Close Combat: The Longest Day

Close Combat: The Longest Day is a pausable real-time wargame in which you command either the Allied Expeditionary Force or Germany’s Wehrmacht during the campaign in Normandy. As the Allies, you carry out the amphibious invasion to liberate Europe from Nazi occupation; as Germany, you defend Hitler’s Atlantic Wall. Managing your teams matters because each soldier has a psychological profile that affects combat.

Campaign and battles

The game includes a strategy map and 64 hand-drawn tactical maps, with more than 60 battles, operations and campaigns. The Grand Campaign follows the fighting from the airborne landings and beachheads through the advance inland. You can also fight in darkness, with visibility affected by flares and light sources such as explosions and fires.

Command and combat

The game models World War II tactical warfare, including equipment, close air support, and direct and indirect fire. You can protect your soldiers in buildings, bunkers and trenches, and command specialized squads with different soldier types, weapons, attack aircraft and artillery. Multiple nationalities with varying capabilities are available to both sides, and the game can simulate airborne battlegroup deployments to drop zones.

Off-board and off-map support quantities depend on the difficulty level. Reports after each battle track campaign cohesion and victory-location control, as well as battlegroup cohesion and fatigue. Connections on the strategy map are shown graphically.

Scenario editor

The enhanced Scenario Editor lets you create your own “what if” scenarios. The maximum number of entries for teams, battlegroups, elements, force pools, soldiers, vehicles and weapons files has been extended.