It has been a while since we have posted a devblog about the East Front DLC. So now its probably a time to give you some status update, as well as to entertain you a bit in a historical sense.
This particular devblog will be about the development status, and the next one will be about the history.
DLC Development Status
So far we have playtested four scenarios (out of total nine). These are:
- Azuma's Last Ride (May 28-29th, 1939)
- Charge of the Light Brigade (July 2-3rd, 1939)
- Smoking Pyres of Yawata Steelworks (July 3-4th, 1939)
- Slaughterhouse at Bain-Tsagan (July 2-4th, 1939)
The remaining five scenarios are dedicated to mid-June Japanese attacks and, of course, the Soviet major August offensive.
These scenarios vary in size from brigade-sized to corps-sized. Despite being relatively short (2-3 days only), they offer a decent mix of infantry and combined arms warfare, so I have decided to play through these four extensively before venturing forth into the rest of the DLC.
We have concluded about 50-60 fully automated (AI vs AI) sessions so far, as well as about 20-30 manual (human vs AI) sessions. These playtests offered us some good overview of where we are with the DLC and what our major problems are. Unfortunately, aside of some minor things that were found and fixed, the following new major features were deemed as necessary for new DLC to be released:
- bridge weight limits;
- more predictable, more aggressive and focused enemy AI.
Several more features were considered as optional (nice to have) as well, but they are not that much important as these two.
Therefore we had to spend some time implementing these features first, before resuming playtests or creating new scenarios. As we have now some good progress with these features (one is complete and another mostly done) I hope we could resume the playtest soon.
The Future of East Front
Speaking of resuming the playtests, I need to start preparing for the next EF DLC. Normally it takes me between few months and a year to get all the literature, archival documents (if these are available), historical maps etc. Remote working in archives is neither cheap nor quick, so I need some time to prepare.
As we are hopefully amidst of the second half of the Khalkhyn-Gol DLC development now, I'd like to start collecting the data for the next EF one.
I have several candidate battles identified so far, for which I have already collected some preliminary literature, archival documents and maps. I can't tell you who these candidates are, because this would ruin the surprise and also reveal you many potential EF DLCs.
But if you'd like to promote your favourite campaign or even battle, you may let me know in comments. If you happen to name one of my candidates, this would definitely increase their chances to become the next one.
Please also note that I consider Fall Weiß and Winter War to be a part of "East Front" brand, too. Furthermore, some of my "candidate battles" have happened exactly in September 1939 and in Winter 39/40. So please don't limit your suggestions purely to the Soviet-German war.
That's all about the development status, now to the entertainment part.
First Nomonhan Incident
In just four days, it will be another anniversary of First Nomonhan Incident.
May 28th, 1939, starting what seemed to be just another border clash, neither Soviets nor Japanese could imagine it will develop into a full-scale border war in few weeks, where thousands of people will perish, hundreds of tanks and planes will be engaged and destroyed.
Eventually, even the course of Second World War may have been largely influenced by the outcome of that border war. Had Red Army not defeated IJA in Mongolia, the latter would more likely decide to invade Soviet Union in 1941, rather than bomb Pearl-Harbour.
Next devblog which I plan to release on May 27, 2020, will discuss the very first major border encounter between Japanese and Soviet-Mongolian troops happened May 28-29th, 1939. That encounter would eventually lead to the full-scale border war later known as Khalkhyn-Gol (Nomonhan) Border Conflict, while the encounter itself is better known as First Nomonhan Incident nowadays.
We will be using one of our DLC scenarios - "Azuma's Last Ride" - to illustrate this event. In the end, I'd like to give you an impression about this godforsaken theater in general, as well as about the terrain and opposing forces, how they are modeled in the DLC, what level of details and research we put into it etc. I hope this eventually will help you to make the right decision about buying this DLC (or not).
Credits: colorized image made by Klimbim