Good suggestions OP!
I have just registered on this forum to post some of my thoughts about it, if you allow me to.
The People's War doctrine is a very fitting Idea indeed.
But I think it would be even better, if we include and strenghten the very weapon of People's War.
Namely the Militia.
If China's being attacked and the PLA has to resort to People's War, then one can consider that almost everything is lost, save the will of the people to fight and resist foreign aggression.
Thats why I think, If the player decides to choose the People's War doctrine, one shouldnt be able to use Type 96, Type 99 or any other more sophisticated equiptment and armour anymore, but has only the blood and the flesh of the brave people's militia at his disposal, to build the 'new great wall'.
Type 96 becomes unavailable.
ZBD 2000 AAFV becomes unavailable
Artillery, either build or called become Unavailable
No 100mm AT Guns.
Only mortar-teams remains as artillery option.
Instead the People's war commander should have the option to deploy squads of Militia-members from every building on the map, like the PE Fallschirmjäger, which replaces the build option at the HQ. Furthermore they should be able to hide (stealth) in cover and posesses the selective ability of shooting the
Type 79 Mini-AT Rockets in a large, but inaccurate and short-ranged volley (costs Ammo) besides the ability of throwing old-type stick-grenades. Also they can be reinforced from every civilian or military building, even in enemy territory, representing that guerrilias are able to get their resources from anywhere.
(Info: The Type 79 Mini Panzerfaust can penetrate a T-72 from all directions save the front-armour, at the max-range of 50 meters with 70% hit propability. Accuracy is severely degraded when the target is moving. I was thinking along the lines of WH's grenade assault ability, but inaccurate against moving targets and lasting shorter)
This should be an appropriate skill to show, that People's War is basically a guerilla-styled doctrine.
considering that most of the resouces and stocks of newer armoured vehicles arent available, the People's War player should have access to the large divisions of older, obsolet Tanks like the upgraded
Type 59D (T-55 copy with 105mm rifled gun and ERA).
These tanks neither have strong firepower against enemy tanks, nor thick armour, but have the valuable ability to dig themselves in as pillboxes (like british tanks) that dramatically increases their defence against all sorts of weapons and increases their own accuracy + provides the Hetzer's camo-net option.
Also they are very cheap and do not affect the unit-cap as much as any other Tank-class vehicle, so that the player should use them as mobile, redeployable turrets.
Also, since People's War is a Guerrilla doctrine, the perk of stealth for all infantry should belong to them. To differentiate them from the Asymetric Warfare Doctrine, they should have the normal optical stealth, whereas the Asymetric Warfare stealth should be some kind of GPS-disruptors, who makes soldiers invisible only to the enemy Radar.
Additionally, I think the booby-traps for buildings and points suggestion is pretty good! The Idea behind the doctrine in real life is to let the enemy pay with blood for every inch of the motherland after all, so 'scorched earth' tactics werent uncommon.
Maybe I would suggest to add the ability for soldiers and builders to quickly lay fields of light AP-mines, like PE's airdropped Mines, only laid in a smaller sized area (costs ammo).
Soldiers should be able to fire the
QLT-89 50mm silent mini mortar in an rather inaccurate volley over the range of 300 meters (or smaller), exploding with a blast-radius, slightly larger than a standard grenade. Providing PLA soldiers a basic indirect fire ability, which costs ammo.
As Mao said, 'If we dont have guns and cannons. we will take them from the enemy', the Infantry units of people's war doctrine should be able to steal enemy supply, by using a ability along the lines of the PE's Vampir Armoured Communication Car. The unit in question becomes immobile and only its stealth can protect it from enemy destruction.
Also People's War builders should be able to scavenges wrecks for additional supply.
Lastly, People's War draws from the rich resource China is famous for: Manpower. So OP's suggestion of an one time Manpower income boost is quite fitting. But considering the rather 'quantity vs. quality' organisation, it would be opportune also to increase the Unit-Cap, so that the Commander can field more units.
The off map support for this docrine should be, like OP stated it before, Propaganda War and For the Motherland, beside the advocated Militia call-in and a new off-map support, called 'People's knowledge', which uncovers a piece of terrain for some time, and allows one to deploy militia squads or to support Chinese allies in multiplayer.
Generally, for the other Doctrines I would recommend that the Chinese AT-teams in both Armoured Warfare and Asymetrical Warfare should use the
PF98 120mm recoilless AT rocket (3 men, one launcher), while the People's War Doctrine AT-teams are using the weaker, but more numerable Type 69 40mm RPG's (3 men, 3 launchers).
The PF-98 Team should deal more damage, but should still appear inferior to the Javelin's Top-Attack firepower (does this even work in the engine?), is unguided and cheaper.
Special Operation Forces should have standard stealth, a panzerfaust styled one-shot ability (the AT-4 styled
PF-89 80mm LAW should fit in perfectly), armed with QCW-05 silenced SMG's mainly, with the option to receive a Team-Sniper armed with the
QBU-88 designated marksman rifle (like the british rifle squad) and the ability to throw demo charges.
Of course they should be comparably expensive for the balance.
Are there any plans for the Infantry weapons of the PLA soldier squad?
I know they will be armed with QBZ-95 Assault Rifles respectively, but what options do they get? I propose the
QBB-95 SAW as squad machine gun and
underslug grenade launchers, working like the british rifle grenade (with smoke-shell and all), only with higher fire sequence. And normal throwing grenades of course.
One last suggestion for the Armoured Warfare Doctrine:
The 'Armour Assault tree' should add one trait to the 'Reactive Armour' option, namely that also the Type 96's are upgraded to the
Type 96A with arrow shaped add-on armour on the turret and ERA on the hull-front, which increases the tank's survivalbility.
Furthermore the call-in Type 99G should have slightly weaker armour than the Abrams, but possess an ability to 'blind' a single enemy with it's JD-3 Laser Defence System to prevent him firing for a short time. I'm thinking along the lines of the british Bren-gun ability to 'stun' a tank. Of course a appropriate 'pewpew-lazor' effect should be implemented.
Also the firepower also should be weaker than the Abrams, but will be balanced out by the ability to shoot gun-launched missiles with a high range. This would make a tank duel between the Type 99G and the Abrams more exciting, since one is a perfect heavy-armoured conventional assault tank like the King-Tiger, and the other more a vulnerable 'sniper'-type tank-hunter who relies more on wits and clever use of its range and 'stun'-abilities.
I think in general, the Chinese Faction should play like NOD in the CnC series. lots of low tech units as cannon-fodder and also relying on few, relative vulnerable high-tech units who are shining not with their firepower, but their abilities of stealth and disruption (especially in the 'Assymetric Warfare' Doctrine) who require wits and clever use of tactics to overcome technologiically superior enemies - like the real-world PLA.
In contrast, the Americans are more like the GDI, using heavily armoured tanks, conventional multipurpose units with lots of firepower, above average training and sophisticated high-tech units, aimed mainly at pure destruction and not at disruption like the Chinese.
Thank you for reading.
Chinese Doctrine Layout
