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First Sino-Japanese War
Free and open source game for First Sino-Japanese War, featuring a tactical naval combat system combined with a turn based hex WEGO strategic layer.

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Features
Single-player
LAN PvP
LAN Co-op
Includes level editor
Steam is learning about this game 
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔
Japanese ✔
Simplified Chinese ✔
Traditional Chinese ✔

Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“I want to expand the potential audience, collect feedback, and gauge player interest to determine whether players are interested in a larger game—for example, one that, on the tactical naval combat side, includes more battles covered by the SK5 ruleset (WWI, WWII, etc.), and, on the strategic side, expands the system to a depth comparable to the naval tactical system.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“3–6 months according to response.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“• A polished version of strategic layer
• Graphics & UI improvements
• Better AI for opponent and automatic control
• More historical ships, battles and even era
• Additional scenario variants
• More customizable rule options
”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“Tactical naval combat is fully playable and fun (in my opinion), including historical battles, quick skirmishes, and editing capability for creating custom scenarios. For experienced wargamers, it feels like:

- WDS/JTS Naval Campaigns, but much deeper and with skirmish support
- Iron and Steam, but with multiplayer support and a deeper campaign system

The grand campaign, or the First Sino-Japanese War strategic mode, is currently more of a “sandbox” and is not fully playable in the way most players would expect. It still requires a lot of work to be considered complete.

The mini-campaign, Vladivostok Squadron Raiding, is somewhat playable but currently feels boring. I plan to add more gameplay depth to make it both more engaging and historically accurate.
”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“The game itself will remain free and open source.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Players can communicate with me via Steam discussions, GitHub issues, or Discord.”
Read more

Download First Sino-Japanese War Demo

This game is not yet available on Steam

Planned Release Date: March 2026

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About This Game

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.

System Requirements

    Minimum:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: windows 10
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
    Recommended:
    • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
    • OS: windows 11
    • Memory: 16 GB RAM
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