IJA Campaign 1938-45, v1.0 plus install help available

[bebro]

Personally I'm not so much a fan of including units that never made it into active duty. IMO it would be worth considering if I had more hypothetical scenarios, for example an invasion of the US in 1945.

But right now the campaigns ends within the historic timeframe, with mostly historic battles where types like Shinden, Kikka et al did not play a role.

In general my approach is to include most stuff that went beyond prototype state and into active duty, regardless if it has actually seen life combat or not (like Type 3 ChiNu tanks for example).



As for Kokoda, I'm still not really satisfied with the scn I have. The problem is that this was mostly infantry fighting along a narrow path in very harsh terrain that should be impassable for heavier stuff. So vehicles, tanks, motorized units should play no role there. In the midst of a campaign however that creates a lot of headaches, since you can hardly foresay how the players core will look at a certain point. If he arrives at this scn and most of his units become sudddenly unusable it doesn't work.

So my scenario feels a bit cartoonish since you can still use vehicles there, in difficult, but mostly still passable terrain. It would probably work better as a single player scn with preplaced units, and with more terrain restrictions then. However, for the campaign I decided to leave it as it is.

[Razz1]

You can always make Kamakazies purchasable. Use them as a group. Make the trait, noreplace.
That way a player can buy them but can not replace the strength.

[bebro]

Yeah, I have them as noupgrade, noreplace. But for this cam I stay with nopurchase since your main force is the IJA, and all those Kamikaze were IIRC from the naval air service of the IJN. Also I dunno whether players would buy them at all for their core since they will hardly survive long.

Like in the real PacWar they'll have no decisive impact, I put them in for flavour mostly.

[bebro]

I'm pretty sue now I can release the cam before x-mas. All in all it's 21 scenarios, the longest path is a tad shorter.

There's a major campaign victory possible when getting a DV at the invasion of Australia which is the shortest way to win. With just an MV there you can get a minor campaign victory when you beat the Brits in India too. If you don't make it to Australia you can still play the same scns vs. the Brits in 1944, but without the victory option. Otoh the losing path is the longest possible since it ends 1945.

Below there's the updated and final campaign path plus a briefings example. They'll all have pics now showing -roughly- the senario location, nearby important cities as orientation and the main combatants of the scn (the example below is from the invasion of Java).

[bebro]

Little update: I plan to release the campaign in ca.2-3 weeks.

Unless a major disaster happens in between, like me running out of coffee or space aliens invade our planet or something

[VPaulus]

As long it's before the end of the world in 20th of December...

[bebro]

Yeah. But let's hope they postpone it a tad, I want to play through AK and CTGW first

[Chris10]

Looks pretty cool Bernd...

[RobertCL]

Hi Bebro,

Count on me to playtest your campaign!

Greetings

Robert

[bebro]

Would be cool to hear your feedback, Robert. I took some of your advices from USMC into account for this campaign

With some luck I can have it out either next weekend or a couple of days later...

[RobertCL]

I see there is neither Pearl Harbor nor Midway...

Probably due to impossibility to use VH at sea ?

Anyway I can't wait next week-ends...

[bebro]

I think you could make VHs at sea, or define other victory conditions, but overall it's still the same as with the USMC, IMO the naval engine of PzC needs to be enhanced to make larger pure-naval scn. At least so far I kept them out, and focussed on land battles with the Japanese army..

There's a bit of naval action in some scenarios though.

[RobertCL]

Hi Bebro,

The small animated movie about Okinawa:
http://www.pacificwaranimated.com/Okinawa.html

BTW will you use the same sound mod as you used for USMC campaign ?
Or will it be fully compatible with REDUX sound mod 1.11 of Von Paulus ?

[bebro]

Thanks for the movie

I can't say right now if it's fully compatible with RSM1.11, VPaulus should know.

But he has provided a lot of RSM sounds specifically for this campaign, which will be included in the download.

The new campaign has a lot of additions and is based on PzC 1.10/1.11, so it's not compatible to USMC and needs to be installed and activated separately (but once it is out I'll post installation advice in detail).

Overall, the DL will be ca. 200 MB (zip).

[VPaulus]

Or will it be fully compatible with REDUX sound mod 1.11 of Von Paulus ?

This campaign contains a specific version of RSM Redux 1.11. So, you don't need to load RSM Redux 1.11.

[Kerensky]

Oh yes, I wished they'd add it. But maybe they save it for a future expansion or even new game playing in the Pacific...

Might be closer then that.

[bebro]

That sounds very good

[bebro]

Asahi: IJA Campaign for Panzer Corps v1.11
1938-45

Description:

This is the first release of a semi-historical campaign covering battles of the IJA 1938-45. It’s been created under PzC 1.11. It is is single-player only, designed and tested esp. for play in the 3rd difficulty level, but of course you can choose whatever you prefer.

Downloads:

Dec 1, 2012
GME files: http://www.gamefront.com/files/22695474/IJA_Redux_zip (ca. 190 MB)
Scenario files: http://www.gamefront.com/files/22695479 ... mpaign_zip

Installation:

This campaign needs GME. If you never used it, please see here how to download and set it up:
viewtopic.php?t=27158

Basically the GME files belong into GME's MODS folder, which is usually in the main folder of your Panzer Corps installation, unless you specified another location. The scenario files belong into your ../My Games folder under Panzer Corps/mods/

Remember to install the IJA campaign as a separate mod (although it has been developed from the USMC campaign, it is not compatible with it). Please post when you have problems installing the mod.

To play, activate the IJA mod via GME. If you use a localized version of PzC it is best to switch to the English language to play. Start the campaign via PzC’s main menu > new game. In the following screen, click the icon showing the Japanese sun symbol on the right to select the IJA campaign.



Infos about changes, unit traits, campain path, special features, credits and more are available in the customized in-game library, and I highly recommend to consult it to understand key concepts, fundamental changes etc., etc..


Some facts:

1. This campaign includes a couple of features which are not in the USMC campaign:
- specific land transports required for certain units (like towing heavy arty or AA)
- in-game messages, changing scenario objectives, units can be captured in some scenarios
- features that were not working fully in the USMC mod do now, like awards, random bonus units etc.

2. Terrain and naval warfare rules are taken from USMC. So you have three levels of jungle, capital ships cannot enter shallow sea hexes, and naval firing ranges are increased compared to vanilla.

3. Early on there is not much motorization, but in the first scenarios you can live without it. Some unit entry dates are ahistorical for gameplay reasons. The idea is that you need to distinguish yourself in combat before you get access to better transports or heavier guns. When the campaign progresses, more and more equipment becomes available (roughly) on historical dates.

4. It's worth to study maps in the beginning, think what you may need and to be a bit creative with the reserve pool. Early units can be quite vulnerable, but are cheap and get xp quickly.

5. Map design was even more problematic than for USMC. There are probably quite some geographical errors. Feedback and suggestions are welcome of course.


Credits and Thanks:

Specifically for the IJA campaign I want to thank Kerloc for providing several 3d models used to make some types of Japanese artillery, light anti-air and tankette units. Once again VPaulus has done a terrific job in adapting his Real Sound Mod for use with the IJA campaign.

The custom graphics for the 'shallow sea' terrain made by rezaf for the USMC campaign are used here too. I also use the icon for Romanian inf made by Dragos for Dutch inf, since Romanians used those Dutch helmets. The maps for the scenarios at Lake Khasan and Khalkhyn Gol were provided by nikivdd, those for Darwin and Singapore are converted from PG2 maps using Wino's FPGE tool. I think these maps were made originally by William Dickens and Andreas Seidel (if anyone knows better please drop me a note). Thanks everyone!



*****

This mod is more complex than USMC, so there's also more that can go wrong. I tested a lot myself, and found no grave errors, but at some point you need independant feedback. Hope you guys enjoy the mod!

(this will be also edited into the OP)

If anyone sees someone missing from the credits, drop me a note, I'll happily include him

[RobertCL]

It seems outstanding! Congrats!

[nikivdd]

Is it possible to up the files to a mirror? Gamefront has not been cooperative -at least towards me- lately. I'm experiening the same problem as i had with Massi's mod, namely that it cannot find the requested file. I can retry later today from gamefront but i fear the result will be the same.