Close Combat 3: The Russian Front

First things first, the game is absolutely great! There is little I can add that others did not already praised, on short, it is a must to have and play for any strategy gamer alive! Now the bad part(s). While the game works, in theory, in practice there are a number of issues that makes it unplayable: 1. Map scroll speed! This is a game breaker, please GOG, fix this. On normal computers (anything above or equal to AMD FX or Intel i3) with a mediocre or above videocard (GT650 or more), you get absolutely no way to scroll the map with the mouse because of the incredible high scroll speed. Even at the |slow) setting, the scroll speed is so high that the map simply scrolls from one side to the other is 0.1 seconds. All you can do is to use the keyboard arrows, but even they must be "tapped" lightly or else, instant map scroll again! 2. bad/missing resolution and UI scaling. If you increase the resolution the UI gets smaller. All fine, except that it gets really really really small. If GOG can fix the UI scaling for larger resolutions that will be great. Also, lots of new resolutions are missing.... or they look weird in game. The game works on lower power computers, like a low end laptop. There the scroll is ok-ish and you can actually play the game. But there comes the resolution issue. The laptops already have small screens, so anything above 1024x768 will make the UI very small. But the 1024x768 is not a wide resolution, so the game is still small... and you are wasting a lot of screen space. So, if GOG wants this game playable on modern computers it must fix the map scroll problem and the UI scale on higher resolution issue. Again, the game itself is great and if you have an old PC you can use that to play this masterpiece.

This is a brilliant tactical RTS that takes place on the Eastern Front of WW2. There are campaigns for the major historical operations or a grand campaign that will take your units from 1941 to 1945. At the beginning of each mission you buy or upgrade your core using a pool of requisition points, and here is the first dilemma, do you buy more infantry units or just a few strong tanks? Keep in mind that no unit is invulnerable, even the most heavily armored units can be damaged or destroyed by a hidden soldier with a molotov cocktail. The maps are beautiful, you start in summer, in a rural landscape with birds chirping. But soon the sound of machineguns and the screams of wounded soldiers will be heard. You will note the map has several strategic locations, such as bridges or hilltop houses. And given the fact this is a very realistic tactical simulation, you really need mortars. In the beginning of the mission the enemy is in hiding, but do you suspect a squad of soldiers may be hiding in that house? Place a few mortar rounds on top of it. If your (commander) intuition was correct you will hear the screams and see enemy soldiers fleeing. Do you need cover for your advancing troops? Place a smoke screen using the mortars. You will notice that some tanks or vehicles are marked as equipped for winter. This is extremely important in winter scenarios. If you don't use tanks equipped for winter, be very careful where you place them during the placement phase. You may find when the battle starts that your tanks are immobilized because the engines have frozen! And if you are playing the Russian side from 1941, in the first few battles just fire a few shots and retreat. It is more important to keep your units alive to fight another day than be totally annihilated trying to stand your ground.

I cannot count the hours I put into the Close Combat series beginning with Bridge Too Far and Gateway to Caen most recently. Of all of them, The Russian Front has the perfect balance of options and keeping the game at a tactical level. On top of that, winning a hard battle, or even creating a stalemate, against difficult odds is extremely satisfying. A classic.

This is for people who have not played the game before. The game consists of moving, firing, and setting up ambushes with small squad sized units and individual armored tanks, AT Guns, etc. You must command your squads in real time but the speed can be adjusted for how fast your computer executes. In campaign play, you purchase what commands you want to use in the next battle in addition to some basic troops. You can buy mortars, field guns, AT guns, Flame thrower armor and troops, Tanks, Tank destroyers, etc. Once you choose something, it stays with you throughout the campaign until it is destroyed, damaged, or you decide to replace it because it has lost two many men, is too damaged, or you decide you just need something else. It is a good game for someone who does not want to spend a lot of time on each battle. Most battles last around an hour. It is a good game with a reasonable amount of depth in each battle. It is much simpler and less time consuming than the Combat Mission games (in which you have a lot more squad/guns/vehicles and put commands in for each minute of battle). I prefer the Combat Mission games but they require too much time to play. The Close Combat 2 Game is similar but reflects a single airborne operation in WWII where every battle has specific consequences to all battles afterwards. It is an excellent small unit tactic game where the purchasing of additional units allows for some strategics decision making.