Growing a Civilization
Most of this part of the guide is something people who have played Civilization or other hex based 4x games are already familiar with. If you are new to this genre or just want to make sure you know ALL the details for Oriental Empires, keep reading.
There are a handful of strategies you can use in Oriental Empires to win the game but all of them are based on growing your civilization faster or taller than the competition.
The game difficulty does affect roughly how fast the AI will grow but generally the main effect you will notice as a player is the AI on higher difficulties will declare war and send armies from 50+ hexes away forcing you to commit more resources to defending your civilization and tending to dominate the AI tribal civilizations who have slower technology and income growth in the first half of a campaign.
The Grand campaign is a very basic start with a single settler/city but technology research is at 100% speed.
Warring States starts most factions with 2-5 cities and some military units just on the cusp of entering the Warring States era but technology research is at 50% speed- you can adjust this in the menu.
If you want more interesting AI enemies and don’t want to spend 50 turns simply exploring and establishing cities then the Warring States or other later campaign starts that come via DLC are recommended.
I personally prefer technology research speed at 75% as you can actually complete most technology in the game before reaching victory. At 50% you will not reach the end of the tech tree in 300 turns unless you carefully manage temple and encounter research bonuses. At 100% speed you will usually run out of things to research in 300 turns, especially if you begin a Warring States campaign with the early part of the tech tree already researched.
First 50 turns
Recruit a Settler and military units to scout as soon as you can. Settlers are usually do best following rivers as there are more likely fertile plains + mountains for mines nearby which tend to result in the best locations for maximal city development.
Scouts should identify the map terrain near your starting cities both for future development and to know where to station your armies. The second reason to send out scouts early is to explore the map before it is filled with hostile civilizations and locate the best and worst places to fight so you can begin planning your diplomacy. The gold cost of scouts is rarely an issue vs the advantage of knowing the future battle grounds, especially as early on your need for gold is quite limited as there are not many buildings that should be built and most of your early wars can be won with one or two armies.
On higher difficulties the AI will constantly harass your scouts so after the first 20-30 turns they should start traveling in pairs or bring them back your your borders and start buying information about enemies from friendly factions, it depends on who those factions are at war with and leaves many blank spots on the map but if far less of a hassle and keeps your units nearby for the hostile incursions that neighboring civilizations will send into your territory trying to pillage your farms.
This is turn 13 of a Qin Warring States campaign. The Qin were the people who ultimately won out in bronze age China and make a good starting campaign in the Warring States Era.
As you can see there is a war vs the tribal Dog Rong faction and the ideal place to attack is the Dog Rong capital of Weirong because there are 2 copper mines and Weirong will protect the western end of the valley while having access to enough fertile plains to support a decent sized city. To the north of Weirong is mostly grasslands which can not be farmed while further west are mountains and forest without any obvious great settler locations despite some great mining resources.
There is a settler just north of Yong being escorted by 2 military unit, bandits or random AI scout attacks are a real threat early in a campaign and settlers cost 500 + 2 population and are worth protecting. The valley the settler is about to enter is well protected but narrow and with limited fertile plains, due to the copper it was worth scouting and can provide a decent settlement location for the early and mid-campaign but a city placed there will not be able to reach the optimum 200+ population. The better settlement location for population growth is the river valley between Yong and Yiqu because there is more room for farms and a city there will protect Yong from northern marauders.
Oriental Empires rewards playing tall more than wide as Authority establishes a relatively hard limit on how wide you can expand, as well fully developed cities are worth 4x to 10x more income as smaller undeveloped cities.
Hostile units pillaging your main cities is far more detrimental than smaller periphery cities which are both easier to defend (smaller number of hexes with fewer farms) and have less population to make happy or suppress as well more likely to have forced labor stoppages due to natural growth constraints where the labor workforce will recover from pillaging. Your main cities whose goal is to reach 200+ population and whose labor force should rarely if ever stop working suffer most from pillagers.
50-200 Turns
This screenshot shows ultimately how the Qin civilization grew over the next 200 turns. The settler opted for the protection of the valley where the northern entrance was easily defended from enemies and there was a copper mine.
The war with the Dog Rong lasted nearly 60 turns with the result all their nearby settlements were destroyed except for Yiqu which was made a military outpost due to the presence of both a food and income resources as well the location bordering the northern tribal peoples made it an ideal defensible fort that could have a road connection to the rest of Qin.
Bei Wei was a Qin settlement created for the gold mines which combined with the settlement taxes provided 600 income for over 70 turns but was limited to 30 population with a lack of access to fertile plains and was ultimately given to the Xiongnu in combination with destroying half a dozen Xiongnu settlements in a later war to force Xiongnu to accept being vassals of the Qin and also free up valuable Authority for a larger and more prosperous city taken in a war with the Wei.
The tribal peoples in this game will settle nearly anywhere they can fit a city but rarely offer much of a military threat until late in a campaign when they have unlocked better technology including cataphracts and strong infantry that can successfully lay siege to walled cities. Most of the time the encroaching tribal settlements offer easy trade income and will accept fraternal pacts as they are weaker civilizations but when they have no obvious enemies they can declare war and are less likely to accept being the vassals of farmers.
Ultimately the challenge of a campaign rests in the middle 150 turns. You can have a bad start and recover or a great start and get bogged down during the middle portion but how your civilization grows in this part of the campaign sets up the end-game where you are either defending your first place status or viciously attacking the top contenders to have a chance at winning where later turns it is often a grind of 30-50 armies per faction filling every hex near a front and taking dozens of turns to capture a single city.
200-300 Turns
The final 200-300 turns of a standard length campaign is less about growing your civilization and more about war, either by capturing the necessary population from your enemies by taking their cities or if the number of cities under your control is limited by authority, you will want to destroy enemy cities or pass cities to your loyal vassals.
Settling and Growing a New City
Where to put down your Settler and found a new city is a combination of luck, exploration, and long term planning.
The main things to keep in mind are that cities can eventually grow to exploit resources up to 5 hexes past the city border. For reaching resources deeper in mountains this is useful but it requires the city to be at 100 population. At 40 population a city can reach 2 hexes beyond its borders and this is something EVERY city should plan for as 40 population arrives quickly.
For a city to use any resource other than a mine or an external building, it must be within or adjacent to the resource, food resources must be within the city limits to use.
A city with less than 40 population has only a single hex + 2 hexes around it under its control until farms are built to extend the border.
Here from a Warring States Shu campaign we can see a wide area of the map explored by turn 9 and we can get an excellent idea where to put cities and what enemies we might face early.
There are only 3 factions nearby, the farming Ba, the tribal Dog Rong, and the farming Qin further to the north.
The settler built in turn 1 has reached 2 hex distance form the Wild Game food resource near the center of the screenshot while the Mulberry resource is 5 hexes away and well within reach for when the city expands. The nearest Ba city is a bit close but is on the other side of a navigable river which will provide a natural border and allow water trade while there is quite a lot of forest, there are fertile plains beneath most of the trees which allow easy farming.
Settlers moving south to settle the Sichuan basin can stop on their way and help clear some of the trees. When a new city is settled, trees within 2 hexes are automatically cleared, in the same turn that city can be disbanded and the settler move on to a new location in the next turn.
Some people consider this an exploit and it is banned in many MP games but since Settlers cost 500 gold and 2 population, I personally think it is fine to add an 8 turn detour on their route to found a new city to help clear some forest or simply to transfer population from 1 city to a new city so that mines or other buildings can be built more quickly. Keep in mind the extra population will starve if no food is available but in cities with food resources but low population it can be a way to boost early labor and build more quickly.
Looking at the map there are 5 really good locations for future cities;
- Where New City will be founded in the next screenshot.
- Between the Rhinoceros and Copper east of Jiameng and north of Langzhong. The Ba will have to be subdued and Langzhong conquered to steer its development away from this city but there is plenty of space for all the cities to develop toward 200 population if farms are developed away from the other cities.
- The clearing far south of the New City near 2 Copper resources and Zhennan wood and Bamboo for a total of 4 resources + a navigable river and lots of fertile plains.
- There are 2 Copper southeast of Chengdu and a Jade that will be very difficult for Chengdu to claim but a city closer to the mountains can easily develop that Jade.
- Far south of Chengdu another 2 Copper, a Gold resource, and lots of fertile plains + a navigable river.
The settlers for New City did settle once to clear forest and once because I miscounted the distance of the wild game food resource that provides 3 food to help this city grow more quickly. The Mulberry resource nearby will not be important for a long time but this city is perfectly placed as a future Trade Hub with trade routes to at least 12 cities and possibly more via the navigable rivers.
It is placed roughly in the center of future Shu territory, Langzhong will eventually be captured but other Ba cities will be left to them when the Ba accept being vassals, located between 2 navigable rivers, and with a luxury bonus resource in the Mulberry which gives +30% to Silk trade and has 2 Jade, 8 Copper, and 2 other luxury resources within its future trade network.
The Dog Rong will eventually have to be cleared away but it is actually useful for tribal herders to settle nearby in some circumstances. They bring flocks which are a food source that can graze on undeveloped land and their settlements are easily conquered anytime in the first 150 turns meaning you can often take over a tribal settlement that has flocks and then build farms which is nearly like having several food resources in that city and saves the time to terrace hills or uses grasslands that farmers otherwise cannot use.
In this example, Guirong that the Dog Rong just settled will need to be cleared away as it will block the development of 3 Shu cities but Qiangfang to the north with gold, wild game, and a lot of grasslands nearby is an ideal early conquest as it will add flocks that can graze the grasslands while still bordering fertile plains to build farms on.
Cities expand borders by reaching 40 population where cities can use resources 2 hexes beyond the border, then at 100 population cities gain 3 hexes from their borders, building farms toward the resources you want to claim later is important in city development.
When there are several cities built close together but there is open land between their borders, you can steer your city development to claim that open land first by building farms in that direction as soon as possible.
Chengdu to claim the Jade nearby would have to spend a lot of labor terracing the hills to expand in that direction but a city founded closer could eventually claim the Jade simply by reaching 100 population while only planting farms on fertile plains and not wasting labor terracing hills.
The other important things to keep in mind about growing cities quickly is that Irrigated farms take more labor than the food they produce initially. Growing city borders via basic farms creates more food in a shorter amount of time than Irrigated Farms or Terraced Farms.
Cities should only resort to Irrigating Farms or Terracing when there are no available hexes to create a basic farm. Basic farms provide 2 food and and additional 35% from techs. Irrigated Farms add 1 food but combined with techs end up producing 4 total food from a single hex late in a campaign only after many turns of research.
Irrigated Farms require more labor and should only be built when there are no further basic farm hexes to expand into and there are no resources beyond your city borders to develop towards and claim. Terraced farms should only be built if you want to expand toward a resource or towards Fertile plains when your city borders are constrained.
Secondly, population that is not farming does not pay taxes other than the Salt Tax but can produce trade income.
Here you can see overcrowding is reducing growth by nearly 30% and that is due to giving the peasants a break from forced labor while population continued to grow so there were fewer hexes than population and building Terraced Farms to steer a city development toward fertile plains on the other side of some hills.
This will temporarily slow food growth but in this example there were no more fertile plains available adjacent or within the city so developing some hills to gain adjacency to fertile plains was the best option. Reaching adjacency to 6 fertile plains hexes allowed an additional 22 food and allowed the city to hit 100 population gaining 3 additional hexes beyond its borders which allowed a 2nd Copper mine to be developed and immediately claimed several fertile plains hexes before a nearby friendly city could expand there.
This city later reached 169 population when I ended the campaign.
