Oriental Empires Review: Big Trouble in Little China. Oriental Empires Review - Total War in the Entourage of Civilization

There are not many games about China in the world, and those that exist are unlikely to be understood by a Westerner. This is sad. The history of one of the most ancient human empires is full of huge amount events capable of becoming interesting stories for a wide variety of works of mass culture. Oriental Empire is just one of the rare representatives of good western games about the Celestial Empire. We hope there will be more of them.

The capital of the Han state had been under siege for several months. All the surrounding cities sent their troops to help, but it seemed that there was nothing to fix the situation. The enemies were able to bypass paths to penetrate into the very heart of the nascent empire and burn out all the crops, leaving the besieged to starve and hope only for a miracle. And the miracle happened. The enemy army simply rebelled and went over to the side of the rebels. It turned out that in the camp of the White Di everything is far from rosy.

Do not be intimidated by the names of the factions. The fact is that China, even modern China, is not a mono-ethnic state. Even though it is the majority of the Han people today, it is inhabited by many other peoples. Before, everything was different: several states and ethnic groups fought for hegemony in the region. In subsequent historical periods, more or less centralized China was ruled by various dynasties that came to power either through political games or by force, as was the case with the Manchus. In Oriental Empires, it will be possible to play as almost everyone, from Han to Jurchen. The game covers a historical span of two thousand years, from the Bronze Age to the imperial, consolidated China.

Conventionally, all factions can be divided into agricultural and nomadic. There are not many differences between them, and with rare exceptions they have the same cities and units. Because of this, replay value is greatly reduced.

Oriental Empires is one with details from and even. At the start, you are thrown onto a map of China, divided into hexes. Your task is classic for 4X strategies - expand, evolve, explore and destroy. However, there are certain nuances.

So, your strategy will be heavily influenced by the hiring process. It happens instantly in the game, but there are certain limits. Each city can support a certain number of units, which depends on the level of its population. That is, you can instantly assemble a militia and send it into battle on the same turn. But there will be only "green" spearmen and archers in it, who will flee from the battlefield at the first opportunity. But on the other hand, there are quite a few of them, since it was they who formed the basis of the Chinese armies. On the other hand, peasants with sticks had little chance against horse archers. However, it should be said that some parts of the country still successfully fought off the steppe barbarians.

You can also hire noble warriors, well equipped and acting as the main impact force... Their equipment will depend on the level of technological development and current decrees. For example, you will need to issue a special decree in order to transfer your nobility from chariots to horses.

Oriental Empires, like many global strategies, does not shine with a picture, but even against the background of others, it looks completely boring. There are few details in the game that the eye could catch.

Like any nobility, yours will be terribly conservative, so familiarity with horseback riding can cause unrest. And in this regard, Oriental Empires is much tougher than "Civilization", approaching the very Europa Universalis. Cities with a high level of discontent can rise instantly, and with all your squads. Moreover, an army of the same peasants with spears, hastily assembled to suppress the riots, may just as quickly go over to the enemy. Situations can reach the point of absurdity when, of the three armies sent to siege, all three become rebels on the way to the enemy. This can be annoying because it is impossible to plan ahead for such a course of events. On the other hand, your opponents play by the same rules and also suffer from unexpected uprisings. In addition, there are also occasional natural disasters. For example, a plague that mows half of the city, or fires that leave you without walls right before the assault. In general, it will not be boring.

Battles also take place according to slightly different rules than in "Civilization". On one cell, you can form an army of several units, which will visually look like a formation in Total war... But all armies within several hexes will participate in the battle, so it makes sense to form real fronts, so that, according to the precepts of Sun Tzu, always have a fivefold advantage. Alas, you do not control the squads in any way - they wage full-scale battles themselves.

The game has a mode in which you start not from scratch, but from the period of the "warring provinces". In this mode, almost the entire map is already occupied by various factions that have serious armies.

The sieges are interestingly arranged. Only artillery or archers can break through walls. If there are only one or two such units in the army, then there will be a corresponding number of holes in the wall. And the fewer holes in the wall, the easier it will be for the defenders. Thus, some cities with good defenses will simply be impossible to take without proper preparation. At the same time, cities with walls, but without a garrison, are taken by enemies without a siege, which looks strange and forces you to spend at least on the cheapest militia.

Maintaining a large army is difficult because the game's economy is rudimentary. Everything is tied to agriculture and abstract trade. The cost of everything in the game is very high, be it the construction of banal barracks or the maintenance of a squad of crossbowmen on the outskirts of the empire. In addition, there are balance imbalances in expansion. Settlers are also instantly hired, and if you capture several enemy cities, it is quite possible that he will create several more new ones in the rear rather quickly. This is very annoying and negates the value of developing your settlements... Why invest in one when you can create three more? Fortunately, their number is limited by your level of influence. If there are too many settlements, the nobility will revolt, and this is much more serious than the revolts of the peasants. But you understand the essence of Oriental Empires - war over economy. In real China, everything was roughly the opposite.

Description: The Oriental Empires Economy. City building, influence and culture, agriculture, taxes, resources and trade.

Good afternoon. I decided to briefly analyze the economic component of Oriental Empires. The authors have created an excellent game, the economic model in it is generally simple. However, many things are not obvious and non-linear against the background of most modern strategies.
In my opinion, mastering the economic component should start at the simplest level of complexity. If we discard the conventions, then you can master the model in a couple of games, without interrupting the game after the next series mistakes. In the first game, we open up factions with a 200-move play condition and get to know the basics. And in the second, we spin the economy to the fullest and fight. I think this approach is more productive than a dozen interrupted parties due to the invasion of the enemy coalition, combined with the lack of money for the war and the uprisings of peasants and nobility.
The economy in Oriental Empires is naturally based on money. We use money to build buildings, hire and maintain troops, and use them in our diplomacy. There are several sources of money in the game. You can make neighbors pay tribute, one-time or regular. It is possible, when examining cells with yellow marks, to find some kind of robber retiring. But by performing all these actions, we will not receive significant profits. Of course, 400-600 coins from the quest at the start is a good bonus, but it will not solve the problems. The city's main source of income. We will talk about them.
INFLUENCE AND CULTURE
In the lower left corner of the screen, we see an icon with two options. Culture and influence. These are the most important parameters for our urban planning. The most important is the influence. It should be increased by all possible ways... It is highly desirable that the number of cities does not exceed our influence. Otherwise, we may face revolts of the nobility and the emergence of separatists. To increase influence, you should adopt decrees and study technologies. At the start of the game, the influence is given by: "Military training" (the Power branch), "Predictions" (the Philosophy branch), "Calendar" and "Horse taming" (the Knowledge branch). With an initial influence of 0, we can quickly get influence to create 4 cities. Let's add here "Astronomy" from the branch of knowledge and "King-Priest" from philosophy from the second row available technologies and we get 3 more influences. An additional influence of 2 units is given by the decree "Resettlement of aristocrats" obtained after studying the technology "King-priest". In the third row, we are interested in the technologies "Bronze Casting Improvement" (the Craft branch) and "Heavenly Mandate" (the Philosophy branch) obtained a little later. In total, up to turn 30, we can get 10 influence for the construction of 10 cities, respectively, and 2 more from the Heavenly Mandate in the near future. That is quite enough for the initial resettlement and occupation of advantageous positions. Soon enough, you can get the decree "Centralized bureaucracy", 2 influences (technology "Bamboo Plates", the Craft branch). Later we will receive decrees "Prohibition of dangerous books" 3 influence and -5 culture (technology "Legality", branch Philosophy ") and the Official historian of 1 influence and 1 culture (technology" History ", branch Philosophy"). The decree "Supreme Commander-in-Chief" is highly controversial. Yes, of course, he gives us an additional general. What is valuable for exploring the area. But it takes away 80 coins, which is critical at the start and deprives units of influence at the settling stage, which is critical. Plus, it is not always possible to wait for 20 moves of a penalty per unit of influence after the decree is canceled. In my opinion, the decree makes sense during a war, when troops are urgently needed, the recruitment limit has been exhausted, and there is money. In other cases, it rather slows down expansion, with all the obvious advantages of exploring the territory.
In the future, we strive to increase influence in every possible way. Anything that increases it is good for us and is accepted first of all. But there is an important point. When the ruler is changed, the heir receives an influence penalty for several turns. It is advisable at this moment not to receive very tough fines and uprisings of the nobility. What does influence have to do with the topic of the review? The answer is simple. Influence is additional cities, and cities are money.
In total, you can get 18 units of influence on technologies, which, together with decrees (counted 8 influence without using decrees giving a minus), limits the size of our empire to 26 cities or 27 for Yin.
Next to influence is culture. It gives a bonus to happiness. Nobles and peasants rebel less, which makes war and expansion easier. We also develop culture in all possible ways, but not to the detriment of expansion. Given the limit on the number of buildings, extra happiness throughout the empire will not hurt us. Technologies will give 37 cultures. Decrees with an emphasis on influence will give both plus and minus to culture, but in the end we should get +2. In total, you can get 39 cultures for peasants (1 happiness for each unit of culture) and 78 for the nobility (here two units of happiness per unit of culture).
HOW TO PLACE CITIES
Now that we have dealt with the number of cities, let's move on to quality. It is hardly worth expecting large profits from a misplaced city. First, a little theory.
The cities in Oriental Empires are divided into three groups, small towns, simple towns, and big cities. A small city occupies an area two hexes from the center, plus within a radius of three hexes it can process the territory and annex it to the city. For the city, respectively, we get an occupied territory of three hexes and the fourth can be processed and annexed. For a large city, there are four and five hexes, respectively. Increasing the radius by 1 hex increases the number of hexes in the resulting circle by 6 compared to the previous one. Accordingly, a radius of 1 hex will give 6 hexes, two 12, three 18, four 24 and five 30. In total, a small city owns 18 hexes in addition to the center and can process and annex 18 more. A city can receive an additional 24 hexes and a large city 30 more. In total, a city can control a maximum of 90 hexes. Therefore, for the greatest effect, it is worth striving to ensure that the city not only occupies all 90 hexes, but also processes them. I must say right away that in practice it is almost impossible to achieve this. However, the conclusion follows from this that when founding new cities, it is desirable to maintain a distance between city centers of 10 cells. Or at least 8-10 recommended by the developers. Such a settlement may have the truth by-effect... Neighbors can "successfully" fit between our cities. But don't worry. The main thing is that our cities should be correct. First, we will profit from trade, and then we will simply demolish other people's settlements. There is no point in putting cities close. We will spend influences, but we will not get the desired effect in the later stages of the game.
It should be noted that the Oriental Empires economy is parsed in terms of agricultural factions. Having mastered the game for them, you can easily make adjustments when playing for the nomads.
AGRICULTURE AND GROWTH
When arranging cities on global map, in addition to distance, terrain is the determining factor. The growth of cities and their well-being are directly dependent on the amount of food and the processing of cells. How can we deal with the nature around us? We are not interested in cages with mountains, nothing grows there. Meadow cages are not suitable, they are suitable for nomads. Even with the resources available, the city will not be able to build irrigation in the meadows, and therefore will not be able to grow. Hot deserts are not the most suitable place for farming. Unusually for strategies, the sea does not give any growth bonuses. After Civilization, this is unusual. Marine cells are not involved in any way in the economy, except for the ability to build a shipyard, a dock and get some food from the fish. We are only interested in lands suitable for agriculture. Namely, fertile land that is cultivated immediately. Gentle and steep hills, where terraced farms can be built after opening the Terracing technology (Power branch). Forests, after the discovery of the "Making bronze" technology (the Craft branch), they can be cut down and farms can be built if there are fertile plains under them (there are also meadows). Swamps, here we need the "Swamp Drainage" technology (Power branch).
The most difficult thing is with the rivers. Each river cage takes away a cage from us for irrigation and food production. But next to the rivers, after the discovery of the Melioration technology (Power branch), we can upgrade our farms to irrigated farms. When we produce food, each farm or terraced farm gives 2 units of food. 1 food is needed for 1 inhabitant. The Game resource on our territory will give 4 food. A fish resource in the sea or river on our territory or in an adjacent cell will give 4 food. Irrigated Farm provides 3 food. Therefore, to compensate the river for each river cell, we need two irrigated farms to compensate for the losses. The fish compensates for two cells. Considering the above, the player can, in principle, figure out how best to position it before creating a city. Given the presence of fleets in the game, placing a city next to a river is probably not the best idea, but the bonus is good enough to, if there is an opportunity, to touch the river with the edge of your domain.
The city building ideology is simple. First we build what simpler - farms, around the perimeter, increasing the territory. Then we build inside, first farms, then farms on terraces, then we cut forests and build farms, we reduce swamps and build farms again, and finally, if possible, we upgrade the farms to irrigated ones.
I would also like to draw your attention to the technologies "Planting seedlings", "Stoned wells", "Crop rotation" (the Power branch) and "Iron plow" (the Craft branch). Each of them gives 5% to the production of food by farms. At first glance, not much, but 20% in total to the collection from 50 ordinary farms will give us 120 units of food instead of 100, and this is a significant increase. In addition, decrees affect the harvest. There are both increasing collection and decreasing it. Naturally enhancing things are great and recommended for use. Each extra resident is additional income from taxes and trade. And downsides should be avoided. I recommend the decree "Private land ownership", with 1.2 food production bonuses.
How much can our city grow? For small growth, the limit is 40, then we build an improvement of the settlement. The city is between 40 and 100 inhabitants, after which there is a second improvement. And finally, a large city with 100 to 250 inhabitants. At first glance, the number 250 is fantastic, but with proper construction, going beyond two hundred is trivial, and 250 is quite achievable.
TAX AND AGRICULTURE INCOME
Now that the city is grown, you can start making a profit. The first item of income is taxes from the population. Initially, each resident pays 2 coins. The newly founded city with 2 inhabitants and an income of 4 coins only draws a heavy sigh. But two hundred coins from a hundred inhabitants is already not bad. Although, if you look at the maintenance of buildings, it is clearly not enough. Therefore, at the earliest opportunity and some decent population, we adopt a decree on well fields. It is provided by the Flood Protection technology (Power tree). The decree will give an additional 2 more coins from each resident. Later, an advanced version of the decree "Unfenced Areas" will appear, giving in addition not 2, but 3 coins from a resident. And our city with a population of 100 will already bring not 200, but 500 coins. It makes sense to try. If you wish, you can get another coin by introducing a tax on salt. But this decision is worth considering. Since this decree constantly increases the excitement of the nobility and peasants. If you have a surplus of money, this tax may not be required. In total, the maximum income from the city with a maximum population of 250 will be, depending on the decrees, 1250-1500 coins per turn. For the population 200 1000-1200 coins. After the initial lack of money, such income looks fantastic. But there is nothing unreal about them. Income in the area of ​​a thousand may be enough for a military city, so as not to leave even in it in a strong minus from the built buildings, and with a certain development and go into profit. Bonus to taxes is given by decrees "Minister of the Empire" multiplier of 1.1 and "Imperial University", also a multiplier of 1.1.
RESOURCES
In addition to the population of the city, coins can be obtained from resources. If there is a cage with rhinos on the territory of our city, then we immediately get 60 coins. This is the only option known to me that gives coins without cultivating the land. By the way, building a farm on a farm rhino hex does not affect income. We get both food and coins at the same time. Rhinos are a good bonus to our economy at the start of the game, but in the future their role is steadily declining. Rhinoceroses cannot be traded. Another variation is the construction of a mine on a resource in the hills near the city. Construction requires money, but the mine not only does not require maintenance, but also brings a small profit. A similar option is possible for deposits of copper, gold, jade.
TRADE
Trade, along with the population, is the main way of earning income. Trading is very easy. We need to build a bazaar in the city. In cities within a radius of 12 cells from the center, he will start selling domestic goods. In addition, a bonus to internal trade within the city itself and a multiplier to foreign trade will work 2. Upgrading to the market will increase the radius to 18 cells, but more importantly, increase the multiplier to 3. The fact is that the radius of 12 allows you to reach neighboring cities. However, a radius of 18 does not necessarily provide an opportunity to push trade to the next chain of cities. The distance may turn out to be even greater, since the distance between the centers is 9-10 cells, we can easily get a distance from the market that exceeds the trading radius of 18, but the multiplier is a nice thing. It follows from the above that the ideal scheme of shopping centers is a star. In the center is a city with goods and a market. And around it are large centers with large populations that increase income from trade. Next comes the next center and the surrounding cities, etc. It is expensive and pointless to build trade structures everywhere and everywhere. The city that received the goods does not need an additional consignment.
The well-known market increases the trading radius to 24 with a multiplier to foreign trade of 4, but it appears relatively late. By this time, our economy should be fine-tuned.
Trade can and should be enhanced by the production of goods. In every city that we wish to turn into a trade center, we can build a pottery workshop for ceramics, a weaver for silk, a smelter for bronze, a foundry for iron and steel. Bonus resources are desirable. But it does not prevent us from organizing production in any way. Large cities that receive the goods will provide a good income regardless of the availability of resources on the map.
However, resources should not be neglected either. A deposit of kaolin clay will give a 30% bonus to ceramics, a cage with mulberry trees will add 30% to the cost of silk, a copper mine and a jade mine will give us copper and jade as additional goods in the trade. Let's add horses here. Considering that these mines generate income on their own, the bonus is not bad. Pay attention to the sanctuaries. Unlike mines, you have to pay for their maintenance, but goods for pilgrims are considered trade and can also bring significant profits.
Trade is enhanced by a fairly large number of technologies. As well as the decree "Standards of Weights and Measures", a multiplier of 1.2.
A shopping center, with proper construction, taking into account the development, decrees and technologies, may well give 3-4 thousand coins per turn.
A separate issue is the construction of buildings such as caravanserais and barns. In my opinion, for the early to mid game they are expensive and ineffective. Barns are needed for densely populated large cities in order to survive sieges and natural disasters with minimal loss of population. And the caravanserais are good at pushing rare goods such as jade and, to a lesser extent, pilgrims throughout the empire. Other resources can usually be obtained near your home. But with developed trade with grown major cities, the construction of caravanserais in selected centers gives an increase in profit. It makes sense to build them according to the same star pattern at several points. So the jade mined on the outskirts of the eastern possessions of the empire was not only distributed throughout the cities and villages, but also traded with its western neighbor.
Another controversial issue is trade by water. It is not enough to build a marina in the city from which the goods are coming. We need a marina in a city receiving goods. With a cost of 80 and the need to build in each city, the idea looks expensive. It is more suitable for the later stages of the game and the creation of a global trading system. But the star scheme is becoming less relevant. And the cost of 80 coins for the maintenance of the marina with the city's income only from taxes in the region of six hundred thousand is not so critical. The situation changes when a level 3 port appears with a trade range of 50. We still need a caravanserai to transfer goods. But trade is growing at a rapid pace and captures the entire empire. Sea trade on the Inland Sea map in the second half of the game is very effective. Please note that a market is required for the caravanserai. Without a market, even with a port, there is no transfer of imported goods to other cities. That is, markets do not completely replace marinas and ports.
BRIEFLY ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT
The only question remains with the building. Naturally, in any case, everything is decided by the specific layout of resources and terrain, as well as the player's head. But in general, in the shopping center we go to the construction of the market and everything that can only produce goods for sale. The second type of our city is military. These are impregnable strongholds standing on the borders with complete list military buildings that allow you to quickly recruit an army and throw it at the enemy. And what to build in an ordinary city? I will express my opinion, the palisade. The pottery workshop is not needed here. She will only take the income from an expensive ceramics workshop. For war, the city may be too far from the border. The course of the game itself will tell us whether to arrange a large military port in the city, recruit an army, go into culture with palaces and schools, or leave the city as an ordinary large provincial settlement generating income for the benefit of our great power. In the middle stage of the game, it is worth taking a closer look at palaces, temples and schools. Separate temples and schools give bonuses to craft and trade, the happiness of peasants and nobles. But most importantly, we will not allow other factions to gain a cultural victory. It's a shame to see the announcement of the cultural victory of the rivals while we are postponing construction projects for a century.
Having organized a trade, I highly recommend looking at the arrows on the map. They clearly and intuitively show the trade routes along which our and other people's goods run to the cities. Sometimes these arrows make life a lot easier. For example, it turned out that the AI ​​does not calculate the distance for trading by direct distance between the centers, and along the trade route. And the forest can impede trade. But as soon as you break through a clearing in it, a trade route appears with all the corresponding financial bonuses.
In a word, look at the terrain, count, fight for good places for cities. Collect income and let your indestructible armies beat your enemies with quantitative and qualitative superiority. Good luck in the battles in the Oriental Empires fields!
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I will give the results test game for Zhou. Turn 417, all technologies are researched except the Illustrated Books (the Craft branch, gives 1 culture). 19 cities, population 3400, influence 26, culture 38 (in 14 turns it will be 39). Han is broken and missing from the map. Decrees passed: Resettlement of aristocrats, Centralized bureaucracy, Imperial University, Aristocrats on horseback, Unfenced plots, Minister of the Empire, Private landownership, Patronage of the arts, Examinations for civil servants, Weights and Measures Standard, Prohibition of Dangerous Books, Official Historian, Fubin Militia, Trade company, Salt tax. And naturally Entry into the period of the warring kingdoms and Imperial China.
The largest city has 241 food and 238 population (there is a growth potential to 250, but irrigated farms are being built slowly). The city with the maximum income of 7989 (from the resources of jade and pilgrims), given the growth potential of it and its neighbors, exceeding 8000 is quite realistic. Profit 31308, expenses 26295, total income 57603. Breakdown of income by items:
Agriculture - 12045
Tax - 12341
Trade - 31597
Resources - 660
Extraction of minerals - 560
Income from the estate - 250
Other (Decree Trade Enterprise) - 250.
WITH a certain moment no longer wanted to fight, played with the economic model. In principle, there was no problem to seize or place 5 more cities. The indicators are far from limiting, I hope this analysis will be useful.

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Tactics Guide ​

Many people have questions about how game tactics work and how not to lose battles.
To begin with, many southern Chinese kingdoms have a serious penalty to the combat characteristics of their troops. That is, it is more difficult to fight for them. This is offset by accelerated technology learning. On the contrary, many nomads have a bonus to troops, a penalty to technologies. Also, barbarian units are stronger than agricultural ones.

Offensive teams.

Offensive. This command is the default. Normal offensive, no bonuses or penalties. Suitable in many cases, if you do not know what to do, choose the offensive. Rifle units in the offensive will not rush into melee, but they dodge the enemy worse than when exhausted. Chariots can melee somewhere in the middle of a fight.
Storm. Units do not think about defense, but immediately, at maximum speed, rush along the shortest path to the enemy. If a fortress is besieged, they are the first to rush into the gaps. The shooters engage in hand-to-hand combat. Units with such a team receive + 5% to attack and -5% to defense. It makes sense to choose this tactic if the enemy has a lot of shooters. Heavy cavalry is especially effective.

Maneuver commands

Exhaustion. With this tactic, troops will avoid close combat by using throwing weapons. Best suited for foot and horse archers. The chariots are too clumsy to retreat effectively.
Bypass. Complex team. In theory, the unit will try to flank the enemy and hit him in the rear in the middle to the end of the battle. The shooters will avoid close combat at the same time. In practice, the terrain often interferes with this, and I have never been able to perform this maneuver.

Defensive teams

Defense. An order to stand on the defensive. The troops will enter into battle with the enemy only if he comes close. But they can use the terrain conditions, for example, a river, to their advantage, and receive + 10% to defense. Choose this tactic if the enemy is superior to you in strength or if you want to avoid combat. But it won't work against horse archers.
Support. Similar to defense, but no bonuses. But the troops will come to the aid of other regiments of their army, if they are attacked. Such a command should be given to the troops of the second or third line, which you want to leave in reserve.
Retreat. In the first half of the battle, the unit is on the defensive, in the second half it tries to leave the battlefield. But he receives a very large penalty to combat characteristics. This command is suitable for settlers who are still no good in combat.

What else can you say? Don't forget to develop technologies and build military buildings. The late troops are more effective than the early ones, the nobility and the regulars are better than the peasant militia. Combine different types troops in the army! An army of chariots and infantry is more effective than an army of only chariots, and an army consisting only of foot archers is an easy prey for cavalry. Concentrate troops on decisive directions. If you can't take by skill - take by number! Well, cities with walls by one army simply cannot be taken. If an enemy army is stationed there, at least threefold superiority in forces is required. Develop your economy! The more money you have, the more you can support soldiers, which can play a decisive role in the war.
That's all that came to my mind. If something is not clear - ask! Good luck in battle!

2017 is not the best year in terms of global strategies. By and large, this year only two projects were released in this subgenre. Fantastic and historical. Moreover, there are a lot of questions to the latter, but today it loses in terms of the number of online players even to an old woman who recently celebrated her seventh birthday. In this situation, we have no explanation why we missed another global strategy Oriental Empires, released in mid-September. Probably, this is due to the unusual theme for Europeans, because this strategy is devoted exclusively to the history of China, and not the whole world, like the Civilization series. Well, better later than never, especially since the year is not over yet, and you can get the game at a New Year's sale with a 40% discount.

China and India are fatally unlucky in history classes at school. These topics are located at the very end of the textbook, so often teachers offer to study them on their own, instead assigning the last lessons of the year to repetition or tests. But in vain. First, the history of the largest countries in the world, which may soon take over the leadership from Western democracies, should still be given due attention. Secondly, this story is no less, and sometimes more intense and interesting than the history of Europe and the United States, which is traditionally given the main attention at school.

Let's assume that you don't know anything about the history of China before the 20th century. And the names of the peoples of Shang, Qin, Ba, Quanzhong, Shu, Min Yuz, Xianbi and White Di do not tell you anything. Most likely, you are not familiar with such concepts as the Age of Spring and Autumn, the period of the Warring States, the era of the Sixteen Barbarian States and the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Well, if you do not dare to run through at least the Wikipedia article about the history of China before starting the game, you will probably want to do it later, already while playing Oriental Empires.

Oriental Empires Spans 3000 Years Chinese history from about 1500 BC NS. to 1500 AD e., that is, before the appearance firearms and the arrival of European barbarians. The map of the Great Campaign covers all of China, Mongolia and even part of Siberia, so there is everything that your heart desires - taiga, mountains, rivers, desert in the north and tropical forests in the south. Moreover, in the Oriental Empires mountains and large rivers are really an impassable line, in order to get to certain areas, you will have to look for workarounds. In total, the game features sixteen nationalities of China, Mongolia and Siberia, which in different times played an important role in the history of the Middle Kingdom. Moreover, some of them cannot be played from the very beginning, but only after completing 120 campaign turns, that is, the achievement of the era of the Fighting Kingdoms, when these nationalities entered the historical stage. In general, the base length of the Great Campaign here is 300 moves, as in the same Civilization, but if you have one more life in stock, you can set a completely unrealistic campaign length of 9950 (!!!) moves.

It all traditionally starts with one settlement, settler and militia unit. The hexagonal grid, the building of trusses, the choice of research directions ... stop, this is where the first differences appear. Firstly, in Oriental Empires there are four "technological" trees at once, in which research is carried out simultaneously: Power, Craft, Philosophy, Knowledge. Discoveries in the first area allow you to increase the Power of your dynasty, influencing the tendency of subjects to obey, and neighbors to be careful and respectful, and determine the number of settlements that you can rule without the risk of constant uprisings. The second area, Crafts, is generally applied knowledge that influences the emergence of new goods, trade and the army. Research in the field of philosophy gives Culture points, which influence the propensity of the population to revolt, allowing you to build certain religious buildings and win a Cultural Victory as a result. Knowledge is discoveries related to writing, mathematics, agriculture, etc.

Interestingly, the speed of research does not depend at all on the libraries you built, universities and the "discovery" bulbs collected from the fields. The pace of research depends on the characteristics of a particular nation (nomads are not very strong in mathematics and literature), as well as on the small bonuses received from certain discoveries. And so, if you need to spend 13 moves on the study of bamboo plates (the first Chinese "books"), then it will always be 13 moves. So, situations when you overtook your rivals by two technological eras and came to visit barbarians armed with sticks on tanks are, in principle, impossible here. Unusual, but, as it seems to us, more realistic.

At the same time, most of the research is not some kind of abstract mathematics, literature and writing, but quite mundane and practical like bamboo writing plates, stirrups, ceramic tiles, paper money, rammed earth walls, wall cladding, gunpowder, rockets, weiqi (go), stern rudder, compass, plate armor, heavy crossbow, etc.

The system of recruiting troops also seems unusual. First, you get the squads completely free of charge by announcing the call. But in each of the cities, you can only call on a certain (increased by the construction of military buildings) number of detachments, and some of them are only from the nobility, and some from the peasantry. At the same time, the next set can be carried out very long ago, especially for the settlers, so it will not be possible to quickly build up everything around with your cities.

Summoning the nobility increases the discontent of the aristocrats, but reduces the unrest among the peasantry. Conversely, to hire peasants in the army in a city where tension is already felt is a dangerous occupation, such a peasant army very easily goes over to the side of the rebels. And the uprisings in the Oriental Empires are scary. As a result, with such a system of recruiting troops, it makes no sense to maintain a huge army in peacetime, you can always (well, almost always) gather an army with the beginning of hostilities. With the development of technology, the place of the naked and barefoot militia will be taken by cavalry in plate armor, war chariots, siege weapons, and towards the end of the game even missiles and artillery.

Fighting, and all movements of units in Oriental Empires occur simultaneously, after pressing the "end of turn" button. So your soldiers may well end their march at a point that the enemy army has already left. If the troops converge, the battle begins. Although visually, the battles in Oriental Empires resemble tactical battles in the games of the Total War series, here all conflicts are resolved automatically. You can only set the formation, orientation of the front and tactics for each of the armies, give them a commander, including personally the ruler or his heir. Battles begin after the contact of the first units, but if you sent several armies to one point, reinforcements will appear during the battle, depending on the time spent on moving. Battles, especially sieges, turn out to be very colorful and take place on the same general map... Thanks to the smooth zoom system, you can even get away so far that the terrain really turns into a map with conventions, and get close enough to see each individual infantryman and the weapons in his hands.

Sieges are a completely different story. Taking a city surrounded by even a simple earthen wall is serious entertainment, not for a dozen moves, and even then, if you have at least some troops in your squad that can punch a hole in the wall or burn down the gate. At least archers with burning arrows, and better battering machines or catapults. The infantry will only stupidly trample under the walls and lose people from shelling and disease. For nearly a hundred turns, I watched the huge combined armies of Shang and Han slaughter against the last remaining city of Qin. Yes, and with my own northern rebels, who settled in a fortified settlement, I dealt with more than twenty moves.

However, we are all about the war. We must also pay attention to financial issues, because someone has to finance the war games of the aristocracy. Here in Oriental Empires everything is also unusual. The economy is based on tax-paying farms and trade. The peasants are forced laborers, so building farms, irrigation, clearing forests, terracing hills and building roads are completely free here, but can only take place in the vicinity of the city. There are no special construction units. But this gratuitousness can turn out to be sideways for you: the peasants, tortured by labor service, begin to grumble, and God forbid, some kind of flood, pestilence or fire will happen during the same period - and you are guaranteed to get an uprising. And an uprising is very, very bad. First, bandits appear in the vicinity of the disgruntled city, burning the fields, and then the whole city can declare its independence, or even go over to the enemy.

Civil and military buildings in cities need to be built for money, as well as mines, marinas, temples, shrines and gazebos for admiring nature (reduce the discontent of the nobility) in the vicinity of cities. In addition, each settlement has a limited number of building slots, and after reaching a certain number of inhabitants, they need to be developed to cities and beyond. All agriculture and even science can be left at the mercy of AI, leaving only diplomacy and war. Believe me, with the development of the empire, you will have to do this, because the enemies, they are all around, even if it seems that they are friends.

Oriental Empires very realistic game... As soon as a peasant uprising began in my empire and one of the northern cities created the People's Republic of Red Eyes (not a joke), neighbors immediately came from the south, with whom we had a Treaty of Eternal Peace, Friendship and Gum, and chopped off another city. The war dragged on for long years and cost thousands of soldiers and civilians lives. Somewhere I have already seen all this ... So even if you have signed an agreement on "Eternal, indestructible, the strongest, I give a tooth, peace" with all surrounding nations, be on your guard, rely on the army and do not forget to re-equip it. Everything is as always, in one word. Diplomatic games, of course, are also important, but wars are declared here without any warning, and they prefer to attack large armies and from several sides at once, enlisting the support of your other "friends".

On the other hand, a declaration of war sometimes does not mean the start of hostilities. Let me remind you that mountains and rivers are serious obstacles here, and enemy armies may simply not get to your territory. I managed to end two "wars" without shedding a drop of blood; losses in army camps from diseases do not count.

Speaking of war and history: compared to the European battles of the Middle Ages, in which several hundred people participated on each side, the scale of the Chinese battles was felt 2,300 years ago. For example, at the Battle of Changping in 260 BC. NS. 1 million fighters took part, and the losses amounted to 600,000 soldiers (six hundred thousand!). Yes, this game will definitely keep you interested in Chinese history.

Some of the points in Oriental Empires seem a little oversimplified. There is no institution of religion, as in Civilization VI, there are no corresponding units and a victory option. Trade between cities and countries is carried out automatically. There are no spies and monarchical marriages. And the gameplay itself sometimes seems too simplistic. But do not be fooled, behind this simplicity is hidden a rather sophisticated global strategy, with interesting tactical nuances, which changes depending on which of the nationalities you start the game.

In short, if you, like us, for some reason missed this project, pay attention to it now. The pre-New Year sale and long holidays are a great opportunity to do a hands-on study of Chinese history.

Site evaluation

Pros: Rare topics; unusual combat system; interesting gameplay findings in the field of economics and research; nice visual component

Minuses: Lack of religion and espionage; not the most user-friendly interface; some simplifications of gameplay

Output: Suddenly a very interesting global strategy game dedicated to Chinese history