Oriental Empires
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Oriental Empires is a turn based 4X strategy game developed by R.T. Smith and John Carline of Iceberg Interactive, two developers who previously worked together on known titles such as the Total War series.
Set in ancient China (covering a period roughly from 1500 BC to AD 1500) and featuring 16 different factions, the game was oficially released in September 2017, albeit an "Early access" version was released in Steam in 2016. The goal is to become ruler of ancient China and be recognized as the Son of Heaven. It has a single-player mode and a multiplayer mode that supports up to 15 players.
The game's main webpage can be found here.
Tropes used in Oriental Empires include:
- Anachronism Stew: Downplayed, but the playable factions include Chinese cultures from differing eras, such as the Bronze Age-period Shang and the Roman-contemporary Han.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Authority is a major element in the game as it's key in maintaining order and stability.
- Barbarian Tribe: The various bandits that raid your cities. And arguably, some of the factions like the Xiongnu.
- Big Badass Battle Sequence: While combat is turn-based, unit-stacking, formations and army sizes mirror a Total War game in terms of scale.
- Civil Warcraft: Lose enough Authority or piss off the nobility too much and this becomes nigh endemic across your realm. Arguably, this is also the dynamic among the Chinese factions in general.
- Cultural Posturing: An in-game mechanic to boot, as your people become happier the more cultured and "enlightened" your faction is.
- Deadly Decadent Court: In addition to keeping the peasantry and common-folk content, you also have to deal with the nobility, who can turn on you if you're not seen as competent or authoritative enough.
- The Dev Team Thinks of Everything: There's a significant amount of detail if you zoom in close enough, such as your townsfolk and peasants going about their work in the fields.
- Elite Mooks: Noble-type units tend to be stronger than standard militia, at least initially.
- The Empire: The ultimate aim is not only to establish one, but also have all recognize your claim as Emperor and Son of Heaven.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: There's quite a bit of Chinese in the game, albeit accurately transcribed.
- Grim Up North: How the northern and easternmost fringes of China are shown, being a land filled with herders, nomadic hordes and various tribes.
- The Horde: The herder and more nomadic factions, such as the Dingling and Xiongnu, are this, much like in history.
- Imperial China: The game covers both the rise and heyday of the Chinese dynasties.
- Random Event: A number of interactive random events can pop up on the map.
- Randomly Generated Level: While the main map is based on China and the surrounding regions, at least some aspects of it, such as resources are randomized.
- Shown Their Work: The developers make an effort to be as accurate and authentic as possible in portraying China.
- Technology Levels: Eventually, you'll gain access to ever more sophisticated technologies like gunpowder weapons.
- Technology Tree: The game feature four of them, with technologies and discoveries that can be researched simultaneously.
- To Win Without Fighting: It's possible to persuade other factions into eventually recognizing your claim as the Son of Heaven diplomatically.
- Up to Eleven: In addition to sizable population counts, the standard campaign map is massive.
- Worker Unit: Can be seen as peasants tending to the fields or as townsfolk.
- X Meets Y: Civilization meets Total War. Justified as the developers used to work at Creative Assembly.