History VideoGame / EmperorRiseOfTheMiddleKingdom

* EarlyGameHell: Over the first year or two as you get your city up and running, you'll rapidly lose money as you build your city layout and have little tax income and exports to make money back, your workforce will be pitifully small and you'll have to set their priorities to make sure your first harvest can sustain your population for the year to come, and any commodity you produce will be rapidly depleted as your growing city consumes it to increase their housing levels. After that first year or so pass, you can start to collect taxes and put together exports, you'll have a substantial enough workforce to not worry about being understaffed too badly, and the consumption of commodities your city needs will stabilize.

** Offer sacrifices to the heavens. Entice a PhysicalGod to manifest in your city. Put it to work blessing you with free materials and extra-productive buildings. Rinse and repeat.

** The walkers that carry and fetch goods are completely incompetent. They lack moderation when delivering resources to several places that need them, resulting in instances like, say, one tax office gets 4 loads of paper while another sits empty, or a bronzeware maker gets a delivery of 4 loads of clay while it has no bronze, and another bronzeware maker next to it gets 4 loads of bronze but no clay. There is also an issue of deliveries to many instances of the same building from stockpiles. The resources will be always stockpiles en masse in the first building and then continue to be placed in further buildings. The only way to prevent it is having a surplus stock in warehouse (so everyone gets bigger loads) or to send resources directly from the gathering building, one at a time (which only works if its close around and isn't something seasonal, like farms).

* FakeDifficulty: Some missions forbid you from building certain types of structure. While this may be justified due to the climate of different parts of China and the resources in the area (you're obviously not going to be able to plant rice in the desert, or go hunting and fishing on a map with no game or fishing spots), other times the restrictions are arbitrary, such as no Paper Makers or Jade Carving Studios. This is most blatant with many maps that have copper or iron ore visible in the rocks, but you're not allowed to build Smelters to mine it.
** Some maps prevent housing from evolving past a certain level by removing the building for it, such as acrobats, acupuncturists or the appropriate seller.

** Paper/Iron Smelting/Lacquerware/etc. has been discovered! Time to integrate it into your city because the old stuff just won't do anymore.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The Qin campaign ends with the death of Qin Shi Huangdi and the narrator proclaiming cities are already overthrowing the Qin's heavy-handed rule and rebels are on their way... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6r1zvIRSTE set to the cheerful music that plays when you finish a campaign.]]

* AnachronismStew: Inevitably pops up. There's just no way a weaponsmith built in the fourth century BC should look the same as one built in the eighth century AD, but it will, as will all other structures.

* DeathOrGloryAttack: It's possible to sen all twelve forts' worth of soldiers abroad to conquer cities. Doing so will likely cause vassals to rebel and rivals to attack, perceiving your weakness.

* EasterEgg: Entering "Uncle Sam" as a cheat transforms tax collectors into, well, Uncle Sam. and his icon changes into an American flag with fireworks.

** Invading armies can be given a BegoneBribe to leave the city alone (and it may actually be cheaper to pay them off than sending soldiers, depending on the complexity of getting weapons).

** Paper/Iron Smelting/Lacquerware/etc has been discovered! Time to integrate it into your city because the old stuff just won't do anymore.

** When a spy is reversed, you get a message telling you about it and what city he came from. However, this doesn't mean the spy is actually gone, in order to take advantage of this you need to send the spy to that city (in effect, giving you a free spy if sent to the city).

** The way how you build your army works fine in Shang and maybe Western (early) Zhou dynasty: elite warriors, the quasi-nobility, serving the ruler. From Spring and Autumn period (so late Zhou dynasty) till the Qing dynasty (so late 17th century), Chinese armies were a combination of professionals, levies, pressing and volunteer forces, almost always drafted exclusively from farmers, while the "warrior" nobility never emerging to any prominence or importance. For extra irony points, all the previous games in the series used coscript draft, until ''Zeus'', which was set predominately in Bronze Age Greece, justifying the whole "elite housing as source of warriors" logic - and the system was simply carried over to ''Emperor'', even if conscripts from ''Videogame/{{Caesar}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Pharaoh}}'' would fit much better.

** Mulberry trees operate like every other farm and gameplay-wise, they are just reskinned olive trees from ''Zeus''. They produce raw silk directly and are seasonal, giving their "harvest" once per year. Similarly to the issue with army, this only makes sense in earliest periods, when wild silkworms were gathered from mulberry trees. From Han dynasty onward, the actual production of silk would be to just continous gathering of leaves and feeding them to "domesticated" silkworms, allowing continous production of raw silk all year round[[note]]In fact, thanks to centuries of human assistance, modern specimen of silkworm are ''unable to copulate on their own'' without outside help and are unlikely to feed on raw, unprocessed leaves[[/note]].

* ChekhovsGunman: Those Nomad Camps in the north? Just another city, in fact they quickly become hard to negotiate with, not that there's much to make trade worth it. They're eventually a minor nuisance, best to forget about them and just build up an army in case they attack. Fast forward to the last few campaigns where they aren't even on the map, until the final few missions where they reappear, now named... '''Mongolian Empire'''? OhCrap.

** Infantry are MightyGlacier combined with CloseRangeCombatant and ZergRush: they have the best armor and decent hit points, a good melee attack, and train in groups of sixteen to provide numerical superiority, but are very slow.

** Cavalry are JackOfAllStats and MasterOfAll: They move fast, have strong attacks, and decent HP and armor, which makes them all-around the most versatile troops. However, when sent to conquer they are useless against walled cities (which is what infantry and catapults are there for).

* DiabolusExMachina: You can reduce the chance of a natural disaster occuring by keeping the ancestors appeased, but sooner or later, it'll hit even if they adore you. Droughts you may not even notice and floods can be prevented by building away from the river. But earthquakes? On a bad day, expect to see more than half your city crumble into ruins instantly, likely killing a good chunk of your population, destroying stockpiles of goods, and costing you thousands in repairs to replace it all. A sufficiently bad earthquake hitting the right buildings could reset an entire city back to square one.

* WrittenByTheWinners: PlayedForLaughs. As far as the narrators are concerned, whatever rulers you are serving at the time, regardless of what they are actually doing, are virtuous and wise... right up until they get deposed by someone who doesn't like them, in which case the same narrator will sneer at the past ruler and denounce them as an insidious and weak poser. This can even happen between the ending narrations and the briefings for the next mission, making it seem like the narrator goes from singing the praises of the current ruler to viciously insulting them a moment later

** The way how you build your army works fine in Shang and maybe Western (early) Zhou dynasty: elite warriors, the quasi-nobility, serving the ruler. From Spring and Autumn period (so late Zhou dynasty) till the Qing dynasty (so late 17th century), Chinese armies were a combination of professionals, levies, pressing and volunteer forces, almost always drafted exclusively from farmers, while the "warrior" nobility never emerging to any prominence or importance. For extra irony points, all the previous games in the series used coscript draft, until ''Zeus'', which was set predominately in Bronze Age Greece, justifying the while elite housing as source of warriors logic - and the system was simply carried over to ''Emperor'', even if conscripts from ''Videogame/{{Caesar}}'' and ''Videogame/{{Pharaoh}}'' would fit much better.

** The way how you build your army works fine in Shang and maybe Western (early) Zhou dynasty: elite warriors, the quasi-nobility, serving the ruler. From Spring and Autumn period (so late Zhou dynasty) till the Qing dynasty (so late 17th century), Chinese armies were a combination of professionals, levies, pressing and volunteer forces, almost always drafted exclusively from farmers, while the "warrior" nobility never emerging to any prominence or importance. For extra irony points, all the previous games in the series used coscript draft, until ''Zeus'', which was set predominately in Bronze Age Greece, justifying the while elite housing as source of warriors logic - and the system was simply carried over to ''Emperor'', even if conscripts from ''Videogame/Caesar'' and ''Videogame/Pharaoh'' would fit much better.

** The walkers that carry and fetch goods are completely incompetent. They're liable to go across the map to gather a resource they can get from a warehouse just two tiles away from their spawn building, and will sit outside a full warehouse and complain it has no room when there's an empty warehouse right next to it. They also lack moderation when delivering resources to several places that need them, resulting in instances like, say, one tax office gets 4 loads of paper while another sits empty, or a bronzeware maker gets a delivery of 4 loads of clay while it has no bronze, and another bronzeware maker next to it gets 4 loads of bronze but no clay.

* AnachronismStew: Inevitably pops up. There's just no way a weaponsmith built in the fourth century BC should look the same as one built in the eighth century BCE, but it will, as will all other structures.

* AnachronismStew: Inevitably pops up. There's just no way a weaponsmith built in the fourth century BC should look the same as one build in the eighth century BCE, but it will, as will all other structures.

* BagOfSpilling: Subverted. Unlike earlier games in the series and continuing the trend introduced by ''Zeus'', any city you've already built will remain exactly as you left it if you wind up coming back to it during the campaign.

* GuideDangIt: When a spy is reversed, you get a message telling you about it and what city he came from. However, this doesn't mean the spy is actually gone, in order to take advantage of this you need to send the spy to that city (in effect, giving you a free spy if sent to the city).

* InstantWinCondition: The city is hopelessly in debt, outlaws roam the streets killing indiscriminately, people are leaving the city, and in two months the Xiongnu arrive to attack and you don't have an army. Oh good, the year production tallies are in and you met your quota, mission complete! Averted if you actually get conquered -- you cannot win any mission if you're another city's vassal, even if you meet the requirements.

** When a city is conquered, you can set the tribute to be whatever good you need if you don't need cash, including goods they need to import.

* DevelopersForesight: Salt counts as a food source... but only if there's another type of food being produced/imported.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: When a rival attacks your city, they spawn at a set point and begin a rampage until you fend them off. Reloading and building walls near where they came in before will just have them spawn somewhere else. Occasionally you can also get attacked without the customary advance warning.
* TheComputerShallTauntYou: Unless you're their best friend, AI city rulers will always sneer down at you, demanding things of you with the warning they're so mighty they could just march into the city and take them by force, so you might as well save yourself the trouble and just submit to them -- at which point they'll snicker you caved "like an obedient dog". And if you don't send it off by the deadline, they'll say that a "yak-brained fool" like you is lucky they're patient enough to wait a bit longer, but don't press your luck further.

* EndOfAnEra: The last mission of every campaign describes how that dynasty fell.

** The highest tier of Common housing, Luxurious Apartments, is a cool milestone to reach for the first time. Maintaining it requires supplying them with Tea, taking up a significant chunk land and a spot in your market square that could be used to supply the people with a more important resource like Hemp or Ceramics. Also, on most maps the penultimate level of housing (Ornate Apartments) will give you a high enough population that you'll be battling to keep unemployement down, and Luxurious Apartments will make room for hundred more people on top of that.

** In the last two missions, the Mongolian Empire is treated like any other rival city. This means a few gifts of silk and tea can get them to like you and they'll become your ally, and a military spy sent to infiltrate them can cripple their army.

* KickTheDog: Whenever a foreign city sends an emissary to your city, you have the option to allow them in, turn them away, or ''execute them''. This has little practical purpose but to piss off your rivals, but you can do it.[[note]]It also increases the cost of sending emmisaries to the city again, presumably because they're so scared now they demand higher payment, but this is probably just a minor nuisance to your rival.[[/note]]

** Natural disaster messages tell you angry ancestors sent a flood or earthquake... but use the same one when scripted disasters occur.

* CursedWithAwesome: Having too large a population can actually be a hindrance to managing your city. With a larger population comes a larger workforce, but the workers of ''Emperor'' are actually very efficient; a workforce of say, five hundred people, can sustain a city of two thousand people, depending on how your labor is divided up. As the population keeps increasing so will the available workforce, leading to unemployment. If you lower wages, the people will be upset; if you build more industries to give them something to do, you can wide up with warehouses clogged full of surplus goods you don't need. Proper city planning and good use of trade routes can help stem the problem, thankfully.

** Need an easy way to employ lots of people to avoid unemployment, but don't want to overproduce resources you don't need? Build a bunch of sentry towers -- even if its just walking in circles on a wall guarding a shrub, work is work. However, your citizens don't want to live in a police state, o more than one watchtower per 500 citizens angers them.

* DownerEnding: Doesn't matter how beautifully you built up their capital or conquered every rival, the last mission of every campaign describes the ignominious end of the dynasty. The beginning of the following campaign usuallycontinues in the same vein, with the new dynasty anxious to prove the former one was decadent and needed ousting.

* BagOfSpilling: Unlike earlier games in the series and continuing the trend introduced by ''Zeus'', any city you've already built will remain exactly as you left it if you wind up coming back to it during the campaign.

** For the heroes, Xi Wang Mu and Su Wu Kong. Xi Wang Mu reduces monument construction time by variably increasing the amount of workers that can be at the monument at a time, allowing them to do more work before they leave, and/or causing them to work quicker. When monuments take years to complete, the speed boost is appreciated. So Wu Kong meanwhile makes emissaries to other cities free and they travel faster, invaluable if you need to speed up communications for whatever reason and have a lot of allies to send messengers to.
** In an InUniverse example, many of the magnificent monuments built are composed of timber frames, ceramic tiles, and enormous amounts of... dirt.

** Cavalry are JackOfAllStats and MasterOfAll: They move fast, have strong attacks, and decent HP and armor, which makes them all-around the most versatile troops.

* CursedWithAwesome: Having too large a population can actually be a hindrance to managing your city. With a larger population comes a larger workforce, but the workers of ''Emperor'' are actually very efficient; a workforce of say, five hundred people, can sustain a city of two thousand people, depending on how your labor is divied up. As the population keeps increasing so will the available workforce, leading to unemployment. If you lower wages, the people will be upset; if you build more industries to give them something to do, you can wide up with warehouses clogged full of surplus goods you don't need. Proper city planning and good use of trade routes can help stem the problem, thankfully.

* DownerEnding: Doesn't matter how beautifully you built up their capital or conquered every rival, the last mission of every campaign describes the ignominious end of the dynasty.

** One of the factors used to determine how happy a hero will be after a sacrifice is the price.

** Natural disaster messages claim angry ancestors sent a flood or earthquake... but use the same one when scripted disasters occur.

* KickThemWhileTheyreDown: Sending all your forces abroad will cause opportunistic raiding by other cities. These armies can be bribed away, fortunately.
* KillerRabbit: Companies are named after the zodiac animal you chose... so your city can be defended by the Audacious Rabbits.

** Need an easy way to employ lots of people to avoid unemployment, but don't want to overproduce resources you don't need? Build a bunch of sentry towers -- even if its just walking in circles on a wall guarding a shrub, work is work.

*** The game also reflects how the more "iconic" design of the Great Wall... is still build out of rammed earth, only faced with stone, giving it appearance of being entirely build with masonry.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: In their due time, paper will replace wood as writing material, iron will replace bronze and then be replaced by steel, lacquerware will replace bronzeware, and horsemen will replace chariots.

* ShaggyDogStory: Naturally, given the game somewhat keeps to historical events. It doesn't matter how big and grand you build Chang-an and how big the army defending it is, it is going to be sacked, and of course the Great Wall won't keep out the Mongols, sorry for the real-life hours you spent building it last mission. And every campaign ends with the current dynasty falling apart no matter how good a job of running it you were doing.

** Several campaigns see your character being sent to a pre-existing city to build it up. Despite the fact that this city existed in just the previous mission and you could trade with them, the map will always spawn completely blank and you need to build from the ground up. These missions ''do'' work in some continuity, though, as usually the resources you lack and will need to import, and the ones you'll be exporting, will line up with the city's imports and exports as an NPC city.
** In the last two missions, the Mongolian Empire is treated like any other rival city. This means a few gifts of silk and tea can get them to like you and they'll become your ally.

** Lampshaded by woodcutter walkers when the city is under siege: "I would lend my ax to the defense of this city, [[SkewedPriorities but we need this wood and we need it now]]."

** AI cities will often laugh in your face if you demand something of them, even if it's something they produce in surplus and you have previously sent them dozens of units of goods they need. Conversely, when the AI demands something of you, they will be outraged if you don't comply, even if there's no reasonable way for you to get what they want in time. For instance, they'll demand crops that are out of season, or commodities you simply can't produce, and expect you to fork over a dozen units of it with as little as two months of notice.
** Any demands for troops will likely come with a month or two of advance notice, but even if you send your forces immediately they may not arrive in time, and how ''dare'' your soldiers be late when they were so sorely needed! Sometimes you can also send your army and they arrive in time, but they were too weak to be of help, so your ally is still annoyed with you. Of course, if you're getting attacked and request military aid from an ally many months in advance (perhaps because you don't have an army of your own, which is possible on numerous maps), they're liable to take their sweet time responding, will just refuse, or will send you ''one infantry unit''.
** Doesn't matter how much they love you or you're targeting the enemy that attacked them before: allies and vassals will hate you for ordering military strikes on anyone, and hate you slightly less for daring to ask them for goods or aid (y'know, the way ''they'' keep doing).

* WrittenByTheWinners: PlayedForLaughs. As far as the narrators are concerned, whatever rulers you are serving at the time, regardless of what they are actually doing, are virtuous and wise... right up until they get deposed by someone who doesn't like them, in which case the same narrator will sneer at the past ruler and denounce them as an insidious and weak poser. This can even happy between the ending narrations and the briefings for the next mission, making it seem like the narrator goes from singing the praises of the current ruler to viciously insulting them a moment later

** Notably, the game depicts Zhengzhou as one of the capitals of the Shang Dynasty two years before actual Chinese archaeologists declared it to have been so.

* FakeDifficulty: Some missions forbid you from building certain types of structure or resource for no reason. While this may be justified due to the climate of different parts of China and the resources in the area (you're obviously not going to be able to plant rice in the desert), other times the restrictions are arbitrary, such as no Paper Makers or Jade Carving Studios. This is most blatant with many maps that have copper or iron ore visible in the rocks, but you're not allowed to build Smelters to mine it.

Contrary to most other city builders, the focus of ''Emperor's'' gameplay is less on building up a large, populous city, but instead is on building and maintaining the infrastructure needed to run a city. Players must keep their people supplies with food and goods from markets, and also build religious shrines, medicinal buildings, entertainment schools, and inspector and sentry towers. These buildings spawn "walkers" that patrol the city administering their servivces to houses they pass by. As your people are given what they need, they'll renovate their houses into larger houses that can accomodate more people, and their demands shift from basic necessities like food and water to luxury services like entertainment and tea.

Meanwhile in your industrial sector, players must not only build craft workshops to supply the people with what they need, but also make sure that those workers are supplied with raw materials like metal, wood, clay, etc., so they can produce those commodities. Combined with the fact agricultural crops have growing seasons each year, and this means managing your city's infrastructure by making sure you produce enough food each year to last your city at least until the next harvest, making sure your workshops produce enough to sustain the level of comfort your city expects, and they in turn are being supplied with enough raw materials to keep up with the demand. Players can use the Industry tab to set priorities to certain areas of city management that your workforce will staff first, and also shutdown industries on either an individual workshop basis or all of them across the city.