In EU III to EU IV, Ming is always too strong or too weak. When it is too strong, it is super stable, and slowly eats all the neighbors. When it is too strong, like right now with 1.8, it's tiny manpower means that once defeated, Vietnam, Korea end up owning half of China. EVERY GAME.
Vietnam beat off Qing/Ming invasions a couple times, but due the Chinese army's unfamiliarity with Jungle combat, and jungle disease. If Vietnam's army invaded Guangdong, it would have faced the same problems, only reversed, and without the huge manpower advantage. For example, in China's flat farmland and fortified cities, Vietnam's lack of Calvary, poor formations, lack of cannons or siege warfare experience would make it very hard for them. Yet, in the game, Vietnam always end up with at least the Guangdong area, a rich area that historically had a higher population than Vietnam, that even the British did not try to take and hold.
Goals for modelling Ming/Qing China -
- Very costly to muster national army to invade anywhere. Most manpower is controlled at the local level, not by the state. Therefore, local forces should exist to defend invasions by Vietnam or fight off Rebels.
- Rebellions should be common, and often. Peasant war shouldn't be disabled for Ming. However, local provinces should be equipped to deal with rebellions, as they often did historically.
- Provinces are the size of European countries, with populations to match. Their distance from the capital was so far that, despite the Emperor's "absolute" power, they were in effect mostly self-governing. Their governors were hereditary, often related to the emperor, and had their own armies. They can and did sometimes rebel, to try to install a new emperor, but they often were crushed by the Emperor and loyal provinces, unless they had enough support. (the first Ming emperor was overthrown by his uncle who was a province governor, and had the support a few other province governors. On the other hand, three governors rebelled during the early years of the Qing, and they almost won, but eventually were crushed).
In the next section, I will detail the best way to model this.
Vietnam beat off Qing/Ming invasions a couple times, but due the Chinese army's unfamiliarity with Jungle combat, and jungle disease. If Vietnam's army invaded Guangdong, it would have faced the same problems, only reversed, and without the huge manpower advantage. For example, in China's flat farmland and fortified cities, Vietnam's lack of Calvary, poor formations, lack of cannons or siege warfare experience would make it very hard for them. Yet, in the game, Vietnam always end up with at least the Guangdong area, a rich area that historically had a higher population than Vietnam, that even the British did not try to take and hold.
Goals for modelling Ming/Qing China -
- Very costly to muster national army to invade anywhere. Most manpower is controlled at the local level, not by the state. Therefore, local forces should exist to defend invasions by Vietnam or fight off Rebels.
- Rebellions should be common, and often. Peasant war shouldn't be disabled for Ming. However, local provinces should be equipped to deal with rebellions, as they often did historically.
- Provinces are the size of European countries, with populations to match. Their distance from the capital was so far that, despite the Emperor's "absolute" power, they were in effect mostly self-governing. Their governors were hereditary, often related to the emperor, and had their own armies. They can and did sometimes rebel, to try to install a new emperor, but they often were crushed by the Emperor and loyal provinces, unless they had enough support. (the first Ming emperor was overthrown by his uncle who was a province governor, and had the support a few other province governors. On the other hand, three governors rebelled during the early years of the Qing, and they almost won, but eventually were crushed).
In the next section, I will detail the best way to model this.
