At the risk of starting a small war, I thought I'd have a look into how feasible it would actually be to create a Japanese faction design. I still think the Eastern front is the way to go but after having done some research, I think a Japanese faction is not as ridiculous as it might seem at first glance, given how much earlier in the war Coh3 takes place. Again, historical accuracy is not what I aim for, neither does Relic really, I focus more on gameplay and faction design. I feel the design I came up with to actually be fairly reasonable and I wouldn't mind seeing Relic deliver something like it. 

I don't speak Japanese, so if some names don't make sense, that's why.

So, in T0 we have Gishi and Ashigaru, which are your engineer squad and mainline infantry squad respectively. The Rikugun Shōi is aimed however at being something equivalent to an officer squad. For those of you who played the Eastern Front Mod, especially back in the day, that Mod had a feature of where you could produce a Command Squad from your starting HQ building which served as the nucleus of your early game army. I think this style should come back, therefore this squad would be limited to 1 on the field, would have a variety of utility abilities and generally function much like the officer squads in Coh2. The Contested Capture ability would allow the unit to capture points, even if an opponent is contesting it (has a unit in the capture circle), which would be strong in VP wars.

For the Gishi's 'Cave Network Entrance', I see these being Camoed structures you put down. Infantry can enter them and can then choose another Cave Network Entrance or a Coconut Trunk Bunker from which to emerge, after a delay of course. If none are available or the Cave Network Entrance is destroyed, they emerge in base. Should allow for sneaking around the battlefield and interesting ambush moves. The 'Coconut Trunk Barricades' should be LOS blockers which also prevent light vehicle movement. 

Then we have a T1, T2 split. T1 contains the ATG and HMG of the faction and T2 contains the AT Infantry and also a grenade launcher squad. The grenade launcher team should be somewhat similar to that upgrade pios with a grenade launcher function like, with smoke utility, and primary good against clumps of units and units in cover. Both T1 and T2 have a shared side tier, which once purchased, unlocks units in both tiers, somewhat like in Wehr. In Tier 1, they get the Type 4 20 cm rocket mortar, which looks amazing and would have a similar power level to a heavy mortar. They also get the Type 1 Ho-Ha Halftrack, which has an ambulance version and serves as the primary in field reinforcement and towing solution. It also has an emplace ability which I see as working like to Reckoner in Kane's Wrath. It locks the unit down into basically a bunker, provides combat bonuses to the occupants and MGs and Mortars can setup inside of them. So you would conceivably drive it over to an opponent's fuel, lock it down, put an MG inside and voilà, you have a considerable obstacle for your opponent.

In tier 2, we have the Type 98 20mm AA, which is more or less the same role and function as the Flak 30 for Wehr. Finally, also in T2, we have the Type 94 Tankette, which would be like the 221 in both role and power level. 

From T1 or T2, you have some different teching options. You can go for Tier Alpha as discussed, but alternatively you can go directly for T3. In the base tier of T3 you have the Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, roughly of a power level such as the greyhound or T70. Tier 3 also have a side tier, which grants access to the Type 1 Ho-Ni II, which is self propelled gun with a 105 howitzer, so think between a Stug D and a Brumbar. Then there's Type 1 Ho-Ni I, which is similar in role and function to a Marder III and then finally the Type 96 Howitzer, which is not unlike the Italian 105. Tier 3.5 is not needed to tech to tier 4 however and tier 4 can be reached front either T3 or Tier Alpha. T4 has the late game tools of the IJA, including some form of heavy infantry, the Type 97 ShinHōtō Chi-Ha medium tank and the Type 88 AA Gun, which would be a towed weapon, fulfilling the same role as the Flak 36 for DAK. However the latter 2 units are locked behind tier 4.5, to help break up teching costs and allow for another tech point to tie battlegroup units to. 

As per my feature request relating to substitute units, I'd added 7 substitute units in green.

The crux of this faction is how to balance the lategame of the faction given the significant lack of Japanese vehicles in WW2. To my mind, the best way of doing this would be balancing the IJA around having relatively weak late game armour but relatively strong infantry and artillery. So in this design, the Type 88 and the Type 97 ShinHōtō Chi-Ha, are basically your Panzer III and Flak 36 equivalent, this serves as your lategame anchor and then for all your battlegroups, these can focus on aspects of the faction that have nothing to do with tanks, such as airborne units, artillery, defences etc.  

Airborne units would be an obvious one. 

Defensive type battlegroups as well. With the Spider Holes it would be really cool if they provided advanced camo, when you have a squad garrisoned inside of them they can only be detected via minesweeper or scout vehicle. Your opponent could walk squads across the top or drive vehicles over and they wouldn't be spotted, this would allow for advanced ambush tactics. The Type 98 320 mm Mortar Strike I see working like a V1, as in WW2 it had a 'screaming sound' before impact. The Munitions Trailer requires some explanation. My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case buffs infantry and gives new construction options. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to get buffed infantry, you can crew it with a squad, push it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 50 to 100 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc. I think it would make for an interesting dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. 

Naval units. The Type 2 Ka-Mi  should absolutely be able to ford lakes and take no movement penalties when in shallow water. It would be really interesting if it could tank ride, so units could be dropped off on the far side of a pond to facilitate a flank. Also applies to the Type 4 Ka-Tsu. Fording water should basically be the 'sales' mechanic of this expansion. 

And battlegroups that focus on battlefield awareness. A few notes here, the Type 93 13mm HMG is about the same power level as the Dshk, the Kurogane Type 95 Scout Car can be upgraded with a machine gun and the Sumida M.2593 was able to transport infantry and had gun slits in the sides, so if it could be like a closed top clown car, doing broadside drive-bys would be really fun. I could see putting AT rifles inside of it being quire strong. For the Type 90 Parachute Flare Line Drop, my thinking here is that this is dropped via plane, but is actually a long 'carpet bomb' recon. By this I mean, every 20 range it drops a flare which lingers after the plane has left. This would then leave a line of 4 flares every 20 range giving you LOS for say 30-40 seconds.   

The Towed Type 89 15 cm Cannon is actually a direct fire weapon, so think ISU-152, just towed. The Restock Infantry/Support Weapon ability on the Munitions Carrier would be a targetable ability which, once used on friendly infantry and support weapons, increases their Cooldown & Reload/ROF for a specific number of shots. Its important to stress that its not timed, its exhaustible, so say that using this on an AT gun increases its rate of fire for 10 shots, if the ATG is not firing, it will still have the bonus the next time it gets into combat. However, once the 10 shots are expended, it returns back to its normal ROF until they're 'restocked' again. The nice thing about this ability is that it encourages active micro of the munitions carrier, can be used on a variety of units and makes thematic sense. 

With the Type 4 Self-Defence Grenades, I could see all infantry, team weapons and support weapons having access to this. It would have something like 10 range and would allow MGs, Engineers etc to throw grenades at flanking units. 

This battlegroups works if you have a Commonwealth in Burma Faction. Sling grenades would be extra long range.

As you can see from the designs, given the base faction has late game AT sorted, you can focus on non vehicle orientated battlegroups, leaning on Team Weapons and Elite infantry.

In terms of IJA's unique faction feature, I think the faction should revolve around camouflage and ambush. If most units could camouflage and were straight up worse in a direct concentration, they could be balanced against US in much the way NOD is balanced vs GDI. In my version, all infantry can camouflage in cover as standard but the arsenal has a variety of upgrades which improve camo or give it to other units. Examples of more upgrades you could add here is allowing infantry to move slowly in camo, making it impossible for recon and flare abilities to see units in camo, allowing AT guns and Mortars to get some shots off without leaving camo etc. 

My Other Designs:

- DAK Redesign.

- Brit Redesign.

- US Suggestions.

- Wehr Suggestions.

- Soviet Proposal.

- Ostheer Proposal.

- USMC Proposal

- Commonwealth Burma Proposal.

- Free French Proposal.

- Italian Proposal.

- Hungarian Proposal.

- Luftwaffe Field Division

My General Feedback

- Feature Request and Bug Fixes

I added another battlegroup. I was inspired.

Haganaz wrote:

Oh man that is getting me so hyped!! I so wish Japan is coming!
USSR can go foil on itself, I don't care for the eastern front in the slightest. We have coh2 for that, why the hell ask for it in a new game! Beyond comprehension!

Pacific theater is where it's at!

I'm totally convinced going to the Pacific is not as weird as what some people make it out to be, a bit of asymmetric design and its fine, as demonstrated. And think of the maps!

I also think they should introduce more fording units, amphibious tanks etc. Then map design could feature pools of water that can serve as flank paths. That would be a cool feature. 

Re the Eastern front, I'm holding out for both the Eastern Front and Pacific theatre, so we can get a Soviet campaign based on the invasion of Manchuria. Who wouldn't play that?

Tinkered with teching, added side upgrades relating to camo, added a new battlegroup and tinkered with existing, added substitute units, fleshed out diagrams generally.

Slicksoul wrote:

Could also add the French and have them Insta surrender 5 minutes into the game.  They can come back later in the game as Partisans and blow up their own infrastructure.

 Then no Char B1 Bis or Somua S35 and the Free French forces representation in-game (?).

LordRommel wrote:

For the Italians I cant see any problems. DAK has support by a single italian StuG, two tanks, one artillery gun and 2 infantry units. That is no big deal and no end to an italian faction.

But for the japanese faction:

To be fair: I never felt that the japanese army should be build around that much "mechanized" stuff.

For me tha japanese faction would be more build around defensive stuff like foritifactions, infantry and heavy weapon teams. 

E.g. here I would likely delete the halftrack (and put it in a mechanized-armored BG) andf the "tankette" because with the iconic Ha-Go there is already THE ideal light tank that could be build around the idea of a fast harassment soft counter. 

I like the idea to utilise the AA gun here too. I think that could work for the japanese very well.

Maybe I should have a go at creating an Italian faction design, that sounds fun. Then you could create a Japanese one Rommel and we can compare notes. I’m not against an Italian faction, I just think it would leave less material for DAK battlegroups and that other factions would have more material to work with. You also have to ask the question that if Italians are the axis faction, who are the new allies? Free French? A change of theatre solves this.

As for the Japanese, I think its better to go for unit variety as opposed to a real life simulator. Coh conceptions of WW2 armies are total fantasy. Would be curious to see other designs though, I’ve spent some time researching and I’m convinced this is as good as it gets. 

M3ta wrote:

Updated the battlegroups with new ideas.

Omg yes Japan!!!  Relic please make it happen!!