Qin Campaign: Ok!....Lets try that again?

[Didz]

Having successfully completed a Han (farmers) and Dingling (herder) Campaign I wasn't sure what to try next. But after some thought I decided to play the Qin, simply because historically this was the clan that actually unified China. So, it seemed like an interesting challenge.

I had been vaguely aware of the existence of the Qin in my previous campaigns but had never had any real contact with them. So I wasn't really sure what to expect or even where I would start.

As it turned out the single city in a little valley with limited access to resources was a bit of a shock.

I started by concentrating on farming and exploration, mainly to the north in hope of finding a good spot for a second city, but didn't really find anywhere and truth be told I got distracted by a long trail of encounter markers which whilst useful drew my Faction Leader ever more northward until he reached the edge of the desert.

In the end I just plopped my second city down in the valley to the north, but it wasn't that good a spot and both cities were struggling to grow.

Finally made contact with both the Dog Rong to the west and the Zhou to the east, mainly as a result of them wandering into my territory and pillaging my farms, causing my faction leader to make a rapid return to base.

Things just went downhill from there, and eventually ended up with both the Dog Rong and Zhou declaring war on me and a series of desperate battles to try and fend off raiders from both these clans on my two initial cities. But with no real expectation of growth.

In the end a sneaky end run by the Zhou caught my capital undefended and captured it, at which point I decided to start again and try a different approach.

QIN - Take Two a strategy of violence.
This is a screenshot of my second attempt.

This time my basic strategy has been to embrace the violence and maximise my factions warlike abilities by sinking most of my income into troops and trying to catch either the Zhou or the Dog Rong as early as possible and capture their cities rather than build my own
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1457953924
Turn 67: The screenshot shows the situation in turn 67 and I am at war with Zhou having already captured two of their cities (Bin and FengJing.) The Dog Rong have just begged for a Fraternal Harmony Pact, which I granted as it means I can concentrate on finishing off the Zhou without having to worry about a two front war.

My diplomats assure me that with two full armies the Qin are far stronger than either of their neighbours already and now have two cities with some real growth potential.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1457980025
So, far it seems to be working.

[Ernst Cornell]

the Qin Historically became powerful by beating Barbarians and taking their lands meanwhile china was fighting between itself. and in-game doesn't seem to be different.

[Didz]

Yes! It does seem that the historical approach is working.

The Qin campaign is the closest I've come so far to adopting a standard Totalwar campaign strategy since starting to play OE. e.g. DOW; Take City; Rest and Replenish; Take City; Rest and Replenish; Take City etc.

[Didz]

Turn 123: How goes the war?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1459506204
Played for quite a while today and got to Turn 123.

So, far things seem to be going really well.

The War with the Zhou
The initial war with the Zhou netted me three quite large cities in good locations, but then degenerated in a series of annoying raids by Zhou Tribal Light Spearmen which stood no real chance of success against my Noble Cavalry who easily intercepted them and destroyed them before they could do any damage. The problem was that I couldn't find any more Zhou cities to capture and so the war became a pointless drain on my resources. In the end I decided to leave my noble cavalry to fend off the Zhou raiders and sent my three main armies west to attack the Dog Rong.

The War With the Dog Rong
Declaring war on the Dog Rong, the excuse being that they had declared an embargo on my trade (How dare they!) I quickly captured their capital Weirong and the city of Quyan destroying their main army in the process. One army then marched north and captured the city of QiangFang.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1459528954
To my surprise Weirong had obviously been developed as a military base with Barracks; Weaponsmith; Bowyer and an Armorer. So, I am now able to begin recruiting Trained Heavy Spearmen and archers. Why were they only fielding armies of peasants?

I was about to continue my campaign against them when the Shu suddenly declared war on me and I decided it would be prudent to pull at least one of my armies back to defend the south of the kingdom.

The Dog Rong seemed to see this as the perfect excuse to sue for peace on favourable terms and I was happy to accept on the understanding that they would reopen the trade lanes with their remaining cities.

The War with the Shu
The turn after the Shu declared war on me, the Dog Rong sued for peace, and the Zhou declared war on them as well as me. So, the Shu are now about to face the full might of the Qin and the annoying poking of the Zhou, when they probably thought they were joining a 3 v 1 campaign.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1459530939
I can only see one of Shu's cities, but it looks quite juicy. So as soon as I have relocated my three armies and replaced some of my militia with trained troops thats where we are headed.

[Unez_rdr]

Nice post, Didz! Good luck w/Qin!

[Didz]

Thanks! Still going. Up to turn 160 now, and the war with the Shu is getting bloody.

I'm concentrating on quality over quantity as far as my armies are concerned, recruiting all my new units at the military base of Weirong which I captured from the Dog Rong clan
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1461279633
It has a barracks; weaponsmith; bowyer and armorer so it can recruit trained units with bronze armour and there is a constant trickle of these superior troops heading south to replace depleted units in the front line, as well as replaced units returning to replenish.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1461283025
The Shu recently attempted a two pronged attack on Xiangyang, my southern most city, sending one army to establish a new settlement at Yizhou whilst a second snuck around through the woods to the west and tried to capture my city. Fortunately they were spotted by my cavalry patrols and both their armies were destroyed; their generals killed and their new settlement captured. as you can see in the screenshot the remants of their eastern army is retreating south whilst two units of raiders are trying to distract me by raiding my farms in the west.

The Shu is nominally stronger than my faction but so far have not managed to match my troop quality and I need to weaken them before that happens. They can recruit trained troops, but so far haven't, most of their armies are peasant militia.

However, ignoring the war, the other big challenge I have is to build up my economy. This has been neglected to date in favour of military expansion and growth. Investment was prioritised on city expansion and military recruitment. But now i am beginning to spend more money on trade and culture to try and increase my income.

[Didz]

The war with the Shu is beginning to take on all the miseries of WW1. With massive armies slaughtering each other and fighting each other to a standstill.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1461547368
The Shu are fielding whole armies of Peasant Light Spearmen and throwing them in waves against my Trained Heavy Spearmen with predicatable results (10 to 1 losses in some cases). But the shear volume of them is stopping my armies making any ground. We are literally wading through bodies to try and gain ground.

[Neutron]

Sounds like you've really entered the Warring States era.

[Didz]

Yes! its turned into a major war of attrition. I'm trying to decide whether its better to stick with my strategy of small numbers of high quality troops, or to try and minimic the Shu's human wave strategy. At the minute neither of us seem to be getting the upper hand and I'm racking up a huge number of indecisive battles along both the passes.

I'm hoping that eventually the Shu peasantry will simply rebel against the mass slaughter. I've noticed one of their cities has turned rebel already but whether that will spread remains to be seen. Logic suggests that constantly recruiting 8 x Peasant Light Spearmen in every city is going to upset the stability of their peasantry eventually.

[Neutron]

My suggestion would be make peace, and find a weaker target. Shu will be easier to deal with when you have more points on entry into their heartlands.

[Didz]

You're probably right. The battles are interesting and epic, but not really getting either of us anywhere.

[Didz]

The Seige of Chengdu
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465103854
Well I didn't follow my own advice or @Neutron's. The war with the Shu has continued and with it the slaughter of their massed peasant armies.

However, something unusual happened a few turns ago.

On the right at the town of Yizhou (which I like to call Verdun) the Grand Commandant and a small intrepid force of trained soldiers continues to hold against five Shu Armies led by the Shu faction leader Qiu Zhuo.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465110867
Slightly to the north along the valley, on the edge of Xainyang territory, you can see two Qin armies led by General Wu Shi and the Prince Lin Zhou. These armies are made up of noble cavalrymen from all over Qin and are re-organising after a major strike against the Shu armies surrounding Yizhou which killed over 500 x Shu peasants and scattered their beseiging force. As soon as they are rested they will attack again bleeding the beseiging enemy armies and creating chaos in their ranks.

However, the real breakthrough occured in the west where two armies of trained soldiers led by the king and General Zeng Jin have managed to fight their way up the river valley and invest the Shu city of Chengdu.

A previous attempt to do this was blocked by the massed wave attacks by Shu peasants. But since the rebelion of the Shu city of Liao the Shu seem to have run out of peasants, or perhaps peasant unrest has become so high that they simply can't risk sending more to the slaughter. Whatever the reason the city of Chengdu is close to capitulation and the number of Shu units being sent to try and relieve it are rapidly diminishing,
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465229421
The capture of Chengdu will give the Qin a city beyond the mountains that can act as a base for further operations. In practice I may sue for an honourable peace if I capture it as the diplomatic reports show that the Shu are no longer stronger than the Qin and so do not pose such a major threat.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465227861
Finally captured Chengdu.....not a bad prize, some nice buildings and a port.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465233490
I decided this was an opportune time to offer peace.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465238031
It will give me time to consolidate my kingdom and replenish my armies.

[Didz]

Even though the war with the Shu is over it just keeps on giving.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466595337
i can only assume that the mass sacrifice of peasants during the war has destablised the Shu kingdom, because despite the diplomacy menu telling me that their kingdom is stable they seem to be suffering all sorts of unrest.

Just over the river from Chengdu, the city of Zitong rebelled and became a Red Eye Clan city. The Shu were trying desperately to recapture it using peasant armies, but not surprisingly the combination of peasant unrest and the defection of whole armies to the Red Eye Faction wasn't making this easy.

So, I decided to help out. By now I had a few four-legged catapults, and although one unit of these defected I was still able to bring down the gates of the cities walls and my trained troops were immune to defections.

So, I now have another city, in the middle of the Shu Kingdom, and i can see the next city to the south has actually been captured by bandits (I never even knew that was possible). So, thats my next target.

[Didz]

The capture of Zitong from the Red Eye Clan must have been a bitter blow for the Shu. It was obvious from the towns development that Zitong must have been the Shu's main military base.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1465503218
It was equipped with armouries and barracks and once the chaos settled would provide the Qin with a southern base from which to recruit trained soldiers and replenish our losses. So, now the Qin had a local base capable of supporting their armies, instead of having to the maintain a supply line all the way to Weirong in the north of the kingdom.

It probably also meant that the Shu had lost the only town they had which could produce and replenish their own scattering of trained units. I doubt they were happy.

In a knee jerk reaction the Shu immediately announced a trade embargo on all Qin goods. A somewhat illconceived and pointless gesture in that we had already capture their main trading hub at Chengdu together with the only port in the area, and so whilst the embargo had little impact on our trade income it must have crippled theirs as all their trade routes went through Chengdu.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466597302
In addition the capture of Chengdu and Zitong effectively drove a wedge into the Shu Kingdom dividing their eastern and western kingdoms.

At first the Shu attempted to ignore this obstical, sending troops across Qin territory between their cities. But after pillaging some of my farms local troops were ordered to intercept and drive off any Shu units found on Qin territory and for a while the fighting flared up again as the hapless Shu peasant armies were once more slaughtered by my trained troops.

[Didz]

As if things could not get any worse for the Shu my armies were successful in beating them to the bandit town of Xibo and snatching that from under their noses.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466619411
Now the Qin had three cities extending through the centre of the Shu Kingdom, and they were understandably livid.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466631836
But in practice there was little they could do about it. they had already lost their main trading hub and military base, Their trade embargo seemed to be hurting them more than the Qin, and any Shu army that ventured into the Qin occupied zone was set upon and massacred by highly trained Qin soldiers. Which in turn was causing peasant unrest, and the risk that the Qin might snap up another rebellious city.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1466636288
With apparently no sensible options the Shu decided to take the most stupid one instead and in a surprise move declared war on the Qin after just a few turns of tentative peace.

Somehow I don't see this ending well for them.

[Didz]

The Second Shu War

As I predicted the Shu are tearing their kingdom apart trying to beat my superior armies with massed waves of hastily levied peasants.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1467038012
Already two of their cities have revolted against the senseless slaughter, and no doubt the Shu will raise still more peasant armies to try and take them back.

For my part I'm happy to wait until the Shu run out of bodies to throw at my borders. I already have two catapult units and when they are exhausted I intend to assault their capital at PI and then sweep eastwards and take as many of their cities as my authority will allow.

Finally after several more turns of pointless slaughter the Shu offer the only solution that makes any sense and ask to become Qin's vassal.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1467136235
As a consequence of the Shu capitualtion the Qin are now 1st in every victory category including Conquest.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1467139469
The Shu Rebels suddenly realising that they were going to be the next Qin target did not even wait for my armies to cross their borders but immediately offered to be my vassal.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1467163910
This now means that the entire south-east area of the map is now part of the Qin Empire.