About This Game

The First Sino-Japanese War is a free and open-source game simulating the namesake conflict of 1894–1895. 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. Its core resolution mechanics are inspired by the well known miniature naval wargame SEEKRIEG 5, while gameplay is influenced by Rule the Wave (1-minute turn flow), JTS Naval Campaigns (aesthetics), and Command: Modern Operations (runtime editor).

The strategic layer (still under development) uses 1-day turns, 50 km/hex and a WEGO system. It covers tactical naval combat generation, strategic-level land combat resolution, supply, and political simulation.

Naval tactics include historical scenarios, such as the Battle of the Yalu River. Scenarios can also be automatically generated by the strategic game. The strategic scenario starts from the beginning of the war (25 July 1894).

The editor uses the same UI as the normal game and provides a sandbox-like experience similar to Vassal and TTS. It is easy to create scenarios with built-in data (covering ships related to the First Sino-Japanese War) using a workflow similar to CMO. It is also possible to extend the data and create scenarios from other wars, such as the Battle of Tsushima.

The current demo only has the naval battle portion "playable". Although the strategic system under development is exposed, it is only for those following the progress to check its status and potentially offer suggestions.

Steam does not allow hyperlinks in descriptions, so please use the “Visit the Website” button to access the GitHub source repository. The game may release a pure donation-based DLC to help cover some costs.