I've just started playing through it, as part of my project to cover all the vanilla CC games on my youtube channel, and a select few mods. Really liking it so far!
I can't edit the initial post, but I made a bit of a typo in it (plus my sentence structure is probably horrendous) - I have not played the games for a decade and a half - it is in fact two and a half decades! Just wanted to correct that!
So, let me cut to the chase! I have recently taken upon myself a mission. Perhaps a calling even, some may call it.
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 Close Combat franchise has to offer! Well... All the war that the singleplayer grand campaigns have to offer, at least.
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!
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!
So, I am a seasoned veteran of the CC franchise, and have about 25 years of experience with them. Picked up my first CC game in the 90s, when I got a hold of the CC2 demo off a CD from a gaming magazine. Was amazed then, and love the games still! Currently I'm on a mission to play through all CC games with both factions in the grand campaigns of the respective games. I will be putting them all up on youtube, in due time. It's just something I've wanted to do for a while, and at some point I decided "you know what? I'm just gonna do it!" - and so here we are! Prior to this playthrough, I have also finished with both sides in Cross of Iron and Last Stand Arnhem. More to come in the future!
However!
Here's the links to the first episodes in each playthrough:
So; I'm an avid Close Combat fan, and out of all the games in the franchise, Last Stand Arnhem is in my personal opinion one of the better iterations of it. That being said, I am currently doing a playthrough of it for youtube. Now, I've played these games since the 90s, and overall racked up more hours of game-time spread across the various iterations of it than any sane human should. I suppose a good side-effect of this is that I am quite experienced with the games at this point in time!
I'm playing on Elite difficulty, and given the chance, I always try to make things as hard and challenging for myself in each and every battle, barring stifling myself intentionally. Since you can edit your opponent's troop composition, I will always replace redundant units with useful ones, and if he for some reason isn't fielding as much armour as he could, I will make sure he does, so that my challenge increases, and his chances of winning increases with it. I know the AI isn't a he/she, but sometimes it feels better to humanize my computer adversary!
I will start off playing through the grand campaign with the Allies, and afterwards I'll go through it with the Germans. I'll update this post with a link for the German playthrough when it's out there!
At the time of writing this, there are 24 episodes currently out, but more will come rapidly, and by the time you read this, there is a good chance the playthrough is finished!
So, I've just started a playthrough of Close Combat 3 The Russian Front on my youtube channel. I'm a seasoned veteran of the series, and will be playing through it on the hardest difficulty. I'll try to offer up some tips and knowledge as we move along through the episodes!
This is my favourite CC game of all times, mainly due to the roster system, and the fact that you follow only one army group (your own) through the war, that you can modify, upgrade and replace the composition of as you move along. This is something I wish more CC games would do, as it really gets you more connected to your units.
Early on you will, as the Germans, be up against fairly weak Russian forces, but as the campaign progresses, this will, as it did historically, be switched around slowly but surely. Should you choose to play as the Russians, obviously the opposite would be true. In my eyes, this game is truly a gem, and no other CC game has had the same thrilling core mechanics to it since. Unfortunately. Numerous improvements have been made in the franchise, but this always has been, and always will be my favourite. Unless of course they take what really worked with this game and implement it in newer ones of course, but the way thing have been going with the franchise lately, gameplay-wise, I don't see that happening, and I see them continuing down a downhill slope. At least subjectively from my standpoint.
My pleasure! I'll be honest and say that I did try out the youtube AD feature, which is why the first video has substantially more views than the following ones at this time. My take on the ADs - not really worth it. Hopefully my playthrough will be worth a watch for some people at least.
So, I'm a seasoned veteran of this game, and have been playing them since I first got my hands on the CC2 demo at a friend's place back in the 90s. My favourite iteration of the franchise has since I played it been CC3. The linear campaign is quite appealing to me, as I feel more personal with my roster than I do in the newer games, where I don't care as much for the individual soldier's survival.
Anyway! I figured; Why not take my experience of multiple playthroughs with both sides and do it all again for the millionth time, but this time, record it for youtube? And so I did!
Below you can find a link to both the German and the Russian playthroughs, both completed.
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!
Topic: 
