Friday, January 26, 2007

Warfare is the Way (Tao) of deception.

Thus although you are capable display incapability to them. When committed to employ your force, feign inactivity. When your objective is nearby, make it appear as if distant. When far away, create the illusion of being nearby.--Sun Tzu


Strength and Honour does make it possible to appear far when you are near, in battle mode. Using the Ambush detachment you can hide a few division off the battle map near your headquarters. When the enemy approach they are in belief that your headquarters is relatively undefended. But in reality as they approach a larger force is lying in wait.

Strike detachments are flanking detatchments that enter the battle map on either sides of the enemy's headquarters. As your main force distracts the enemy to advance forwards into engagement, the Strike detachment can strike the heart of the enemy (it's Marshal) with relatively little opposition.
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Unsupported may be appearing nearby when far away. There is no way to deceive the enemy into believing that you have a more powerful force nearby. Such as doubling or even tripling the cooking fires of a encampment to give the illusion of a larger force. Another example would be to drag tree branches behind cavalry units on dirt roads to make it appear that a large force was moving down the path.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Game now available for $29.95

The price has dropped on Magitech's games; "Strength and Honour", and "Takeda II" to $29.95.

http://www.ezgame.com/buy.htm

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Chu Expands its borders



After the Battle of Louyang Qin retreated all their forces to defend their last remaining city, The capital of Xiangyang. According to our sources (the Diplomacy and Treaties window) the Qin capital still holds a population of 176,139 and still contains a military of 6,543 strong. Though our Chu military of 19,770 soldiers is three times stronger than that of our enemy, to attack their fortified cities would severely deplete our armies and make it difficult to defend our nation from any other threat should the need arise. The Qin nolonger provide a threat to our borders, we will withdraw our forces to strengthen our cities and restore some economic prosperity to our nation.

Sun Tzu--"One who cannot be victorious assumes a defensive posture; one who can be victorious attacks. In these circumstances by assuming a defensive posture, strength will be more than adequate, whereas in offensive actions it would be inadequate."

240BC the city of Dunhuang, Longxi, and Ba joins our nation of Chu. In the Spring of 238BC the nation of Shu (in the south) declares war on us. General "Bora" of Dunhuang and the King of Chu "Kaolie Wang" arrive and assault the Shu city. The battle is an overwhelming defeat for Shu. The Shu city is subjugated.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Go forth where they will not expect it.


Sun Tzu—If they are united cause them to be separated. Attack where they are unprepared. Go forth where they will not expect it.
While “Fang Chin” sits on the outskirts of the city of Xianyang he is still in danger of a retaliatory strike from Qin’s forces. “Fang Chin” withdraws his army further south beyond the reach of any counterstrike from Qin. “Fang Chin’s” army has been reduced to a mere 622 men. General “Sa Yi-lin” of Chu races to meet with “Fang Chin’s” army, should the Qin decide to pursue “Fang Chin’s” retreat. The King of Chu “Kaolie Wang” is also in route with the Imperial Army, though he is not expected to arrive for 6 months.

Spring of 251 BC

King “Kaolie Wang” reaches generals “Sa Yi-lin” and “Fang Ching”. Their combined forces reach 2237 men. They are poised to make a renewed assault on the Qin’s capital city of Xianyang. By this time the Qin has quelled rebellion in Xianyang. Infamous Qin general “Bai Chi” takes 2080 men from defending Louyang and returns to Xianyang to defend the Qin’s capital city.

The Qin City of Louyang's only defence is the remaining 981 men under the command of general “Liang Hou-kang”. This provides "Kaolie Wang" with a golden opportunity to take Louyang. Two Chu cities, Dalang and Cheng, are both within 3 month march away from Louyang. Chu generals “Go Jian-cheng” departs from Dalang and general “Tsang Pok-cheng” from the city of Cheng. Their army’s confront the Qin general “Liang Hou-kang” outside of Louyang. “Liang Hou-kang” is defeated and Chu general “Tsang Pok-too” takes possession of Louyang.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

General Fang Ching of Chu, Battle of Xiangyang

General Fang Ching of Chu, Spring of 252BC, assaults the Qin's capital city of Xianyang. Xianyang's defenses are strong and the odds are two to one against Fang Ching. After the reslulting clash Fang Ching looses the battle of Xianyang, and retreats to the outskirts of the city. However, General Fang assault severely weakens the Qin's military pressence in Xianyang. The city of Xiangyang is now revolting against Qin rule.

Qin has three armies stationed in their one remaining city, the boarder city of Louyang. Will the Qin send one army to suppress the revolt at Xiangyang? Thereby weakening their defenses at Louyang. Will they hope that the revolt will quell itself by appeasing the people responsible? The question I lay to myself is; "Will I be able to reinforce Fang Ching's army quickly enough to make a second assault on Xiangyang, while the city is still in turmoil?"

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Battle Deployment Screen


Here is where you pick your divisions (1-12 divisions can be avaliable). The red position is the Head Quarters position, where your Marshall will be positioned. The blue positions that flank that square are reserve divisions that protect the marshal. The 5 arrows to the left, behind your army are ambush detachment positions. Ambush detachments hide off map, designed to surprise unsuspecting enemy units as they approach your HQ. The 2 brackets just forwards of your army towards the center to the map are for delay detachments. Delay detachments are used to stop enemy strike detachments. The Last 6 arrows on the right side of the map are places for Strike detachments. Strike detachments appear after the battle starts in hopes in surprising your enemy HQ by attacking their flanks.
Strength & Honour has many different battle formations available in the game with the option to save custom formations. Besides entire main battle formations each division has its own formation that can further customize your main battle formations, giving you virtually thousands of different combinations available to you.

Monday, February 13, 2006

My cities keep rioting...

excerpt from page 35 of the manual:
cities will riot when the populace is unhappy. A rioting city cannot trade or contribute wealth to your nation. Riots are also contagious--if one city is rioting, the populations of nearby cities may begin to notice how unhappy they are as well. Once the city is rioting, your only option will be to send in the army to pacify the population; but you can prevent riots from starting by keeping the population happy.

"Don't worry about keeping the people happy--just keep them in line! Just make sure we always have an army ready to police them."

"Sending in the army will only make the people more miserable. If your people are unhappy, it's probably because they are overworked. Reduce taxes to lessen their burden."

"People get unhappy when they aren't having any fun. Use the city arenas to host some games and festivals to keep the people entertained."

"Unhappy people obviously need spiritual guidance. Use city libraries to endorse a new philosophy. If you have a philosopher among your guests, you could send him or her into your cities to educate the people."

From the Master "Ming Lee"
Popularity. Most generals like to follow someone who is more popular than they are. Sending your ruler to battles can increase his/her popularity farily quick, but you risk of letting him/her getting killed in battle. If he/she can cut down enemy flags or enemy marshall, he/she will get even more popularity. Using a small army to defeat a bigger army will also increase more popularity for the ruler. If the situation gets dire, you might like to clean the house. Find you best loyal generals who has high honour level. Gathering them together in key cities or palace. Weaken the local cities by increase your federal tax and make a strong (very strong) central imperial army. Most governor will try to get help before they decide to rebel. If they couldn't team up a strong team against you, they will think twice.(This is more like Song dynasty's strategy when they encounter the situation. Tang, on the other hand, was keeping strong frontline armies to defend the border but lost control of her own armies in the end. Song, however, end up got defeated by foreign invaders, Mongols.)