Turbulent Winds – Hao and Wei

Toppling the paper tiger kingdom of Shang was easy compared to the task now at hand. The far flung lands need to be united and ruled by a strong, but just, hand. Our new king, Wu Wang, the Son of Heaven, is well suited for the job. As royal administrator of the Zhou capital of Hao, the burden on the King will be eased if you perform well. There are vassals that must be controlled, and rivals usurped. As you guide the development of the city, you should keep a watchful eye on the other cities of the kingdom, particularly Shu. If a hen strays too far from the flock, she must be promptly bought back before becoming lost. Do not hesitate to use the King’s army if the need arises.
As for the capital itself, ornate sculptures should be built to beautify the boulevards of the upper class, and graceful arched bridges used to span the powerful Wei river — a river that at times can be quite unpredictable and dangerous, especially during the Spring rains.

Starts Feb 1051 BCE

$18000 on Normal

Requirements:

  • 1 Allied City
  • 40 in Humble Compounds
  • Rule 3 cities

Humble Compounds hold 15 people each and need

  • Ancestral Shrine
  • Herbalist
  • Tasty Food
  • Hemp
  • Music
  • Ceramics
  • Acrobat
  • Acupuncturist
  • Silk
  • Bronzeware

This is a huge map. The immigrants enter the map from the northeast and it takes a loooonnnngg time for them to get to the houses. Traders come from the same place, so there wont be a quick turn around for your trade goods.

The name of this mission ought to be Grovel and Smile. You have to keep both your vassals happy (they are two of the cities you can count to “rule”) plus conquer one more. And you need an ally. It means a lot of gifts and presents to keep folks on your side.

Now, the map is big, but the designer was a bit demonic and placed rocks and such in all the wrong places. You can try some different layouts, and it would be nice to have the houses closer to the entrance, I agree. But, this is how I did it:

I set up a squarish housing block in the Southeast quadrant and immediately started farming wheat, millet and cabbage. I fed them Bland food as I developed the second Common block, both from the same market. A very small Ceramics industry was set up early, because you need Ceramics to place the Elite houses.

You can see I have the bronze industries (Bronzeware and weaponsmiths) across the river. It is a long way for Qufu to travel to buy Bronzeware, I know. I played it once with a smaller Bronze industry near the entrance selling Bronzeware, and the across the river industry was just for military. The miners must be very independent, because they were crossing the river and working the ore farthest from their Smelters. Go figure.

At least start mining copper ore early. As soon as you have enough workers place the Admin Building so you can build a fort. And you can layout the Elites, and build the Palace. You could put it anywhere, but somehow it always seems right to have it with the rich folks. The Palace lets you build another fort, and fits in with another strategy. You get one more fort for each occupied Lavish Siheyan.

Once you have the Palace, ask one of your Vassals for an animal. When they comply, give everyone on the map an animal. You can see what they trade that way, and get an idea how they feel about you. Get some of them to trade with you, Silk is very prized in the Empire, so plant lots of mulberry trees and hire some weavers.

Keep giving animals and gifts of what the other cities need. Treat your Vassals to animals and gifts, too. And at some point the Gods will not be content anymore, and they will want gifts. If the Gods are angry, floods are possible – the water comes up pretty high on the banks – if you notice, I didn’t build anything near the coast and even avoided water trade. Earthquakes are possible, too. If you get one, check all over the map as damage can be pretty widespread.

Emperor doesn’t allow you to carry over money, so I don’t see much point in having piles of cash. One thing you can do after the tax money starts coming in is to stop selling Silk and just give it away. Give away weapons after you have your forts built. Anything to get allies. You may get rejected several times. If one of the cities makes a request of you, be sure to comply.

So, I had 3 chariot forts and 4 infantry forts and had even called Huang Di to help me go conquer a city. I had asked 2 cities at the same time to be allies and they both agreed. After another gift, I ask BOTH of them to attack the intended victim. While I was waiting to see if they would attack for me, I sent a spy to sabotage the military in the unlucky city.

I figured they wouldn’t be successful in the attack, but it would soften up old Shu (they were just disagreeable all during the mission, so that’s why I picked them). I was going to take my armies and Huang Di and deliver the final blow.

But one or both of them conquered Shu for me. Now, maybe I didn’t even need to build all those forts, but I think I got two cities to ally with me because I was powerful. Who knows?

  • Finished May 1043
  • 2 allies
  • 165 in Humble Compounds
  • Pop 3153
  • $20,016
  • 8 animals

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