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Campaigns » Servant of the White Lotus - Singleplayer Campaign
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Servant of the White Lotus - Singleplayer Campaign
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Author |
File Description |
Gweilo2 |
Posted on 12/13/11 @ 05:44 PM (updated 02/04/12)
File Details |
Age: |
Steel |
# of Episodes: |
5 |
# of Cities: |
3 |
Difficulty: |
Very Hard |
Custom Maps: |
Yes |
Minimap:
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The White Lotus was a Buddhist sect that secretly worked against the Yuan dynasty during the 14th century CE. The White Lotus aided several rebellions over the years, including the famous Red Turban rebellion, which was eventually successful in overthrowing the Yuan.
This campaign will immerse you in the historic events of the Red Turban rebellion from the unique perspective of an active participant. Openly, you are only a humble Buddhist monk, striving to follow The Way. Secretly, you are an agent provocateur of the White Lotus, assigned to build new monasteries to spread the rebellion. This will prove to be a dangerous journey! Be prepared to deal with everything from the Black Death to angry Mongol warriors!
A player will interact with 9 cities (6 historically-accurate). Resources, commodities, and available structures follow the Emperor model for the Steel Age. This campaign features three new custom maps. Sabotage by spies has been disallowed for this campaign, although spies can still be used for information gathering.
The download zip file contains an extra file named 'SOWL_Readme.txt'. This text file contains installation instructions, historical background information, campaign design notes, general play tips, and mission hints (warning: contains spoilers). Additionally, other hints are available by viewing the album of playtest screenshots in the Emperor Heaven gallery.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This campaign is rated 'Very Hard', and is designed to provide a solid challenge for advanced players. For the best play experience, a player should possess an advanced understanding of time-constrained missions, money management, combat and military operations, trading, labor allocation, monument construction, summoning and using the Heroes, meeting production goals, and empire-map diplomacy.
Missions Teasers (note: the first four missions have a time-limit)
Mission 1 - 'Refuge from the Three Hells' - survive 7 years, from 1344 CE to the end of 1350 CE
Mission 2 - 'Spies of the White Lotus' - survive 9 years, from 1351 CE to the end of 1359 CE
Mission 3 - 'Dangerous Guanxi' - survive 4 years, from 1360 CE to the end of 1363 CE
Mission 4 - 'Magnificent Monks of the Ming' - survive 7 years, from 1364 CE to the end of 1370 CE
Mission 5 - 'Ascension to Heaven' - no time limit, starts in 1371 CE |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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SeaWorld |
Posted on 01/02/12 @ 11:56 AM
You are a HERO... Absolutely stunning
Playability: 5
Brace yourselves this turns out to be hectic... Everything has to happen at the exact moment. Watch out for M1, 2 and 3 city design is imperative. (follow the screen shots they work)
Balance: 5
Stunning, all ministries are of utmost importance... Heroes are needed regularly.
Creativity: 5
Very clever, Logistics, micro management, routing, multiple levels... speechless
Map Design: 5
Wow...
Story/Instructions: 5
Draws you in completely... book days off work to get this right...
Gwielo, thanks to you and the team. Worked like a bomb... Timelimits still get a little stressful but worth replaying.
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LucullusMaximus |
Posted on 02/04/12 @ 03:09 PM
Playability: 5
if the number of restarts you do during the campaign is a measure of playability, it can not be anything but the highest score. And in many ways, it is precisely this factor that determines whether a campaign is good or bad.Every failure made me more determined. There must be a way to get through this, and it was. All it took was blood, sweat, tears and maybe a minor stroke.
Balance: 5
You have given us space managment challenges in many of your previous campaigns, but this one tops them all. Then remove the taxes and add some military action in the pot, and you get a challenge unprecedented in emperor. If you have recently started playing emperor, and perhaps just finished the core game, and stumbles upon this campaign, be aware of this. Gweilo is not kidding about the grading "very hard". But if you manage to finish this campaign as a beginner, give yourself a big pat on the back. You have just completed one of the toughest challenges you can find here.
Creativity: 5
I will let my rating speak for itself. Otherwise I could start a novel about this section.
Map Design: 5
Map design taken to new level. I am a square housing block builder, and had a hard time to adapt. And if you want to achieve perfect feng-shui, be careful. Remove a single tree in the wrong place and it can not be achieved.
Story/Instructions: 5
As usual, top marks for this section.
Additional Comments:
I think I found a small glitch. In Mission 5 the great temple was not added to the victory conditions. And I guess that means you can tear it down and replace it with the clock-tower. I could never bring myself to tare down any monument, but given the space challenge on the Feng map, I could understand anyone who does. Was that intentional?
I just wonder how you are gonna top this one in the future, but I hope you try.[Edited on 02/04/12 @ 03:12 PM]
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Beijing Tag |
Posted on 10/13/17 @ 10:35 PM
Playability: 4
Thoroughly enjoyed all five missions. The reason why not a "5" is not any defect in the campaign, more that unless the player is aiming for perfect (or near perfect) feng shui then they may not appreciate the complexity of the challenges here.
Balance: 4
This campaign emphasizes space management, feng shui, trading & money management plus creative layouts. Not one for combat bunnies, elite block placers, standard layouts or tricky objectives (such as produce x haunches of game with tigers running around).
Creativity: 5
Often in a campaign a map/city revisited requires not much more than a polish - M3 to M4 is a fun example of that. But the M1 to M5 return here is very innovative. Space/layout decisions made in M1 can restrict options for M5 - I regretted boshing so many trees in placing walls to enhance desirability, definitely over did it. Lesson in judiciousness learnt!
Map Design: 5
As ever in Gweilo's campaigns, they were natural looking, well featured and allowed for a variety of build strategies. M2 perhaps the most beautiful map, M5 probably the trickiest given space limitations.
Story/Instructions: 5
Excellent - story rooted in the actual events of the Red Turban rebellion which energized this player to find out more about this historical series of events.
Additional Comments:
A very challenging campaign which I really enjoyed, especially the revisit to Feng (M5). Essentially for White Lotus the maps are the campaign - which is why this campaign may not appeal to all players. As Gweilo mentioned previously, some of his campaigns are epic in nature and they will have something for everyone. A campaign like White Lotus is more selective in the selection of challenges offered, but the selections offered are to the nth degree. Bravo!
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Pikestaff |
Posted on 03/02/22 @ 10:20 AM
Playability: 5
A really absorbing campaign with a premium on puzzle solving, getting the design right on some challenging maps, and trade. Feng is exceptionally challenging if you are aiming for perfect FS in both missions.
Balance: 4
Playing the game at Hard, missions 1-3 are perfectly balanced with interest and challenge sustained throughout. With good preparation and planning in mission 3, mission 4 is perhaps a little easy, Likewise, mission 5 (after the first year) holds no great challenge if well planned in mission 1. It might be a different story on VH!
Creativity: 5
Really quite cunning and good looking too.
Map Design: 5
First rate as always from Gweilo.
Story/Instructions: 5
Ditto.
Additional Comments:
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.9 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.8 | Balance | 4.5 | Creativity | 5.0 | Map Design | 5.0 | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 4,000 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 908.52 KB |
Added: | 12/13/11 |
Updated: | 02/04/12 |
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