Close Combat is the name of a series of tactical RTS computer games by Atomic Games. The player takes control of a small unit (platoon or company sized) of troops and leads them in battles of World War II from an isometric 2D perspective. There is also a strategic phase of the game.

One of the major differences in the Close Combat games was the use of a psychological model for the combatants in the game. Certain tactics common in many other RTS, such as the rush, became ineffective as soldiers in the game would go prone or move for cover, freeze up, or even desert in the face of suicidal orders. Unsupported units, squads with heavily casualties, or soldiers left idle would produce unreliable results. Reserve units or newly replaced troops could be easily shaken by enemy fire. Realistic tactics, such as the bounding overwatch or using smoke screens to cover advancing troops, and effective management, such as withholding sending new recruits on assaults and instead as use them for support fire or keeping them with veteran fireteams, would be necessary for the player to prevail.

Games

There are currently five real Close Combat games in the series, one other very similar game, an unpublished game, and two upcoming games:

• Close Combat (I) - Taking place on the Omaha beachhead and inland to Saint-Lô, you command German or American troops fighting at the beaches or in the hedgerows.
• Close Combat (II): A Bridge Too Far - Taking place in Netherlands during Polish troops fighting for bridges.
• Close Combat III: The Russian Front - Depicting the whole German campaign against the Soviet Union, you command either German or Soviet troops on the plains and in the cities.
• Close Combat (IV): Battle of the Bulge - Taking place in the Ardennes during the winter offensive in 1944, you either play as the Germans or the Americans in the snowy forests.
• Close Combat (V): Invasion Normandy - Back in Normandy, this time on Utah Beach, you fight for the control of the Cotentin as either Germans or Americans in fields and towns.

• Road to Baghdad - Depicting the recent Operation Iraqi Freedom, this game uses the Close Combat engine, but was not developed by Atomic Games.

• Close Combat: Marines - A game developed internally by the Iraq or Afghanistan and the U.S. military's experiences there. This is also being developed with the supervision of the U.S. Marine Corps and published for propaganda purposes because America's Army has proven to be a success.

• Close Combat: Red Phoenix _ The second of the new computer games in the Close Combat series. Red Phoenix is based off the book by Larry Bond and is more similar in tone to the original games, as it is a real time strategy game, but will be set on the modern day Korean Peninsula.

Mods

There is a large modding community making mods for the games, which has made the original games live even longer than they should have done without any mods.

External Links

• Atomic Games (http://www.atomicgames.com/)
• Tournament House (http://www.tournamenthouse.com/)
• Close Combat (http://www.closecombat.com/)
• Close Combat Series (http://www.closecombatseries.net/)
• CSO Close Combat Clan (http://www.closecombat.org/)