Turns: The most important aspect of the nes timewise is seasons, and as such, turns are divided between Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. The seasons are further divided between Early Spring, Late Spring, Early Summer, Mid Summer, Late Summer, Fall, Early Winter, and Late Winter. So this would mean Turn One is Spring, Turn Two is Summer, Turn 3 is Fall, Turn 4 is Winter, but one will want to take each aspect of the season in account for their orders.
Early Spring: Early Spring is the turn when planting occurs. One would suggest having a sizable amount of manpower available in your provinces.
Late Spring: Late Spring is an ideal time for recruitment, with large amounts of manpower no longer needed for planting season.
Early Summer: Early Summer is the ideal time for disaster to strike. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t. Be on guard though if you intend to do something.
Mid Summer: Mid Summer is when the harvest is ready. A player may use their soldiers to use as field labor during the harvest if they so wish.
Late Summer; Late Summer is when the harvest is fully complete, and when tribute must be offered to the Emperor. For the Emperor, this is when taxes will be arriving at court. A high amount of manpower working in late
Fall: Fall is when food is going to be stored. No Food will be grown during this turn. Fall is an ideal time to turn Resources into Supplies.
Early Winter: Early Winter, no food is being grown. In addition, any armies in the field will move more slowly and will suffer attrition.
Late Winter: In Late Winter, one can prepare for planting season. In addition, any armies in the field will move more slowly and will suffer attrition.
Your Family: Your family is perhaps the most important aspect of this game, and one must always be sure to keep an eye on your families well being. Let’s break it down, shall we?
The Head of the Family: The Head of the Family is the one who makes the decisions of the family, and is who you personally are playing as. The Head of Family is the ONLY character you control fully and completely. The Head of the Family is the nominal liege of all members of your family, and the family will always be loyal to you over any outsider. However, that is not to say your position is necessarily secure. Jealous brothers and uncles, scheming mothers and sisters, and in laws seeking to move in on the family will all be threats, especially to a new family head. If you’re not careful, you may have a new head of family sooner than you expected.
Expected Heir: Who the heir to be your next head of family is. While it is expected for your eldest son to become the head, other family members might not be so compliant. Uncles and brothers will contest you, and if the head had children with multiple wives, the other mothers may try machinations of their own. Whenever your head dies, be prepared for a power struggle.
Inter Family Relations: In the family, while not always the case, there is a general rule of thumb between family members. Sons and daughters are always loyal to their fathers, no matter what the case is. They will stand by him until his death. Brothers are protective of their sisters, and will generally assist their husbands in times of war as needed. Mothers are fiercely protective of their children first and foremost, and will do whatever it takes to ensure their children are in power, even if its at the cost of their husbands. This is especially prevalent in families where the Head has more than one wife. Brothers of course, will be fighting one another to ensure that they are the chosen heir, and their disputes can be quite bitter.
Retinue: Aside from the great men, your family may have other attendants that are employed by your family. To create a Retinue member, you must simply pay a cost of 15 gold, and a new member will be “created”, with randomly rolled stats and traits. From there, you may give them a salary and a job, be it a diplomat, general, governor, spy, or anything in between. While Retinue members are useful, especially if you have many holdings and armies and not enough family members, or if you have incompetent family members, just keep in mind that while Retinue members are useful, they are not nearly as loyal as your Family members. Long time employed members will, of course, develop a sense of loyalty to the family, but if you replace them, demote them, or otherwise diminish their fortunes, they will remember that.
Roles: So the question you might have is “What do my family members do?”. It’s a valid question, and one that must be addressed. The roles that you give your family members will have an effect on their opinion of you. The main roles you can give your family members are General, Diplomat, Spy, and Governor. Women can be any of these roles, except for the General role.
Growing and Raising your Family: One of the most important parts of this nes is ensuring that your family grows and survives throughout the era, and a part of this is growing and raising your family. Keep the following things in mind
Marriage: The first step to raising any family, marriage is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the game. One will seek to marry the daughter of a powerful family that you wish to ally with, as Marriage alliances are one of the stronger bonds that can be forged. However, one will also seek to marry a daughter that has higher stats and positive traits to ensure strong offspring. If the two of them are in the same province, they will attempt to produce a child generally, though exceptions may occur (such as the Ugly trait).
Raising a Child: At age 6, your child will begin to develop traits. This will be influenced not only by their parentage, but who their guardian is. You may choose any character in the game to be that child’s guardian, however, if you send your child to another family, keep in mind that you will NOT be able to declare war on that family, as they host your child as a hostage.
Province Stats
Name: Shanxi
Capital: Xi’an
Governor: Zhang Hui
Revolt Risk:
Food Produced/Consumed/Stored: 400/120/40
Resources Produced: 200
Gold Taxed/Rate: 200/High
Garrison: 3 Companies of Light Infantry, 1 Company of Archers
Maintenence: X Food, X Gold, X Supplies
Fortification: Walls
Name: The Province name .
Capital: The capital of the province, and where the governor’s residence is.
Governor: The governor of the province. A province must have a governor to collect taxes, store food, collect resources, and make supplies. A governor’s traits will affect how the province does in terms of this, and a governor’s intelligence rating will modify the rankings of the province.
Revolt Risk: The risk of the province revolting. A popular governor, plenty of food, low taxes, and a military presence will lower revolt risk. An unpopular governor, little food, high taxes, and a lack of military presence will increase revolt risk.
Army Stats:
Army of Li Bao
Leader: Li Bao
Others: Xin Zhao, Li San
Units: 16 Companies of Light Infantry, 8 Companies of Archers, 3 Companies of Heavy Infantry, 4 Companies of Light Cavalry
Maintenance: X gold, X food, X Supplies
Army Discipline: 50%
Army Morale: 40%
Status: Encamped
Location: Xi’an, Shanxi
Army Name: The name of your army. While you can name it as you wish, we ask that you keep it in character. If not, it will default to “Army of [Leader]”
Leader: The leader of your Army. The Army will be affected most by the stats and traits of the leader.
Others: Other key figures within the army, they do affect the status of the armies but to a lesser degree than the leader. You may assign them to certain portions of your force if you so wish to carry out specific tasks they may be suited for. A word of warning, characters will generally chafe if they serve under someone that has less prestige than they do, even if they are surpassed in martial skill or cunning.
Units:
Light Infantry- Light Infantry are equipped with pikes, small shields, and a bit of light armor.They serve well in situations like ambushes and in rough terrain. It costs 10 gold to recruit and train them, and 2 gold, 2 food, and 2 supplies per turn to maintain.
Heavy Infantry-Heavy Infantry are equipped with swords, pikes, and heavier armor. They serve well as the center of your army and perform well in flat terrain, but are less viable in forests and hills. They cost 13 gold to recruit and train, and 4 gold, 3 food, and 4 supplies per turn to maintain.
Archers-Archers are equipped with crossbows, bolts, and light cloth armor. One would take note that having large contingents of archers is useful to have, but one also needs melee forces to help defend their archers. They cost 15 gold to recruit and train, and 5 gold, 5 food, and 3 supplies to maintain.
Light Cavalry: Light Cavalry will be equipped with spears and light armor, making them fast and dangerous to archers and light infantry, but susceptible in head to head battles against heavy infantry and heavy cavalry. and 20 gold to recruit and train, and 12 gold, 12 food, and 6 supplies to maintain.
Heavy Cavalry: 23 gold to recruit and train, and 10 gold, 14 food, and 7 supplies to maintain.
Siegecraft: Siegecraft REQUIRES NO DRILLING TIME. Siege craft takes one turn to produce and can be used the following turn. They will include rams, ladders, and ballistae. Siegecraft is necessary to break down the heavier walls that surround the powerful cities, and will cost 30 supplies to create, and 12 supplies to maintain.
Recruitment: To recruit soldiers for your army, simply go to a province you control, and state how many men you want for your military. Be careful to balance between how many men you want for your army and the labor demands of the province, or you may find yourself in a dire situation. It costs X gold to recruit 1 manpower’s worth of peasants.
Drilling: Once you’ve recruited your men, you now have the option of drilling them into trained soldiers. It takes three full seasons to drill men into fully trained soldiers, though some characters or retainers have traits that will speed up their training (or lengthen it!) While you can choose to shorten their training time, or even skip it altogether, instead of being trained men you will have scared peasants that will break and run at the first sign of trouble. Emergencies may necessitate this though.
Maintenance: Every season, your soldiers are going to need upkeep. This includes a gold cost, a supply cost, and a food cost. If your soldiers are garrisoned in a town or city, the maintenance cost is cut in half.
Army Discipline and Morale: Army Discipline and Army Morale are two incredibly important stats.
Status: The Status of the Army. Encamped, On the March, In Retreat, Besieging, Or Besieged. Each of these statuses has an effect on your Army morale, for better or worse.
Location: Where your Army is located
