Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem

Close Combat: Last Stand Arnhem is a strategy game about Operation Market Garden, the Allied airborne operation to cross the Rhine and bring a swift end to the war. As the Allies, you try to reach Arnhem Bridge; as the Germans, you command hastily organized defensive forces tasked with stopping them. The game is based on Close Combat: A Bridge Too Far and Close Combat: The Longest Day.

Battles and campaigns

The game includes more than 60 battles, operations and campaigns, including an enhanced Grand Campaign. Its strategic layer uses a new strategic map image and 64 hand-drawn tactical maps, 21 more tactical map slots than the original game. You can battle in darkness, where flares affect how well you can see enemy troops. Videos play at the start of battles, campaigns and operations, and on each new day of the Grand Campaign.

Command and forces

Battlegroups have expanded force pools, and a troop-point system lets you spend a limited number of points to buy teams from the force pool. Front-line, reserve and static battlegroups are included; static troops defend their assigned map even when no battlegroup is there. You can stack and merge battlegroups, lend teams between them, and move them through one another on the strategic map. Battlegroup size and echelon, such as company, battalion or regiment, determine the number of team slots, while parent formations are tracked. The British 1 Para Bde and 4 Para Bde, for example, belong to the British 1st Airborne Division.

The game also simulates airborne battlegroup deployment zones. Aerial resupply is less effective when an enemy battlegroup is present on the target map, and off-board support quantities depend on difficulty. After battles, reports track campaign cohesion and victory-location control; the interface also displays battlegroup cohesion and fatigue.

Crossings and battle management

You can demolish and repair bridges, and make river crossings by assault or ferry. Operations and campaigns can specify their starting turn on the first day, while the scenario editor can set when reinforcements arrive. The maximum number of turns per day is six. Strategic-map connections are shown more clearly, and the AI has been improved, particularly in vehicle pathfinding, team and unit morale, and responses.

Customization and presentation

The scenario editor supports multiple nationalities with different capabilities on either side. Moddable options include all strategic-layer features, campaign details such as weather, turns per day and scoring, support missions and their locations, battlegroup recycling, retreat and disband rules, and supply. Maximum entry counts have also been expanded for teams, battlegroups, elements, force pools, soldiers, vehicles and weapons.

The game supports maps up to 4800 by 4800 pixels, compared with the stock CC5 size of 3600 by 3600. It can run in a window and includes updated interface graphics, along with new graphics for planes, vehicles and maps. A gameplay manual is included.