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Campaigns » A Xia's Diary - Singleplayer Campaign
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A Xia's Diary - Singleplayer Campaign
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| Author |
File Description |
| Gweilo2 |
Posted on 08/18/04 @ 07:18 AM
| File Details |
|---|
| Age: |
Iron |
| # of Episodes: |
10 |
| # of Cities: |
7 |
| Difficulty: |
Very Hard |
| Custom Maps: |
Yes |
Minimap:
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"He is honest in words, effective in action, faithful in keeping promises, and fearless in offering his own life to free the righteous from bondage." ~ the historian Sima Qian, describing a Xia.
"I leave these diaries to my fellow Xia, who will follow after me throughout the ages. You have read of many great events: the end of the Warring States, the rise and fall of the Qin Dynasty, and the beginning of the Han Dynasty. I pray that this history will not distract you from the real truth, which is that a Xia's life is defined by our values - such as duty, honor, and vengeance. No historic event, no matter how significant, can shake a Xia from this foundation." ~ the Grand Xia's last diary entry, written in Chang-an circa 175 BCE.
Who were the Xia? The Xia (pronounced 'see-ya' in English) can be thought of as the Chinese equivalent of Europe's Knight-errants. However, they were more than that. They were administrators, scholars, and soldiers-of-fortune. They came from both noble and humble origins. They lived their lives by a code and measured themselves by a strict set of values. They were men of intelligence, as well as men of action, and they played pivotal roles throughout the history of the Middle Kingdom.
In this campaign you will assume the role of a Xia from a clan with a long tradition of service. Over the course of this campaign, your journey will take you from humble hunting tents in the desert to the splendor of Grand Temples in magnificent capital cities. You will gain experience as you successfully complete each mission, slowly transforming from an inexperienced youth into the powerful Grand Xia of a mighty dynasty.
This campaign includes the maximum scope of ten missions, and features seven new maps of original design. A player will interact with 22 historically-accurate cities. Resources, commodities, and available structures follow the Emperor model for the iron age. This campaign uses a customized pricing scheme for commodities (designed by Shaun), which replaces the game's default Imperial Standard Prices. We believe it offers a more realistic price structure. These customized prices ripple into several aspects of gameplay, and the overall impact adds an additional level of challenge.
Some missions in this campaign overlap the time period of both 'The Mighty Qin' and 'The Silk Road' campaigns (which come included in the core game). However, you will find this campaign tells a more detailed version of that history, and it is told in a different way - from the first-person perspective of an active participant in the events of the time.
Three extra files are included in the download package. The first is a text file
'AXD_Readme.txt', which contains installation instructions, background information, campaign design notes, general play tips, and mission hints (warning: contains spoilers). The other two files are images called 'WarringStatesMap1.jpg' and 'WarringStatesMap2.jpg'. They are maps of the Middle Kingdom during the Warring States period, and are included solely for historical reference.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This campaign is rated 'very hard', and is my attempt to provide a solid challenge for advanced players. For the best play experience, a player should possess an advanced understanding of the game's military aspect, time-constrained missions, money management, trading, labor allocation, production output, monument construction, summoning and using the Heroes, and empire-map diplomacy. Sabotage by spies is allowed in this campaign, but it will not function as a 'deus ex machina' in every mission. However, sabotage can be helpful in some cases to give a player a slight edge. This campaign's play balance is designed to provide a graduated
level of challenge between three difficulty levels, as follows:
Normal difficulty = modest challenge
Hard difficulty = considerable challenge
Very hard difficulty = serious challenge
Missions Teasers: (Note - all missions except 10 use a 'time limit' or 'survival' goal)
Mission 1 - 'Hunters of the Gobi' - 5 years, from 242 BCE to the end of 238 BCE.
Mission 2 - 'The Scourge of the Lu Bandits' - 5 years, from 237 BCE to the end of 233 BCE.
Mission 3 - 'Trials for a Xia and an Assassin' - 5 years, from 232 BCE to the end of 228 BCE.
Mission 4 - 'A Hungry Tiger Stalks' - 4 years, from 227 BCE to the end of 224 BCE.
Mission 5 - 'Defiance Without Hope' - 3 years, from 223 BCE to the end of 221 BCE.
Mission 6 - 'To Serve a Tyrant' - 11 years, from 220 BCE to the end of 210 BCE.
Mission 7 - 'The Fall of Qin' - 4 years, from 209 BCE to the end of 206 BCE.
Mission 8 - 'Duel of the Xia' - 4 years, from 205 BCE to the end of 202 BCE.
Mission 9 - 'Architect of a New Capital' - 7 years, from 201 BCE to the end of 195 BCE.
Mission 10 - 'The Grand Xia's Final Strategy' - no time limit, starts in 194 BCE.
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| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » | | Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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| letho |
Posted on 11/05/04 @ 12:38 PM
Depending on the level it can be quite challenging. I played first at Normal and then at Very Hard. At this level it was sometimes a question of one month or days before the winning criteria were met. I did not try to get perfect FengShu, although I tried to observe it when placing the buildings; I just figured out that it would take too much time to screen the map to see what Gweilo had imagined.
I normally put up a few houses at the entry point to get asap some workers. In some scenarios it is critical to open trade stations in the first months. I managed all the ten campaigns at Very Hard, but had to look at the defence set up in game 2 from the hints that Gweilo supplied.
Very enjoyable and I am looking forward to Gweilo’s next campaigns. The only critique is that the Xia file is that large that my diskette could not take it directly (this is for those that not save on the hard disk directly).
fiel2 (letho) |
Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 11/05/04 @ 02:23 PM [Edited on 11/05/04 @ 02:23 PM]
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| allain |
Posted on 11/07/04 @ 06:54 AM
I'm playing this one now...but i don't get through the first game...this is pretty frustrating..i play on hard...what's the real trick to get 30 game meats a year..i followed all your advices...but it doesn't work..pretty frustrating...:(
gtx |
Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 11/07/04 @ 08:31 AM
*****SPOILER ALERT! Stop reading if you haven't played yet and want to unravel the strategy yourself******
*****
*****
*****
1. Place the little bridges over the streams to minimize the walking distance the hunters have to travel to reach the antelope.
2. Build a cavalry or crossbow unit as quickly as possible and continually move it in a patrol pattern on the west side of the map, to where you see the bears roaming. Begin this as soon as your military unit has ONE soldier in it. This will kill the bears before they can attack your hunters. You can also summon Huang Di if you want extra help in killing the bears.
3. Place your hunting tents just west of the mountain gap. Place NO MORE THAN 5 hunting tents. If you place more than 5, the hunters will compete with each other for the available antelopes, and overall meat production at the tents will go down.
4. You can also place a warehouse that is set to accept only meat near the hunting tents. If you do this, production will go up since the deliverymen can cycle their meat deliveries faster, since they deliver to that nearby warehouse. Note that you will have to separate this warehouse from the road network leading back to your city, or else the deliverymen might bypass it and go to the mill instead.
5. You can place residential walls near the spawn points of the antelope to 'herd' their wanderings towards the travel paths of the hunters. This increases the rate at which the hunters can shoot and carry them back. (Shaun has an example of this in his save of mission 1, which is available in the Completed Cities download section.)
6. It helps overall production to begin the INITIAL hunting only at the start of a new year. To do this, place all your hunting tents in January (last month of the year), but turn OFF their workers. Then as soon as February arrives, turn on the workers to ALL the hunting tents at the same time. This will allow all your hunters to begin at the same time, with antelopes fully-spawned on the map, and not depleted by previous hunting.
Did you download my Completed City of mission 1 (Yanjing)? It shows tips 1-3 above; I didn't need to use 4, 5, or 6.[Edited on 10/03/05 @ 07:05 PM]
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| allain |
Posted on 11/10/04 @ 05:01 PM
Tx Gweilo and Shaun for the help
and now to play the whole Xiary..
Gtx from Belgium..
[Edited on 11/10/04 @ 05:25 PM]
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| Beijing Tag |
Posted on 03/04/06 @ 11:01 PM
If 10 missions and 7 novel cities/maps don't provide you with enough variety and replay options then you're a very tough customer to please. Most maps are flexible enough to allow for a variety of places to build your housing blocks, industrial parks and monuments/military where required. If you're the sort of player who aims for Perfect Harmony in their builds this adds extra layers of playability, challenge and satisfaction especially in Missions 1, 3, 6, 7 and 8.
Balance: 4
In reality probably a 5 but I'm being a little tough here, I'll try to explain. Being a story driven campaign with time limits on most of the missions means some players may feel a little rushed at times. They may end up playing at a slightly lower degree of difficulty or aim for lower levels of Feng Shui compliance in order to 'get through'. Less a criticism on the campaign, more a reflection on the fact that at VH/PH some of the missions are very tricky indeed.
Creativity: 5
Excellent. Something here for every kind of player. If you like military challenges there are missions here for you (especially M3, M8 and M10); if you like monuments, there are plenty here; if you like Treasury challenges, they abound in the later missions; if you like logistical problems, look no further. M1 in particular can be tricky, how do you gather all the required game meat ?
Map Design: 5
Seven novel maps people! Running the gamut from big to small and across various climates. All realistic looking with plenty of detail and variety. On some of the maps you can, if you so wish, simply plonk down standard type housing blocks but many of the missions force you to be more creative in how you lay them out - especially true if you're a Feng Shui freak (like myself). M1 is very tricky whereas M10 offers ample room to go housing mad. On one build I had 2 common blocks and 4 elite blocks with thoughts of building a 5th.
Story/Instructions: 5
Logical and informative story. For once the story actually drives the campaign/mission flow and is not just window dressing. The example mission saves from Gweilo and Shaun along with the comprehensive instructions/spoilers should provide most players with a sound set of play guidelines.
Additional Comments: Overall, a compelling series of missions that make up one of the best campaigns that I have seen/played for Emperor. I can only imagine how much effort went in to developing and testing this campaign. Congrats and thanks to the author and play test team.
Some mission specific comments (specifically relevant at Very Diff and Perfect Harmony, but probably apply to some degree to all levels of challenge):
M1 - very tricky. Easy to go into terminal debt and the game meat target is tough. The trick is to limit the hunter tents to no more than five and have at least one dedicated warehouse set to get game meat. A unit of cavalry bear-killers is also a good idea.
M2 - for reasons I struggle to fully explain or even understand(!), I think this is the most visually appealing map. Concise layout without being too limiting in terms of building and playability options.
M3 - city walls are your friends. Multiple invasions and invasion points, so you need to block off a number of them so you can concentrate your defenses, along with Huang Di who proves very useful.
M4/M5 - a variety of locations to choose from for your housing blocks. I suggest the North West plain near the ingress/egress point otherwise your immigrants may end up being meals on wheels for the stripey 'laohu'.
M6 - where to build the elite block? Probably the first time I ever built an elite block that straddled a brook. Charming looking block. Not my idea, stole it from a model save.
M7/M8 - farm crops and hemp need to be carefully placed. Not much in the way of good farmland so make the most of what you can. And irrigate, even though the water source is a long way away. M8 is military heavy.
M9 - get that tumulus going ASAP. They take forever.
M10 - my fave mission. Huge map allows for building frenzy. Plenty of violence, er I mean opportunities to liberate other cities and a pretty monument. Think I can squeeze in a sixth elite block somewhere ?!
[Edited on 03/05/06 @ 02:24 AM]
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Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 03/04/06 @ 11:15 PM
I agree with you about mission 2. It's map, story, and scripting made it my favorite of the whole campaign. To this day I can't really say why. [Edited on 03/04/06 @ 11:16 PM]
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| eutamis |
Posted on 11/11/07 @ 11:16 PM |
Gweilo2
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 11/12/07 @ 09:42 AM
Also: you can download the save-game I submitted for the Ningxia mission, at this url:
http://emperor.heavengames.com/downloads/showfile.php?fileid=309[Edited on 11/12/07 @ 09:49 AM]
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| SeaWorld |
Posted on 09/25/10 @ 02:01 PM
Rough, challenge to any city builder...
Balance: 5
Great... time limits are set to the extreme. you can only win by a couple of months
Creativity: 5
Variety throughout. I believe the 7 maps provide for different playing styles. you will definitely find your style somewhere,
Map Design: 5
Stunning... swing baby swing... looking over around and sometimes through mountains to see all possibilities... sleep on each map before you attempt the mission
Story/Instructions: 5
I'm a retired Xia. I feel like a hero...
In the Light of Beijing Tag's review, here's my analysis:
M1: Pure frustration. Feeling a new map is always a challenge. 30 Steaks in a year was challenging. The lesson learnt here was, complete all production goals as early as possible.
M2: Not a favourite. Boring for my taste very academic. I was probably still trying to figure out the general trend of the Diary. Necessary to learn the lessons on the temple as these lessons are applicable later, especially for the wall and tumulus...
M3: Great fights, big city, stunning micro-management between farms, smiths, commerce. Played conservative with the cash. was ok. Remember first battles are usually limited to a single unit. Place walls, save regularly. rotate rotate rotate the map continuously to check up routes. The bastards know how to suddenly end up destroying everything.
M4 & 5: careful for the trees. Clearing too much causes problems in start up capital. Debt anniversaries are a bitch. Save regularly. If you make a mistake in Mission 4 you will realise it very early in Mission 5 (same map). Don't even contemplate replaying M5. just revert back to M4 version 700 then click replay mission. Should read Missions.
Next if you have an idea of where the mission is going (upgrading houses, more forts, food gifts, production) start in the previous mission. Killing time constructively before the end of the survival time. The time saved in the next mission is crucial.
M6: Keep systems separate. The wall is a nightmare. Always has been. Multiple labour camps, guilds and place a couple of warehouses along the wall for wood, quick delivery towards the end.
Beijing, the elite straddle was stunning. found out for the first time that elite housing really doesn't want to be placed in a desert with out water table(Yes Gweilo. they don't need water boy due to their own pits. was attempting second elite block from Sun Wu Kong) well? you won.
M7/M8 Fabulous, time constraints rock. Distances micromanagement.
Hemp hemp hemp....
Enjoy convincing the 5th allie. got all the goals by the end of the first year. Think iron
M9 and 10: Hectic on 9. timing timing timing. manage everything, wath cashflow. it sounds like a lot. but suddenly you're building walls and laying elite plots before you've even put a ceramics shop up in your common housing block. You got to get that tax. And don't forget new years party.
This just expands in M10 15 vassels. and you think you've already got several until they all rebel. then the fun begins because there armies will kick your arse. Great you get all their weapons for rebuilding your army but you got no arm. 2 cavalry per fort, 4 infantry... try the other way takes a while and is a little expensive but it worked.
Gweilo, my compliments... was fabulous... absolute rush. The time limits are perfect.
Thanks
SeaWorld
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| Pages: [1] 2 » Last » |
HGDL v0.8.2 |
| Rating |
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| 4.9 | | Breakdown |
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| Playability | 5.0 | | Balance | 4.5 | | Creativity | 5.0 | | Map Design | 5.0 | | Story/Instructions | 5.0 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 7,919 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 1.44 MB |
| Added: | 08/18/04 |
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