New DLC plans after Slitherine Next

[Tassadar]

Roadmap.jpg (58.79 KiB) Viewed 2230 times

There we go, finally the new semi-roadmap is here with Slitherine Next. No timelines, but a bit of insight of what's planned - more will probably follow tomorrow on Panzer Corps Day, but there are things too look forward to for sure! Most important, critical and long awaited words sum it up: Linked campaign. Finally! From the looks of it not just one, but whole three - Japan (ground based probably since the naval combat was a hurdle), Soviet and Wester Allies. That's a lot!

Also thee Elite Series DLC, which after the gem that was Ghost Division I am really looking forward to. There's both long and short content then which should give fans of both modes something to enjoy.

My guess is that Frontlines will continue to appear as more "surprise" releases since it's also standalone and can be added whenever there's development time.

Finally, I'm curious if War Stories might be getting benched at least temporarily in favor of Elite Series. Similarly any Axis Operations West will probably not appear before the new linked campaigns are done, but again, just my speculation.

[Bee1976]

I saw that "raodmap" too and im very happy with this one. Ok i could do some "nitpicking" (?) and mention that war stories content is missing oder no Afrika Corps but im really really really happy with 3 linked campaigns in the future!

The biggest question i would ask would be:

Can we expect new additions to the basic game like new heros new traits, challenges, awards or something like that) with the upcoming content – that would increase the replayability of all released content soooo much.

But no matter the answer, im glad that there is so much cool content in the works!

[VirgilInTheSKY]

Wow, didn't expect a linked campaign with China, have to say. Wonder where are the Frontline series and War Story series going. I thought WS would linke up with a campaign in France, but there is no info on that.

[smashtheaxis]

Allied Italy = US & UK campaign in Italy 1943, right? Not Italian forces after 1943 fighting for the Allies?

I wonder if the US & UK campaign would start in North Africa in Late 1942 with a scenario or two, then Sicily til early 1944. Linked means, the core can be taken into the next DLC, right? So Normandy after that.

[Tassadar]

Wow, didn't expect a linked campaign with China, have to say.

The video went out yesterday and it's even more interesting, because we're going to play AS China! That was something not done before ever.

[wecker]

Wow - this was a nice live event with a ton of new information!

Linked Allied Italian Campaign:
- we will get an Allied 3-DLC campaign in Italy (Sicily, south and central Italy and finally northern Italy)
- this will be a linked campaign where you can export and import your core forces
- maybe among them Polish, Free French and Brazilian units
- they mentioned italian and yougoslav partisans

Linked Chinese Campaign:
- I didn`t get it: will it be playable as China or Japan?
- it will start "earlier" then the usual WW2 scenarios - maybe 1937 or even 1932
- there is a seperate guy working on this campaign

I didn`t get anything about the Soviet linked campaign and nothing on the Elite DLCs from the US, Soviet Union and Japan.

Maybe somebody from Slitherine is able to shed some more light on that.

As I understood they are pretty far into the Italian campaign - so this might be the next available campaign.

Adding new scenarios is always highly appreciated.

Especially a big thank you for fulfilling my wish to include some battles from the partisan warfare in Yougoslavia.
It is not easy to find something, but the Battle of the Neretva or the "4th offensive" or the "battle for the wounded" as it was called in communist Yougoslavia is a good choice. Are there croatian Ustashe und serbian Chetnici included? We will see - I didn`t start it for now...

Thanks again - now I see some hope again for this franchise - linked campaigns with core units and a chinese campaign.

[PanzerCro]

Are there croatian Ustashe und serbian Chetnici included

Since both had significant presence in the battle, they should be included. Croatian airforce was very active during this battle.

[Tassadar]

- I didn`t get it: will it be playable as China or Japan?

As China from what they said, which should be a unique approach and I guess that's how the dilemma of naval combat is solved.

On a separate note, regarding the Elite Series, I do wonder which units they plan to choose. I am guessing these will be mostly tank or motorized units due to the way the game has all the possible unit types, so they would probably not want to limit the player narratively by choosing purely infantry formations, but who knows, we might be surprised by unique ideas. For the US my bet is on the 2nd Armored Division, for the USSR the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division and for Japan the 5th Division - probably the one case where it makes sense to do a more infantry-based approach.

[funat]

Finally. I was wondering why are they trying to code new stuff and make the game different, when most of the players just wanted more content. I'd be happy if nothing was changed except bug fixes (as the engine is now very solid), and they just kept pumping out well balanced and tested linked (grand) campaigns with new maps, heroes and occasionally traits.

The only coding investment I would put in the AI - so that the PC opponent is a bigger challenge.

[PanzerCro]

So, no modern conflict in sight ? I guess they plan that for PC 3

[wecker]

- I didn`t get it: will it be playable as China or Japan?

As China from what they said, which should be a unique approach and I guess that's how the dilemma of naval combat is solved.

Thank you for your answer - playing as the Chinese would to my knowledge really be the first time in our hobby. Great

[adiekmann]

- I didn`t get it: will it be playable as China or Japan?

As China from what they said, which should be a unique approach and I guess that's how the dilemma of naval combat is solved.

On a separate note, regarding the Elite Series, I do wonder which units they plan to choose. I am guessing these will be mostly tank or motorized units due to the way the game has all the possible unit types, so they would probably not want to limit the player narratively by choosing purely infantry formations, but who knows, we might be surprised by unique ideas. For the US my bet is on the 2nd Armored Division, for the USSR the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division and for Japan the 5th Division - probably the one case where it makes sense to do a more infantry-based approach.

I don't think China fielded any tanks in their fight against the Japanese, so I would imagine mainly infantry, artillery, and possibly armored cars. This is not a theatre that I know much about. I know it was brutal though.

The Japanese campaign is more intriguing for me on what it's going to be like. I can't envision a unit on one of the islands because that would be one and done campaign. So I believe it must be a division that fought on the mainland, possible in action against the USSR too, and then maybe Southeast Asia? And/or then the Philippines in 1944? I don't know enough about any of their famous divisions/units to know.

Do any of you know of any historical formations that moved around to all of these different theaters of operation?

[Tassadar]

I don't think China fielded any tanks in their fight against the Japanese, so I would imagine mainly infantry, artillery, and possibly armored cars. This is not a theatre that I know much about. I know it was brutal though.

They sure did have tanks! Mostly tankettes and Vickers E in the beginning, but also... Panzer I and CV-35 tankettes. Japan was not exactly allied with the Axis forces back then after all, which led to some interestingly mixed equipment pool. Later in the war the tanks were mostly American ones, so Stuarts and Shermans supplied via Lend-Lease. You can refer to: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/china

Same unique mix can be applied to artillery, aircraft and basically everything else.

[PanzerCro]

My guess is that Frontlines will continue to appear as more "surprise" releases since it's also standalone and can be added whenever there's development time.

I would assume Frontlines will cover Axis (Germany/Italy) side more since all planned releases, except for Japan, are on Allied side (which is good thing).

[VirgilInTheSKY]

I don't think China fielded any tanks in their fight against the Japanese, so I would imagine mainly infantry, artillery, and possibly armored cars. This is not a theatre that I know much about. I know it was brutal though.

They sure did have tanks! Mostly tankettes and Vickers E in the beginning, but also... Panzer I and CV-35 tankettes. Japan was not exactly allied with the Axis forces back then after all, which led to some interestingly mixed equipment pool. Later in the war the tanks were mostly American ones, so Stuarts and Shermans supplied via Lend-Lease. You can refer to: https://tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/china

Same unique mix can be applied to artillery, aircraft and basically everything else.

Kind of, since all the warlords in the 20s before the "unitification in paper" purchased foreign equipment from all over the world, and basically everything remained that way when the conflict with Japan started. Bohler, Krupp, Schneider, Vickers, Bofors, iirc these were the main source for army equipment. For air it's US, UK and France.

The Cantonese Air Force was bribed and absorbed as the foundation for the centralised Chinese Air Force during the civil war in 1930, while the Manchuria Air Force was mostly captured by the Japanese when they overrun the region in 1931, together with all the factories that indeed have had the capability to produce (licensed or orignial) artillery parts and armoured vehicles. They even managed to produce the first batch of 8-inch class heavy gun barrels right before the Mukden Incident happened.

After the loss of Manchuria, the only warlord/general with factories capable of manufacturing heavy weapons was Yen Hsi-shan, or Yan Xishan in the province of Shanxi, which was also lost in the winter of 1937, when the Japanese Army captured Taiyuan, its capital. It was also the same year that German supplies were cut due to their alliance with Japan, even though the Chinese government didn't declare war with the Axis countries until after Pearl Harbour.

The USSR provided some supplies of light artillery, armoured vehicles and aircraft (plus a volunteer air force) from 1939, but then had to stop when they were struck by Operation Barbarossa.

Large shipment of supplies from the Lend-Lease only arrived after the US entered the war, and most of them were for the combined Chinese-American Composite Wing under the 14th Air Force, not the army. US tanks didn't join the battle in mainland China until early 1945 when the Chinese Expeditionary Force returned from Burma, and iirc the Shermans never did before they were returned to the US. The only Shermans seeing action in mainland China were M4A2s (models supplied to the CEF were M4A4) left by the 1st Marine Division in 1947 before the last civil war started, and at least one was captured by the communist forces with photograph evidence.

[Retributarr]

VirgilInTheSKY that was an impressive debriefing on the Pre-WW2 and WW2 Chinese Mainland Campaign!.
~~~See if you can get into the effort of the creation of the Chinese-Japanese Conflict Campaign... as a "Consultant Advisor". If i was designing this Game, i would sure want you there to assist me!.~~~

[Tassadar]

Kind of, since all the warlords in the 20s before the "unitification in paper" purchased foreign equipment from all over the world, and basically everything remained that way when the conflict with Japan started. Bohler, Krupp, Schneider, Vickers, Bofors, iirc these were the main source for army equipment. For air it's US, UK and France.

The Cantonese Air Force was bribed and absorbed as the foundation for the centralised Chinese Air Force during the civil war in 1930, while the Manchuria Air Force was mostly captured by the Japanese when they overrun the region in 1931, together with all the factories that indeed have had the capability to produce (licensed or orignial) artillery parts and armoured vehicles. They even managed to produce the first batch of 8-inch class heavy gun barrels right before the Mukden Incident happened.

After the loss of Manchuria, the only warlord/general with factories capable of manufacturing heavy weapons was Yen Hsi-shan, or Yan Xishan in the province of Shanxi, which was also lost in the winter of 1937, when the Japanese Army captured Taiyuan, its capital. It was also the same year that German supplies were cut due to their alliance with Japan, even though the Chinese government didn't declare war with the Axis countries until after Pearl Harbour.

The USSR provided some supplies of light artillery, armoured vehicles and aircraft (plus a volunteer air force) from 1939, but then had to stop when they were struck by Operation Barbarossa.

Large shipment of supplies from the Lend-Lease only arrived after the US entered the war, and most of them were for the combined Chinese-American Composite Wing under the 14th Air Force, not the army. US tanks didn't join the battle in mainland China until early 1945 when the Chinese Expeditionary Force returned from Burma, and iirc the Shermans never did before they were returned to the US. The only Shermans seeing action in mainland China were M4A2s (models supplied to the CEF were M4A4) left by the 1st Marine Division in 1947 before the last civil war started, and at least one was captured by the communist forces with photograph evidence.

Kudos sir, for such a detailed note! Learning something regularly from interacting with the game and the forums. The question is then will the player get to partake in the CEF battles, and if not, would perhaps the Shermans be considered a gift unit/limited stock award for some special objectives - similar to what is done with the Verdeja 2 in SCW or other such examples. It would remain within viable thing to have this endgame equipment reward, but not be some major fictional discrepancy. I'd be for such an option.

Of course this will depend on a lot of things we don't know. Will we be playing as the KMT (most probably) with the CCP side as partisans in some missions, or will there be two sides enabled from the start? Will CEF be even included? Wow, so many interesting questions to consider since this front is really underrepresented in wargaming, so the designers will have tons of options.

Same for the air force considerations. I am really hoping for some new units such as the Boeing P-26 Peashooter or Curtiss A-12 Shrike and unique heroes, not just the Chinese, but for example pilots from the Flying Tigers. So many options to go through and the thought it will be a linked campaign is even more interesting, as it should mean the conflict will not be just glossed over, but presented with a lot of detail. Fingers crossed.

[bebro]

Outside Soviet arms deliveries and some domestically produced stuff Nationalist China used a large variety of imported types, but often only in smaller numbers. That would make for a nice use of limited equipment, at least partially.

However, no idea if the guys behind the Chinese content want to go that way.

[Tassadar]

Random realization. Soviet DLC will probably mean that we will finally get Finnish units in the game and their mysterious absence in the files will stop having conspiracy iceberg level status.

[adiekmann]

Random realization. Soviet DLC will probably mean that we will finally get Finnish units in the game and their mysterious absence in the files will stop having conspiracy iceberg level status.

Clearly, the PC2 Team hate Finland.