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War in the East. The Rise of Zhao

During the peace I decide to colonize Yemaek in the northeast despite not really having a good reason for doing so.

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I decide to leave Chu alone for the time being so as the truce with Qin ends a few months after the colonization of Yemaek to war we go against the wicked Qin and their foul Minyue allies. And after less then four years of fighting all of Qin is occupied and the Minyue army that invaded the Shandong peninsula (they do that every war) has been destroyed. In peace we take Nanyang, Yanying, Ba, Lingling and Nan.

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Unfortunately for Xiaocheng he dies a year after this victory, thus we get a new king, Zhao Rong.

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We form an alliance with Van Lang, our efforts to get good relations with them has paid off. We also support Jin in the east, but have no plans to ally them at the moment lest we get drawn in into a war with Wa (our fleet is quite unimpressive). While plans are forming to attack Wei, a border dispute with Han gives us an oppurtunity to strike against them instead. We dissolve our alliance, declare war and invade. We quickly gain the upper hand though the vast Han army (slightly more then half the size of my army but it only consist of militia) takes some time to destroy. Our truces with Qin and Minyue ends, and as they are also allies of Han, the desperate king of Han asks them to join. They do but are unable to save Han from defeat.

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Chenggao, Yiyang (the province the border dispute was about) and most importantly Luoyang, the capital of Zhou are all ours. Though all is not good. A barbarian horde destroys Yemaek, though the barbarians are annihilated shortly thereafter we have lost the colony.

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Van Lang refuse to join us in our war against Qin, but that does not help Qin to defeat us and they are reduced to three provinces. Qiaozhong, Guanghan, Jianwei and Hanzhong are now ours.

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Chu decides to invade Han, but they fail to take into account that Han have allies, so they find themselves at war with Wei, Han, Qin and Minyue. Although they manage to defeat Qin (Qin pays a modest sum, however the Chu army that did it is not allowed to walk across my territory so have to sit in the isolated Chu province there) they have problems with Han and Wei who quickly occupies several provinces, however Minyue is soon under Chu occupation. I may be allied with Wei but they have not asked me to join the war (I guess it may have something to do with the war against Xiongnu that is still going on). And here is the world in the year 560 AUC.

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Nice, some quick expansion in those years, and most importantly Qin took a lot of damage there. They are essentially done, so Chu is the only significant state left to take down. It'll be interesting to see their condition after the war they're fighting now.

True, it should be technically be Spathiwa's moon, but just Spathiwa is close enough, no need to make things easier for other evil things.

Fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt - for now. :D
 
Alright, on to Chu! Can you beat them?
 
Nice, some quick expansion in those years, and most importantly Qin took a lot of damage there. They are essentially done, so Chu is the only significant state left to take down. It'll be interesting to see their condition after the war they're fighting now.



Fine, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt - for now. :D

Chu's condition is not that good. At least not considering what they are up against.

Chu must fall.
There cannot be peace until only one army is left standing on the field.

Chu will go, though it won't go quickly due to them being relatively big.

Alright, on to Chu! Can you beat them?

As they have been beaten in practically every war they have been involved in since the start I think I should be able to.

can't resist ... yep I'd go with the consensus here, its time to chew on chu ... (sorry)

One almost feels sorry for Chu. But only almost.

I take it Maurya fell apart in civil war?

Yes, that is what happened. Unfortunately it did not last long.
 
War in the East. The Rise of Zhao

It should come as no surprise that it only takes a few days for Chu to annex Minyue. The Minyue court, including king Ma Kang, flees to Zhao. War is declared at Chu shortly thereafter. The king of Chu decides that they can't hope to win against all enemies so cede Xie to Wei as well as giving them the contents of the Chu treasury (which Wei needs since their treasury is at about -2500).

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The Chu armies are quickly destroyed and much of Chu occupied. Their king agrees to cede Teng, Cai, Sui and Shangyong.

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Afterwards we go to war with Han and their Qin allies. No serious opposition is expected and none found. Qin cedes Yelang and Yuexi and Han is annexed.

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While I would wish to go after Wei, as they are at war with the Xiongnu I can't end our alliance (apart from going to war with someone else and hope they refuse to join). A civil war in Wei gives some hope but it ends a few years later with the defeat of the rebels. Before that though King Rong died and Zhao Yuan rose to the throne. And in a brief war Qin was annexed.

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Then as I prepare for the next war with Chu Wei finally signs peace with Xiongnu. For 1 gold. All those years for so little. The alliance with Wei is cancelled and my armies move into position. War is declared and shortly afterwards Wei is utterly defeated. Anyi, Xie, Pingyangwei and Zhongmou are taken.

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Then it is time for the new war against Chu. They fight better this time though it is not enough to save them. Tan, Chen, Song and Shouchun are gained in the war.

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Some peace and when the truce with Wei ends they are quickly annexed. King Yuan decides to become Emperor Yuan after that, could have done it already after the last war with Wei but decided to wait a little bit.

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Of the warring states Chu, which will be conquered as soon as possible, and Lu remain. After defeating Chu I plan on both trying to help Jin (formed an alliance with them) beat back Wa as well as conquering Yuezhi. And finally a look on the world in the year 575 AUC.

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Great progress. Chu turned out to be a paper tiger like you had suggested, they had little but their size going for them. Good to see the big bad Qin gone. :D You're very close to completing stage one (uniting the Warring States).

Looking forward to more, assisting Jin sounds interesting.
 
That is one hell of a big India! Are they a threat to your empire in the future or is the Terra Incognita a buffer (I assume the grey is TI)

The gray area is just uncolonized land, but it does usually serve as a pretty good buffer.

Great work, Lofman. Beating back Wa should be interesting.
 
There is no buffer to save the poor Seleucids from India though. It is the first time I have considered feeling sorry for them in this game.
 
Great progress. Chu turned out to be a paper tiger like you had suggested, they had little but their size going for them. Good to see the big bad Qin gone. :D You're very close to completing stage one (uniting the Warring States).

Looking forward to more, assisting Jin sounds interesting.

The only real trouble with Chu was in the second war when they let their two 40k armies work together. My armies (about 28k each) where spread out so I had one army to deal with both of them initially.

whow ... that was rather neatly done

Well Chu armies consisted of militia with some archer support, I had lots of cavalry, heavy infantry and horse archers as well as my own militia and archers.

I want to see how Zhao cavalry wipes out Roman legions!

Would be interesting to see, but it does seem unlikely, with Rome being at the other end of the map, with powerful Maurya in the way. I doubt there will be enough time, but we will see, I might surprise myself.

Yes! The Mandate of Heaven! :D

It sure is a nice thing to have.

An excellent post! Who could dare oppose the Zhao Emperor now?

Does China have any plans after the Warring States are conquered?

Maurya? As for plans, no long-term ones.

That is one hell of a big India! Are they a threat to your empire in the future or is the Terra Incognita a buffer (I assume the grey is TI)

I think my size will help protect me from them (just as their size will make it difficult for me to get anything useful in any potential wars). They are certainly scary.

The gray area is just uncolonized land, but it does usually serve as a pretty good buffer.

Great work, Lofman. Beating back Wa should be interesting.

Wa, they had a larger army then expected, and their navy is much larger then mine (although I can always build more ships).

There is no buffer to save the poor Seleucids from India though. It is the first time I have considered feeling sorry for them in this game.

The Seleucids do seem to have a problem with Maurya, don't they?
 
War in the East. The Rise of Zhao

In preparation for a war against the Yuezhi the province of Juyan Nan is colonized, however any war against the Yuezhi will have to wait as it did not take long for Wa to try to annex Jin. As can be expected Jin asks for our help and we obviously agree.

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I initially plan to send one army, annihilate any Wa army and let Jin siege and take provinces. That plan does not work very well. Wa had a larger army then I expected and have a very good general. The army is lost and Jin falls. A new army is raised to replace the lost one and sent in against Wa together with another one of our armies (can note that we had five armies at the beginning of the war). It takes a few years of fierce fighting in northwestern Korea, but eventually the Wa armies are destroyed. After seven years of war Korea is occupied and Wa is forced to cede Gojoseon, Dongye and Koguryo. It can be noted that Yemaek was once again colonized.

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A few months later we go to war against Chu. The war goes well but as three of our armies are busy fighting Chu and our remaining two are stationed in the north, there is little that can be done as a large barbarian horde marches in from the south. Although our northwestern army is sent and manage to beat the barbarian horde, before they are destroyed the sneaky thieves becomes an independent barbarian state consisting of Ba, Qiaozhong and Nanying.

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They are quickly crushed but Van Lang decided to attack and take Qiaozhong for themselves, the rest is reclaimed by us. And Chu is also forced to sign peace. Kuaijii, Nanhai, Changsha, Wu and Danyang is ceded to us.

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So where to go now? Qiaozhong is a core so there is some cause to go after Van Lang. Still planning to conquer Yuezhi though. May fight Wa some more to drive them away from the mainland. Will definately finish of Chu. And probably conquer Lu, who I forgot to name in the map of the world of the year 590 AUC.

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