Ishin: A TW Take on the Meiji Restoration

[Xennik]

Introduction

Hello!

Most of you will probably not know me, and I don't blame you. For the past two years (time really flies!), I have not posted here. After the RTW time, where I participated in various projects such as RTR and Byzantium: TW, I laid low - until now. Let's hope I will get into the whole thing swiftly enough again!

Whenever I looked around the mod forum and ideas and things turned towards Japan, discussion mostly centered around recreating Shogun on the ETW engine or displaying the Sengoku Jidai in general. Something that however wasn't mentioned as a possible period of interest thus far, was the Boshin Sensō and the Meiji Restoration.

The Boshin War was a civil war in Japan that followed the proclamation of the Meiji Tennō that he had assumed full power over the affairs of the country, essentially challenging the authority of the Tokugawa Bafuku that had ruled the country for decades. In the cause of this civil war, the forces supporting the Imperial restoration emerged victorious against the Tokugawa Shogun and those allied to him. Even then, resistance did not end yet, with the Republic of Ezo proclaimed by Tokugawa supporters and later on the Satsuma Rebellion making an armed bids to challenge the authority of Imperial Japan. Ishin: Bakumatsu no Jidai will attempt to recreate this age.

Scope

The mod will encompass the age of Bakumatsu - the final years of the Shogunate, starting in 1853 -, the Boshin War and conclude in the year 1885, 8 years after the last serious attempt to challenge Tokyo's power in the Satsuma Rebellion (mostly for gameplay purposes as to give the conflict a chance to play out). There will almost inevitably be several turns per year due to the rather short amount of time covered in the scope of the mod.

Factions

Currently, the following factions are scheduled to be included for the beginning:

-Japanese Empire
-Tokugawa Bafuku
-Northern Alliance
-Satsuma
-Ryūkyū Kingdom
-Republic of Ezo
-Russian Empire
-French Empire
-British Empire
-United States
-The Netherlands
-Japanese Council Union
-Joseon Dynasty
-Ainu

The Japanese Council Union, an anarcho-socialist faction led by Shūsui Kōtoku, the Satsuma insurgents and the Republic of Ezo will obviously be revolters. The Japanese Empire will for gameplay purposes be depicted as a few provinces minor in Chōshū and Satsuma, the original domains in support of the Meiji Restoration and will start at peace with the Tokugawa Bafuku (there would be no other way for the player to take control of the Imperial forces if they would not be present at the map from the beginning).

Other rebel factions as well as possibly the Qing Dynasty due to the depiction of the Joseon and their tributary relationship to the former will be up for discussion and depiction at a later point in time.

Map

This will obviously need a complete rework. Currently I think the following three theaters would be the most beneficial setup:

-Japan, excluding Hokkaidō
-Hokkaidō, East Siberia, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka
-Korea and Manchuria
-If more theaters can be put into the game, Hawaii

Trade theaters will likely include various spots on the Chinese coast as well as Hawaii. The depiction of the French, British, Dutch and American fractions will probably be the most difficult, considering that Europe and the Americas will not be part of the game. Likely this will involve some heavy scripting and tinkering.

Other

Major religions in the mod will be Christianity in its various forms, Animism, Ryukyuan Paganism, State Shintō and Syncretic Shintō, to account for the differences between the nationalist version of Shintō established under the Meiji government and the traditional synthesis of Buddhism and Shintō that existed before.

Progress

As modding can only do so much at the moment, the scope of things that can currently be done is obviously rather limited. Flags of the factions are already in the game and factions are renamed and I am currently in the progress of creating new loading screens. Appropriate quotes for the loading screens are being looked for (sadly the engine does not seem to accept Japanese characters).



Furthermore, while model editing as well as most crucial campaign map related modding is off limits for now, I am nevertheless experimenting with unit values right now to create units for the mod, even though they may not look like their final products yet. Key in this will be the accurate simulation of melee based infantry, artillery and cavalry as well as the tweaking of musket based infantry to account for the changes in 19th century technology in comparison to the 18th century. Naval warfare will be an entirely different matter due to the progress in naval technology towards steamships and is therefor currently being left untouched.

Participate!

If you are interested in the idea and want to help seeing this realized, say so! Anything, from research to graphic design or scripting will be of service!

For now I think this topic can serve as a meta thread to brainstorm about the idea and for general comments and such. So, the stage is yours for now, gentlemen.

[James the Red]

Sounds great, What factions are playable, and which ones are rebels and such.

[Xennik]

Generally speaking, all of the factions except for the revolters (Japanese Council Union, Satsuma, Republic of Ezo) should be playable. That is, theoretically. It remains to be seen how the European factions and the USA can be displayed. If they will only be able to make an appearance via scripts (think Mongol invasion), this will obviously make them unplayable. Russia and the Netherlands (due to Deshima) will be playable in any case, though.

[Berdiche Knyaz]

This going to be awesome
Rep for you

[Gwyn ap Nud]

You said the flags are already in the game. I presume you meant the european/american flags?

[Xennik]

I think I might have phrased that in a slightly overcomplicated way. What I meant is that I already added in the flags of the new factions (say, the Shogunate and so on) with some to go.

[Gwyn ap Nud]

This is a very interesting period for Japan, I think, because they fully embrace modernization in a way so thorough, that they soon become the match for European armies. I'm sure you know that, before guns became illegal in Japan (before your planned period), they made better guns than anyone else.

I mean, look at WWII! They stormed China, and even captured Hong Kong from the Canadian garrison. Look at today! Until very recently, they were one of the most powerful manufacturing nation-states! Now, they're really suffering under the recession, but, still, they really embraced Western values, and, mixed with the best of their own historical stuff, forged their way in the world.

[Berdiche Knyaz]

"Banzai" should be a quote, and you should use that for when they yellin when charging if all hope is lost or an option of fightiting to the last man.

Speaking of Banzai:
It would be cool, that the Imperial Japanese Army, since they are under the code of the emperor, they should have the banzai charge, which is used if all hope is lost in a battle, you should also have the option of letting your soldier fight to the last man.

[Xennik]

Gwyn ap Nud: I agree that it is a very interesting period which is why I feel that it deserves adequate representation in the ETW engine. Regarding the guns: a lot of them were, in fact, western manufactured and brought in by merchants, mostly Dutch or Portuguese. Gunpowder will obviously play an important role in this era as well however, with significant differences existing between the types of muskets deployed (a Westernized Meiji Line Infantry already uses significantly more advanced and faster firing as well as more accurate muskets than a pre-reform Tokugawa Feudal Musketeers formation for example).

Berdiche Knyaz: Bayonet Charges were used not only in desperate situations, in fact they were used as quite a successful tactic in the Sino-Japanese Wars. In RTW, you had berserker units which would fight to the last man if in a frenzy and which could at times charge without permission. If we are lucky, this will still be buried somewhere in the game code and could then obviously be put to adequate use.

[Göteborgare]

Maybe add the first Shino-Japanese war, and even the Russo-Japanese war?
1895something and 1905 something.

[Berdiche Knyaz]

Sweet, let's hope theres a battle between 1,000,000,00 Poorly-Trained-Russians charging vs. 100,000,00 Banzai Japanese Soldiers.

I think the campaign should be 1867 (Starting of Meji Restoration) to 1918 (When Japan annexed Korea in 1910, World War I, and the beginning of the Japanese Empire expansion of the Pacific).

Also if you want a to add a South Pacific Region, add Germany, because they owned the Northern Part of Papua New Guinea and the Bismark Islands

[James the Red]

Will all of Sakhalin be on the map and will its biggest city change names depending on who owns it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk

Will Sakhalin and Hokkaido have plenty of provinces or are there just gonna be a few? And will each of the habitable Kuril islands be a province.

How hard will each faction be?

[Toboe]

Cool!
starting in 1853? that will be hard work for a navy units..
keep moving!! I'm watching this mod! +Rep

[James the Red]

If Hawaii is in, will Hawaiian natives be in it in any way?

[Xennik]

Regarding the provinces: Hokkaidō and Sakhalin will probably have quite a lot of provinces, as the majority of the mod will after all focus on the area of Japan, with Hokkaidō probably having more than Sakhalin due to its periphery location. The Kurils should ideally obviously each be a province, but it is a bit hard to tell this at the current time. We'll see what is workable once map modding is possible, I guess.

Hawaiian natives might be in later on, but are obviously not a priority. The difficulty of the factions is something completely uncertain as well, which, I guess, is understandable due to the current stage of development the mod is in. Any addition to the timescale and scope will be something for a later time as well - getting a playable version of the current scope will be more than enough work in my opinion.

But thanks for all the support, suggestions and interests everyone has shown, I appreciate it!

[James the Red]

How significantly different will the factions and their armies be from each other?

Do you think the Ainu be incredibly Hard to play as, for example, since they are a tribal people.

[Berdiche Knyaz]

Waht about the Germans? They owned Papua New Guinea?

[DeaDBolT]

Now this is a mod i have been waiting for, since RTW i had hoped someone would make a mod about this period, instead of a STW remake.

Sadly, i dont think there is much i can do to help in terms of actually making the mod, however, i would love to help in the research department if that is at all possible.

I have in fact, just bought an interesting book called "Thew Japanese War Machine" which follows Japan as it emerges victorious in the Meiji restoration, industrializing all the way up to its defeat at the end of the second world war.

And some +rep for the creator of my new favourite mod, this really beats all the planned WW1 total war mods easily on my list.

Cheers,

[Xennik]

How significantly different will the factions and their armies be from each other?
Do you think the Ainu be incredibly Hard to play as, for example, since they are a tribal people.

Significantly. European armies, the Meiji loyalists and the Shogunate as well as the Ainu and other natives will employ very distinct armies and arsenals. This will also make the Ainu for instance very challenging - their access to gunpowder technology will be limited, if not outright out of the window. So playing as the Ainu will definitely be a challenge.

Waht about the Germans? They owned Papua New Guinea?

Well, PNG is not on the currently proposed scope of the map. The German holdings in China might make an appearance though and give the faction some provinces to generate income and such (thanks for the tip, actually).

...

Glad to hear that you like the idea!

As I said in the initial post, any and all help is welcome - so I would be very glad to have you on board! The more people are looking at things, the better.

[James the Red]

Is Taiwan/Formosa be on the map, who owns it at the beginning?