Do you have a time approximation or at least on which war it was?
I wonder if there's any downsides to ordering an artillery barrage, because otherwise I don't see why you wouldn't do it all the time to pound the fortress into rubble.
Interesting. I wonder if it will have high/medium mil cost and/or chance of removing/lowering fort level.
I think it should be mil cost---possibility of lowering fort levels would seem wrong with how you use artillery anyway and how you normally have breaches in the fort and the fort itself set on fire---both those things could just as well be represented as lowering fort level (or at least requiring repair). Speaking of repair then I'd like it if forts could have some kind of damage. They would never disappear, but could be pounded into a pile of rubble. Then depending on damage you'd need to invest a certain sum to get them back up and running again. Obviously your level of artillery (and the amount of it) should determine how much damage you could give a fort. For instance without artillery it should be impossible to make it into a pile of rubble.
Yes and no. The Qing had taken the north east, including the Liaodong peninsula, unable to expand any further before they the general allowed them to pass through the Wall. Anyway, it's more to do with balance, imho. A middling nation shouldn't just be able to cheap-shot the Celestial Empire and claim the title with the incumbent emperor not really losing any land. A balance should be struck, requiring a challenging nation to own a certain number of provinces in China, or the incumbent emperor going below a certain threshold of some kind. It shouldn't be a cheap shot, but neither should it too restrictive. The Qing spent the next twenty+ years after seizing Beijing mopping up Ming loyalists. afterall.
Well you do have to fight one of the most powerful countries in the game.
So? There were multiple times when there were contesting Emperors, most illustrative example being during Song, when there were 3 legitimate Emperors at the same time. Even after Jin took whole North China, Song was still respected as an Empire.
Why vassal? Qing continued to fight Ming for 20 years. Ming fought Yuan until they retreated behind Gobi. Yuan fought Song until they conquered them.
This is something that should be 'duuuuuuhhhhhh' when the idea of taking the mandate is conceived. Without it, the new mechanic is just silly.
