SUMMARY: A plan covering most of Imperial Chinese history and surrounding civilizations, including Goguryeo, Tibetans, Qara Khitai, Dali, Xianbei, Di, and even with several Korean and some Persian campaigns planned.
The Sinosphere, depending on the specifics, can cover a larger area than non-Russian Europe and the peri-Mediterranean region put together, and has more geographic diversity (adding jungles to the mix). So… where are all the civs and campaigns?
The “period splits bad” argument will not fly with me when Goths, Vikings and Teutons (i.e. generic late Germanics) have coexisted for 25 years in-game already.
Before we begin, I am aware this is extremely high-effort for what is basically an angry reaction to 3K.
WARNING: MEDIUM-LONG (intro), or DEATHLY LONG (sections) READ. (Assuming Silliness, Madness, and Death lie beyond “Extremely Long”)
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
The current Chinese civ would be relabelled as “Chinese-Classic”.
There are plenty of folks who are vocally fine and vocally not-fine with the 3K DLC. Most of the complaints from the Chinese side (NGA forums) are not so much disgust as fatigue, as in “oh, this AGAIN…”
How can we get more money out of the Chinese gamer market, revealed to be enormous by Black Myth: Wukong? The main body of this group of gamers grew up with games such as Red Alert 2 and Age of Empires 2, and many would gladly indulge in childhood memories by buying more AOE2 content. However, Three Kingdoms fatigue is a real thing in China, which means…
I believe it would be a much larger market grab in China to publish DLCs that cover actual Chinese history! Therefore, I went and made this outline as an advisory on what sorts of timeframes and campaigns can be covered within the Sinosphere (or the Mongol Empire’s reach). I will post the civ concepts for each civ in this outline in more detail at a later date.
I am aware that the Warring States were the last time China actually had Feudalism, and with its massive-scale siege warfare could in fact fit in AOE2. That being said, it’s much easier to start with the Han Empire for the first (and perhaps only) fully-pre-Cavalry Triad (Chinese name for High-Bridge Saddles + Stirrups + Horseshoes, once you have the first two you can field true heavy cavalry, and with horseshoes you vastly reduce horse attrition) civ. If we wanted, we can push things back to the Warring States and AOE2’s mechanics and basic unit range would still hold up just fine.
This way we absolutely don’t need to massively handwave the way the developers did for the American civs, who at most had some Bronze Age material science, not even Iron Age. Also, I won’t use any ridiculous-but-historically-accurate civ bonuses (i.e. starting in Feudal Age) because I’ll assume multiplayer games represent outposts of each civ arriving in a region and setting up, receiving more tech and support from back home as they develop. AOE3 basically made that view of things canon anyhow, so it’s not so absurd here.
Goal is for each installment to be between 6 and 9 items (turns out I got it to the narrow range of 7-9). One new civ, one campaign or one scenario collection is counted as one item (unless the scenario collection becomes particularly enormous).
1: Celestial Empire / 天有星汉 (8 items)
An early Chinese name for the Milky Way was 星汉 or Celestial Han, and the Han River, from which Liu Bang’s polity drew its name, was named for similar direction, ergo “Celestial Empire”.
New Factions:
Great Han—No knight line due to lack of Cavalry Triad, but has Camels (disabled for parts of campaign) due to control of the Western Regions and Silk Road.
Campaigns:
Modu Chanyu / 冒顿单于 (Play as Huns during unification, knight line disabled, probably raid the Han dynasty in last two scenarios)
We Too May Go / 寇可往，我亦可往 (Mainly Han Wudi’s time, the first time that heavy cavalry was historically deployed in numbers over 100,000 on a single campaign, but also covers some later battles in the Western Han-Xiongnu wars)
South to the Sea / 南至大海—Play as Han in the southern expansion campaigns (maybe a last scenario reviewing international trade across the South China Sea and suppressing pirates or something). We may have to use Vietnamese to represent Minyue and Nanyue factions. Yue (Viet in Vietnamese) is a character originating as a pictogram of “refugee fleeing war”. In pre-Western-colonization historiography, Vietnamese rulers claimed descent of governance and culture from the Nanyue. Recently, they have begun drawing boundaries to maintain independence (like how Canadians identify as “Not USAns”)
Head West, Young Man / 开拓西域 — Exactly what it says on in the title.
Red vs Green / 绿林赤眉 — Liu Xiu’s path to being Emperor, Battle of Kunyang as probably the second campaign battle if 6 missions as usual.
Inscription of Yanran / 勒石燕然 (Eastern Han-Xiongnu wars, includes retaking the Western Regions)
Scenario Collection:
An Empire Under the Sun / 凡日月所照，川河所至 includes (not limited to):
Battle of Baideng as Liu Bang’s defending force on a timed defence mission. As the reinforcements approach, Modu Chanyu uses the excuse of being convinced by his favoured concubine to retreat with dignity intact.
Rebellion of the Seven States / 七国之乱 was enough of a clown show that it’s a scenario, not a campaign.
Journeys of Zhang Qian (may be two scenarios)
Conquest of Wiman Joseon
Trung rebellion (playing as Vietnamese, portraying the early successes)
NOTES: The Xiongnu were, at the time, probably pronounced Hunnu, and were the ancestors of the Huns, so we know what the factions used look like. The problem here lies in characterizing the Han Empire… because while its foot formations were mostly mass-produced crossbows, it also enjoyed a large tech superiority in its ability to mass-produce infantry armour and equip heavy cavalry (well, as heavy as could be had before stirrup, horseshoe, and improved saddles), as portrayed in Civilization III where the Chinese Rider unique unit can be overwhelming. UU probably Dahan Tieqi/大汉铁骑, meaning Great Han Armored Cavalry, with no knight or lancer lines (also trains at stable after a stable tech enabling it). It would be an earlier, cheaper, weaker unit compared knights, and the Elite version would most likely be weaker than Cavaliers.
2. No Gods, Only Man / 苍天乃死 (7 items)
I know the Yellow Turban slogan was 苍天已死, but the first relic of them is the 苍天乃死石, which IIRC is a brick in the grave of Cao Cao’s (adoptive) grandfather. The writing etched into on the stones by corvee labourers tells us how widespread public education was in the Eastern Han.
Chinese name also directly contrasts with previous DLC.
New Factions:
Qiyijun (Uprising) / 起义军 (usually trigger-renamed in campaigns).
Nanman/Cuanman/Nanzhao/Dali (name changes with each Age Up) lineage in the Southwest, put here for some diversity, and use in some campaigns.
Campaigns:
The Great Sage / 大贤良师 (Play as the Yellow Turban Rebels)
Wei of Cao Cao / 魏武遗风 (Wei campaign, English pun, Chinese innuendo)
Brotherhood! Unity! / 其德昭昭，其志烈烈 (Shu campaign. If EA isn’t going to properly use its Command & Conquer trademark, well, this English Title technically doesn’t intrude on “Brotherhood, Peace, Unity!”.)
Southern Talents / 看江南多才士虎踞于长江 (Wu campaign)
The latter three are the three expected campaigns for the Three Kingdoms era
Scenario Collection:
Warlord Glories /诸侯功名路 A collection of at least 10 scenarios like Battles of the Conquerors, Includes at least:
Gongsun Zan’s fighting off raiders at the northeast border (Zhao Yun worked for him during this time)
Yuan Shao’s defeat of Gongsun Zan
Shi Xie’s administration of Jiaozhi (North Vietnam)
Lu Bu and Zhang Liao fighting against Hunnu raiders in Bing Province.
Dong Zhuo making a name for himself in the northwest.
Zhuge Liang’s repeated captures and releases of Meng Huo. Discuss in outro the 卡瓦十七王敬告祖国同胞书 (roughly “Seventeen Ka Wa Chiefs’ Letter to Our Countrymen”) declared on February 2, 1936 in the face of increasing British encroachment, in which they referred to their covenant with Chancellor Zhuge.
3. Why Don’t They Eat Mincemeat? / 何不食肉糜？ (8 items)
English Short Name: Let Them Eat Meat!
Whatever the reasons, adding Western Jin and Chinese Rebels civs and spreading out the Han DLC for being too bloated make the next one (Incursion of the Five Barbarians) a campaign-heavy civ-light DLC, as most of the civs involved are already here.
New Factions:
Great Jin 大晋 — The first users of stirrup-equipped heavy cavalry, combined with high-bridge saddles, this allowed the heavy cavalry dominance of the battlefield that would later spread to Europe and create their Medieval Feudalism.
Di 氐族 they are agrarian unlike most of the other Five Barbarians. Also used to represent the Qiang (a name used for so many groups over time that continual identification is impossible)
Xianbei 鲜卑 they are pastoralist/nomadic early on, but transition to settled later. They are relabelled as Northern Wei or subsequent powers in later campaign missions, but for this DLC will just be called Xianbei.
Campaigns:
Sima Yi’s Ambition / 司马懿之志, Player: Great Han (trigger-renamed Wei, maybe). Follows his career, and the life of his son Sima Zhao including conquest of Shu.
Wu Who? / 吴乎？Player: Great Jin. Conquest of Wu by Jin, the Chinese reads the same and means “Wu, huh?” in about the same way.
War of the Eight Princes / 八王之乱 Player: Great Jin. Considering how many of these shifts were simple coups compared to how Total War: Three Kingdoms portrayed it, mission order is most likely: Qi Wannian (enemy is Di), Coalition of the Three Princes, Zhang Chang (I moved Nanman earlier in the DLC set), Siege of Luoyang (303-304), Dangyin and Ye, Coalition of the Eastern Armies.
Disaster of Yongjia / 永嘉之乱 Player: Di. Follows Cheng Han events, first mission should be Li Te’s rebellion, culminating in his death, while next mission has his son establishing the Cheng Han kingdom, and on from there.
Scenario Collection:
Wei-Jin Fashions / 魏晋风流, More isolated things, like:
Chu Hun’s Revolt (Xiongnu/Huns vs. Jin, prelude to Yongjia).
Needs to de-romanticize the Wei-Jin period, because there are actually people ignorant enough to think it would be romantic to time-travel back. As if it’d be quaint to get cooked in the same pot as your spouse during the chaos. (Spits on ground)
4: To Live/乞活 (9 items)
Lots of stories and factions, may be difficult to develop.
New Factions:
Southern Dynasties/南朝 (renamed Eastern Jin, Liu Song, etc. by triggers in scenarios), probably an Infantry/Siege civ with 白袍军 (In this case the White-Robed Cavalry) as their Unique Unit.
Campaigns:
To Live/乞活军 (Resisting the Incursion of the Five Barbarians, and later moving south as refugees)
Heavenly King of Martial Lamentation/武悼天王 (still serving the Shi Zhao regime in the first mission which is full of Jie war crimes, but soon to rebel and use the Great Jin tech tree to fight back (trigger renamed faction as Ran Wei?). Jie should be trigger-relabelled Xianbei civ if possible, though some scenarios will have both them and Xianbei present.)
Whips May Dam a River/投鞭断流 (the rise and fall of the Former Qin)
Boundless Ferocity/气吞万里如虎 (Liu Yu’s campaigns)
This is Da Wei/先北魏 (the rise and decline of the Northern Wei, who presumably called themselves大魏 Great Wei at some point, obvious pun, and Chinese pun from “Xianbei Wei” which can read “First, Northern Wei”)
They Do Not Know Da Wei/不知所魏 (pun on 不知所谓, surprisingly works the same in English and Chinese), Eastern/Western Wei conflicts, to Northern Qi vs Northern Zhou. However, most play would be as Northern Zhou, with defense missions and conquering the Liang state to the west and Sichuan to the southwest.
Scenario Collections: (2 of them for once)
Sixteen Kingdoms / 十六国—Some major battles/operations between them
Panicked Glances Northward / 赢得仓皇北顾—Southern Dynasties and their adventures northward.
5: The Empire Came Back?!?/第二帝国 (8-9 items)
New Factions:
Great Sui—Heavy Cavalry and Naval, should have a slightly higher-population start than standard because they usurped Northern Zhou instead of emerging on top of yet another chaotic period. Probably 5-villager start.
Gokturks (Tujue, different from later Turkic peoples in culture, but ONLY IF I can separate them from Mongols technologically)
Goguryeo (northeast, not all that closely related to Koreans who arose from Silla, an enemy of theirs, appreciable descent from the Four Commanderies of Han)
Campaigns:
Gokturk Fragmentation / 突厥分裂 Orchestrated by Sui diplomacy and occasionally helped by military action, you probably play as 摄图AKA Ishbara Qaghan and try to survive.
No Longer Divided / 地无分南北 (Chinese name quotes Chiang Kai-Shek)
On To Champa / 占城掠地 pun on Champa’s Chinese name, 占城, being the same as “occupying cities”, starts with the conquest of Earlier Ly Dynasty of Vietnam.
Three Expeditions Against Goguryeo / 三征高句丽 (You probably play as Goguryeo in this campaign as Emperor Yang of Sui was, to put it mildly, an idiot in these)
Scenario Collections: (2 this time)
Goguryeo-Baekje-Silla Wars / 半岛三国 (some scenarios from each side, might not be enough large-scale battles for three full campaigns though, let’s see… Baekje would have the overthrow of Mokji/integration of Mahan, and Geunchogo’s war against Goguryeo to the north and more Mahan tribes to the south… that’s only two major scenarios.)
Not Yet Restabilized / 尚未稳固 (Some Cuanman Revolt battles from both sides, Tuyuhun (who are Xianbei), Yang Xuanguan, and the Siege of Yanmen when Emperor Yang of Sui was surrounded there by Gokturk forces… which is the first time you have Li Shimin as a unit. Also make sure to include Khitan-Xi Tribe backstabbing during the wars against Goguryeo.
6: Heavenly Khan / 天可汗 (8 items)
New Factions:
Great Tang—Relatively open pre-gunpowder tech tree but best units are infantry (UU is Modao Infantry). No sword-armed heavy cavalry due to decline in prominence, but have Camels again (disabled in campaigns until retaking the Western Regions).
Campaigns:
General of Divine Strategies / 天策上将 — Li Shimin’s conquests.
Humiliation at the Wei River / 渭水之耻 — Li Shimin’s reign and campaign against the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, then against Xueyantuo (trigger-renamed Gokturks).
Old Han Lands / 大汉旧土 — Campaign against the Western Turkic Khaganate and Tarim Basin.
Action and Consequence / 前因后果 — Goguryeo-Tang Wars, at least, the later ones where progress was made. Second last mission is “Baijiangkou”, post-mission cutscene/slideshow discusses the Yamato ambitions toward the mainland going temporarily into remission due to the beating dealt to them by the Tang navy. However, the Tang Imperial Court arrogantly accepted their students, who would bring many of the advanced institutions and technologies of the Tang Empire back to their home islands. Time will tell the consequences of letting Yamato gamble on its continental ambitions without suitably devastating consequences for defeat.
After the last mission, the epilogue cutscene mentions that Silla is dissatisfied with the division of Goguryeo, and has assembled its armies against us. the ailing health of Emperor Gaozong and increasing dominance of the internal-conflict-oriented Empress Wu has caused a loss of support for the Andong Protectorate. What this may allow Silla to do is questionable.
The Western Protectorate / 安息都护府 — Tang campaigns in Central Asia, including the Battle of Talas (Post-Talas cutscene: “Paper’s Journey West” in which Tang POWs taught Arabs papermaking), last scenario is “White-Haired Garrison of Kucha” (win condition: Hold out for (blank) time, destroy at least N enemy units, fight until the last soldier falls, scenario end cutscene narrates that a thousand years later, Zuo Zongtang and his troops come to defend these old Han-Tang lands, partly motivated by tales sung of the elderly Anxi soldiers). I switched out the “Calming the West” 安西 Anxi for the old Chinese name for Parthia, 安息 Anxi, because this campaign reaches into the old Parthian lands.
An Lushan’s Rebellion / 安史之乱 — First two scenarios storytelling follows the rebel side, then switches to the Tang side for later storytelling.
Scenario Collection:
Tang Glories / 大唐荣光: Covers some battles not covered above, including:
Dafeichuan (670 AD): Tang vs. Tibet—show plateau warfare.
Battle of Karbala (751 AD): Optional—Tang/Abbasid vs. Tibet (use Arab assets).
7. Six Capital Sacks, Nine Imperial Flights / 国都六陷，天子九逃 (8 items)
English Short Name: Six Sacks, Nine Flights
New Factions:
Tibetan Empire / 吐蕃 (Rose during the warm period along with the Tang, and fell with the Tang as the climate changed)
Campaigns:
No Land Beyond the Taedong / 止步大同江—Player plays as Koreans, Silla-Tang war.
Tibetan Empire / 吐蕃帝国—Player plays as Tibetans, fighting Tuyuhun, raids on the Tang western border, into Nanzhao, and into India. Includes a brief occupation of Chang’an (763).
Second Turkic Khaganate / 后突厥—Play as the Gokturks/Tujue.
Between Mountains and Waters / 山水之间 — Player is Nanzhao/Dali, including attacking Sichuan, invading Annan (now Vietnam), besieging Chengdu during Tang times, and Dali kingdom battles later (They had minimal contact with Song China, so might fit here)
For Prosperity He Could Never See / 为遥不可及的盛世大唐—Player is Tang, covers Zhang Yichao’s career. Epilogue can end with “Even dead men can dream”.
Scenario Collections: (2 this time)
Goguryeo’s Past / 高句丽往事 — Player plays as Goguryeo, reviews some of the military history of the power, if they aren’t cohesive enough for a campaign. If they are, well, this would make a campaign, up to repelling the first Tang offensives during Li Shimin’s time.
Tang Ambassadors / 唐使列传 Wang Xuance, Pei Xingjian, and others. Specific faction varies (for example, Wang Xuance borrowed a Tibetan army to conquer an Indian kingdom)
In this Tang Ambassadors scenario collection, “Secret History of the Mongols” should be examined in one scenario, involving Tang troops defending some tribes against other tribes’ aggression. This is so important I will actually space these paragraphs.
AI will tell you Genghis Khan and Liu Bang are unrelated. BUT if you search for O-F155 in association with either name, you can get “The Y-chromosome lineage O-F155 is associated with the Mongol Empire and its expansion, specifically linked to the Y-chromosome profile of Genghis Khan.” And “While the exact genetic lineage of Liu Bang is not known, the prevalence of O-F155 in Han Chinese populations makes it a strong indicator of his possible paternal ancestry.”
It is up to the developers which hypothesis for O-F155 to go with. A German research team found three out of five Qiyan tribe nobles from Temujin’s grandfather’s generation were O-F155, an Iranian team found Ghazan Khan (great-grandson of Hulagu, who was grandson of Temujin) also had O-F155. Temujin’s brother Hasar’s descendants also showed O-F155. There are several explanations for this, such as common descent from Xia (Xiongnu claimed descent from them, so if some Hun remnants lingered that could work), some Zhou ancestry split after the Xia dynasty fell, Chinese surrenders during the various wars, OR… Secret History of the Mongols was right.
It is known that Mongols would, to prevent inbreeding, hook up available women of the tribe with outside visitors, this is the custom that caused the PRC to shell out for antibiotics to treat a severe epidemic of syphilis in Inner Mongolia during its early years. It is also known that the supposedly-mythical Alan Gua was a widow with two sons, who conceived three more sons by a “glittering visitor” or, depending on the telling, “a metal-clad god”. The only folks in the southern Steppes who definitely glittered so in their great armours were Tang officers in Mingguang armor.
To a tribe’s elders, good relations with protectors, while also keeping a widow of the tribe and her children fed… that’s a good deal that’s not hard to make. And if Temujin, Kublai or any Khagan in between knew they could make that claim on China, they would have jumped on it in an instant!
If you go with this hypothesis, you will anger a few Mongol nationalists (lots of free publicity) and attract support from hundreds of millions of Chinese (even more free publicity and purchases). However, anything will anger someone, there’s no doubt lots of people complaining that Sicilians, Slavs, etc. are poorly represented one way or the other, so I suggest lining your pocketbooks. It’s also trivial to get this through Chinese censors as a “unifying narrative”, especially given a few more years of social development and paranoia reduction on the censors (growing confidence).
Note for Tibetan Empire faction: Due to high-altitude adaptation, blood oxygen capacity is better than average at lower altitudes, gain 1% move/attack speed per terrain level down from the highest on the map. If a mountain object exists on the map, the reference level highest is considered either the highest normal tile possible, level 7 I believe, or twice the height of the highest non-mountain object, whichever is less, but no less than 4. If no mountain object exists and no higher elevation exists, the reference elevation is considered to be 3. (If I recall correctly, level 2 is sea level in this game).
The real-life downsides of such adaptations are irrelevant for gameplay.
The reasoning is that a Tibetan who has been in lower terrain for a very long time (map almost completely flat) will start losing the acclimatized part of his adaptations, while the genetic parts remain. However, if he is currently coming down from the mountains still and, say, in the foothills, he still has all the adaptations.
As a result, Tibetans should be weaker than average (perhaps 48% 1v1 win rate) on flatter maps, but a bit above average on high-altitude maps (Strongholds I believe is the map type name, or anything with mountains)
8: Lordly Bones Trampled into Imperial Streets / 天街踏尽公卿骨 (7-8 items)
English Short Name: Paved by Noblemen’s Bones
After investigation, turns out the often-seen North-South divide of Chinese factions is still necessary.
New Factions:
Five Dynasties—Cavalry civ? Food and gold “salvage” from killing enemies, due to almost certainly more frequent cannibalism due to the north’s higher susceptibility to natural disasters during any climactic cooling period, as occurred in the Late Tang.
Ten Kingdoms—Archer and Siege probably. Preserved many cultural traditions later used to rebuild the north during the Song Dynasty, so should be slightly less militant than the north, though still more than how the earlier Southern Dynasties would be portrayed. Still enough Jiedushi savages that “salvage” applies, but a lower percentage.
Khitan (already coming in official DLC)
Campaigns:
Don’t Belittle Huang Chao / 莫笑黄巢不丈夫 — Play as Huang Chao using Ten Kingdoms faction early on, maybe Five Dynasties later (renamed via triggers).
Zhu Wen / 朱温 — Play as Ten Kingdoms, then Great Tang, then Five Dynasties, Zhu Wen’s career, starting during Huang Chao’s rebellion, then repressing that under the Tang banner, then the Later Liang (Five Dynasties faction).
Li Cunxu / 李存勖 — Play as Five Dynasties faction, first as Li Keyong, the Hedong Jiedushi, then the Jin polity under Li Cunxu,
Behooved Century / 燕云让，北境百年任踏 — Play as Khitan, supporting Shi Jingtang’s cause as your puppet, then conquering the Later Jin (and declaring the formation of Great Liao). Last scenario probably supporting (read: rescuing) the Northern Han regime in Taiyuan against Later Zhou pressure from the southwest through east arc.
Scenario Collection:
Ditches Shrink and People Dwindle / 沟壑渐平人渐少 —Basically not-long-enough-for-campaigns “Battles of the Ten Kingdoms”, except the Later Han (one of the Five Dynasties) was so short it could only fit here. Examples:
Play as Vietnamese withstanding the 931 and 938 attacks by the Southern Han, could be one or two scenarios.
Harass the Liao emperor after his conquering Later Jin and found the Later Han.
Wuping Jiedushi casting Southern Tang out after their conquest of Ma Chu.
Later Shu revival during the decline of Later Tang.
Wuyue Intervention during Southern Tang invasion of Min, needs to review contact and trade with Japan and Korena peninsula, and how formal dress shops in Japan still brand themselves as selling 吴服 or “Wu outfits”
Some other major battles of the period that aren’t strung together enough to make for campaigns.
9: Drinking to Peace / 杯酒释兵权 (7 items)
New Factions:
Great Song—Halberdiers, Paladin-equivalent superheavy cavalry (a match for Jurchen or Tangut superheavy cavalry, differing mainly in name), and Shenbi Nu, but probably get Fire Lancers and some other gunpowder devices.
Campaigns:
Wu-Tang Successes / 误南唐好事 — Play as Ten Kingdoms faction, first as Yang Wu (Yang Xingmi’s career in about two scenarios), then Southern Tang, conquering Min and attacking Ma Chu (scenario Chinese name can be 马楚？屁楚！ Pun on Machu Pichu) Campaign Chinese Title hides Wu before Southern Tang, and “good stuff” could also mean “likes troublemaking” as this was the most warlike of the Ten Kingdoms.
Goryeo As One/ 高丽一统 — Play as Goguryeo and Koreans, overthrowing Unified Silla and then reuniting the nation as Goryeo. The nation name should be labelled as “Goryeo”, “Majin” and “Taebong” over the first three scenarios in Kung Ye’s reign (play as Goguryeo), then (after a coup, playing Koreans) one scenario on the conquest of Later Baekje, and two scenarios fighting the Khitan Liao, in the 990s and mid-1010s.
How Many Troubles Can One Man Have? / 问君能有几多愁—Play as Five Dynasties civ still for now, despite being renamed as Great Song, conquering the southern kingdoms.
Candle and Axe / 烛影斧声—Play as Great Song after Zhao Guangyi takes the throne. Battle in Guizhou (use Dali civ for the enemies), Conquest of Wuyue, Conquest of Northern Han, Rout at Gaoliang River (an objective is that the emperor, modelled by a trade cart, must survive and escape from the rear, though player skill can in theory turn the main battle around too at lower difficulties), suppression of rebels in Sichuan, and finally the repression of Li Jiqian’s Rebellion (He’s still Five Dynasties tech tree at this time, and later died of an arrow wound in 1004). Six scenarios, how convenient!
Treaty of Chanyuan / 澶渊之盟 Play as Khitans (trigger-rename to Great Liao) and Great Song depending on scenario. First scenario as Liao in the 980 invasion, Second as Liao defenders in 986, third as Song defenders 998-1000 last scenario as Liao in the 1004 invasion.
Scenario Collection:
Song of War/ 没恁怂 — Chinese title means “not so cowardly” but homophonic with “not so Song”. Minor or isolated battles, such as:
Battle of Bach Dang—Song (Player) invasion of early Le dynasty Vietnam, ending with the latter accepting Song suzerainty after an attack wave sprung at the end of the scenario (similar to Atilla #4 when the Western Roman Empire army arrives).
Su Chengzhun’s Rebellion (1001)—Player is either Great Song or Zhuang (trigger-renamed Dali for this scenario) and defeats the rebels.
10. Army Now, Not Reparations Later! / 不加军费难道留着赔款吗？ (7 items)
English Short Name: Pay Soldiers, Not Reparations!
New Factions:
Tanguts/Xi Xia (how to distinguish enough from Khitan within game mechanics… will have to research carefully)
Campaigns:
Southwestern Blunders / 莽壮与偕越 Play as Zhuang (trigger-renamed Dali), Great Song or Dai Viet (Vietnamese) depending on winner of battle. Chinese name is a pun on the faction names. Includes Battle of Bach Dang as Vietnamese, with Song forcing suzerainty on Early Le dynasty Vietnam (enemy attack wave sprung at end similar to Atilla #4’s Western Roman army but more overwhelming). Zhuang attack on Yongzhou (1000) as Zhuang of the Huang clan, protecting a Great Song ally (who gives you resources like in Barbarossa 2), then the Su Chengzhun Rebellion (1001) in which the northern half of the map is used. Another scenario plays Vietnamese raiding the Song in 1017 or 1036 (or both). Fourth is Yao rebellion of 1043-1051 (play as Great Song). Last two scenarios around the Ly-Song war, first as Vietnamese then as Great Song.
A Former Peacekeeper / 吾曾定难 — Play as Tanguts, start with Li Jiqian’s Rebellion (two scenarios covering successes forcing the distracted—by Liao aggression—Song to acknowledge him as the Dingnan Jiedushi and the conquest of Ordos and nearby lands, circa 1001), then Li Deming (presumably fighting Tuyuhun/Tibetan remnants to the west), then Li Yuanhao’s campaigns, specifically his attack on the Song in 1034, the Kingdom of Qocho (Uyghur Khaganate successors as a Gokturk branch, trigger-renamed) and Guiyi Circuit in 1936, and the Song in 1039-1043. Great, so that IS 6 scenarios.
Shenzong’s War / 有如神（宗）助 — Play as either Tanguts or Great Song depending on who won (or avoided defeat in) the battle being portrayed.
Advance And Fortify / 步步为营 — Play as Great Song, during their 1097-1099 efforts and annexation of Tsongkha, 1103-1106
Huizong’s Hubris / 徽宗总会… — Qingtang (player Tangut, fortify in disputed land, and take this region) Gugulong (player Song, push deep through enemy territory and destroy the garrison there), Zangdihe (player Tangut, defense mission), Rendequan (player Song, take this walled city, then take Zangdihe), winter counteroffensive (player Tangut, winter of 1116-1117, name of battle?), Xingqing (player Tangut, destroy the Song forces who were sent here on foolish orders, to force their Emperor to call a ceasefire and issue an apology). Okay so there WERE enough battles for a 6-mission campaign!
Scenario Collection:
Winds of the Northwest / 喝西北风去, includes these scenarios:
Li Yuanhao’s invasion of the Qinghai region — Replled by Tsongkha (Player, Tibetan).
Yizong’s Raids, 1064 and 1067-1070 — may be up to three scenarios if needed.
Khitangut Wars / 辽夏吗? — Liao-Xia fits a Chinese pun on “wanna chat?”, English name because of the official DLC blending them. Most likely play as Tangut defending against Liao (Khitan)
(32000 character limit)
