Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein

I like it. I should note that AI is not much better than it was on release 20 years ago, though given the relative stagnation of AI in games, it's not awful. Battles should be set at 15 minute limit because of this, and AI probably has a better time as the defender (US/Allies). If you're not a massive Close Combat fan or min maxer I think it will serve well enough regardless of the side you choose.In fairness, as well, the Battle of the Bulge was a terrible idea, as Hitler was repeatedly warned but ignored. So you start with that absurdity built-in. The AI is really the only glaring annoyance. The other thing that comes to mind is saving mid-campaign which can be a bit counterintuitive, so experiment with that a little so you understand the quirks. Otherwise this is a fine remaster. If you like the Close Combat experience, you'll like this. Especially the operational CC experience, as you have here, dealing with moving units around and supply levels in a set area. The Market Garden and Caen-focused games are also excellent in this respect as they have been remastered on the same engine. Recommend those as well--note that these will be the higher priced versions, so instead of "A Bridge Too Far", which is the Arnhem game exactly as released in the 90s, you want "Last Stand Arnhem", etc.

Why is it when I play as the germans my Panthers are weaker than Shermans and when I play as the americans my Shermans are butchered by the Panthers....

Still worth playing in 2025. The post 2008 (Matrix) remakes are better than the originals in AI, path-finding, animations, graphics and multi-layer options. they are usually better at joining the tactical and strategic maps to make the campaign flow as well. Buy them here or at Matrix whichever has a sale on (when you buy @Matrix you will will still get a STEAM key and an option for a physical disc).

In early December 1944 Hitler had another plan other than Operation Wacht am Rhein. So in Hitlerian fashion he devised something ridiculously too ambitious that naturally ran along the tortured neurons and synapses of his graceless, and putrescent, brain. His main capable deputies, Model and Rundstedt, devised something together a little more, you know, smaller, something that could possibly work. But no, Hitler threw a tantrum until his little deputies begrudgingly said, Zeeg Hi L. Sheriff Fuhrer Hitler wanted his big idea to be the BIG thingy that would crush the Allies (Cowboys) under his firm and panzer-hardened boot and extend beyond the Meuse river forever and ever until he reached Hollywood and put it all on film, but unlike all the Cowboy American propaganda war movies his would be an Academy-Knight's Cross award winner. The truth would be strongly etched on film as a monument to a Konigstiger parked proudly on General McAuliffe's "NUTS!" in Bastogne. So with his six-shooters on his hips, his Karl May-induced American Cowboy fantasies twaddling around in his fevered brain, Sheriff Hitler instituted Unternehmen Herbstnebel (Operation Autumn Mist)--the bases of what the Yankee Cowboys call, the Battle of the Bulge. This brings us to Close Combat: Unternehmen Herbstnebel (erroneously named Wacht am Rhein), a capable old, snow-covered goat of a game, top-down, and little soldaten and cowboys crawling around in the snow shouting vague profanities, and throwing fast metal objects at each other in the worst possible global war Mother Earth has seen. The bewildered young men on both sides salute their appropriate colored rags and give glory to politicians and corporate investment. The battles sway back and forth as 20-something year olds crush and maim and kill each other under the treads of Panthers or Sherman tanks, or lob objects that explode with all kinds of hot, little metal objects to confirm their early retirement from Life, or to donate to the Ardennes forest a few of their limbs, and/or their young, fresh minds. It's a good game, not worth the ultimate price, like in real life, but on sale for 10 clams, sure. It's the usual, brutal fun (although not gory) of Close Combat in Global War II during Christmas holidays '44 where boys are packaged and sold by highly distorted men in high places for a deep and deadly discount.

Great tactical challenges, great action, very dynamic, and demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of WW2 era weapons, unit and systems.

Awesome

杰作！我从六年级，1998年开始玩到现在。想当年还买了正版光盘，那本说明看了不知道多少遍。唯一缺憾，火箭发射车到底有没有。。。 masterpiece！i start to play this from year of 1998 when the game launched. i bought the official copy with one handbook the one i read it over and over. the only problem is WHERE is the rocket tank...

要赢得每个地图的胜利, 需要战场机动力, 可是要赢得整个地图的胜利, 需要战役机动性. 这两点之间是什么关系呢?

Close Combat is an excellent simulation of tactics warfare during the WWII. 9/10 You play one full compagny (German or Allied platoon) on the field and move infantry and tanks, with artillery and air powers. Each game of Close Combat simulates one of the big battle of WWII: East front (1), Normandy(3), Bulge(2), etc. I stongly advise you to try once !

Long ago CC player coming back with the steam releases. I had a BLAST with Cross of Iron. That one I really recommend. So I figured id try this one (completed all campaigns in Cross, and some of those are nail biters with a lot of back and forth. The fights feel like a real unit action over time). The campaign in this version is like playing 10+ operations at once with very little incentive to actually play them. You bounce from fight to fight with completely different units with no briefing and its just so disjointed. The programming is also MUCH worse in this version. Unit types feel like they dont do their roles well at times, and the units behavior feels bugged and doesnt make sense at times. Infantry dont move to get good vantages like in Cross of Iron and will "seek cover" but wont use the damn trench next to them you literally deployed them in. I played this version of CC for 4 hours and im uninstalling it after I finish this review its just so unresponsive compared to the older Iron Cross that had much better unit behavior and control. Even right clicking to bring up the menu (if your not using hot kets all the time) is buggy. The "topography" of this versions maps is hilariously inconsistent and buggy. LOS is a mess and I think thats half of all the unit behavior issues. For example Youll be 6 meters above a gentle slope in orepared positions with no tree cover in the way, yet cant fire down on a point on said slope thats literally crawling with infantry firing directly UP at you. Ultimately worse unit behavior, worse control (not talking about conscript moral etc), worse immersion, worse unit balance. Pass for me. I really tried to enjoy it.