Matrix Games

"Out of ammunition. God Save the King." – This was the message sent by the British forces in the final hours of the struggle for Arnhem Bridge.  It was intended for the Allied forces, but it was only heard by the Germans.

Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem is a highly enhanced new release of Close Combat, using the latest Close Combat engine with many additional improvements.  Its design is based on the critically acclaimed Close Combat – A Bridge Too Far, originally developed by Atomic Games, as well as the more recent Close Combat: The Longest Day. This is the most ambitious and most improved of the new Close Combat releases.

As the Allies, you will carry out the world’s largest airborne operation, Operation Market Garden, to cross the Rhine and bring a swift end to the war or, as the Germans, use a hastily organized set of defense forces to prevent the Allies from reaching their ultimate goal, Arnhem Bridge. Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem comes with expanded force pools, reserve & static battlegroups, a troop point buying system, ferry and assault crossings, destructible bridges, static forces and much more!  Also included in this rebuild are 60+ battles, operations and campaigns including a new enhanced Grand Campaign!

See the feature list below for the new enhancements that come with the Mega Update.

Mega Update Improvements

• Noticeable improvements were made to the way vehicles and soldiers travel to way points and reach the end destination of both simple and highly complex, unhindered paths with a very high degree of success.
• Soldier pathfinding was improved so that when soldiers fall behind (heavy weapon or momentarily lost) they plot their own path to successfully rejoin their team.
• Vehicle driver and soldier decision making was improved to help them deal with unexpected obstacles (vehicle moving into their way , or wreck that was knocked out in the course of battle to block a path that was already determined), and get out of dead-end locations.
• AI improvements were made to be in concert with the re-designed pathfinder.
• The "Bee Dance" of CC2 that was related to conflicts between the AI for the vehicle driver and the AI that tried to keep the team moving along the team's path that would result in a conflict about which portion of the AI to follow or "which way to go."
• Many other minor improvements were made and reported bugs were fixed.

Mega Update Improvements for Last Stand Arnhem Only

• The mechanism for borrowing teams from the reserve battlegroup was redesigned.
• The Grand Campaign was redesigned for improved play balance.

Game Features    

• Highly enhanced release based on the critically acclaimed Close Combat: A Bridge Too far title, originally developed by Atomic Games, and the latest Close Combat: The Longest Day.
• Expanded strat layer with new strat map image as well as 64 gorgeous hand-drawn tactical maps.
• Comes with all new 60+ battles, operations and campaigns including a new enhanced Grand Campaign.
• Many new game features including troop point buying system, destructible bridges, ferry and assault river crossings, night-time battles, flare effects, and more!
• A point buying system - each battle group and parent formation has a limited pool of points to be spent to buy teams from the Force Pool.
• Bridge demolition and repair.   
• Assault river crossings and ferry river crossings.
• Front line and Reserve Battlegroups
• Improved Battlegroup management ability to stack battle groups, ability to merge battle groups, ability for one battlegroup to lend teams to another, ability for battlegroups to move through each other on the strat map.
• Static troops a small number of teams associated with a specific map will defend the map even if no battlegroup is present.
• Ability to specify starting turn (of starting day) for operations and campaigns to the scenario editor.
• Ability to specify arrival turn for reinforcements in scenario editor. Increased maximum number of turns / day to 6.
• Size/echelon data for battle groups (i.e. Company / Battalion / Regiment) which controls the number of team slots available in battle group screen.
• Parent formation tracking for battle groups
• The parent formation for both 1 Para Bde and 4 Para Bde will be British 1st Airborne Division, for example.
• Reduced aerial re-supply effectiveness if an enemy battle group is present on the target map.
• Video playback at battle / campaign / operation start and each new day of the grand campaign.
• Even more improvements have been made to the AI to reduce some of the more inadequate performance issues, in particular with respect to vehicle pathing, the 'crawl of death', and Team and Unit morale and response in general.   

FEATURES CARRIED OVER FROM CLOSE COMBAT THE LONGEST DAY

• Battle the enemy in the darkness. Includes simulated flare effects where ability to see the enemy troops is effected by flare deployment.
• Comes with all new 60+ battles, operations and campaigns.
• Expanded strat layer with new strat map image as well as 64 gorgeous hand-drawn tactical maps. That's an additional 21 tactical map slots over the original game!
• New reports at the end of battle showing campaign cohesion and VL control track your progress after each bout.
• Display of battlegroup cohesion and fatigue status.
• Game accepts maps up to 4800x4800 pixels as compared to the stock CC5 map size of 3600x3600 pixels.
• Off-board or off-map support quantities now tied to difficulty level.
• Improved graphical communication of strat map connections.
• Game can be played in windowed mode.
• Tweaked User Interface graphics, with nearly all new planes, vehicles and map graphics.
• Also includes carefully crafted game play manual No longer requires second party utilities for modding to provide years of additional gaming excitement.
• Among the moddable features: ALL strat layer features, ALL campaign details including weather, turns per day, scoring, all support mission types for both sides and locations, battlegroup recycling, battlegroup retreat/disband, supply and much more!
• Teams, battlegroups, elements, forcepools soldiers, vehicles, and weapons files maximum number of entries extended.
• Capable of representing multiple nationalities with varying capabilities available to both sides.
• Capable of simulating airborne battlegroup deployment drop zones.

STANDARD FEATURES FOR ALL CLOSE COMBAT VERSIONS 

• Enhanced Scenario Editor - Create your own "what if" Scenarios. Enjoy the huge variety of modifications available from the Close Combat Community providing years of additional gaming pleasure.
• Enhanced head-to-head combat modes including: 24/7 campaigns.
• Enhanced to run well on modern DirectX systems
• Accurately depicts World War II tactical warfare and its challenges
• Realistic soldier psychological profiles during combat.
• Accurate and realistic equipment modelling Close air support and direct and indirect fire Ability to protect your men in buildings, bunkers, and trenches
• Includes specialized squads, weapons, soldier types, attack Aircraft & Artillery
• Adjustable game speed scroll speed and sound volume ... and much more! 

Review on TLeaves
From my perspective, Close Combat is still the leader of the pack.

Review on the Guardian
Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem provides a welcome reminder that games can still hit the spot without gimmicks or aesthetic perfection.

Review on Out of Eight
6/8 - Lots of battles, operations, and campaigns, more flexible strategic mode, nighttime missions, robust editor and user modification support, informative tutorial, windowed mode and higher resolutions.