What time do you name this, soldier? It’s been over a 12 months since Fraser Brown bothered some Nazis in Normandy, and Close Combat: The Bloody First was already 4 years previous its due date by then. Ah, effectively, I suppose it takes time to place collectively the proper battle-plan. Developers Slitherine are lastly prepared to present Axis forces a bloody nostril, marching The Bloody First into launch as we speak.
If you’re unfamiliar with the sequence, Close Combat is a largely a sequence of nitty-gritty wargames, extra akin to fiddly tabletop wargames than something near Company of Heroes. There was that bizarre interval the place they made some ooh-rah fashionable army shooters underneath the title, thoughts. My brother had a type of, and I keep in mind it being a bit naff. The mid-noughties have been an odd time.
But The Bloody First is Close Combat as your dad remembers it – a posh, fiddly wargame for individuals who know each acronym within the army playbook. This is the primary time the very-quite-serious tactical wargame has taken benefit of the third dimension. They nonetheless have exhausting edges, and even when skirmishes aren’t actually going down on flat maps all of it nonetheless appears like a well-put-together miniatures board.
Beyond simply being a bit nicer to take a look at than maps and spreadsheets, these rolling hills and valleys make little particulars like line-of-sight and canopy simpler to visualise. It’s yet one more barrier eliminated between summary numbers and truly feeling such as you’re commanding a teeny tiny military.
Each soldier has a reputation and persona, giving them a selected mechanical persona whereas making certain you are feeling additional responsible when German machine weapons flip them to goo. This applies to each you and your foes, nevertheless, and the fitting performs can ship fascists packing whereas holding your jolly GIs secure from hurt.
The Bloody First places you within the muddy boots of, shockingly, the US 1st Infantry Division. The Big Red One, the jolly American Joes wot did battle all the best way from North Africa via Sicily and France. Hardly the primary piece of media to comply with the primary, however hey, it’s an instantaneous option to play with a bloody highway journey throughout Europe. A 36-mission marketing campaign will take your merry band of horrified, exhausted younger males from Tunisia to Sicily and Normandy.
Close Combat: The Bloody First is out now on Steam and GOG for £31/€37/$40.
