Blitzing

The Americans may labour under the illusion that they came waltzing into Europe and won the Second World War for us, but ironically, you have to look a little farther east to find the real saviour of western democracy: the Red Army. While the Americans suffered over 600,000 casualties (not to be belittled) during the conflict, the Russian military suffered a staggering 28 million, in addition to over 15 million civilian deaths in their successful bid to stop the Nazi war machine in its tracks.
Close Combat III provides you with the opportunity to fight out this colossal conflict as either the Germans or Russians in a superb blend of real-time strategy and wargame authenticity. There is a huge collection of single battles, operations and campaigns to choose from, including the Grand Campaign, which follows the course of the war from the German drive onto Russian soil in 1941, to the Great Bear beating down the gates of Berlin in 1945.
The game is based at squad level, with each unit you control representing a single tank, or a small group of infantry. You are placed in charge of a ‘Fire Team’ of around 10 to 15 units who are sent in to respond to situations across the whole front. These troops stay with you during the course of the campaign, growing in experience, as you seek promotion, which will gradually give you control of a larger number of units.

Essentially, the game engine has remained unchanged from the well-respected Close Combat II: A Bridge Too Far. Still in place are the overhead graphics, with the large numerals stamped across the top of multi-level buildings. Then there’s the Dynamic Flow of operations and campaigns which ensures your actions in one mission have consequences for the next (see ‘On the campaign trail’). So Close Combat III is still a wargame at heart, with success relying upon the capture of victory locations. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that Atomic have done little other than change the historical backdrop for this latest instalment. But you would be wrong. For 'Don’t forget the little things' as my grandad used to say during his bed-bath.

Various enhancements have transformed the game, making it more appealing, particularly to real-time strategy players. The interface is friendlier, utilising hot-keys more effectively and you can now establish waypoints and rubber-band groups of units. The Defend order lets you set up an arc of guarding units to show your troops which way to focus their attention and there is a new Ambush command, which is ideal for your anti-tank infantry. The psychology model has been enhanced so that troops behave even more realistically, with morale and panic and so on playing a more important role. For example, your German troopers will be rather unhappy and therefore not fight well if they’re freezing their knackers off in the Russian winter, so equip them with winter woollies where you can. Spend too long being bombarded by enemy artillery, or loitering in a building surrounded by dead comrades, and chances are they will cower in a corner filling their pants, refusing to respond to your orders.

One of the most welcome additions is the inclusion of leaders who help you to deal with your subordinates. These units need to be protected and well-used to bolster morale and reorder troops in key areas. Other issues have also been addressed. The maps now scroll much faster, which is just as well, considering they are generally much larger than in the previous instalment. There are also different ways to end a battle. You can customise the game so that you don’t always end up with that frustrating fight to the death that sees you scouring the map for one last soldier hiding somebody’s cellar.
Resource management still comes down to resting, refitting and repairing equipment, and bringing in replacements and reinforcements as necessary; all of which is handled by a points allocation system. As the war progresses you also get the opportunity to upgrade your units, so you can get your Panzers up-gunned to provide a match for those lethal T34s.
Close Combat III builds on the successes of its predecessor, with some excellent AI and attention to detail; while adding many features and enhancements which make the game a significant progression. The Russian Front is a wargame, but it has enough elements to give it a broader appeal than many of its hex-based counterparts. It’s rare for games in this genre to receive awards of distinction from PC GAMER, but Microsoft’s Close Combat series has now achieved that remarkable feat twice in a row.

		Final Score