Chinese Unification - Qin Shi Huang

Hi Yuming, some quick answers:

1) The picture size is what slowes down most, not the size of every single picture because they load 1 by 1. Scale them down to less then 100 kb and you will have no problems with slow connections. This allows you also to post about 200+ pics with the inbuild upload here (you also can replace exisiting pics with smaller ones).

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I've had no problems with loading, though I've got broadband.

Qin Shi Huang smiled to himself.

His position was secure. He had been given the title of Emperor of the Heavens: the people worshipped him like a god. He had absolute control over the empire - nothing would go wrong now.

The kingdom of Qin was officially at war, he himself had overruled his ministers to do this. They had said it was too early and that the economy was not yet ready, he knew better. Wei Hui Hou was a fool to insult the great kingdom of Qin and would pay the price. Anyway, the Wei were already at war with others and were unlikely to attack, and the war would make Qin some (albeit temporary) friends.

When his scientists had finished developing the new stronger weapons, Qin Shi Huang would march an army over to Wei Hui Hou and capture his Empire. The lands of Wei were so fertile and rich - he salivated - he couldn't wait to cut Wei Hui Hou's throat.

The new metal that they were using had recently been discovered near the city of Qin (named after him of course). Its properties were vastly better than previous metals and it was so strong that it could cut older weapons in half. Of course, they had run into problems mass producing these things but the prototype he'd received was amazing. Qin Shi Huang knew that if he could equip every soldier with one of these he would have the strongest army in the world.

However, back at home, the barbarian tribes had been even more annoying than usual; harassing his workers and pillaging his improvements. Once he had even been forced to take a different route while escorting some emissaries from Qi because the main route had been destroyed by the barbarians. How he wished to get rid of them once and for all...

Speaking of the Qi, they were becoming better and better allies. Trade between the two kingdoms had boomed and the citizens of Qin were enjoying Fish and Salt and even salted fish from Qi. This had done wonders for the health of his citizens: only recently he had met an old woman who still remembered the Great Famine: an event which happened, he was told, over 70 years ago. Nothing like that would happen now, not under his rule.

And then to top it all, his troops captured a large barbarian city south of Hao on his birthday: an excellent addition to his empire.
Yes, under his rule, the kingdom of Qin would only go in one direction.....


He closed his eyes and slept; dreaming pleasant dreams of peace and prosperity.






The rounds are getting shorter because a lot more is happening within each round. To start things off, yet another dangerous barbarian threat:
(Note: the capital is undefended! )



Then in 407BC, I finish researching Filial Piety. This tech enables me to build the Plantation improvement and the Family Altar building.
(Technically it also enables Open Borders, map trading and the nationhood civic but the AI civs all have it meaning I can trade maps and Open Borders anyway and the civic nationhood isn't that useful yet.)

The plantations will hook up silks, spices and 'citrus fruit' (represented by the banana symbol) adding valuable food, hammers and in particular, commerce to my economy. They will also raise the happiness and health limits which, though I haven't hit them yet, will hamper my growth in the future.

You can also see the battles I won against the barbarians on the left.



Then, unexpectedly the Qin bloodline spread to a city in Chu giving a valuable look at the type of units the AI civs have. Because the Polearm is still at level one with 4 strength, I'm hoping that the AI hasn't researched Feudalism yet because that would give them strength 4 archers which are a lot more difficult to dislodge with Swordsmen.



Let's have a look at Hao, my production city, the turn before it finishes the Great Classical Library:



It seems quite close to the happy limit but this is because I have not hooked up all of the resources yet - you can see that the silk and spices next to Hao have not been connected, plantations take a long time to build!

And then, on the next turn, the Great Classical Library is finished, granting me one free technology. I choose Iron Working to enable Swordsmen









Then, I discovered a small bug in the game

In the screenshot below you can see that Neijiang is not producing anything. This is because when it came out of revolt, the game did not inform me -resulting in around 10 turns of lost production. If I didn't discover this now, it would simply have continued to grow without producing anything.

(Note also the barbarian threat. Thankfully however, a polearm is garrisoned and as long as he does not take too much damage to the Horseman we should be fine.)



Demographics and advisors and stuff at 400BC:

Financial and Science advisor:

(Research is really really important in this scenario, I've said this before but I'll say it again: If you fall behind in research, you will not be able to get back because tech trading is not allowed.)





Foreign advisor:

(Diplomacy is important too but since I have kinda rigged it against myself, it is only important to remain on good terms with Qi)



Graphs:

Score:

The simultaneous leap in the middle of the graph is for land because land only counts in the score if you have owned it for 20 turns. The leap close to the end is the wonder score for the Great Classical Library



GNP:

Gradually improving due to the Plantation resources. I'm going to make a civic swap soon that should boost it a lot: Bureaucracy and Barter Economy (once I have Sailing). This is because I do most of my research in the capital.



Mfg Goods:

We are winning!



Power:

Close to the top! Considering this doesn't include the bonus we get for having super promoted units because we are Charismatic (We get two promotions right off the bat because Barracks give +4 experience in this scenario) we are doing quite well here.




(continued in next post)

Culture:

We are top in this and I think we should be so we can say:
'We are the most civilised culture, we deserve to rule'
(Chinese culture has been described as almost indestructible; when the Mongols invaded they were then assimilated into the Chinese way of life so I think it is fitting that the kingdom with the most culture should win)



Demographics:

We are slowly improving in both food and GNP. Qin is food poor compared to other kingdoms such as Han and Chu so coupled with the bonus the AI receives, the food ranking isn't really that bad. The granaries we've built will be paying good dividends in future. The GNP ranking will also improve greatly after we make that important civics switch. I want to create troops with 6exps first though (vassalage)



Building going smoothly - we've built a Family Altar to produce Emissaries to spread the bloodline and we have a strong workforce.

Look at the figures for Units Killed and Units Lost. So far, we have lost one archer and killed 15 Barbarian Archers and 11 Barbarian Horsemen.
That's a ratio of 26:1.



And here are a few screenshots to show how my empire looks:






Fin

If you have any suggestions for improvements or would just like to voice your thoughts, please reply.

Even the steps that led up to the building itself were made out of pure marble that glistened in the sunshine. The building itself was grand and extremely elegant. The facade was decorated with exquisite marble murals and two large marble lions adorned the entrance of the library. He could see now as he reached the top of the steps that the building had two wings coming from the sides, both just as exquisitely decorated as the entrance, and as he went in, a rush of cool air from the building beckoned him inside.

The Great Classical Library had been painstakingly built without the correct equipment and without an easy source of building stone. But Qin Shi Huang knew that other kingdoms were undertaking similar projects - he needed to be the first to complete it. How otherwise would the kingdom attract the best people, the cleverest minds? And the building was already paying dividends. Soon after completion, the library had been able to attract one of the best metal workers in the world and now the production of Swords, as they were now called, could begin in earnest. With an army of Swordsmen he would be able to do anything.....

The people were ready to expand too. The population of his kingdom had boomed as more and more people registered themselves from the wilderness and news of his greatness spread. But recently they were beginning to run out of space. There was plenty more barren land to the west but Qin Shi Huang knew that the fertile land lay the east and south. Eventually that land would have to be his. The army was not quite ready yet but if Chu did anything more to annoy him their land would be first on the list.

The diplomatic view was beginning to get more complicated. There were now people in other kingdoms who supported Qin or who had connections with the Qin. This put a strain on relations. If the other kingdoms just recognised him as a deity, things would improve, but that was unlikely to happen soon. Only recently, Chu had annoyed him by persecuting his followers. He wouldn't do anything yet but how he wished to take that smug smile off that piggy face of his.

But, he thought, if I play my cards wisely now, I'm sure to get my reward in the future.






Tum de tum, another 20 turns shall flash by.

I'll start with the completion of Sailing for Lighthouses, Galleys and the civic Barter Economy. The Lighthouse will be excellent for the capital in particular giving 3F 2C tiles on the river to work with. Galleys can bombard and lower defences and Barter Economy gives 15% more



You can also see in the screenshot more battles with barbarians being won. These battles are ongoing and are becoming rather boring as there are no real crisis points so I'm going to skip commenting on every barbarian encounter. Battles with the other kingdoms are going to commence soon so we'll have that to talk about.

Then, Han dogpiled in on Wei:



You can also see my first ever swordsman. He'll get City Raider II straight away and is pretty much only one battle away from CR3. Han then signed an Open Borders treaty with me (I accepted - why not? I'll be able to get Qin emissaries to Qi to spread the bloodline now)



In 392BC, Wei sends a drill II strength 4 archer into my kingdom and to my surprise, I lose my Combat II chariot at over 90% odds! Luckily, my polearm stepped in to finish it off. This is the battle:



I finish researching Masonry in 391BC.
This is mainly for the National Wall wonder which not only prevents Barbarians from entering your borders but also gives +1 population and +1 health to every city you have (like the Hanging Gardens). It is a national wonder so I can build it at any time. I want to found/capture a few more cities first so that it benefits 9 cities instead of 5.



On the same turn, I made the civics switch I'd been waiting for. I thought I would be able to change civics to slavery as well in one turn but since it pushed the anarchy to 2 turns, I gave it a miss. I'm unlikely to use it very much anyway because population points are a lot more expensive - cities use up a lot more food to grow. So it was just from Vassalage (I'd created an army of 5 Swordsmen already) to Bureaucracy and from Decentralisation to Barter Economy (+15% )




Here's a peek at what's going on in the empire in 390BC. Financial Advisor:



Domestic advisor:



And look at the effect of the Civics change on GNP!



Demographics:



The GNP score looks better now and our is head and shoulders above everyone else.



The barbarian tally just keeps on mounting!

It's 388BC now. My western cities:



All the plantation resources have been connected now.
Note also how the barbarians keep rolling in. You don't want me to cover every battle do you?

After I finish the Lighthouse in the capital:



The unhappiness is high because the city is ungarrisoned. An archer will arrive before the city grows so that is fine. And I'm working the cottage because it is only 3 turns away from turning into a hamlet.

In the next few turns there is a minor threat as a barbarian archer threatens to pillage my iron mine but he is beaten by my own archer at 70% odds. In 385BC I spread my bloodline to Luoyang for reconnaissance reasons. Look at all those swordsmen. I won't be able to take the capital though - the cultural defences are too high but other cities will fall.



continued below

I also found a city in the south. It will be an excellent commerce city when I revolt out of Bureaucracy.



In 384BC, I muck up on micromanagement which means I get to Philosophy 1 turn later than possible. Philosophy leads to two techs which give free great people and also enables the Sun Tzu's Art of War wonder





Hao immediately starts building Sun Tzu's Art of War. Hao is going to be my GP farm because it has high production to build all of the Wonders and also after I switch to the civic that gives +1 food to mines, it will be high in food too.



Then, the last major development in this round. I declare war on Chu to capture his city Yiang. First I capture the worker and next turn there will be two CR2 Swordsmen against one archer.





On the next turn I attack:





And take the city.

I produce my first Galley in 380BC. Galleys are extremely useful in this scenario. They can transport units, travel quickly and bombard cities to bring down defences. They look different too but I think I prefer the new style:



It's the end of ten turns so, Demographics:



We're finally getting somewhere. We should be top in the main three by the halfway point (350BC) More Stats:



And a peek at the domestic advisor:



Thus concludes another chapter. But I can hint at interesting times ahead. I've played the next set of turns already and I feel

Looking forward to your responses (if you have any)

Great stuff Yuming!

Chu should be easy to take care of, and once Wei's finished you're pretty much all there.

Keep up the good stuff!

Great read so far, looking forward to another update!

Good reading. I've always enjoyed China's anchient time history, and this mod has entertained me for quite a while.

I've played the game as Wei, which has advantage of being closed in, so there is no annoying barbs attacking. Also, Wei has Aggresive and Defensive trait, so it's pure militaristic trait, which helps in conquering and defending. I usually don't wait until I am able to build Swordmen or have advantage of advanced tech. Usually, as soon as I can build chariots, I just built lots of them, and attack in numbers. It's hard to win the game by Conquest, let alone Domination. Most of my games, I won by Diplomacy.

Very nice read! I look forward to future installments.

Excellent work Yuming! I belive I'm witnessing the development of a superb writer! Subscribed!

Awsome! I am doing that senerio now ecause i am chinease and i have read your story! It is awsome! Although.... Wei ALWAYS get wars from han! Oh! Once i have 30 Chariots against 3 archerII with 50% flanking each and they all died and the archer got +20 str!

Interedting read, i had doubts clicking the link but i can say this is a good story

"Excellent work Yuming!"

sorry, it is interesting, this is my first forums post, this story looks neat...

Great story, but I want to point out that national wall gives bonus to your borders not to the graphical representation of the wall. So, go ahead, build the wall, no barbarian will ever be able to enter your territory.

ArneHD said:

Great story, but I want to point out that national wall gives bonus to your borders not to the graphical representation of the wall. So, go ahead, build the wall, no barbarian will ever be able to enter your territory.

Click to expand...

However, the population bonus won't affect cities he doesn't have yet. I think that is why he is waiting a bit.

Very entertaining indeed. That way could be Chinese history a lot of fun!
I am looking forward the next update. Thank you!

Thanks for all the comments guys.

I'd just like to say that this thread isn't dead, even though I haven't posted an update in ... over a fortnight, I can't make any promises but I'll try hard to get one done before the end of the month - I'm surprisingly busy at the moment.

Thanks!

I really enjoyed your story, I even dreamed about it taking a nap, maybe because I was reading it 1/2 asleep...maybe because its great work.

I especially like the way the games been adapted to fit into real events, ie resources and states.

Now I'm very light on the history of the period, and I'm enjoying the modding you've done to make it historically more acurate.

One Question, are you able to recieve unlimited experince from barbarians...or are you still limited to the level 3 promotion.

Really great game so far. I will be looking forward to future updates.