Subject: Fw: CC5 review 

James Dusek <dusek@cscsunfl2.corp.mot.com> wrote in message 
<MPG.144d39efac18a89b9897c5@news.cig.mot.com>...

      In CCV Atomic goes back to the beach with Invasion Normandy. 
Actually, it's just Utah Beach, not the whole campaign. They continue
with the same structure as CCIV, except naval gunfire is added to the
support menu for the Americans.

      While built on a solid foundation, the current CC series has 
suffered from a number of flaws that has not been addressed.

      The good.

      With the confined Hedgrow terrain of Normandy, infantry becomes 
more inportant than tanks. In the dence terrain, tanks without infantry 
support soon become burning wrecks. I've seen a tank surge forward to 
attack an infantry squad, only to realise too late that a group of assult 
engineers were laying in wait for it. Result roasted tanker.

      This is a refreshing change from the last few CC games were tanks 
ruled the battlefield. The key in CC5 is to use your tanks more as 
support weapons, bringing them up to shoot at enemy strong points from a 
distance.

      Infantry is king in the dence hedgeroves, but they are extreamly 
vunerable to the lethal weapons of modern combat. Keeping your infantry 
behind good cover is the only way to keep most of them alive. Moving 
across open ground will result in a heavily decimated team fleeing to the 
rear. Even behind cover, a team facing vastly superior firepower will 
start to take casulities. One must have teams support each other, so when 
one comes under fire, the other can assist and help suppress the enemy 
team(s).

      Unfortuantly CC5 has a few flaws. The computer AI suffers from a 
bad case of "ant-in-the-pants" syndrome. It cannot sit still, and it 
suffers greatly as it'll leave good defensive terrain and do increadibly 
stupid things like move out in the open. I saw the computer moving a mass 
of infantry, with tank support through a narrow crossroads when the 
computer informed me that my naval support was available. Humm, where 
should I put the fire down at? BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM (x4) 80% of the enemy 
troops were ripped to shreds. At other times, the computer will leave 
very good defensive terrain to take a victory location, before all of my 
forces were supressed, resulting in heavy losses on it's side.

      Fortuantly tanks are not plentiful on the battlefield, becasue the 
drivers still have not learned that drinking and driving a tank on a 
battlefield does not lead to a long and healty life. It appears that they 
believe that they can take a movement order as being open to interpation 
as to what is the best way to get to that location. Even the simplest of 
movement orders can result in the tank moving in a drunken path to the 
location.

      The stragetic screen isn't crammed anymore onto one unscrollable 
map, it feels like a much larger area than the previous stragetic screen 
in the Buldge game. Only allowing one combat group to occupy a zone at 
any given time is the next item they need to work on. This becomes a 
problem when someone wants to exchange the combat groups, move one back, 
and the one behind into it's spot. The game forces to second group to 
start at the map edge of the direction they came in on, they cannot 
occupy the territory that the group they are exchanging with held. On the 
plus side, neither can the Germans, so this forces a meeting type 
engagement.

      Overall CC5 is a pretty good game. Not as great as CC1 was when it 
was released, but not as bad as some people have claimed. This game is 
great aginst another human player.

James Dusek