City States of Shang – Walls of Zhengzhou

At the solemn request of our new King, the Royal Geomancer has determined that the new capital of the Shang Dynasty is to be at a site that shall henceforth be known as Zhengzhou. It will be located on a hill overlooking the river. To ensure the security of the city, engineers have already been at work on the city’s fortifications. Use the guildlines of Feng Shui to help locate an appropriate site for the King’s palace, establish an elite neighborhood of lavish Siheyuans, and designate one or two wards for common citizens.
Bales of hemp must be procured though trade, as it cannot be grown here. Fortunately, there are other cities looking for wood and ceramics. A ferry will provide access to the abundant deposits of copper ore on the far side of the river. The bronze will be of use not only for bronzeware, but also for weapons. Begin training and equipping some infantry without undue delay. You just might need them as barbarians covet the riches of our land.

Starts Feb 1501 BCE

$12,000 on Normal

Requirements:

  • 20 in Modest Siheyuan
  • 1 ally
  • Population of 1300

Modest Siheyuan hold 5 people each and require nothing special in the beginning

Here is your first mission in a walled city, if you are playing the campaign in order. I found it a bit intimidating at first to plan a city inside the walls. What if there isn’t enough room? Be assured, there is plenty of room.

Looking around the map and checking what is available, you will see you can farm three crops, grow mulberries and weave Silk. You can mine for copper ore across the river, make Bronzeware and Ceramics, in addition to fish and cut logs. You could carve Jade if you had some, but you don’t.

In the mission briefing there are several references to building up your military and being prepared to defend the city. After all, someone went to all the trouble to build those walls and gates. Me, I hate fighting so my strategy was to deliberately ignore those warnings, and build neither forts nor soldiers. I planned to make pots of money and bribe my way out if I had to.

With that in mind, let’s get started. If you look at the Spy map, you can see by the color of the fields that some are more fertile than others. Light green, fading to tan indicates less fertility. So, the fields in the Northwest just outside the walls won’t produce as much as others. All of the open areas near the river look good, as well as the area behind the city wall on the Southeast side. Remember that.

So here is how I set my city up. First, I found a little ramp down from the city plateau to the lower area on the Southwest side of the wall. Drag a road up to the city wall, knock out a section of wall and a few trees and place a new City Gate. This is the gate the farmers will bring the produce in. Extend that new road inside the city to the existing main road.

I laid out one rectangular block for common houses in the Northeast quadrant. Here is a nice trick. You have Grand Ways under the Aesthetic tab in this mission. Improve your roads with the Grand Ways and you will have plenty of desirability to evolve the houses.

The population requirement is only 1300. Spacious Dwellings hold 41 people each and need Plain food, basic infrastructure and Music to evolve. One block is plenty. Remember, you have no local source of Hemp; it all has to be imported. The more population you have, the more dependent you are on that Hemp.

After building 2 farms with multiple crops down on the plain, I set my Mill on my new road inside the walls. The Market Square went across the existing main road. The Elites will go behind it along the inside wall in that Northwest quadrant.

OK, you have your block laid out, some food planted and we need to make a lot of money really fast. Keep an eye on the crops and feed them Bland food when you have enough, and increase that to Plain when you plan to give them Hemp. Don’t forget the Ancestral Shrine and Herbalist.

Early the first year, you will receive notice that Bo wants to trade. This is good, they buy Bronzeware, which can bring in quite a sum. Build a ferry from the shore in the Southeast over to the Copper area. One smelter to start, but increase that to at least 3 as the years pass and you have the workers. The cart guys are going to bring the raw copper across the river and take it straight to the Bronzework shops. No need to have an intermediate stop in a warehouse.

Find some good Feng Shui areas along the shore near the ferry for the Bronzeworkers and the clay pits. Later you can add Ceramics makers in the same area. Again, let them take the raw materials right to the shops.

Take a look at the fields just outside the walls above this industrial area. This is a good place to grow your mulberry trees. Clear out the existing road and squash in 3 sheds and the trees. Leave a bit of room along the road into the city for the weavers.

After the trees were planted I had a bit of Bronzeware to sell to Bo. I put the Trading Post outside the wall, across from my weavers and set it to selling Bronzeware and importing Hemp. It was finally necessary to build a warehouse, so I made one to receive my new Silk and later Ceramics in that same area.

When you have some Hemp imported (and I waited until I had the whole year’s 12) place a Hemp vendor in the Market Square. He will walk all the way to the Trading Post and buy the Hemp, no need to move it inside to a warehouse. Once the houses fill up, give them some Music and get a new wave of immigrants to put to work.

Now, you should have been steadily increasing the size of the work force and expanding the industries. There is an early request for Silk, so you want to meet that before you start selling all you have.

Give some small gifts to the other cities on the map. You will find at least one other city that will buy your Bronzeware, you can sell Wheat, Wood, Ceramics and Cabbage. I didn’t trade with the Nomads, because sometimes they are mean, but I suspect they have the Jade. But the big money makers are the Bronzeware, Silk and Ceramics.

After you get your population requirement of 1300, place the four Elite houses on a road with Grand Ways. You might have to put some gardens in the back for desirability. As soon as they are occupied they are Modest Siheyuans. They come with a bit of food, lots of hemp and ceramics. Other than an Inspector walking by, they don’t need anything until they run out, and that takes a long time. I added the Administrative City and a Tax Office, just because I needed to put some folks to work.

If you keep your trading partners happy with occasional gifts of what they buy, one will surely show up as Agreeable. That is a good time to ask about an Alliance.

My objective was to complete the mission before any military was needed. Rumor has it you will get nasty notes about impending invasions starting in year 4. If you aren’t done by then, expect to pay a hefty bribe to be left alone. You should have plenty of money for that.

  • Finished Dec 1498
  • 1496 population
  • $16,265

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