An Eternal Empire

[Seperallis]

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An Eternal Empire
A Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11 game
~ ~ Prologue ~ ~
#1: The Flo of Negotiations
#2: The Battle of Wan Castle
#3: Han River Bandits
#4: The Art of War (Surprise Attack on Xu Chang)


Alright, so here's the deal. Back in the day, one of my gaming loves was this game. I've always been a huge Three Kingdoms nerd ever since Dynasty Warriors 3 came out, ushering in many years of gaming fandom and study of the original novel. Eventually, about the same time I got into Europa Universallis, I discovered this gem, a turn-based strategy game by Koei (makers of - you guessed it - the various Warriors series) in what is now, this year, its 30 (!) year old franchise. This is the 11th game, and arguably (since 8 and 10 are considered right up there by nerdier people than myself) the best in the series, benefitting from a very fitting soundtrack and brilliant watercolor & ink-stroke aesthetic that still holds up well after 8 years.

The two newer games, 12 & 13, have been widely panned for their progressive dumbing-down of the combat and taking out some deeper, more strategic mechanics, but I won't whine too much here...

Anyway! I haven't played the game in several years, but after Sal recently (and accidentally) got me back into playing the Warriors games again, I've had this burning desire to play a strategy game in this era. I briefly downloaded a Three Kingdoms mod for Crusader Kings 2, but something was missing... you fucking nerds. I guess. I don't know, I just had this real fun idea to use RTK11's in-game officer creator/editor to make a custom faction.

A faction filled with very joking, tongue-in-cheek, and sometimes highly offensive representations of all you nerds.

An Eternal Empire for China, if you will:



As you can see, the names are weird because it forces me to have a first and last name, with a combined 12 character limit. Oh well.


I've already begun work on some people, but I obviously haven't added everyone in. Also I can't think of "surnames" (which come first) for many people, so if you have suggestion, feel free to give me some. You can't see it here, but many people have attributes to match their actions/personalities/jokes over the years (Sal and I are married; Hahk/Flo/Blac are sworn brothers; all Dom's attributes are set to 69 except for his maxed leadership), and obviously the skills have a very joking bent to them for the same reasons.

I'm looking to add many more people in before I'm done and ready to start the campaign. I don't know if I'll be taking screenshots, but I'll definitely be recording the entire campaign and editing it down to make it watchable. Maybe there will be commentary, maybe not; I don't know yet (have to get a microphone for that).

Anywho, yeah. That's about it. Maybe I'll post more here later.

[Flo]

I expect commentary! This endeavor can do with no less than the best presentation!

Also, I lol-ed at doms all 69 skills

You should definitely do this

[Seperallis]

A Prologue
I guess?




Awwwww yeeeeeah, son!

I know it's not literally everyone from the forums, just all the popular names that I can remember off the top of my head as I'm making them. If there's anyone I missed that you want to see included (or, you're not on there and want me to include you), let me know so I can add them to the game before I start the campaign; I can't add newly made officers to the roster after the campaign begins.

Speaking of the campaign:



Started from the bottom ..... and now we here!
(My practice game as Cao Cao, in normal blue)

I decided to continue an old game as Cao Cao that I abandoned years ago, the last time I played the game, to pretty much practice and relearn things, since it's been so long; after basically doubling my holdings in the span of three years, I figured I didn't forget all that much, and the strategies and tactics came back easily. However, I did learn several things, that have influenced my decision of rules and scenario. I want to make the game difficult without being impossible. Something to challenge me, because I don't want to dominate early and then just run through the motions on my way to a 100+ hour tedious, inevitable victory.


Part of the game options screen, prior to starting the game.

I decided to go with "advanced" difficulty first off, which is a no-brainer. On advanced, the AI has a resource advantage to the player's resource handicap (in both starting resources and I think per-turn revenue, but don't quote me on the last bit) and is also very aggressive, attacking very often...which puts a LOT of pressure on players in the early game, who must both defend their paltry starting position from numerically superior enemies while somehow still developing and growing.

Oddly enough, I feel "advanced" is easier than beginner difficulty - or at least less tedious - after this panic-inducing early test of mettle; the AI is usually so aggressive attacking the player and each other so much that they don't usually have cities sitting with 70k+ troops doing fuck-all that you have to slog your way through before reaching the enemy gates.

Just for some added tension, I decided to set officer deaths to "high." I have no idea exactly what the consequence will be, but I don't plan on making enough mistakes and losing enough units to find out.

That aside...I honestly don't think I've ever played with sorcery "on", but then again I don't think I've played a game with any noticeable sorcery users anyway, like Zhang Jiao, so that'll be something new and dangerous, I guess.

The most important part, though, is figuring out when and where to start:



With a large 30 officer pool (unless more get added) chock full of amazingly good talent, I needed somewhere to balance that strength with a very weak starting position...and choosing the fictional "Rise of Heroes" start to minimize empty cities (second on my list was "Three Kingdoms"...but maybe that'll be next?)...

Xin Ye it is! The city only has a maximum of 10 facilities, which makes it one of the smallest in the game (10 is the minimum...compared with neighboring Xiang-something and Xu Cheng, with 18-22 maximum facilities), and less than all neighboring cities. What's more, the city is practically hemmed-in by the three largest forces in the game - Cao Cao, Liu Bei, & Sun Jian - with all expansion opportunities putting us in direct conflict with the most dangerous foes in the area.

Surrounded as we are, any expansion will most assuredly be met with an attack from behind by someone else, anyway. A slow start means falling behind to these sleeping giants, forcing me to play aggressive at a stage when we're already weaker than everyone else from the outset, by virtue of "advanced difficulty."

This might actually be fun.

[Blacaria]

Wait...why am I not seeing this <_<

[Seperallis]

On a related note, before I begin this...there were two TV series in China based upon and fairly closely following the events of the story, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The first was done in 1994, while the second was done fairly recently, in 2010. If you don't want to read the story (it's very long) and have a passing interest in the history, I'd give them a watch.

While both are good, the 1994 version is lauded as the better one, simply because it is longer and includes events of the story prior to the start of the 2010 version (which starts well after Dong Zhuo has taken over the imperial court, replaced the rightful emperor with the emperor's kid brother as his puppet, and crushed the Eunuchs' rebellion). I'm currently watching the 2010 version on youtube; I hear the '94 version is on youtube as well, but I've not watched it.

Anyway, that's all. I'll stop posting fluff here. I promise my next post in this thread will be an actual post with progress on the game. Even if it means not posting here for a month. Promise.

[Seperallis]

An Eternal Empire
A Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11 game
~ ~ Prologue ~ ~




Ew, is that my voice? Eeeeeeeewwwww.

Seriously though, decided to re-do the "prologue" using video and voice, as practice to get back into the swing of using Audacity and editing video. Also, new microphone, so eventually I'll figure out a good sound setup and clear up that terrible recording quality.

Anyway, this is what you wanted, Flo. This is your fault.

[Flo]

this is everything I ever wanted in life and more

[Blacaria]

lol good going Oerth

[Seperallis]

An Eternal Empire
A Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11 game
Episode 1: The Flo of Negotiations




I will now ramble on about random things with my flu-addled nasally voice for 30 minutes while Flo saves us from an early exit from the campaign. Also, somehow made audio quality worse, but that's my fault for not moving the mic forward, so it's sitting three feet from my face...which, considering that, isn't terrible quality for such a cheap mic.

Do feel free to subscribe, if you want notifications of the video before I even post it here. Also likes are nice. Etc. Etc.

[Jamzor the Jaxxor]

I am really enjoying the Eternal Empire series so far.