Lingshou by Baltic – Hard

Turbulent Winds – King Cuo’s Temple

At Lingshou, in the small Kingdom of Zhongshan, the local warlord, King Cuo, has financed a Grand Temple Complex, and he has hired you to see the project through to completion. To finish this monument, you’ll need to import stone from either Loyi or Qufu, but first their favor must be won. Impressive gifts of shiny new lacquerware, to replace their tarnished and aging bronzeware, will no doubt help to win some favor.
The Daoist philosophy has taken firmer root. If you build a Daoist Temple and pay homage to Xi Wang Mu, the Queen Mother of the West, perhaps she will grace the city. Her mere presence will often help to hurry the hands of monument workers. The esteemed Mencius is also roaming the lands; his benefits on trade and commerce should not be overlooked.

Starts Feb 317 BCE

$17,000 Hard

Requirements:

  • Grand Temple Complex
  • Produce 18 Lacquerware in one year
  • 3 animals in Menagerie
  • 12 months of Heroes

Final mission of the Zhou dynasty, introducing lacquerware and catapult fort. You won’t need the latter yet, but the new wares are both needed to win (production goal) and a good source of income. Remember that you will need to supply the wares maker with wood! As usual, you start the game with trade routes to Anyang and Qufu open, but this time you have no jade carvers. BTW, as soon as you build Administrative city, Mint appears on your buildings menu – without any warning. I found out only from Gustavia’s walkthrough, after the game was over, so you won’t find the mint in my city.

There were no military actions in this mission, not even after I ignored the request for millet from Handan. Weapons and iron can be sold, if you wish to – I used weapons to staff 4 forts and some iron as homage and gifts to rival cities. Real money-maker is silk and lacquerware, aside from that I was selling only ceramics. The only things I imported were food: rice, fish and salt, and the stone you need to complete the monument. Stone is needed in the very last stage of construction and the amount you need can be imported during one year, so there is no use in hurrying stone imports.

I decided not to lose any time, to see how quickly I can finish this mission on my first try. I started woodcutting and monument construction early, at the end of the first year the entire first portion of wood (12 loads) was on site and carpenters were busily hammering on it. There were 4 food farms (off for winter), 1 hemp farm, ceramics industry was slowly starting and I was busy planting mulberry and lacquer trees – in November, first loads of lacquerware and silk were stored in city warehouses.

At the beginning of the second year, population of the city was 890 and soon it reached 1000. Of course the wages were set to High to get more workers, and I was often checking employment figures and taking necessary measures – switching individual buildings off and on, setting priorities etc. In November of second year city had 2000 inhabitants and so to say, everything was in place. There were no government buildings, trade stations or forts yet, and the number of industries and kept growing slowly throughout the entire mission, but the general layout didn’t change anymore.

During the third year people could celebrate several major changes: market began to distribute Appetizing food and ceramics (all houses became Ornate Apts.), for the first time the city had trade income, Administrative city and Palace were built, first festival was held at the end of this year. On the other hand, it was also the first year they had to pay taxes :-).

OK, now back to the monument. Though I didn’t measure the effectivity, it seems that 4 labor camps and 3 of each artisan guild are about the right number if you want to proceed with construction without unnecessary delays. The nearer you build them to the entrance of the monument, the better. I was a bit limited by the feng shui – selfimposed rules don’t allow me to build anything in an inauspicious position, if it can be avoided (exception would be e.g. fort in a military mission, if there is no harmonious location); otherwise I would probably add at least one more labor camp.

All in all, the construction was proceeding smoothly and I started to wonder where to get the animals. A gift of much needed lacquerware influenced the ruler of Qufu positively and I saw that now I can request an animal from them… so I did, and soon, emissary from Qufu brought me a Pheasant. It had to be a whole family of birds, because I was able to send it as a gift to several cities immediately. Some of the cities “sorely needed a Pheasant” and one of them (Shu) sent me a wild pig in return a bit later. In fact, I managed to send them some iron in between… but I’m not sure whether that helped.

Having sent the pig to several cities, too, I soon was granted more animals – Gobi bear, panda and antelope, making a total of 5 animals in my menagerie. At that time, it was already the year 312 and the temple complex was almost complete. Maybe Xi Wang Mu helped to shorten the construction time; she was in the city for the last 29 months without interruption.

  • Finished Oct 312 BCE
  • Pop 3310
  • 5 animals
  • 29 months heroes
  • lacquerware per year – 42
  • $31,398
  • Feng Shui: Perfect harmony

Since this city has everything it needs, it would be a pity not to build a nice elite block. Mine was of 8 Impressive Compounds mixed with normal houses; I like it more that way than to make isolated area of just elite houses (that’s what I did as a rule in Caesar and Pharaoh, but then it was almost inevitable if the city was to be stable – now you are free to choose). The entire city is located near entry point, so that the immigration is faster; both housing blocks are connected by a grand market with adjacent mill. To the North is Temple complex with Palace and orchards, the only distant developed areas are farmland on the irrigatable peninsula and iron production area near the deposits. All four forts are in the middle of the map.

Well, so that was Zhou campaign at Hard difficulty… very nice, I like this game more and more as I proceed through the career. Hmmm… but now I should try some other campaign at Very Hard, for a real challenge. Stay tuned, more walkthroughs will be coming soon!

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