(also known as Dolls' Frontline in Japan, for some reason)

I've been reading a bit or two here and there about this game, having run across a fan comic on Danbooru crossing it over with Kancolle. It looks interesting, but some of the casting choices strike me as a little odd. For instance, one of the available T-dolls is Welrod Mk II.

I say this seems odd, because I gather, based on what I've read, that the game plays kind of like old-school X-COM, with a base management part and a tactical combat part, and I'm reasonably sure that no Welrod was ever used in a squad combat situation. It was a manually cycled, integrally suppressed .32-caliber assassination pistol made for the British SOE in World War II—not a gun I would have thought modern-day Chinese game devs would ever have even heard of, come to that. Maybe they're Forgotten Weapons subscribers. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

They've got the Winchester Liberator in there also, which is vaguely in the same 'insurgency weapon' genre...could be they just went and took the 'notable guns' list from wikipedia and went to town on it.

>They've got the Winchester Liberator in there also, which is vaguely
>in the same 'insurgency weapon' genre...could be they just went and
>took the 'notable guns' list from wikipedia and went to town on it.

At least it's not this Liberator (although those did at least go to mass production, unlike the shotgun).

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hah! Yeah, goodness knows that would be a bit of a niche weapon at best...

Also it's vaguely disappointing that they only have cartridge weapons, near as I can tell. Nowt fun in the cap-and-ball or flintlock area.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-22-20 AT 10:17 AM (EST)
 
>Also it's vaguely disappointing that they only have cartridge weapons,
>near as I can tell. Nowt fun in the cap-and-ball or flintlock area.

Yeah, it looks like the earliest they go is the 1873 Colt Single Action Army revolver, so they do reach back into the black powder era, but no farther. I suppose muzzleloaders aren't very Tactical™. (Plus, a pain to make reloading animations for.)

I haven't seen any gameplay footage, but I doubt SAA-chan actually makes big clouds of smoke. Presumably android soldier girls from the future, even those based on archaic firearms, are at least using modern ammunition. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Forgot to note: Welrod's character illustration shows her with a pair of them, and she's holding the one in her left hand like a tonfa. I don't think that would actually work, like, at all? But it's a cool visual. Calls to mind all sorts of nifty moves that would only work in a Hong Kong "heroic bloodshed" movie. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>
>Forgot to note: Welrod's character illustration shows her with a pair
>of them, and she's holding the one in her left hand like a tonfa. I
>don't think that would actually work, like, at all?
>

For purposes of actually shooting something that one wants to shoot, it almost certainly wouldn't work. It might be a substyle of the Ignatine "I'm out of bullets, now to pummel my enemies with my gun" skillset, though.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>>Forgot to note: Welrod's character illustration shows her with a pair
>>of them, and she's holding the one in her left hand like a tonfa. I
>>don't think that would actually work, like, at all?
>
>For purposes of actually shooting something that one wants to shoot,
>it almost certainly wouldn't work. It might be a substyle of the
>Ignatine "I'm out of bullets, now to pummel my enemies with my gun"
>skillset, though.

Well, I say I don't think it would work in this specific instance because the Welrod is really quite fragile. It doesn't even have a grip frame. The "grip" is just a Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol magazine with a rubber (or maybe bakelite?) collar/pad thing slipped on to make it a little more comfortable. The only things holding it on the gun are the magazine well and catch, and I can't imagine they would stand up to the forces inflicted by being used as the handle of a tonfa-style melee weapon.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ah. I did not know that.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>(also known as Dolls' Frontline in Japan, for some reason)

MICA and Yostar (company that is responsible for Azur Lane and Arknights) at one time had joint plans for opening up a Japanese server for the game, including introducing Type 100 as an exclusive for the region. But while the plans fell through, Yostar kept the rights to the name in Japan, forcing MICA to eventually open up its own server under the Dolls name.

Aren't copyright laws fascinating? /sarcasm

>I've been reading a bit or two here and there about this game, having
>run across a fan comic on Danbooru crossing it over with Kancolle. It
>looks interesting, but some of the casting choices strike me as a
>little odd. For instance, one of the available T-dolls is
>Welrod Mk II.
>
>I say this seems odd, because I gather, based on what I've read, that
>the game plays kind of like old-school X-COM, with a base
>management part and a tactical combat part, and I'm reasonably sure
>that no Welrod was ever used in a squad combat situation. It was a
>manually cycled, integrally suppressed .32-caliber assassination
>pistol made for the British SOE in World War II—not a gun I
>would have thought modern-day Chinese game devs would ever have even
>heard of, come to that. Maybe they're
>Forgotten Weapons >subscribers>. :)
>
>--G.
>-><-
>Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
>Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
>zgryphon at that email service Google has
>Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

The short version of the storyline goes like this: In the future, the world suffered an international crisis when a substance known as "Collapse Fluid" contaminated a major portion of the globe, leading to fighting over the remaining habitable land that turned into WWIII. The population crisis caused by those two events led to rapid development of AI and the creation of androids as a new labor force while humanity recovered. At the same time, PMCs largely replaced standing armies, drawing most of their manpower from a single major manufacturer: Sangvis Ferri (trans: "Iron Blood"). Of course, the standard tropes take effect: AI becomes self-aware, runs the numbers, and decides humans need to go.

Since all the purpose-built tactical dolls have turned on humanity, PMCs have been forced to fall back on converting civilian dolls, which really just means they swapped the internal hardware and gave them whatever guns they could dig up. This is why prototypes like the G11 and XM8, as well as antiques like the Nagant M1895 and Colt SAA 1873, are out there fighting against machines who are packing lasers and rail guns.

All I have to say is IDW DA NYA