Teaser

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

Don't think the Japanese won't have their chances to counterattack.  Playing as the Japanese in one of the beach landing scenarios I managed to drive the American and off part of the beach. If your initial defenses hold up well you can really weaken the army infantry and have a chance to make some attacks of your own. These are some challenging and fun scenarios to play.

[Sgt_Rock]

Just out curiosity, how are the Japanese civilians handled.  I have read that the Japanese were supposedly forming groups of teen age boys and girls for suicide missions against American forces.  The teen age boys would be mounted on torpedoes for attacks against American ships.  The teen age girls were given a hand grenade and were to attack American infantry men.  Based on what I have read about Japanese preparations, had Operations Olympic and Coronet gone forward, there would not be a Japan today.

This was an early program that they abandoned. Instead they formed civilian groups on a small scale realizing that it would be a useless waste of life. Remember that the "Banzai" attacks were a thing of the past after Saipan (pretty much). At Oki and Iwo they had changed to the "dig in and grind it out" strategy that actually worked better. It cost the Allies more losses for each of those operations.

In the game there are four towns/cities that have groups of armed civilians. They are about 50 men each and have a decent hard value vs. vehicles due to the stick grenade bundles that some of them would have carried.

There were plans to get troops that were bypassed or who escaped being POWs to form as insurgents. I added in about 8 of those units to appear in hilly/mountainous areas about 15 days into the operation.

The Kamikaze forces (planes, suicide subs, etc.) are factored into the amphibious landing casualty values instead of having their own units in order to save on time. While its abstract it works. The transports (large and small) were the targets. I also a Withdraw value for the ships (currently its 5% but I am thinking of reducing it to 3%). This means that during the game some of the ships will be withdrawn. For the campaign scenarios, because of their length, I may have to cut it back to 1%. For the short landing scenarios (2 days - 15 turns) the value will remain at 5%.

[Xaver]

Maybe this is why i feel Sealion40 being the only what if in PzC (until relese of "PacifiZ Campaigns") is a little .... flat, no room for move out of the academic what if to enter in the more crazy part of what if.

Variants to explore what can add "kamikaze battlalions" could be interesting, working a little like the add of stragglers in Berezina scen in the nap title, add some nationalist chinese units, lower presence in 45 campaign but stronger presence in 1946 campaign... even with "mercenary" german units or french units.

I am curious if engine can deal with "reinforcements" triggered by enemy taking an objetive... i think in made capture objetives near an important cithy a way to spam militia units in this city.

I think the solution for air-navy suicide units is correct, in the end game doesnt needs we control that kind of units.

Is going to be an interesting title cant wait to see more about title, after see the image of units i am curious about quality of units and the way to arrive to the released values in OOB.

[Strela]

Maybe this is why i feel Sealion40 being the only what if in PzC (until relese of "PacifiZ Campaigns") is a little .... flat, no room for move out of the academic what if to enter in the more crazy part of what if.

Variants to explore what can add "kamikaze battlalions" could be interesting, working a little like the add of stragglers in Berezina scen in the nap title, add some nationalist chinese units, lower presence in 45 campaign but stronger presence in 1946 campaign... even with "mercenary" german units or french units.

I am curious if engine can deal with "reinforcements" triggered by enemy taking an objetive... i think in made capture objetives near an important cithy a way to spam militia units in this city.

I think the solution for air-navy suicide units is correct, in the end game doesnt needs we control that kind of units.

Is going to be an interesting title cant wait to see more about title, after see the image of units i am curious about quality of units and the way to arrive to the released values in OOB.

Xaver,

I understand where you're coming from, but there is no plan to go beyond what was actually planned. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your perspective we have tried to keep our hypothetical scenarios as rooted in fact as much as possible. That means we model whatever historical plans were available using the committed and in some cases available forces.

This approach was the basis for Sealion and is definitely the approach for Olympic (Japan '45). We absolutely would entertain mods the community makes for inclusion in a future update, but we don't want to go too far down the path of esoteric forces ourselves. No Nazis/Dinosaurs/Aliens here!!! 

As a reminder for all, this will be the third hypothetical included in Panzer Campaigns. The first two were Sealion '40 and the Fall Kreml campaign in Moscow '42. Sealion & Olympic have a lot in common as planning was reasonably advanced and well documented. Fall Kreml, was always a cover plan for the drive into Southern Russia, but was convincing enough that the Soviets placed 75% of their armored formations on the Moscow front. This actually contributed to the initial success of the German Fall Blau offensive. It was not hard to model the actual Soviet dispositions and use the Fall Blau forces to attack towards Moscow. Again a possible what-if, using forces that had been committed for action.
We have mentioned Japan '46 (Operation Coronet) and if that is published will be the next hypothetical campaign. I believe there is more scope for variance in forces for that title as much more of the 'free world' would be available to fight.

One final world (published at the Grogheads forums) link;

Al Nofi, a founder of SPI, told a story about this.

After Tunisia, there were a lot of german POWs picking peas in the US.  After a year or more of farming, many were ready for a change.  Some of the POW leadership offered to form a panzer division to fight the Japanese.
The thought of veteran panzer troops forming a division for the invasion of Japan was very appealing.  Dubbed "Panzer Korps Kwanto".  Some officers in the Pentagon started to lay out plans for creating the force.
Then it was mentioned to Chief of Staff George Marshall.
"Hessians," he replied.  "You want mercenaries in the American army?"

The plan was dropped in no time.  
Wonder what he would have thought of Black Water and those groups that fight as contractors? 

David

[Grengel]

Great news. What will be added to the engine?

[Xaver]

I see, thanks for the reply Strela.

Is good have a plausible what if but i allways liked see them completed with scens where designers could use more their imagination and creativity, not necesary the big campaign, is possible create attractive tactical situations with an OOB with extra nations-units.

I think mod the OOB and add for allies or even Japan germans in the form of "mercenaries", the info you post is interesting and using the what if power Marshall could saw as an option to save american lifes use german "volunters" in shock units (fallschirmjagers or SS troops), specialized bridage size units (Panzergrenadier) and extra line units at division (companies), corps (battalions) and army (regiments) levels.

I know you are not going to add this in Japan45 because is closed and you need focus in Japan46 and at least another late war in the west Europe title in the production line (based in the blog post from France40 patch) but maybe one thing you can explore is launch a contest related with design a scen for Japan45 with the requirement both sides need an extra nation.

Winner could see his scen added as official game scen and receive Japan46 as gift and who offer a high quality scen see it added into Japan45, appear in the game credits and a ticked to participate in the raffle for a Japan46 gift.

I think somekind of official support help expand value of your games and help create a comunity + made you not only play game, you design to for it, i had fun creating scens for PzB Normandy for PBEM... other history is finish totally and upload them   

In new features i imagine we are going to see the "fanatical nations" rule, you can read about it in use manual page 50, apart this... who knows.

I think these weeks waiting the title are going to be very long... can we expect some "bones" to bite them while waiting the steak??? 

PD: i admit it, i never expected PzC revive after the success of PzB, glad be wrong.

[larsonney]

Sounds intriguing! Can't wait to see it delivered!

[SG1]

Thanks for the information. And I, too, look forward to this new item. I will sure complete my collection.

Now, I have seen several discussions on the inclusion of the Pacific theatre in the Panzer Campaigns series. The topic has been popping up regularly for the past years if not decades.
If I remember correctly, a most relevant answer to players’ queries was that the nature and the size of the actions there were not matching the operational level of the game. Most specifically, this was related to US amphibious assaults (i.e. Tarawa is suited to Squad Battles... and with Panzer Campaigns all action would be limited to one single overly jammed hexagon).
The discussion was then further elaborated but the basic facts about the scale of the actions as opposed to the scale of the game remained valid: Imphal & Kohima would be boring, Guadalcanal would be as well, same for New Guinea, Chindits operations would be irrelevant, etc.
However, it was also mentioned that some operations or offensives that get less attention than the island hopping may be adapted. The following comes to my mind; but it is sketchy since, as a European, my knowledge of these theatres is limited:
- Reconquest of Burma ‘45
- Soviet offensive ‘45
- China the whole period, from ‘37 (though not continuously, of course)
- Reconquest of the Philippines ‘45
So, could the above be envisaged or do they remain unconceivable, for a combination of factors, like: nature and size still is unadapted; information on OOBs, locations and details is missing; identified lack of interest in situations with no US participants?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Xaver]

Some of the campaigns you post are good options for PzC, specially the Soviet attack over Manchuriaand the Philippines (41 and 44/45), chinese campaign is for me an exotic and totally unknow for me and maybe could offer good titles (if i dont remember bad Japan mantein a good control of the situation in 45 and launched successfull offensives in 1944) but maybe i prefer see other PzC before one covering China.

Expect we can receive small leaks of Japan45 specially learn whats new and learn about some design decisions... i see strange certain combat values for japanese units... for example a B armored unit in PzC titles is an unit that see combat doing a good job and know the hardware (a tested one, remember Panthers in Kursk)... but japanese armored 5th regiment even when was in the succesfull Ichi-Go operation in the period of Japan45 is going to fight a totally different enemy with more armor and using a new and not tested in combat hardware.

Thanks, and waiting release date.

[wildb]

Found this on the WDS site:

"The very talented Mike Prucha and Dave Michas have now moved on from their France ’40 Gold opus and are now working on a brand new, late war, Western front Panzer Campaigns title."

Ruhr 45 or Berlin 45?

Bill