The Wargamer

In our preview of Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein  it was noted that the Strategy 3 Tactics team has invested a fair amount of effort into improving the game’s graphics.  Clearly the game engine does not rival anything near state of the art animation.  However, all the members of the development team share an interest and passion for military history.  Given that, they put in a significant amount of effort to ‘get things right,’ or as right as the venerable game engine would allow.  One place in the game where this is easily recognizable is with the vehicle graphics.  Both Andrew Bruce and John Ross did extensive research to find visual or written evidence of actual paint schemes employed by both the Allies and Germans during the Ardennes offensive.  Together, they then set out to create all new vehicle graphics using those paint schemes. During gameplay, players will see American Shermans and German Panthers, as well as other vehicles, in multiple camouflage patterns.  Vehicle paint schemes could be as varied as the individual soldier painting them.  Below are a couple of screenshots showing varying paint schemes between two Allied armored divisions.

2nd AD.

4th AD.

The shot of the 4the AD shows three different paint schemes for Sherman tanks within the force pool of one of the 4th armored divisions combat commands depicted in the game.  The shot of the 2nd AD shows the varying paint on Shermans from a combat command of the 2nd armored division.  Also of note, the M-21 and M3A1 half tracks of the 2nd armored in the screenshot are olive drab, and the M-21 and M3A1 half tracks of shown in the 4th armored screenshot have been whitewashed.

 This level of detail is not restricted to the ground.  Rather than have generic aircraft graphics, we set out to find examples of planes that actually flew sorties over the Ardennes during the winter of 1944.  As a result, when an Allied player calls in air support during a game, he may find Major George Preddy’s P-51 “Cripes A’Mighty 3” coming to the rescue with guns blazing, or Lt. “Ike” Davis bombing German positions in his P-47 “Tarheel Hal”.  The extravagant paint schemes seen on these planes, and other American planes at this point in the war, were a testament to the confidence the Allies had in their air superiority.

Lt. “Ike” Davis' P-47 “Tarheel Hal”.

 P-38 Lightning.

The dedication to this level of detail is impressive, especially given the brief time that aircraft will spend in a game.  However, it demonstrates a level of dedication to historical accuracy that wargamers love in their games and can expect to find in Close Combat: Wacht am Rhein. 

The US and German Armor Lineup.