Fit check
Is Close Combat: The Longest Day worth it for you?
We tell you who should skip it, too.
Play it if you…
Good fit- World War II strategy fans who want command on both the strategic map and tactical battlefields
- Players who prefer pausable real-time combat over turn-based squad actions
- Scenario creators interested in building alternate-history battles
Skip it if you…
Saves you a refund- Players seeking a fast, uninterrupted real-time action game without pausing or campaign management
- Players who prefer abstract combat over soldier psychology, fatigue, cohesion, and detailed equipment
- Players looking for fantasy, science-fiction, or nonmilitary settings
Our take on Close Combat: The Longest Day
Rather than treating battles as isolated tactical puzzles, the game connects them through campaign cohesion, fatigue, victory-location control, and a strategic map. Pausing and soldier psychological profiles also place command decisions around unit condition and battlefield pressure, not only firepower.
What is Close Combat: The Longest Day?
Command either the Allied Expeditionary Force or Germany’s Wehrmacht during the Normandy invasion.
This pausable real-time wargame combines a strategy map with 64 hand-drawn tactical maps and more than 60 battles, operations, and campaigns, including a campaign spanning airborne landings, beachheads, and the advance inland. Manage teams, battlegroups, soldiers, vehicles, weapons, and off-map support while tracking cohesion, fatigue, victory locations, and campaign progress. Night battles use flares, explosions, fires, and other light sources to affect visibility. Troops can occupy buildings, bunkers, and trenches, while specialized units, aircraft, artillery, and direct or indirect fire support combat. An enhanced scenario editor allows custom alternate-history scenarios.
How Close Combat: The Longest Day plays
- 01Normandy Campaigns
- The campaign structure covers more than 60 battles, operations, and campaigns from airborne landings through the inland advance.
- 02Tactical Map Collection
- A strategic layer connects 64 hand-drawn battle maps.
- 03Night Combat
- Flares, fires, explosions, and other light sources change how troops can see during dark battles.
- 04Cohesion Tracking
- Post-battle reports show campaign cohesion, victory-location control, battlegroup cohesion, and fatigue.
- 05Scenario Editor
- The enhanced editor supports custom alternate-history scenarios.
- 06Unit Force Management
- Command structures include teams, battlegroups, elements, force pools, soldiers, vehicles, and weapons.
- 07Defensive Positions
- Units can be protected inside buildings, bunkers, and trenches.
Close Combat: The Longest Day compared to similar games
Xenonauts also centers on military strategy and persistent personnel, but uses turn-based combat against extraterrestrials and focuses on recovering alien technology. Close Combat: The Longest Day instead presents World War II operations in pausable real time, with strategic connections between 64 tactical maps and combat shaped by lighting, cohesion, and fatigue.
Close Combat: The Longest Day: platforms & release
Is Close Combat: The Longest Day worth it?
It is worth it if: world War II strategy fans who want command on both the strategic map and tactical battlefields. Skip it if: players seeking a fast, uninterrupted real-time action game without pausing or campaign management.
Where can I download Close Combat: The Longest Day?
Use the Download Now button on this page: it opens Close Combat: The Longest Day's store page, where you can choose how to get it.
What platforms is Close Combat: The Longest Day on?
Windows only.
