Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem

Read me File – 05 February 2024

Version 6.00.06
Welcome.
Thank you for playing Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem™! We are always looking for ways to
improve your gaming experience. For the latest information on the game, please go to the
Matrix Games web site at www.matrixgames.com.

Below you will find the latest and greatest information on Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem™.
Information in this document supersedes that in the official game manual.

Troubleshooting:
Ensure that your system meets the minimum system requirements. These are found in the
game manual. Also, ensure that you have the latest video and sound drivers available for your
system. The vast majority of reported problems are resolved by upgrading all drivers to the
latest versions.

If you are still experiencing problems with the game, please use our Help Desk at
www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk or post in the Close Combat – Last Stand Arnhem™ Support
Forum at www.matrixgames.com. Please provide as much detail on your issue as you can.
To obtain optimum game performance, close all other applications before beginning a
game.

Change History:

v6.00.06 – February 05, 2024

• Fixed third battlegroup in sequence of 4+ blocked moves could disappear on strategic

map
• Fixed ‘Relieve’ / swapping battlegroups could show incorrect movement arrows
• Fixed case where secondary battlegroup movement arrows were not shown after loading
saved game
• Fixed case where secondary battlegroup ‘not deployed’ marker was not shown after
loading saved game

v6.00.05 – July 03, 2023

• Fixed strategic map movement issue where two battle groups, meeting head-on, could
bypass each other if the faster BGs destination map was already full.
• Fixed strategic map issue where incorrect movement destinations and/or movement
arrows could be shown after using the ‘Relieve’ order to swap battle groups.
• The ‘un-deployed’ indicator on battle group icons (see Manual Addendum for details) is
now shown correctly after loading a saved game.
• Movement arrows for reserve battle groups now shown correctly after loading a saved
game.

v6.00.03 – March 15, 2021

• Fixed potential crash caused by duplicate weapons firing during airstrikes in multiplayer
games.
 • Armored fighting vehicles with light damage (damaged, immobilized, or main gun out) are
now tallied as ‘Damaged’ on the debrief screen.
• Armored fighting vehicles with light damage must pass a repair check to be recovered
and repaired between battles.
• Halftracks, armored cars, and towed guns with light damage are automatically repaired
between battles.

v6.00.00 – September 03, 2018

Bug Fixes
• Fixed working folder lock-in.
• Runs in 32 bit to work correctly on Windows 10.
• Fixed a bug that could cause a crash on battle exit.

Features Changes
• Moved options from registry so does not need admin permissions to run (Options are
now in a file in My Documents/My Games/CloseCombatLastStandArnhem).
• Smoothed out key scrolling and added WASD.
• UI scaling in battle (requires restart).
• Option to obey DPI or not (requires restart).
• Can lock mouse (requires restart or tab in/out to activate).
• Can scale frontend UI.
• No longer has option for fullscreen, but can run in a borderless window.
• All new saves and custom user battles are saved to a local folder too (My Documents/My
Games/CloseCombatLastStandArnhem/Games).

v5.60.53 – June 12, 2012

Bug Fixes
• Fixed several issues that could cause a crash at the end of a battle, possibly resulting in
the loss of the saved game file.
• Fixed several bugs with supply propagation across maps with blown bridges. This
corrects multiple issues where supply could sometimes flow across a blown bridge,
allowing incorrect bridge repair and reinforcements.
• Fixed an issue with moving between two maps with multiple connections. When maps
are linked by two connections, and the use of one link would require a river crossing
while the other would not, a battle group moving via both links will get a normal entry
zone on the near side of the river and a smaller entry zone across the river, with
deployment on the far side limited to infantry teams.
• Fixed a multi-player bug where host and client could get out of sync if two opposing
battle groups both rest for at least one turn (avoiding a battle) and then only one player
cancels his rest order without moving the battle group off the map.
• Fixed bug where supply could propagate incorrectly.
• Fixed bug with repair of a blown bridge could cause an error when you reloaded the
saved game.
• Fixed bug where using the Relieve order in multi-player game could cause the host and
client to be out of sync.
v5.60.51 – June 15, 2011

Bug Fixes
• Fixed multi-player bug where client could get out of sync with host.
• CRLF 'box' characters should no longer show in briefings on Windows XP
• VLs on Eindhoven map re-organized -- "To Nederwetten" moved north.
• Some Battlegroup entry locations corrected for Arnhem Sector campaign, Veghel and
Best of Best ops.
• Panzershreck accuracy increased to match bazooka
• BG purchase point calculation algorithm tweaked. Max pts now based on what it would
take to refill your BG based on current slots and FP. Thus BGs with expensive teams (i.e.
tanks) will recover more points per turn. Resting doubles points gained for a turn. Resting
overnight gives you roughly half the points you’d need to refill your BG.
• Calculation of team quantities for the FP now rounds off, instead of down. Teams with 2
in the LSA FPools.txt will have 1 in the FP at Line difficulty, rather than 0, now.
• Fixed a bug where purchase points could go negative when a shot up team were
returned to the FP at the end of the turn.
• Fixed a bug with timed reinforcements not always being added to the FP until the next
day.
• UI-displayed ratings of cover (map examination text, soldier and team outlines) now
using the same algorithm.
• Reduced the distance for an HE round to be considered a ‘direct hit’ on a vehicle from
3m to 2m.
• Reduced the effect of a blast hit against an unarmored part of a vehicle.
• Greatly reduced the chance of a gun itself being knocked out by a blast hit. It can still be
damaged or have crew killed at the same rate, however.
• Soldiers with a weapon that can damage a vehicle (i.e. panzerfaust) will no longer
choose to close assault the vehicle even at close range.
• Formation points no longer return to initial value when viewing opponent BG and
returning, or editing two BGs in the same formation.
• Fixed bug with crews (who have lost their vehicle or gun) remaining in the battle group
roster.
• Fixed a bug where you could blow a bridge during deployment phase if the timer was
down to 0.
• Vehicles that moved in reverse sometimes rotated to face the direction they had been
moving once stopped at their final destination.
• Entry setup zone can no longer change VL control of an enemy BG's original entry VL.
• A BG that enters play onto a map containing friendly static troops and remains on that
map to fight a battle on the same turn it entered play no longer loses the previous map
control from the (now absorbed) static troops.

Grand Campaign:
• Arrival of XXX Corps elements pushed back to closer to their historical time line: Guards
Armored arrives late 17 Sept – early 18 Sept. 43rd Division arrives late 19 Sept-early 20
Sept. 50th Division arrives late Sept 20-early Sept 21. So during 17-19 September,
Guards Armored are the only XXX Corps BGs present.

FPool.txt:
• Added panzerschrecks to 107.Pz.Bde, 10.SS KGs Rheinhold, Brinkmann, Euling, and
9.SS KG Graebner.
 • Added PzJg (panzerfaust) teams to 9.SS KGs Spindler and Harder.
• Added a 4 additional Ersatz teams to KG Goebel (to bump it up to 9 BG slots).
• Removed 0 quantity LW teams from KG Chill.

Elements.txt:
• Pushed vehicle move rate set very high for small and large hedgerows, to allow guns to
setup in hedgerows.

Maps:
• LOS on Arnhem Rail Bridge improved around the bridge landings.

v5.60.50 – November 18, 2010

• Features Changes (See Manual Addendum in the Manuals directory)
o Battle Group Screen: When two friendly battle groups are present you now borrow active
teams from the reverse battle group rather than buying them from the reserve battle
group force pool.
o Strategic Map: A battle group that has never fought on the current map as the front line
battle group has additional strategic movement and battle setup restrictions.
o Added error messages when a team could not deploy in a friendly controlled area due to
setup restrictions or inability to cross a river.

• Bug fixes:
o Correct damage is now shown when a repaired bridge is blown again.
o Turns when a bridge VL changes hands are no longer counted towards repairing the
bridge.
o Message list entries repaint properly when team monitor is expanded.
o Fixed a several multi-player crashes.
o Bootcamp crash fixed.

V5.60.021 – October 28, 2010

• Path Finder Overhaul

◦ The path finder has seen a major overhaul to improve its ability to successfully find a
path through areas with blocking terrain and to evaluate long, complicated paths
(such as across long bridges). For game performance reasons, paths are evaluated
while the game continues to run, and long and / or complex paths may take up to a
few seconds to complete. For a long move you may notice a brief delay between the
time you issue the movement order and the time the unit actually starts to move.
• Battle Setup
◦ Fixed a bug where pre-battle deployment could be initialized with the wrong battle’s
data, resulting in a ‘checkerboard’ of deployment zones around controlled Victory
Locations.
◦ Fixed a bug with determining when a river crossing was required to move off a map
or setup across a river.
 ◦ Extended cross-river setup zone restrictions to single battles. Previously this was
determined only for Operations or Campaigns.
◦ Bridge Victory Locations now exert more influence on the shape and extent of entry
setup zones, making them much less likely to change control due to entry setup
zones.
◦ Bridges are no longer automatically unprimed at the start of a battle unless the
Germans have lost control of all of the bridge’s VLs.
◦ Fixed a rare case where deploying teams in open ground would fail, even though the
area was within a valid setup zone.
◦ Fixed a bug that allowed you to stack your vehicles on top of each other during setup.
Sorry, the world will have to find another solution to its parking problems.
◦ 506.s.Pz.Abt. no longer gets more starting purchase points on Elite than on Veteran.

• Tactical Combat
◦ The pixel size of the Mini-Map is now scaled based on the size of the resolution of
the game window and the size of the tactical map. For resolutions where x or y size is
800 or less, the mini-map is scaled to 4 pixels per mega-tile (24m) if the map is
greater than 36 mega-tiles in size, 5 pixels/MT if the map is greater than 30 MT in
size, or 6 pixels per MT otherwise. If both x and y resolution are greater than 800
pixels the mini-map is scaled to 5 pixels per MT if the map is greater than 31 MT, or 6
pixels per MT otherwise. For map makers, if your MMM file is scaled to 6 pixels per
MT they will only ever be ‘squashed’, rather than ‘stretched’, so they should not look
blocky regardless of the scaling.
◦ Fixed a bug where mini-map display of setup zones could be offset slightly from their
actual location on the main map.
◦ Fixed a crash that could occur on the Nijmegen Bridge map when playing the game
in 800x600 resolution and displaying the mini-map.
◦ Base number of rounds for ‘off-map’ mortar fire support reduced. Combined with the
accuracy reduction in the data files, the overall punch of mortar support has been
reduced.
◦ Vehicle crew members are now vulnerable to small arms fire when manning exposed
weapons or when in an open topped vehicle fired on from a large height advantage at
close range.
◦ Vehicles using the MOVE command will only use reverse for short moves, or when
there is a known enemy to keep the front armor towards.
◦ Vehicles using SNEAK will no longer abort their move when spotting a new enemy
unless they are moving towards a known enemy.
◦ Reduced the chance for non-penetrating hits to cause internal damage or crew
casualties to vehicles.
◦ Vehicle movement speed near / through trees is now much slower, with a higher bog
chance but a lower chance of immobilization.
◦ Vehicles that are bogged or mired move more slowly.
 ◦ Bailed out crews now continue to rout towards the home map edge, rather than stop
and stand, if they are unable to rout off the map on their first attempt.
◦ Routing teams can no longer capture territory or Victory Locations.
◦ Light armored vehicles and open topped vehicles now more vulnerable to infantry
close assault.
◦ Infantry teams with secondary weapons effective against vehicles (demo charge,
gammon bombs) now employ them when close assaulting a vehicle.
◦ Infantry close assaulting a vehicle has an increased chance to hit.
◦ Line of Sight for teams manning heavy machine guns or mortars is now always
traced from the team’s gunner.
◦ Pinned or Cowered soldiers now prefer crawling to standing when moving.
◦ Soldiers with a weapon requiring a setup time will only move to a new location if it is
rated significantly better than their current location.
◦ Fixed vehicles no longer pivot or move a very small distance right after you hit ‘Begin’
to start a battle.
◦ Fixed a crash that could occur when a weapon with a very small blast radius was
fired (Stuart V SP ammo is the only such case in LSA)
◦ Fixed a case where the “We can’t hurt that” message was displayed when targeting
infantry in heavy cover.
◦ Fixed case where fire orders could be cancelled when the option “Always See
Enemy” was on but the target was considered to be concealed still.
◦ Fixed a case of soldier getting into circular move along the side of a long, linear
obstacle.
◦ Fixed a case of soldier getting stuck behind an obstacle right at the map edge.
◦ Fixed last survivor on a team could capture terrain when routed.
◦ Timer and force morale now show up when viewing Overview screen.

• AI
◦ Deployment of infantry teams more heavily favors building edges facing towards the
enemy.
◦ Deployment of AT guns now favors areas with a moderate field of fire, rather than a
very restricted field of fire.
◦ Reduced chance that AI will decide to move a team while the AI has decided to
defend.
◦ The AI is more likely to offer a cease fire when close to a Force Morale failure.
◦ The AI is more likely to accept a cease fire offer if no Victory Locations have changed
hands in some time.
◦ Fixed a case where AI player could target a human player’s team that was in line of
sight but not yet spotted.
• Battle Group Screen
◦ Slots available to the reserve battle group are now allocated into slots not available to
the primary battle group first, assuming the primary battle group has a platoon of the
correct type which does not already have the maximum number of slots. If there are
no such slots the primary and reserve battle group will both be able to fill some
slot(s).
◦ Added the text “RES” to the team icon for teams that are on loan from the reserve
battle group.
◦ Removing a team (returning it to the Force Pool) removes the surviving team
members as well, rather than re-distributing them to bring other teams up to
strength. Teams that are automatically removed due to excessive casualties
(immediately post-battle) still re-distribute their personnel to fill out other
understrength teams.

• Strategic Screen
◦ Front line battle group name (in info banner area) properly updated when you issue a
Relieve order.
◦ Fixed a bug that could cause a hang when a valid location for a reinforcing battle
group could not be found.
◦ Fixed a bug that could show the wrong supply level for a battle group stacked with a
friendly airborne battle group when the airborne battle group was on limited supply
due to the automatic airborne supply level for the first few days. NOTE: Incoming
supply display still only reflects the state of incoming supply at the start of the current
strategic turn.
◦ When merging two battle groups, the absorbed battle group now returns all active
teams to its Force Pool before being absorbed, recovering whatever points it can get
back for returning those teams. The total purchase points from the absorbed battle
group are then transferred to the absorbing battle group.
◦ Initial purchase point allotment for all battle groups increased slightly, based on the
number and type of teams they might be expected to loan while in reserve.
◦ Static Troops are now immediately absorbed into friendly battle groups when a
friendly battle group starts the game, or enters the strategic map, on the same map
as the Static Troops.
◦ Fixed case where incorrect end game video could be shown when game ends on the
Strategic screen.
◦ Fixed case where extra Victory Location could be awarded to opposing side when
one side switched front line battle groups.
◦ “Under repair” bridge status now cleared correctly after movement resolution when
full supply is lost and the bridge is uncontested.

• Debrief Screen
 ◦ For single battles: If the battle ends because a bridge was blown, victory is
determined by the map and VL control at the moment the battle ended, rather than
granting all map control to the side that was trying to capture the bridge. NOTE: This
is for single battles only.
◦ Non-tank vehicles (halftracks, armored cars, etc) now count as vehicle kills, not tank
kills.
◦ Fixed a bug where the Axis side could be incorrectly granted control over neutral
ground adjacent to Axis controlled ground during post-battle calculations.

• Scenario Editor
◦ Fixed a crash that could occur when the game was running in full screen mode if you
loaded a battle, operation, or campaign that did not use all possible dates in the
game, then minimized and restored the game window.
◦ Fixed a bug where the editor could give incorrect error messages when you tried to
save a valid scenario file if you had previously played a battle, operation, or
campaign before entering the Scenario Editor.
◦ Scenario Editor no longer shows the wrong battle group name in the top banner
when you clicked on or very close to the diamond rectangle.
◦ Scenario Editor "Battle Group Info" now reflects reinforcements that will arrive in the
battle group's force pool based on turn currently selected.

• Data File Changes

◦ Campaign.txt: Fixed incorrect (blank) entry in Veghel Bridge data that could cause
incorrect calculation of the river line for this map.
◦ AlsTeams.txt: Corrected White, Humber, and Daimler Scout / Armored cars that were
set to SAI unit type 10 (halftrack) to SAI unit type 9 (armored car) for correct path
finder behavior.
◦ AxsTeams.txt: Corrected Sdkfz 250/9 halftrack to SAI unit type 10 (halftrack) from
SAI unit type 9 (armored car) for correct path finder behavior.
◦ BGroups.txt: Modified KG Knaust default slot types so the AI will select tanks by
default.
◦ Elements.txt: Added a new column ‘Foliage’. This column is for terrain elements that
represent the foliage around the central trunk of a tree. Elements coded with ‘foliage’
set to 1 will be scaled to the height of the tree they are adjacent to.
◦ Elements.txt: Increased visual hindrance and cover values for all foliage elements.
Line of sight is blocked much quicker through woods, and soldiers are harder to hit in
woods.
◦ Elements.txt: “Field” element now rubbles to “Shellhole”.
◦ Elements.txt: “Sandbag” element now rubbles to ‘Debris” instead of “Brick Wall”.
◦ FPools.txt: Added header fields to control BG slot scaling.
◦ Vehicles.txt: Corrected fire angles for Pz III turret weapons and Sdkfz 250/9 turret
 weapons.
◦ Weapons.txt: German 5cm and 8cm mortar accuracy reduced to match all other
mortars.
◦ Weapons.txt: Accuracy of ‘off-map’ mortar fire support reduced to match all other
mortars.
◦ Weapons.txt: Removed incorrect blast effect from 17pdr SP (APDS) ammo.
◦ Weapons.txt: Corrected 17pdr AP penetration at point blank range.
◦ Weapons.txt: Corrected base accuracy for 3.7cm Pak HEAT round.
◦ Reduced chance of a gun damage result for non-penetrating hits on vehicles.
◦ Reduced gun damage and immobilize chance for grenades versus vehicles with
higher armor.
◦ Reduce soldier's likelihood of throwing grenades at vehicles outside of close assault
situation.
◦ Reduced rating of anti-vehicle SP ammo (i.e. APDS) vs. infantry and terrain, so it is
not used unless all other ammo is gone.

• Stock Scenarios
◦ Last Stand Arnhem Operation: Added KG Brinkmann to German forces present on
the first turn.
◦ Grand Campaign: Added German major supply depot on Helmond map.

• Additional items
◦ Numerous map fixes. All 64 maps triple-checked for elevation issues. Other issues
addressed pertained to map coding, RFM and art issues. A few known issues will be
addressed in the next update.
◦ Corrected several misspellings to battle briefings and battle names.
◦ A few strat map image improvements.
◦ Corrected echelon symbols on three strat BG icons.
◦ Fixed error where sandbags rubbled to "brick wall" element instead of "debris"
element.
◦ Fixed campaign.txt co-ordinates where Best bridge map where the destroyed bridge
graphic was off by one pixel.
◦ Fixed extra team(s) could be assigned to a BG when it returned after retreating off
the map.
◦ Fixed crash with custom scenario on Ravenstein map when no Allied entry zone was
set.
◦ Fixed case where a bridge could become primed for demolition when Axis captured a
single bridge Victory Location.
V5.60.01 – July 28, 2010

• AI
◦ Tweaked AI aggressiveness for case where a single BG is evaluating an attack move
by itself.
◦ Numerous small changes to the tactical AI to improve AI team coordination and
ability to choose and navigate an attack route across the map. AI will be somewhat
more active and fire more often.
◦ Fixed a bug where strategic AI attack moves could be canceled when multiple battle
groups were attacking the same map from multiple directions.

• Logic

◦ Chance for misses and area fire to hit a soldier in the area reduced slightly.
◦ Chance for a stray hit to bypass terrain protection reduced significantly.
◦ Teams are now easier to spot if they are actively firing a machine gun or back blast
weapon (bazooka, panzershreck).

• Bugs

◦ "Save As" from the debrief screen now makes a copy of the post-battle saved game
file, rather than saving the game state shown on the Debrief screen.
◦ Fixed a bug where a battle was expected on a map with no Allied battle group when
1) Axis static troops were on the map, 2) an Axis battle group was forced to retreat
onto the map, and 3) the battle which caused the Axis battle group to retreat was not
the last battle of the turn.
◦ Fixed a bug where an incorrect circular dependency was created when the last move
in a chain of moves (with each battle group waiting on the one at their destination to
move) is from a map that has a higher map index than any of the other maps in the
chain.
◦ Fixed Axis briefing text misspellings on Nijmegen Bridge.
◦ Fixed a voice cue for Germans speaking German where the cue was spoken in
English with a British accent.

◦ Corrected layout errors in Manuals.

• Map

◦ Tweaked or fixed elevations for: Arnhem Road Bridge, Ginkel Heath, Helmond,
Renkum Heath, Groesbeek, Valkenswaard, Grave Bridge.
◦ Added floor element under patio canopy on building on Nijmegen Bridge map to
trigger the roof graphic.
◦ Fixed lighter color on South Oosterbeek rail gate RFM graphic.

v5.60 – July 6, 2010

• Initial Release