A Kingdom of Shu Let's Play

[The Wise Coffin]

Book I
Book II
Book III
Book IV
Book V
Book VI
Book VII
Book VIII
Book IX
Boox X
Book XI
Book XII
Book XIII
Book XIV
Book XV
Book XVI
Book XVII
Book XVIII
Book XIX
Book XX
Book XXI
Book XXII
Book XXIII
Book XXIV
Book XXV
Book XXVI
Book XXVII
Book XXVIII
Book XXIX
Book XXX
Book XXXI
Book XXXII

[Thracius]

Good stuff

[Seether]

Very good Let's Play! Starting the next turn after taking Xinye, I think you are going to have a lot of fun as some interesting characters and events start showing up. Just a warning, since it is the next part of the mission, but you'll have to both make Xinye your capital and give up your starting Xuzhou settlements to proceed any further with the missions. I'd suggest either taking all armies out, destroy +law buildings, and set taxes high to force rebellion OR see about gifting them to an ally (Cao Cao?). Again, excellent Let's Play video. It was a joy to watch!

[Minn]

It's very funny that you dont know this mod has 12 turns per year

[The Wise Coffin]

[Seether]

Again, very good episode!

[The Wise Coffin]

[Seether]

Excellent job beating up on Liu Biao's armies. Keep that up and he will be done for in no time.

Also, although I would like to give Pang Tong a custom strat model (and he has one), he can't have it when he joins Liu Bei because the number of strat models a faction can have is limited.

[Seether]

Since the forum seized and I double-posted, let me say that your play-through has helped me noticed things that are/have been updated or tweaked since the 1.0 version.

[cheesegrader]

what program you used to record this?

[The Wise Coffin]

what program you used to record this?

Fraps for the video and Audacity for my voice.

[The Wise Coffin]

[The Wise Coffin]

[The Wise Coffin]

[Seether]

One thing I have to mention, is that you should read the unit descriptions for the Arcuballista and Catapult. They are not siege equipment; they are field artillery and incapable of taking down walls. Just wanted to warn you so that you don't go into a siege with no ladders/towers/rams and end up losing because you can't get inside the city.

[The Wise Coffin]

One thing I have to mention, is that you should read the unit descriptions for the Arcuballista and Catapult. They are not siege equipment; they are field artillery and incapable of taking down walls. Just wanted to warn you so that you don't go into a siege with no ladders/towers/rams and end up losing because you can't get inside the city.

That's strange, why can't they be siege equipment.

[Seether]

The main reason is that the Chinese didn't have catapult-type siege engines, as we think of such today, in the 2nd or 3rd century. Catapult-type weapons were strictly used as field artillery and were not capable of destroying fortifications. The only 'catapult' I have ever heard of, or found, is the Xuanfeng Pao:

Xuanfeng Pao - The "Whirlwind" catapult was traction catapult used by the Han Chinese. As it says in the article, "This catapult was generally used like the sniper version of a rifle. It wasn't the power of the punch that mattered but the accuracy of the shot. The Xuanfeng, due to its lack of power, was not usually deployed to knock down walls. Instead, its main functions were to take out specific soft targets with its ability to swivel around 360 degrees." Basically this was an anti-personnel weapon and, as at the battle of Guandu, used to destroy enemy siege towers.

In fact, I haven't found anything that the ancient Chinese had, or ever used, any type of catapult engine capable of destroying fortifications of any type. The Whirlwind Catapult certainly was not able to destroy fortifications, even wooden ones, however I did find something interesting that was able to destroy fortifications:

Da Che or Gou Che - As the article says, this was an interesting and unorthodox siege weapon. "The Da Che or Gou Che was used to hack at the top of walls and towers, and to bring down fortifications by pulling and chipping at the material that made up the walls. This simple but vicious scythe-like weapon was possibly also used to hack at the defenders standing on the top of the walls prior to an assault." What is even more interesting, is this passage here: "The first clear mention of the Gou Che is from the Three Kingdoms period in the writings of Chen Lin..."

The Da Che could possibly be created for M2, but we haven't attempted so yet. So when storming a city, the ancient Chinese relied upon ladders, rams, ramps, towers, tunneling, and even flooding (to undermine wall foundations) to go over, under, or through defensive fortifications.

[The Wise Coffin]

[The Wise Coffin]

[The Wise Coffin]