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

[bebro]

Asahi: IJA Campaign for Panzer Corps v1.11
1938-45, Dec 1, 2012

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:


Link updated April 10, 2016

Sendspace:
Main Mod
v0.8 GME files: (ca. 190 MB)
Update
v1.0 Scenario files: (ca. 250 kb)
v1.0 GME files: (ca. 11 MB)

DL all three via: https://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/UwV ... Qd25LMnYfH

Please install all three files above to have the most recent version.

Installation Help

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6dqxpx (PDF)

Optional Downloads:
Japanese hero pics and additional IJN rank gfx created by alex1960
http://www.sendspace.com/file/y704ki
(simply overwrite folders from archive to IJA Redux folder to install)


Installation:

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

I followed McGuba's suggestion and created a separate installation guide as PDF file:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6dqxpx

Please follow the instructions there to install the mod including updates. If you still have problems or think the guide should be improved, please post here.



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!

[nikivdd]

That looks awesome. It reminds me of the good old Pacific General, which i found far more enjoyable than Allied General .
Great work as always! Definitely looking forward to play the campaign. You are a bottemless well of ideas .

Banzai ! バンザイ

Any scenario against the Dutch? hehe.

[alex0809]

Nice! What I will like most about this is that there are really no uber units like with basically any other nation there are campaigns for already. (Or is there ANY unit at all that can reliably kill a Sherman? Since you said that even the Ho-I is a bonus unit and it wasn't exactly the Sherman killer either ... or would have been anyway, but just looking at the technical data here)

[HBalck]

Looks nice !
Note your hex pads are not connected to each other ! I hope you show us many more different hex typs - only some jungle pads and some planes isn't enough for me for this war place. Also you need special eastern village typs - Now you use the origin al european pads or ? Use the big EDO packet for poser - here you have over 80 different building typs for the eastern villages and citys.
I dont like the big watch tower (base). I would like all objektives in the same scale like the village graphics.

Do you need some of my Japaneese tanks, trucks and halftracks ? - Now I have 14 finished. Let me know if you like to help you out - I have interest to work for this project.
Example:


H.Balck

[bebro]

Thx for the replies

Nico: You'll see the Dutch-East Indies army air force making an appearance over Malaya in some cases. And you can later invade Java

alex0809: That's what I like in the Pacific theatre from the gaming POV too, you have to think how to take out certain units. A routined player will be able to do so nonetheless using typical combined air-land assaults, arty supression, terrain advantages etc., but usually you cannot just take out everything easily with a Chi-Ha tank or his later improvements.

From mid-war on the allies will be superior both in terms of numbers and equipment. And allied equipment like Grant or Shermans tanks which don't seem much of a threat when you're using Tigers etc in Europe will get another importance here.

[bt2steam]

any thoughts on large scale sea/surface battles??

[VPaulus]

Bebro it looks great... as usual.

[airbornemongo101]

Bebro it looks great... as usual.

+1

[bebro]

Thx guys

bt2steam, I will not include any naval or air-naval only battles, similar as with the USMC campaign. While I think it would be great for any pacific-themed campaign in general to have those, I have doubts that for now the AI and other parts of the engine will work well with those.

I intend to have a couple of amphibious ops in there, and as it stands now at least in two of them there will also be naval action, but I don't plan to include anything like Pearl Harbor, Midway etc. Most scns will be air-land only.

[nikivdd]

Thx guys

bt2steam, I will not include any naval or air-naval only battles, similar as with the USMC campaign. While I think it would be great for any pacific-themed campaign in general to have those, I have doubts that for now the AI and other parts of the engine will work well with those.

I intend to have a couple of amphibious ops in there, and as it stands now at least in two of them there will also be naval action, but I don't plan to include anything like Pearl Harbor, Midway etc. Most scns will be air-land only.

Air-naval engagements can have their purpose if naval units are part of the player's core.

[bebro]

Air-naval engagements can have their purpose if naval units are part of the player's core.

Yeah, but it is something I don't want to go into more deeply right now because it adds a complete new layer of work, and the naval parts also adds IMO quite some balance issues. And it would collide with the early campaign path I worked out so far - Japan attacked several targets nearly simultaneously in Dec. 41, so attacking for example Pearl and launch the Malaya campaign (which actually began 1-2 hrs before) in subsequent scenarios would be strange.

Of course one could use more alternatives in the campaign path, but that add lotsa work as well, so I thought concentrating on the IJA advance in Malaya - Singapore - Java would be the best option 41/early42 leading to a logical campaign. There will be already more scns in the path here than in USMC, incl. some alternative routes, but I wanted to limit workload a bit

So this is not aimed to represent the whole PacWar from the Japanese side, but some of the decisive parts, albeit with the focus on air-land

[nikivdd]

Yeah, but it is something I don't want to go into more deeply right now because it adds a complete new layer of work, and the naval parts also adds IMO quite some balance issues. And it would collide with the early campaign path I worked out so far - Japan attacked several targets nearly simultaneously in Dec. 41, so attacking for example Pearl and launch the Malaya campaign (which actually began 1-2 hrs before) in subsequent scenarios would be strange.

Of course one could use more alternatives in the campaign path, but that add lotsa work as well, so I thought concentrating on the IJA advance in Malaya - Singapore - Java would be the best option 41/early42 leading to a logical campaign. There will be already more scns in the path here than in USMC, incl. some alternative routes, but I wanted to limit workload a bit

So this is not aimed to represent the whole PacWar from the Japanese side, but some of the decisive parts, albeit with the focus on air-land

True. I experimented once with naval units in a player's core and there are too many factors in the equation, prestige being the most important one.

[morge4]

Thanks bebro...looks great. Can't wait to play it!

[drjeff21]

Awesome...

[bebro]

Thank you guys


Now I have to decide at some point how to release it (though it's still a long way):

1. Combine this campaign and USMC into a mod that has two campaigns in one download

Pros: as both share many files, the player would have all stuff in one, without double files
Cons: in one dl I can't have specific UI art (briefings, title and menu gfx, medals etc.) for both - I'll have to make some more generic stuff then, unless I provide optional submods (see below under 3)

2. The opposite: as separate mods incl. separate dls

Pros: contrary to the method above, every campaign can get its own "flavour" art
Cons: two relatively big dls with many double files (in case a player gets both)

3. The best of both worlds

That would be combine them into one mod/dl, but make special UI submods to be activated with GME separately after the main mod that allow campaign-specific art. From my side it isn't so much additional work as I already worked for that art, but for the player it adds another thing to care about when installing/playing the mod(s). However, you need GME anyway for this campaign, so maybe this is ok-ish...


If people want to share thoughts on this I'd be curious to hear them

[El_Condoro]

I would suggest 2. because it makes it easier for the player. These days HDD space is not an issue and neither is download speed, in most cases. Even if each download was to be around 60-70Mb, IMO it's no biggie. I would rather have all the stuff in one GME mod activation than 2. Just my 2c

[nikivdd]

I prefer option 2.

[morge4]

I like option 2 also

[bebro]

All for two, that makes it easy. Thx

[bebro]

So here's the campaign path up to 1945:



There might be some small changes still coming, but overall that should be it.

Both ahistorical scns/victories are presented as choices - either go for those if possible or stay historical. The latter will result in a longer campaign, but from a certain point you cannot influence the outcome of the war anymore. So you're mostly on the defense after Imphal/Dimapur.

The most headaches I have now is with the Kokoda scn, it is one of the most important in the campaign, as you can go on the DV route, or get thrown back. I find it difficult to depict, esp. with the terrain limitations of the real Kokoda track in mind. Realistically you should be unable to use tanks or vehicles there...let's see.

Overall, a good number, but not all of the other scns are done...