An Introduction to HoTK: Sun Ce
The year is 196, and China is in turmoil. Long gone are the days of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the tyrannical Dong Zhuo. Now, regional warlords vie for power, each with their own equally ambitious goal. Yuan Shao of the North begins his invasion of Gonsun Zan's territory, Cao Cao of the Central Plains seizes control of the powerless Emperor Xian and Liu Bei begins on the path to restore the Han Dynasty. Two years previously, the young Sun Ce, a decedent of the famed Sun Tzu, was detached by his lord Yuan Shu to conquer a foothold in Southern China. Surmounting all odds, the young Ce began reclaiming lands that he believed were the rightful territories of the Sun family while defeating far larger forces with apparent ease. Still, despite his successes, the enemy Liu Yao still retains hold over much of the land coveted by Ce. Beyond Liu Yao lies the hated enemy, Liu Biao, slayer of Ce's father, Sun Jian. Here we begin. The legend lies before you.
Updated to: V2.4, Patch B
Last Updated: 08/21/09
Introduction: Well, you've done it, you're now playing one of the greatest mods ever made for CIV. My goal with this guide is to ease you into the game's immersive atmosphere while explaining all the bells and whistles. I also strive to achieve a high level of quality in this guide, and will attempt to keep it up to date with each successive version. As you can probably tell, I'll be introducing you to the game with Sun Ce, also known as the Little Conqueror.
Game Setup: First of all, the game comes with several scenarios. I'd recommend the
51x51 196AD map for beginners, as it contains all the action of the others, along with a faster pace in general. I'd also highly recommend that you have the music pack installed, as nothing kills the feel of conquering China more than blatantly European medieval chanting.
Starting the Game: Ok, you've started the game up. Notice Sun Ce's traits, fairly straightforward, but also the most powerful combo in the game. War God's awesomeness will be embellished on later. Now into the actual gameplay. First thing you should see is a nice stack with your flag waving over it, standing right next to one of Liu Yao's cities. There's even a few heroes in the stack! Yep, right into the action! However, I'm going to be a nice little bore and explain the domestics first. After that we go tromping across China, smashing heads with our heroes. By all means though, skip ahead to the fun part unless you really absolutely want to know about the economy.
1.)
The techs: Usually the first thing I look at when playing mods. You might be looking at the massive tech tree wondering how the heck they can break 90 something years into all that. Either way,
Way of the Celestial Masters is your best bet choice at the moment as it allows you to build the equivalent of a Monastery, but called an Adviser Mansion. I'll go more into this later. After Way of the Celestial Masters, there are a few key techs that are worth focusing on. The closest priority tech would be
Bridge Building not only because they're lots of rivers in the map, but also because it allows you to build Danyang Armies. Those guys, and their upgrades, are basically are the most versatile and most powerful unit for a good two-thirds of the game. The second priority tech would be
Calendar. Same reasons for being good here as it is in normal CIV. Calendar is conveniently located on the same path as Bridge Building for further ease. The final and biggest priority tech is
Canal. This is true for all factions, as Canal allows Levee's which give bonus hammers AND gold to riverside tiles. Yep, I said gold. +1 commerce to be exact. For Sun Ce, his UB gives +1 hammer and gold on riverside and ocean tiles. If you remember those three techs, the economy should be no problem in this game.
2.)
Civics: This is going to be short. Switch to Noble School. Anything else is simply your preference. Labor Civics often allow military units to be built with food. Oh, and avoid Indifference. Government buildings are far to good in this game for you to pass up.
3.)
Belief: A change from the religion system, the belief system represents what your rulers goals are. It's quite well explained in the Pedia, so I'll just so out and say
Unification is the best.
Revival comes close, but Unification is the best. That being said, convert to Unification right after your civics anarchy ends.
4.)
Buildings: You're in the unique position of having traits and a UB that can make all coast tiles yield 3 food, 1 hammer, and 4 commerce early game, and and addition 1 hammer and commerce later on. So what are you waiting for, build
river harbors in cities near the coast, followed by either Barracks or whatever suits your taste. Most of the buildings have effects similar to their CIV counterparts, though Granaries are far weaker. If you take the time to look up all the buildings that a tech allows when you get it, you should get this part of the mod down easily.
5.)
The Units: The military has been completely redone in this mod, though it retains the same concepts. Halberdiers (who are essentially axemen) have the +50% vs. Mêlée and Swordsmen still get the city attack. Each unit line (Halberdier, Swordsman, Spearman ect.) has 4 levels, with each level getting 3 more strength than the previous one. Swordsmen also get an increasing large city attack bonus. For you, Sun Ce, there are the awe-inspiring
Danyang Armies. These guys get +25% vs. Mêlée and Mounted, can walk on Coast, and have higher base strength than all the other units, even Cavalry. If you're playing on the 51x51 map, you don't start with any, so building them will be your first priority. On the other maps, you do (or did), allowing you to steamroll until your economy tanks. Their only drawback however, is they only get 3 tiers, making them about par with the other lategame units strength wise, while still retaining their limit of 12 and higher build cost.
Cavalry have also undergone a slight tweak. They now have a promotion (Cavalry) that grants +30% withdrawal chance, +10% Grassland and Plains attack, and -40% strength in hills and -50% in forest.
War, aka Crushing others beneath the heels of your Legions
Now that you've fallen asleep reading my list of rather boring and dry tips, wipe the drool off the keyboard and start conquering! First of all, click on that nice little stack you have and select Sun Ce. After you've selected yourself hit the
Form Legion button. A nice screen should pop up with a list of units to select. Here's where you look at the bottom left. You see the letters shown under "current" (the top ones)? That shows how many of that unit type you can have in your legion. Below are the max levels the hero can achieve. D is 1, C is 2, B is 3, A is 4 and S is 5. They also grant a modest bonus to the troops, so in a D level Legion for Mêlée, a Mêlée unit would get any legion promotions, plus +10% strength. A C level Legion in Mêlée would grant +15% strength boost by comparison. The best part of Legions however are that they can grant
additional base strength depending on the level of
vigorous the hero is promoted to. Each Hero also gets access to different Legion promotions, such as those that boost attack strength, and also special Hero Promotions that only affect the
core troop, the one the hero is physically attached to. Those special hero promotions are usually very powerful and have specialized effects.
Furthermore, each Legion can only contain one unit type.
Back to Sun Ce. I'd recommend selecting a
Swift Rider unit to be part of his legion, even though he has a D currently in Mounted Aptitude and a C in Mêlée. I do this in part because he can promote all the way up to an A aptitude (same as Mêlée) in Cavalry, along with the fact that his unique hero promotions are far more suited to Cavalry than to Mêlée. I would HIGHLY recommend looking at the Hero section in the Pedia at this point and just browse though all the promotions. Not only are they interesting, but the Hero portraits are quite nice.
Now we load Cheng Pu up with Mêlée units, and attack! Each time a legion member wins a battle, the hero gets experience based on how much the unit gained in battle. This means attaching a Champion to a unit in a Legion and giving it the Leadership promo will net the hero double experience from that unit too! Either way, you will defeat the pathetic garrison and defeat Taishi Ci. Taishi Ci may or may not join you, but you better hope he will, because he can sure make life difficult later on. Next move South until you hit Liu Yao's next city. Make sure your
Core Troops (the ones the hero are with) don't lose in battle, because if they do, the Legion loses it's movement and suffers a strength penalty. If there are no more legion members to flee to (like in Sun Ce's case) they could suffer a serious injury. If heroes sustain enough injuries, they die. Each hero can take a different amount too. Sun Ce can take about four, so don't lose him. If you do, then your younger brother will take over the country and you can say bye bye to your traits and your best hero. If you play your cards carefully though, you can take on all the nearby civs around you with just that little starting stack.
By now you should of racked up enough xp for either Cheng Pu, Huang Gai or Sun Ce to take a hero promotion. Have fun with it, each one is good in it's own way. The red promotions will raise the aptitude of that class on level (from D to C for example), so they can be useful early on. For Sun Ce though, you're an idiot if you don't choose
Conqueror, because it's the singularly most powerful promotion in the game. If something can turn 30% odds into 70% odds, I'd take that one. I will forgive you though if you did so to upgrade the Cavalry level to get that other Swift Rider in your legion.
If you do manage to knock out Yan Baihu (Shan Yue dude) and Wang Lang (Nerdy guy), you'll be set in the game. You're UU
Meng Chong Ship will ensure command of the waterways, allowing you to pick and choose your targets. Just watch out for
Gan Ning... did I mention a rather pissed of pirate with a nice fleet of his own? He doesn't exist. Totally ignore naval defense, then I can laugh when your fishing boats get pillaged... uh, I mean nod my head in an show of sorrow.
Do manage to defeat him though, but since his loyalty is to you, he'll join you even if somebody else employs him first.
Invade Liu Biao next though. He has great land, horrible production. Meaning: Great land, no defense. If he does manage to tech to
Professional Army before you attack though, his UU will slaughter you. He's also a culture freak, so if you don't decide to attack him based on my advice, you'll be wishing you did when your citizentry are running off to enjoy tea parties at his
Salons and
Terraces.
Hero Promotion Tips
The big message that I'm going to try to get across is specialize. Once you start upgrading your hero down a certain Aptitude path (ei. from D to C in Mounted), stick with it. You will want to minimize the amount of those promotions you take from different unit types, because you only can have one unit type in the legion at a time. Promotions are best spend on better things such as
Attack 1-3 or unique hero promotions such as
Assault or
Tough. For promotions,
Vigourous is usually the best choice, but requires a tech requirement for each succesive level. Finally, though the
Defence line might seem useless, it can come in very handy when your Legion gets hit unawares. The lack of use on offense is balanced by it preservation of your elite troops when they might otherwise have died.
Campaign Strategies:
1.)
Reclaiming the Sun Family Lands - After defeating Liu Yao, immediately send Sun Ce, attached to Cavalry, to take on
Yan Baihu. Speed is of essence here, as all the cities have only one or two defenders at this point. Furthermore, Cavalry will sustain less damage against the enemy Archers than swordsmen. Yan Baihu should fall to Ce's Cavalry, without taking any losses. Remember though, that
Jungle inflicts 10% damage/turn along with
Marsh! Next, blitz down into
Wang Lang's territory after you heal and pick off the flatland cities only guarded by archers. Victory odds should be in the high 80-90's. Once Cheng Pu catches up, he can take on the hill city with his swordsmen. Usually you would lose one swordsman to the
Private Guard. Now you've unified the south, and set the foundation for your empire!
2.)
The Fall of Liu Biao - This may or may not be an easy conquest. Depending on when you start, Liu Biao might have his
Swift Bowman
UU which gets a bonus vs. Melee and also has 2 movement. Either way, the basic troop movements are the same. Your goal is
Xiang Yang, one of the eight
Great Cities of the game. The city wonder itself grants improved military production, +XP to Archer units, and gives all water tiles +1 commerce. Given on how reliant your economy is upon water, this campaign would be a good choice in itself, even ignoring the whole eliminate the culture freak aspect. To achieve this conquest early, you will need several
Danyang Armies and a fleet. Ideally your fleet would have been build in
Mo Ling to take advantage of the free naval unit XP. The attack itself is quite simple: Sail down the river until you hit Xiang Yang, unload and attack. Use
Crossbowmen promoted to
Drill to inflict collateral damage, and then clean up with your Danyang Armies.
Do not wait to attack Xiang Yang, as it's millitary bonii will make conquest impossible once Liu Biao starts spamming Archers that can take CG3 and Drill 2 right out of the gate. Following the conquest of Xiang Yang, leave a garrison and march your Danyang Armies south taking
Chang Sha and any other lightly guarded city on the way. Next, swing North and mop up his last low production holdout on the river. After all that, Liu Biao would have lost his core territory and should fall easily.
Hero Strategies
As Sun Ce, the Little Conqueror, you command the loyalty of several capable officers each of which can take the
Water Support promotion. This unique Legion promotion grants
+25% Strength when fighting adjacent to a
River or
Coast. And there's alot of rivers in China. Officers who have loyalty toward your faction include
Gan Ning,
Sun Ce,
Cheng Pu,
Lu Meng,
Huang Gai,
Taishi Ci,
He Qi and
Sun Quan. Of those eight, Gan Ning and Sun Ce are best equipt for offence, while the rest have strong defensive abilities available to them. Lu Meng, Cheng Pu and Taishi Ci are probably the most versatile of the defensive heroes since they can promote to a high level of Vigorous, and have strong promotion choices.
I'd recommend making Sun Ce's legion a mounted one, so you can take advantage of his
Flying Wedge promotion, along with the strong combination of
Conqueror and
Flanking. If you promote him with Cavalry General to and aptitude of A, he gets a nice bonus against archers. If his unit has Flanking, he can turn a 20% chance of success city attack into a 75% chance of win/ 15% chance of withdrawal battle. Not bad at all... Furthermore, I like having his as a Cavalry general so he can save my butt when a stack marches in from the other end of the empire.
Gan Ning on the other hand should take Infantry Commander promotions. Though he only can get up to a B aptitude in Melee, it's the most powerful class in the game, especially when combined with his
Attack promotions. Remeber to take the unique Hero promotion
Dread with him too. It basically saps the health of any adjacent enemies outside a city.
For defence, things are straightforward. Take the
Vigourous promotions, followed by
Iron Wall if available. Iron Wall ultimately will boost combat odds by around 20% on attack and keep you almost immune to damage on defence. Cheng Pu also has
Reconditioning available to him, which makes him one of the most versatile generals under your command. He should be able to hold almost any defence, and performs well on prolonged seiges since he recovers health after combat. Taishi Ci, on the other hand, lacks Reconditioning but has full access to the
Defence line. He is near indestructible on defence once you promote him up.
Defence IV grants immunity to collateral damage, making him the perfect person to stop those mass Crossbow/Catapult attacks. Huang Gai and Sun Quan are archer generals, so are by default limited to defence. Still, it's not a bad thing, as a specially designated defence legions can make all the difference in a suprise attack.
Lu Meng is a unique case. Despite having several levels of Vigorous available to him, promote down the command line. Why you may ask? Since his unique promotion
Mature Late gives half experience before level 5 and double afterward, you want as many legion members racking up experience as soon as possible. If it takes too long to get him to mature, he may never develop to him full potential.
Miscellaneous Stuff: Notice how Liu Biao hates you? Apparently he's still pissed off that your dad stole the Imperial Jade Seal... I guess killing him wasn't enough revenge. Don't worry though, if you ever play Liu Biao, Sun Ce will hate you with all of -5 diplo points. I guess revenge really does come second to a few bribes...
Also, everyone hates Yuan Shu, so don't do anything nice to him, or trade for that matter. He's always gets quadrupled teamed by everyone around him, but his captain
Ji Ling gains quite alot of experience defending. It is quite worthwhile to sweep in and administer the killing blow to get Ji Ling to surrender to your forces.
Danyang trades for everything. I mean everything. It is valued as it should be by the AI, so they give you plenty of resources for it. You start with two by the way. It's quite useful in pitting
Yuan Shao and
Cao Cao against eachother. They will be strong, so trade it to the slightly weaker one to ensure their wars against eachother are all that more destructive.
Note: This guide is still in a very early stage. It will be modified and improved on (hopefully so it's more than a bunch of tips and facts), so if you have any comments or questions, please tell me. I don't care if you think I need to shorten it, expand on this or that, just tell me! Even if it's that your guide is horrible, your writing style sucks and your should never utter another word of advice again... or wait, actually, I think I might care if you said that, but you get the point. Thanks!
