Duplex's Scenarios and Campaigns

[Duplex]

Hi Duplex,
Many thanks for your nice scenarios

Thanks! Means a lot!

[Duplex]

Just wanted to say hi to everybody again. I haven't been around for quite a while, but I'm glad to be back.

Little status update, timetable, and teaser now that I'm back:
After replaying Endsieg and studying official and custom scenarios from others, I've been starting on a new campaign (Civil War one never got finished so this is my first). It's called "The War of Resistance" and will focus on the Second-Sino Japanese War (of course , I am our resident China fan), which then became part of a larger war known as World War 2. Unlike the China series made up of individual scenarios that I first created and which first got me hooked on Order of Battle scenario creation, this campaign will be historical, rather than ahistorical, and will only feature real battles that occurred.

I also decided this campaign deserved event pictures every event will have one. For those who know me, you know how big this is. XD
The campaign will take a while, but I've so far already finished the first scenario. I anticipate having the full campaign out by the summer, so somewhere in June - August (no hard deadlines obviously), but I will release the beta of the campaign after I am done with the third scenario of the campaign, so you guys can play and provide feedback as I develop the campaign. I hope to have the beta out by April, and here is a little timetable:

Beta campaign with three scenarios - April
Scenarios added in 2-3 scenario batches in between - April through June
Full campaign (around 10 scenarios) - June to August
Continued tweaks, fixes, and updates - as long as people play and give feedback

It's pretty slow development, I realize, but I've got a busy life to tend to and each scenario entails lots of research! Hopefully this timetable provides people with some good expectations about what is to come.

[bru888]

Nice to have you back, and good luck with your project. As usual (and as I am experiencing in my own work), you will be challenged by the under-developed faction that you choose to feature: China. Neither Chinese faction has any infantry past 1939! But that may work out for you because, if I am not mistaken, most of the action will be in the years 1937-1939. The Second Sino-Japanese War was largely a stalemate from 1940 to 1945 except for the Battle of South Guangxi (Nanning) from November 1939 to November 1940. A year-long battle. That's probably going to take 100 turns or so!

The other challenge will be "This campaign will be historical." The Chinese gave up the cities on the coast in a series of losing battles in order to preserve their forces in the hinterland. The Japanese, occupied elsewhere from 1941 on, were too exhausted to press home a total victory in China; hence the aforementioned stalemate. It's going to be a bit difficult for you this time in that instead of creating fictional scenarios, you will need to work up ways for the player to win objectives even though his side was losing the war at that point.

[Duplex]

Nice to have you back, and good luck with your project. As usual (and as I am experiencing in my own work), you will be challenged by the under-developed faction that you choose to feature: China. Neither Chinese faction has any infantry past 1939! But that may work out for you because, if I am not mistaken, most of the action will be in the years 1937-1939. The Second Sino-Japanese War was largely a stalemate from 1940 to 1945 except for the Battle of South Guangxi (Nanning) from November 1939 to November 1940. A year-long battle. That's probably going to take 100 turns or so!

The other challenge will be "This campaign will be historical." The Chinese gave up the cities on the coast in a series of losing battles in order to preserve their forces in the hinterland. The Japanese, occupied elsewhere from 1941 on, were too exhausted to press home a total victory in China; hence the aforementioned stalemate. It's going to be a bit difficult for you this time in that instead of creating fictional scenarios, you will need to work up ways for the player to win objectives even though his side was losing the war at that point.

Thanks for the well wishes! Most of what I do is possible with those handy dandy guides you made . I gave the campaign quite a bit of thought, and I already have a rough idea of all the scenarios I'm going to do. There's actually even more challenges than you listed, but I've got ways to work with it.

The fact that China is underdeveloped is definitely a handicap, but because the Nationalists never had any domestic production of weapons other than some early war stuff and ammunition, I can grab (sneakily) units from other factions, and the bug (? or maybe feature ) that permits it is really simple.

Other challenge you mentioned is the fact that most battles were losing ones, or at least ones in which they were on the defense, and so I've spent quite a while deciding which battles I exactly wanted to feature. There will be a fair bit of scenarios with retreats, but there are also certain battles the National Revolutionary Army won.

The biggest challenge, actually, in my opinion, is the lack of literature and research on the topic. I've been a huge World War 2 buff, but moreover a Second Sino-Japanese war buff for a very very very long time. And yet...there is so much more to learn. Little literature exists because the Chinese did not record everything, nor were reports regularly sent from lower level commanders to higher ups. Battle reports, if they exist, are often unreliable as well, as it was commonplace to lie in such reports. Also, the PRC, after their takeover of the mainland, destroyed a sizeable amount of the records, shrinking the amount of available texts again. Furthermore, the little literature that does exist on the Second Sino-Japanese War is hard to access, mostly in Chinese and Japanese, and the war is often underemphasized or completely overlooked in the West, so English language translations are far and few between.

But I believe all of that may work to the campaigns benefit. I enjoy these challenges, as they make the resulting campaign all the more interesting. Moreover, I can use this campaign as a little opportunity to bring a little bit more attention to the history, clear up misconceptions, and shed light on the importance of the war. (And don't take any offense to this, but I'd even disagree with some of your summary of the conflict! But all of us always have more to learn, including me )

[ColonelY]

Splendid, that's a great idea!

A cool aspect of such a campaign will be how you will introduce European warmeans in China (that should be obvious simply by looking at the Unit Navigator Tool for China ).

For example, to start with, relatively soon one should see some German Equipment (even some Pz I - here's a proof, but not to be shown within this campaign for obvious reasons: https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... B0AAAAAEAM ).

And it's not a detail (at all) as it is known that "The German co-operation nevertheless had a profound effect on the modernisation of China and its ability to resist the Japanese during the war." (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Germ ... 80%931941) )

But, looking at Unit Editor, one can already see that there was as well some "old" Italian tankettes, some "old" French Renault tank, some Soviet T26... and these are purchasable and/or upgradable as for example often two versions of the "same" unit kind is present. (Thus this aspect will be easier to handle here than within the awesome Free France campaign.)

Then, for much later, there is a whold bunch of armors from the USA.

And you've a Chinese model of the Japanese Type 95 Ha-Go tank... Just perfect to capture one of these units from the Japs at some point in the campaign... ( https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... B0AAAAAEAM )

Artillery, AT, AA units comes either from foreign collaboration or from material captured to the Japs... to be kept in mind for enhancing immersion, I think.

Most of the Chinese plane unit models are Soviets, but you've already two Hawks and one Gloster Gladiator available, as well as some (German) Heinkel bombers... then, the opportunity to involve the highly famous Flying Tigers once the time come...

I would say such a campaign present a tremendous potential! Good luck with this project!

[ColonelY]

Chinese ace and his (Russian) Polikarpov I-16: https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... B0AAAAAEAM

And you’ve got one man, the famous Chiang Kai-Shek, both as land commander and for the briefings in the campaign!

[ColonelY]

About Italian tankettes on the Chinese side: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/japanese ... ar-708081/

Etc.

Good work & good luck with this project!

I'm already looking forward to seeing what this will look like.

[Duplex]

About Italian tankettes on the Chinese side: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/japanese ... ar-708081/

Etc.

Good work & good luck with this project!

I'm already looking forward to seeing what this will look like.

Thanks for the enthusiasm. There will obviously be a substantial amount of foreign equipment in this campaign, as there was almost no domestic war industry.

[Duplex]

A little status update!

It seems that we are still on schedule, according to the timetable. I've finished two out of the three scenarios (Shanghai and Nanjing 1937) planned for the beta mini-campaign. Here's the preview image of Shanghai:

preview.png (427.23 KiB) Viewed 2443 times

The Shanghai map is fairly large, as is the Nanjing map, but subsequent maps will be smaller.

And here's a list of the first few planned scenarios :

Retreat from Shanghai 1937
Stand at Nanjing 1937
Battle of Taierzhuang 1938
Battle of Wanjialing (Wuhan) 1938
Changsha 1939
(more planned, but not ready to be announced)

I can't wait to share these scenarios with you guys!

[GabeKnight]

It seems that we are still on schedule, according to the timetable.

Even a little ahead, probably.
Hey, Duplex, those are going to be single-player scens, right?

[Duplex]

Hey, Duplex, those are going to be single-player scens, right?

Yessir! How else would it be a campaign?

[GabeKnight]

Hey, Duplex, those are going to be single-player scens, right?

Yessir! How else would it be a campaign?

I've been here a long time now. And you wouldn't believe the things I've witnessed... (or maybe you would)
It's always better to ask first...

[Duplex]

3rd campaign scenario is done now! Just gotta string them together into a little campaign now...

[Duplex]

The War of Resistance Campaign Beta is here!

Featuring three initial battles of the war, the campaign focuses on walking through the history of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This is my largest project to date, and I hope that people will not only enjoy it, but learn things from it.

Don't forget, this is an initial BETA version with only 3 scenarios! Balancing is probably wonky and there will no doubt be bugs.

Scenarios included are:
Retreat from Shanghai v1.0.0
Stand at Nanjing v1.0.0
Taierzhuang Opportunity v1.0.0

All feedback is greatly appreciated! It's a beta after all.
Also, I'm pretty busy so there may not be regular updates to it. Aside from fixing the bugs, I still need to create the next scenarios in the campaign and do irl things.

Download link is in the OP.

[Duplex]

Little patch for War of Resistance.
v1.0.1:

- bunch of small fixes and tweaks
- Shanghai primary objective changed to 9 units instead of 7
- added a missing campaign event photo

[ColonelY]

First glance at 1 Shanghai 1937:
(v1.0.1, playing as usual at lvl III)

Hi! I've played a good third of this scenario and then taken a look at the triggers. Here are a first feedback of mine on this very first scenario.

It's really nice, and obviously based on History; we've some choice to make during the scenario (some extra partisan unit or not?), some cool and immersive events too... Great!

Apparently you've chosen not to have any core unit in this campaign, right? It's a choice, and I would say it's fine anyway. This at least allows more precision in naming units historically. By the way, you may have noticed that many units have names that are too long to be properly displayed... But I do like "Peace Preservation Corps" or "Jiangsu Peace Preservation" or "Tax Police" in the names, because that in itself enhances the immersion, even if it's at the cost of making them longer...

Anyway, here is already a little bunch of comments, ideas, suggestions, etc.:

-> I've seen that you've already corrected the spec overview, that's fine now!

-> Why having a deployement phasis when we've nothing to deploy? We can analyze the starting situation even after the Japanese have played their turn...
(Editor -> Under "Settings", unselect the "Deployment Phases" on the left.)

-> Txt descr of obj "Do Not Lose More Than 9 Central Army Infantry Units" now ready "[...] You only lose if you lose 8 Central Army INFANTRY units." => now that you've changed this obj from 7 to 9, you have to replace this "8" in the text by a "10".

-> You could consider adding slightly the XP level of several Chinese units... after all, even if they aren't that much experimented, or rather not as much than the Japs, they've fought during longs months already, haven't they? Now, most of our Chinese units have just no XP at all.

-> Having some railway between our two back towns of Suzhou and Jiaxing (already far enough away from each other) would be a great improvement for tactical flexibility... the most worrisome part here may be the defense of the southern one, namely Jiaxing!

-> Near Songjiang, the southern bridge (SE from this town) should be blown up once Japs are closing in. It would be of much use to delay them... otherwise during one single turn it's 5 or 6 units that'll cross it directly and move against this town and its supply outputs (that they do need thanks to some well-applied policy - I won't spoil it!).

-> Connect the road SW of Songjiang with the main one near our MG foxhole (this may be useful: perhaps allowing us to send our single tank unit to try outsupplying the Japanese column moving northwards towards Songjiang.

-> Then, in order not to make this maneuver too easy (although it should be thought of and planned sufficiently in advance to allow the tank to get into position so that it is ready to act at the appropriate time), which could also be added:
There is a village at the end of this road. So a garrison could be hidden there... So, once this place is secured, why not add a regular infantry unit, named "Japanese Flank Guards" or something, immediately with +3 to the supply output in the southern town (to compensate for this addition and keep the rest as you have planned it now).
When to do it? Well, the Japanese units should have continued north, to make sure that the village was empty and that the garrison unit that is going to be spawned there is actually there and not one hex away... so it can hide there. Say when the bridge to the north blows up?

-> The Japanese have (at least) one cavalry unit on this battlefield... but not the Chinese? ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in ... r_II#China ) If one has to be added, I suggest putting it near Songjiang under some warlord's command.
(NRA cav: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NRA_cavalry.jpg ; Chiang Kai Shek on horse https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... egUIARCmAQ or https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... egUIARC4AQ )

-> You can't have two bridges one exactly after the second one the very same road... it doesn't look nice at all on map. It happens once South of Shanghai (2 hexes with river & road = discontinuous bridges/road) and once near the center of the map. Each time, it would be nice to slightly change the route of the river or road in question...

-> Now we have to preserve our support weapons... but we could lose our single tank unit? Well, well, that may be an option for another similar secondary objective...
EDIT: Well, 'could have... but not worth it, having taken a (quick) look at the 2nd scenario as well.

-> As we don't have a lot of RPs (but it's not that dramatic either ), one could perhaps consider having a sec obj about dealing at least XYZ damages to Japanese (land) forces using only our (core) "Central Army Infantry Units"... as reward, a few small handfuls (or tens) of RPs.
EDIT: Still worth... few RPs are always welcome and depending on our success/progress, the HQ may unlock more ressources from its reserves; that's plausible!

-> East of the town of Kunshan (if I'm not mistaken): you've 2 units under Warlord/AI command... that are just about to sit there, entrench themselves... and block the road for us as well, creating much more easily traffic jam between warlord's retreating units and our own units tactically redeployed... I suggest that you deploy each one of these two units just 1 hex northwards from their actual starting position: Like this, they would still block/delay incoming Japs (if they manage to go that far) but at least won't be able to create some traffic jam along this road!

-> Add few more forest hexes on this map. I'm thinking about two or three of them between the flags "Suzhou Creek" and "Qingpu". Why? Well, I'm thinking about offering some little opportunities of cover (against enemy bombers) for the support units that we have to save...

-> Adding another exit hex NW of Taicang? If some routers chose this road, the main one towards Suzhou is less likely as well to suffer traffic jams…

-> Now, all these (land) exit hexes don’t allow redeploy, if I’m not mistaken. It could be an idea to allow some fast movements from one area to another… it may be too much though if we already gain a railroad between Suzhou and Jiaxing.

-> If these exit hexes are kept as not allowing redeployment, then perhaps add a regular flag with some text: “Exit hexes (no redeploy)” (to make it crystal clear – I don’t really like losing an unit, even depleted, just to be sure about this!)

-> Consider adding several Infantry units purely as garrisons (simply named “Japanese garrison”?) in the top NE of the map… if we don’t want to see some of the AI units (having been a little helped) reclaiming all these yet undefended towns.

-> In the « Setup » folder, you could select the “Explosion Effect” for the bridges that are about to be blown up…

-> About the “Gas” event, you could increase the effect in the event text like this “[…] wiping an entire regiment […]” and by making some explosion effect/sound by blowing some virtual bridge… to achieve this last part, simply add the “blow bridge” trigger, select as hex the one you’ve targeted for the event (as you can’t target an unit there) and select of course the “Explosion Effect”… like this it will be heard as well, thus increasing even more the effect while reading the text!

-> About first pri obj “Hold Shanghai”. Its txt descry may be completed a little, perhaps with something like: “Hold at least one primary VP in Shanghai as long as necessary / as long as there is no counter order.”

-> EDIT: 'I've been a little too fast to comment about the campaign variable related to support weapons - sorry for that ; it seems to work perfectly within this campaign and, actually, be smartly used.

Congrats, it does look very promising. Keep up the good work!

[ColonelY]

Having just seen Chiang on horse gives me an idea...

To enhance immersion, what about adding another event when the scenario begins, with this picture https://www.google.ch/imgres?imgurl=htt ... egUIARCmAQ and, as text, perhaps something like:

"Welcome, Commander! I am General Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the proud "Chinese National Revolutionary Army".

You recognize me, of course, as I am the one who just briefed you.

There is no time to lose, there is much to do. Just know that we, that is China and I, have high hopes for you. Go, and triumph!"

*******

And one could consider adding another event as well just after the event "Retreat".

Another event with some cool new picture and perhaps as text something like:

"The very first part of this campaign is already psychologically successful as our dogged Chinese resistance at Shanghai had several main goals. Of course, stalling the Japanese advance and attempting to bring sympathetic Western powers to China’s side! But as well somehow demoralize their “Imperial Japanese Army”! Indeed, you know certainly that the Japs, who have been indoctrinated with (debatable!) notions of cultural and martial superiority, boast that Japan could conquer Shanghai in 3 days and whole China in 3 months!

Conquer Shanghai in three days? Now the fights around Shanghai lasted already almost three good months and we're still holding on at Shanghai and its surroundings. Three days, they said? So we’ve already proved to the world that those Japs were completely wrong! Perhaps the Gods of War are smiling upon us..."

[ColonelY]

Very little detail: From the Campaign Editor, the campaign starts the 5th november 1937. Whereas from the Scenario Editor and the scenario description text, it starts the 4th...

[ColonelY]

Oh, and sorry, I forgot two little points:

[...]
-> Having some railway between our two back towns of Suzhou and Jiaxing (already far enough away from each other) would be a great improvement for tactical flexibility... the most worrisome part here may be the defense of the southern one, namely Jiaxing!
[...]

Well, that's true!

So, two suggestions for down there:

1. Why not adding one bunker? We've one in the northern sector, while this one is less threatened... we could have another one in the South near the Jiaxing's crossroad!

2. Please let us command one of the (best) infantry units present down there (starting near Jiaxing, that is)...
Like this, with even one single infantry plus our artillery unit we may do something much better than full AI supported by only our artillery unit... as long as we haven't rushed some reinforcements down there.

[Duplex]

Oh, and sorry, I forgot two little points:

[...]
-> Having some railway between our two back towns of Suzhou and Jiaxing (already far enough away from each other) would be a great improvement for tactical flexibility... the most worrisome part here may be the defense of the southern one, namely Jiaxing!
[...]

Well, that's true!

So, two suggestions for down there:

1. Why not adding one bunker? We've one in the northern sector, while this one is less threatened... we could have another one in the South near the Jiaxing's crossroad!

2. Please let us command one of the (best) infantry units present down there (starting near Jiaxing, that is)...
Like this, with even one single infantry plus our artillery unit we may do something much better than full AI supported by only our artillery unit... as long as we haven't rushed some reinforcements down there.

Well, ColonelY, that is quite a sizeable amount of feedback.

First, thanks for playing through the first scenario a bit. I've noted all of your advice and I'm already making some changes. Nice job catching some of the text issues I overlooked, too.

That idea with the Gas attack is genius! Nice little trick!

Changing units/adding units/changing deployments is a bit tricky, as my intention is to follow as closely as possible to where they were positioned at the time historically. However, blowing the bridge near Songjiang is a nice idea, as is adding a bunker near Jiaxing. I also noticed the southern invasion force being a bit powerful when I played through, so I'll be sticking in some extra fortifications.

I wont be adding any extra rail line, because China is, understandably, horribly underdeveloped during this time, even though many infrastructure improvements were made in the years from 1927-37. The rail lines present in the current scenarios should be historically accurate.

About the deployment phase...I think I might leave that, simply because some people may want to take a little look around and explore things before the game starts, and before the Japanese make their attack. I think it's nice to just have an opportunity to do a nice little overview of the map. It also gives me room to do some "scenario start" events like the one about the German trained divisions.

The cavalry is something I'll have to do some research on, but you're right, there should be more cav units.

On the traffic jams, those are more or less intentional, as the retreat from Shanghai was not as orderly as one might've hoped, and there was certainly a rush to get out, especially on the part of the less disciplined warlord units.

Naming the exit hexes is a good idea, I'll do that.

I'll also look into adding a secondary objective.

And an event on Chiang Kai-Shek....I'll have to think about how I'll implement that, I think I'll include it somewhere. Another event after the retreat event would be a nice touch too. I'll think abt that one as well.

Again, thanks for all the feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it.