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Han campaign at Very Hard

by Merepatra

How the mighty have fallen! When one rules with an unjust iron hand, it quickly rusts and withers away. Thus is ended the oppressive rule of the short-lived Qin Dynasty. Though they gathered up and bound the many quarrelsome states of our land into a unified whole, their methods were too harsh. Their Mandate from Heaven has been lost! The people have thrown off the heavy shackles of Qin and now embrace the humble Liu Bang, recently crowned Gaodi, Son of Heaven and King of Han.

I played the Han campaign at Very Hard. While costs are higher and start up money is lower at Very Hard the thing that has the biggest impact in my opinion is the difference it makes to the way other cities feel about and interact with you. Cities that will ignore you at Normal will invade you at Very Hard for example. This means the missions can play very differently at this level and it really adds to the challenge of the game.

As to how I play, generally I am a fairly fast player in terms of game years. I think I'm better at economics than being a general so will usually bribe when given the option if I can possibly afford it, but at Very Hard bribes are double what they are at Normal so it often isn't an option. I like efficient cities, but I also like pretty cities so will sometimes "waste" quite a bit of money on extra beautification, particularly if the mission doesn't have a Treasury goal. I do consider Feng Shui, but in this campaign I didn't particularly try for Perfect Feng Shui, being content with Harmonious Balance most of the time.