Managing your operations and campaigns are
almost as intense as the battles you will play. The strategic level to
this game implements supply routes, weather conditions, available
support and a number of other challenges to overcome. This guide is
meant to be a general outline of how a campaign can be played
successfully by using commonly accepted rules and settings as well as
explaining the underlaying mechanics of how a campaign operates.
1. Where to
play?
Close Combat 5's most
popular avenue to meet players is GameRanger.
Weekdays and weekends you will see anywhere between 5 and 25 people
playing.
2. Choosing
an Opponent
Grand campaigns take
a considerable amount of time to finish. Weeks, months and sometimes a
year or more is required to play a game through. Even to play a
campaign to the point where a winner is obvious can take time. Choose
your opponents by the level of commitment they offer. Also take into
account how much time they may spend online, their time zone or country.
3. Deciding
on the Rules
Rules are a very
important part of this game. Rules must be set out in stone before
playing the 1st match and are never up for review unless both parties
agree. The following is a list of the most common rules for a campaign.
Actions After
Game Crash
Players will replay the entire battle.
Players will reload the battle and
recapture ground and VLs captured without engaging each other.
Players will reload the battle and
recapture ground and VLs captured and recreate each others losses.
Losses must be agreed upon prior to starting the battle.
Multiplayer Campaigns - Use any
rule above with one exception. Players only get three chances to finish
the battle.
Victory Location Deploy Rule
Players can deploy anywhere on the map they
wish.
Units can only be deployed in areas which
are connected to a Victory Location directly only. Diagonally connected
deployment zones are considered out of bounds. See this
example.
Using rule two with the exception that
diagonally connected squares are good to deploy in, as long as they
connect back to a VL. When moving units
diagonally during combat this is how terratory is naturally cleared.
Unit Limits
No limits on any game units.
Example Only - Vehicle limit of
five points. Wheeled vehicles are 0.5 points, medium tanks one point
and heavy tanks 1.5. Using this formula you can take a variety of units
but their cost can not equal more than five points.
Reinforcements
No reinforcements for either side. (A game
bug enables German reinforcement)
One reinforcement per Allied Battlegroup.
Battlegroups that are reinforced must be recorded. The best way to
record them is to post them in a forum. If players have agreed to use
the full disclosure rule, the Allied player should notify his opponent
when he reinforces.
Set limit on how many time you can
reinforce. In certain mods and campaigns that are highly imbalanced
this could be feasable.
Full Disclosure
Players may view each others battlegroup
forcepools. The viewing must be done before any players clicks Next.
No viewing of opposite forcepools
permitted. Regular 5.01 and some mods do include a feature to measure
your opponents firepower. This table is extracted from the manual.
American and German Battle Groups also show a star or
cross above them. The colour of this icon displays the approximate
relative firepower of each Battle Group.
Green
Strong AT and AP
Yellow
Moderate AT and strong AP
Orange
Moderate AT and AP
Red
Weak AT and moderate AP
Black
Very weak AT and weak AP
4. Recommended Game Settings
15 minute time limit
Morale Off
Never act on initiative
Two minute warning
After taking all victory location
5. Player's Pre & Post Battle
Procedures
Saving Game & Continuing to Next
Battle
The host shall save the game immediately
after each battle. It is advised to save the game each time using
incrementing numbers.
Following the battle after both players
have viewed results, the host shall press Command. The Next button
should never be used to continue to the next battle. Clicking
next will corrupt forcepool data and is irreversible.
While proceeding through battle group
movement, execution and next battle strategic screens, the host shall
always wait for his opponent to catch up before advancing to the next
phase.
After pressing Execute you must play the
first battle before saving the game again. Saving the game after
Execution to play at a later time will cause deployment errors to
occur. Always play the first battle after execution!
6. Supply & Reinforcements, Road
Network, Weather and Support
Supply & Reinforcements
Major Supply Depots (three barrel) provide
reinforcements as well as supply to any Battlegroup connected by the
road networks. Battlegroups not connected to a major supply depot will
not be able to reinforce.
Supply will not travel through any
contested map.
Minor Supply Depots (single barrel) provide
ammunition and fuel only to the map it is located on. Captured single
barrel supply depots only supply fuel to the unit occupying the map.
Single Barrels do not work in some mods. Do not include these
depots as objectives while playing mods without checking first to see
if they are operational.
Road Network
Controlling the road network is the fastest
way to complete victory. Battlegroups that have more maneuverability
have a number of advantages to them. They can retreat to a map of their
choice, they can encircle the enemy, have the ability to cut off supply
routes and overall, whoever can move to more maps controls the
battlefield. Your objectives should be more focused on the roads rather
than the high point Victory Locations.
Weather
Weather must be taken into consideration
when employing vehicles. Rainy weather will turn dirt roads into mud
and make maneuvering very difficult.
Stormy weather will downgrade all Allied
supply depots on the beach maps in Invasion Normandy 5.01.
Support can be affected by the weather.
Clearer weather enables more support to be available.
Storms last three days. Take this into
account if you monitoring your opponents use of support.
Support
Each morning all available support should
be placed. Even if you don't think you will need it, place it anyway as
insurance. If you end up not needing it do not use it and it will
become available again for the afternoon round.
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!