I'm pleased to announce that I have a new custom campaign in development. It's a project I've always wanted to tackle - a campaign featuring the hero Sun Tzu, to occur during his actual lifespan. Interestingly, even though his master work "The Art of War" is known world-wide today, there is not a lot of solid history on his life itself. However there is enough for me to put together a small campaign set in the late Spring and Autumn period. Here are the historical events I have to work with for this campaign.
544 BCE - Sun Tzu born
515 BCE - King Liao of Wu is assassinated, Prince Guang becomes King Helu of Wu.
512 BCE - Sun Tzu begins service to King Helu of Wu.
506 BCE - King Helu of Wu invades the kingdom of Chu. The Battle of Boju is fought and Chu is defeated. Wu captures Ying, the capital of Chu. King Zhao of Chu successfully flees.
505 BCE - Duke Ai of the kingdom of Qin allies with Chu. The combined armies of Qin and Chu defeat Wu in several battles. These defeats, coupled with a rebellion in Wu forces King Helü
to retreat back to Wu. King Zhao of Chu then returns and recaptures Ying.
496 BCE - Sun Tzu dies
496 BCE - King Helu dies
Here is a draft of the mission teasers and time limits:
Mission 1 - The Art of Deception - 10 years, from 516 BCE to the end of 507 BCE.
Mission 2 - Fall like a Thunderbolt - 5 years, from 506 BCE to the end of 502 BCE.
Mission 3 - The Art of War - no time limit, starts in 501 BCE.
I've been researching the late Spring and Autumn period and there is actually quite a bit of 'historical leeway' on when the ancient Chinese began wide-spread use of some commodities. So I won't be sticking entirely to the 'Availability Chart' you can find on this website and in the game materials. I am going to allow iron, lacquerware, and catapults. All other commodities, heroes, etc., will follow the game's model for availability.
This campaign will only have one map, so I am trying to make it special. It will be an 'enormous' size map with humid climate, and feature the Great Wall monument in mountainous terrain (which is proving to be quite the map-making chore!).
This will be a combat-heavy campaign designed for advanced players. However, it has one caveat that you may find unusual for my designs - it will allow sabotage by spies. In fact, it will be play-balanced for the usage of spies in the role of saboteurs.
I have built a teaser album in the Emperor Heaven Gallery for this project. It will grow in the days ahead. For now, it has some research information. You can see it here:
I anticipate a release date for this campaign sometime in September 2017.
Please feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, or questions you may have about this project.
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[This message has been edited by Gweilo (edited 08-01-2017 @ 01:22 PM).]