Xianyang by Baltic – Very Hard

The First Emperor’s City

As was foreseen by the sages, the might of the forces of Qin was irresistible. Following the fall of the ignoble kingdom of Han, the states of Zhao, Wei and the once-powerful Shu also succumbed. Now for the first time, from north of the great Yellow river to south of the wide Yangzi, all civilized people bow low to the Tiger of Qin, King Zheng, son of Zhuang Xiang of Qin. Our triumphant leader, to properly set himself above other mere kings and princes, has taken the befitting title of Shi Huangdi, or First Emperor.
A glittering new capital is needed and a Grand Palace for our noble emperor. An impressive new road, the Imperial Way, will be an excellent choice for the royal ward an upper class neighborhoods. Our exalted emperor no doubt has many great projects in mind for his capital that he has not yet told us of, so do not squander the land and its resources!

City – Xianyang
Starts Feb 221 BCE
18400 starting cash on Very Hard

Requirements:

  • Large Palace must be built
  • 200 people in Impressive Compound or better

This is almost pure building mission, everybody is friendly to you even at VH difficulty. The only exception are Nomad camps, who may attack you if you play for too long and don’t build an army. I sent a few spies there once they went to Hostile, to sabotage military, and quickly knocked their shields down from 3 to 1 – that could have helped to maintain peace, too.

Most cities will ally with you during the first year, so you don’t need to send any emissaries early on. Shu will declare itself vassal and almost immediately rebels – although rebelling, they still continue to trade with you (this will probably change after the patch). Info says, that a proper gift could end the rebellion… well, I sent them a medium gift of ceramics two times, without success. I didn’t try to send troops there to quell rebellion, but I suppose that would be easier way once you have a nice army. Iron can only be imported (12 per year from Anyi); I started imports at once, and imported full quota every year. Later, when Huanxian was attacked by Nomad camps and asked for help, my troops brought some weapons back from the battle (at least that’s what I think, because about that time I suddenly realized the weapon warehouse was full)… although they were defeated. Huanxian is very important, it is the only city that will sell you stone (you need 1 stone to finish the Emperor’s palace). I made the mistake of not opening trade with this city in time, and then had to wait for a few months, with palace almost completed.

This city had the longest design phase yet. I understood from the briefing, that I will come back to this city later… and that I will need lots of space or other resources. Fine, that means I may need lots of workers as well, so this city should be ready to grow. Finally I settled on a solution of 2 twin-blocks and one mill (by twin-block I mean 2 blocks connected by Grand market). Not all of them will be built during this mission, but I wanted to make sure that the room will be reserved for them, so that I can build quickly when necessary. Perfect harmony can be quite challenging in such situation and only after some unfruitful attempts I found a solution, how to patrol the mill/warehouse area and markets efficiently. Inspectors make rounds also through both markets, guard patrols only the storage area – and it only requires 1 upgraded building of each type. That leaves more room for warehouses and other earth-related buildings.

All food (5) and hemp (2) farms are in one area; mulberry trees grow mainly in the area across the river. There are several production areas – one between two of the housing blocks (ceramics, lacquerware, 2 weavers, wood); one near the trading quay (weavers for export – Linzi buys 24 silk), and third in the North, where wood and weapons are produced. There is also a mint near copper deposits, and some woodcutters near the monument construction site. You can export a lot – silk, lacquerware, ceramics – it is up to you to decide what to export to which city. Everything depends on design. For example, trading post with Anyi was near the mill (salt and iron imports – weapon makers and forts are nearby), so it never exported much silk. However, I was able to sell them at least some regularly; everything that could not be deposited in a warehouse when getting silk from production area, ended up in the trading post.

Are you curious about the monument? Well, it is Emperor’s palace, and I decided that it needs to be well away from the hurrying, busy and noisy lower classes. I tried several places, and in the end built the palace on the central “island” in South. I have yet to decide, what else to build there when I come back to this city… maybe another monument, maybe some elite housing.

I like animals and I always have as many as possible in the palace menagerie. This time I was extremely successful. After receiving my first animal for free, I started sending animals everywhere and ended up with 8 of them in my palace (including a Vulture that I received as a New Year gift). It wasn’t a goal, but I can’t resist the temptation to build a zoo – and anyway, who knows what will be required from me next time?

Result:

  • June 215 BCE
  • treasury 23732 cash
  • population 4010
  • 220 people in 11 Impressive Compounds
  • perfect harmony

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