Are the Close Combat re-releases worth it?

[aster]

Back in the day I played all the original CC games to death. Multiplayer when I could, but more often single player was the way it worked out. Fantastic games, but once you became proficient you noticed some glaring flaws in the single player AI that made the experience far too easy.

I kind of have a hankering to play them again, and was thinking about picking up a couple of Slitherine's enhanced versions. Then I looked at the price tags: $39.99 to $49.99 - are you kidding me??? Anyone at Slitherine care to weigh in what the rationale is there? I get not wanting to undervalue your product, but that price tag for ancient games (even improved) will make even their more devoted fans move on immediately.

That gripe out of the way, if price is not an object are these revisions worth it? Is the AI able to mount a reasonable challenge? Off the top of my head one of the biggest flaws was attacking infrantry spending waaay too much time in the open, and in some cases strolling across open ground directly into the teeth of a known enemy position whilst being flanked all the while. Or AI armor waltzing into bocage-lined roads or alleyways between buildings.

If some of those behaviors have been cleaned up and the computer made more decisive in general, I might be convinced to try them out even at that absurd price. It would definitely be single player for me though - so I should stress that cosmetic or campaign-layer improvements are fine, but a more challenging AI is an absolute must. I'm not a tactical expert by any means, just looking for a computer that's not a walkover.

Any thoughts? And which particular edition or two would be the best to start with, purely from a quality standpoint (I'm down for any theatre or campaign)?

[VPaulus]

There's a bigger "Close Combat" community in Matrix forum. You can check this thread:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2491046

You can also read a review about the last game in the series, "Panthers in the Fog", which brings some innovations to the series:
http://www.wargamer.com/article/3283/pc ... in-the-fog