Buy Close Combat: The Bloody First PC key

Close Combat: The Bloody First is a tactical game in which you command a company of the US 1st Infantry Division, known as “The Big Red One,” through linked operations and battles from November 1942 to August 1944. You fight across Tunisia, Sicily and Normandy, choosing how to combine fire and movement, care for your troops, and use armoured vehicles, artillery and aircraft support.

Campaigns and battles

The game includes one Grand Campaign and three Theatre Campaigns: Tunisia, Sicily and Normandy. Across the three theatres, you lead your company through 11 operations and 36 battles, from Longstop Hill in Tunisia to Mortain in Normandy. The campaigns include five Tunisia operations with 14 battles, three Sicily operations with 11 battles, and three Normandy operations with 11 battles.

The battles cover Longstop Hill, Sbiba, Kasserine Pass, El Guettar and Mateur in Tunisia; Gela, Nicosia and Troina in Sicily; and Omaha Beach, the Bocage and Operation Cobra in Normandy. You face varied tactical challenges, from inexperienced troops facing veteran panzers in North Africa to capturing the defended town of Troina in the Sicilian mountains and fighting through the sands of Omaha and the hedgerows of Normandy.

Command and tactics

You command squads in close-combat situations and coordinate small arms, mortars, machine guns, armoured cars, tanks and anti-tank guns. Battles call for decisions about attack and defence, when to reinforce your men with armoured vehicles, and when to request artillery or aircraft support. Your company may be reinforced in some operations, but not in others.

Battlefields and forces

The game uses 32 battlefield maps across its three theatres: 14 in Tunisia, 11 in Sicily and 11 in Normandy. Their terrain includes Tunisia’s craggy ridgelines, Sicily’s mountains and valleys, and Normandy’s beaches and bocage, as well as narrow valleys and dense villages. New terrain types represent Tunisia’s jagged ridges and Sicily’s rough, broken battlefields.

The forces include the US 1st Infantry Division and its German and Italian opponents. Italy’s armed forces appear in an official release for the first time. The game features over 50 vehicles, more than 300 infantry and heavy weapon teams, and over 100 weapons, including US equipment from 1942–43.

3D battlefield detail

The 3D Archon engine combines the series’ tactical gameplay with three-dimensional battlefields. It models details such as the specific types of ammunition used by each weapon, alongside more realistic movement and projectile physics. The game also includes new graphics, effects and sound effects.

Multiplayer

An integrated multiplayer lobby and matchmaking forums support multiplayer games.