History VideoGame / EmperorRiseOfTheMiddleKingdom

** The AI is very fond of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. Hostile AI cities will know if you have a small military, which is often the case until mid-game and will proceed to GangUpOnTheHuman repeatedly. It's donwplayed compared to ''Caesar III'' and ''Pharaoh''' because the invassions are dynamic and no longer scripted; player actions influence them and prioritizing defense first is reasonably doable and does work as a deterrent.

** The AI is very fond of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. Hostile AI cities will know if you have a small military, which is often the case until mid-game and will proceed to GangUpOnTheHuman repeatedly. It's donwplayed compared to ''Caesar III'' and ''Pharaoh''' because the invassions are dynamic and no longer scripted; player actions influence them and prioritizing defense first it's reasonably doable and does work as a deterrent.

** The AI is very fond of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. Hostile AI cities will know if you have a small military, which is often the case until mid-game and will proceed to GangUpOnTheHuman repeatedly.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Those northern barbarian tribes at the Nomad Camps (later the Xiongnu Empire and eventually the Mongolian Empire) are ''always'' against you. The game even addresses them as GoddamnBats, a nuisance for northern settlements that will pester many dynasties throughout the centuries. In many missions where everyone else is an ally or vassal, they'll likely be the lone city against you.

* ArmyOfThievesAndWhores: Averted, as the only way to build more than two forts is to build up elite housing.

* AsiansLoveTea: The game is set in Imperial China. Tea is a [[TeaIsClassy top-tier]] commodity necessary to upgrade your housing to its best forms. It's also valuable as a trade good.

* RhymesOnADime: The trade caravans.

* TeaIsClassy: The most high-quality housing in your city requires a steady supply of tea to keep its inhabitants happy, on top of all lesser amenities.

''Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' (2002), also known as simply ''Emperor'', is the sixth game of the VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries developed by Creator/ImpressionsGames and published by {{Creator/Sierra}}, this time set in Ancient China and developed by Breakaway Games.

''Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' (2002), also known as simply ''Emperor'', is the sixth game of the VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries developed by Impressions Games and published by {{Creator/Sierra}}, this time set in Ancient China and developed by Breakaway Games.

''Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom'' (2002), also known as simply ''Emperor'', is the sixth game of the VideoGame/CityBuildingSeries published by {{Creator/Sierra}}, this time set in Ancient China and developed by Breakaway Games.

* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: The first mission has the objective of 150 people in Plain Cottages. However, if you plan your city poorly, it's possible they may not be in an aesthetically pleasing-enough area to grow beyond Huts. The game doesn't let you even view the Aesthetics tab until the second mission, so a player who doesn't understand the mechanic will be left scratching their heads about what "appeal of the neighborhood" means and how they fix it.

* UnwinnableByMistake: The first mission has the objective of 150 people in Plain Cottages. However, if you plan your city poorly, it's possible they may not be in an aesthetically pleasing-enough area to grow beyond Huts. The game doesn't let you even view the Aesthetics tab until the second mission, so a player who doesn't understand the mechanic will be left scratching their heads about what "appeal of the neighborhood" means and how they fix it.

** ''{{VideoGame/Pharaoh}}'': The survivors of demoralized companies will flee back to their forts. Giving them an order will result in the company taking a few steps outside the fort and immediately retreating back into it.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: In-universe, 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.

** Peddlers from your market place are absolutely brainless. They have never focus on going to your houses to deliver food, and will just wander off in totally random directions with no houses in sight. Ditto for the inspectors generated by your inspector towers. Basically the only way to get them to where you need to go is to strategically place roadblocks in order to force them down the right path.

** Elite housing provides ten times more taxes than commoners, but occupy four times the land and hold a third of the people, who won't enter the workforce. Building them up also demands a lot of expensive supplies, particularly Silk and Bronzeware/Laquerware, which you'll often have to import at least one of. Unless you need a large army (Elite housing determines the max number of forts allow), you'll want to avoid Elite housing.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Hemp cloth is one of the core resources of any city, which is historically accurate, the Chinese along with a lot of other civilizations used hemp for clothing. But the game includes winks and nudges about its more famous uses, including the hemp farm ambient noises including coughing, and the farmers at the hemp farm can be seen smoking. The merchants from the market squares also provide these quotes:
-->"Those folks are the hemp farm are a bit odd. But if they keep me well-supplied, how can I complain?" \\
(during a siege) "I better hide before my business goes up in smoke!"

* SequelDifficultySpike: The game reintroduces many of the complexities present in ''Caesar III''' and ''Pharaoh'' but dropped in ''Zeus''. Several types of foods are needed to fully evolve houses (and not just elite housing, the very basic types need at least two or three), and a fertility system is again present. Taxation takes a while to be implemented (and requires resources), and the appeasement to the gods mechanics returns. No free militia exists anymore and the slow, recruitment process is again used. Money is not carried over from one mission to the next, instead a fixed, limited budget is given at the start of most missions.

* UnwinnableByInsanity: With any mission, if you overlook building tax offices or trading posts, you'll be left with no source of income and can fall so deeply into debt that you're no longer allowed to build anything and thus cannot fix the problem. That said, the game gives you some leniency, you're allowed to sink beyond zero to a debt of -2000 cash, so if you get to that point and still haven't figured out you're in trouble, you've no one to blame but yourself for your reckless spending and poor planning.

** The IA is very fond of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. Hostile AI cities will know if you have a small military, which is often the case until mid-game and will proceed to GangUpOnTheHuman repeatedly.

** The IA is very fond of KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. AI cities will know if you have a small military, which is often the case until mid-game and will proceed to GangUpOnTheHuman repeteadly.