right from CCS CM_Battle_for_Normandy_Demo_Setup.exe (avoid all the ad sites!).
According to Battlefront, Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy (CM:BN) faithfully recreates the experience of tactical land warfare in Western France during World War Two. So far, only the first module, including German regular units and US units, is available but future modules will include Commonwealth and German SS and FJ units and more.
We have an ongoing discussion in the Alternate Fronts forum, don't hesitate to post your comments about this new game there!
In August of 2004, Zappi, Homba, Bambam887, RedScorpion and MOOXE all pitched
in to create this Close Combat site. I would to thank all the people who have visited
and found this site to thier liking. I hope you had time to check out some
of the great Close Combat mods and our forums. I'd also like to thank
all the members of our volunteer staff that have helped over
the years, and all our users that contributed to this site!
Panthers in The Fog was released on December 6th, 2012. You can purchase the game at 
Wacht Am Rhein has also been updated to 
The latest patch for The Longest Day is now v5.50.14b. Download 
Last Stand Arnhem has also been updated to 
Cross of Iron has been updated to v3.60 in June of 2011. Included with this patch are improvements to the pathing of vehicles and soldiers. AI was modified to take advantage of the pathing changes also. Download the 
A small application has been added here for editing your saved games. This is a simple save game editor for, WAR, TLD, LSA and PITF. It is a small unfinished EXE file in alpha version. You can change sides, realism settings, battle ending conditions and difficulty levels. Download the 
