First Sino-Japanese War is a free and open source game covering naval tactical and strategic layer of the 1894–1895 war between China and Japan. The game includes a naval tactical combat system that uses a dynamic time step (e.g., 1 second per pulse) but is generally played in 1-minute turns. The core resolution mechanics are, in many cases, digital adaptations of the renowned naval miniatures rule SEEKRIEG 5. The strategic layer uses 1-hour/day turns, 50 km/hex and a WEGO system.
Features:
Historical battle scenarios like The Battle of Yalu River, one of most important yet underrepresented battle in the ironclad era.
Adjustable automation levels -- from manually controlling each weapon mount and FCS, to delegating partial or full fleet command to the AI. It's also possible to control both sides by hand at the same time.
A highly flexible editor that allows modification of ship classes (down to penetration and fire-control tables, armor, dynamic), detailed damage, environment and deployment. It should be easy to create custom battles beyond built-in scenarios, such as a Battle of Tsushima.
The editor is integrated into the same interface as the normal gameplay mode, exposing all parameters and status data, allowing modifications and scenario generation at any time.
Quick battle in skirmish mode.
In LAN multiplayer mode, players can be assigned to command different parts of the OOB.
Generate dynamic naval battle from strategic situation.
Deep Strategic layer, covering land combat resolution, supply, repairing, command chain and various action.
Strategic scenario give a accurate description of the beginning of the war (25 July 1894) and model the followed dynamic.
Some other pre-dreadnought battles are included as expansions, which feature several scenarios from the Russo-Japanese War, as well as a mini-campaign about the commerce raiding of the Vladivostok Squadron.
Open sourced game mechanism (project webpage is the source repo), no more black box and guesswork.
DEMO Notes: The demo currently directly reflects the latest development status of the game from the developers' perspective, with no restrictions on accessing rough or incomplete features. In this demo, the tactical naval combat is relatively polished and playable. However, the strategic layer remains under active development and is far from complete.
