Completed Let's conquer the known world! Let's play Genghis Khan IV: The Blue Wolf and the White Deer

[Thorakitai]

The year is 1189, and Eurasia is wracked by a sea of conflicts. Medieval Europe and the Islamic Middle East clashed once again as Saladin, ruler of the Ayyubid dynasty, conquered Jerusalem, and the Pope called for the Third Crusade, with Philip II of France, Richard I of England, and Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire joining forces to free Jerusalem for Christendom.

China is divided into three dynasties: the Jin Dynasty, founded by Jurchen nomads who conquered Northern China; the Western Xia, founded by Buddhist Tangut people; and the Song Dynasty, who established themselves in Southern China after being driven out of the north by the Jin. Both the Jin and Song dynasties engaged in a fierce conflict for the supremacy of China, while Western Xia stood neutral.

Despite these conflicts currently taking place, a single Khan in Mongolia hopes to unite the quarreling Mongol tribes and later lead his people into a massive quest of conquest that would change the face of history forever.

Genghis Khan IV PS1 OST - Overture

Genghis Khan: Aoki Ookami to Shiroki Mejika IV (translated as Genghis Khan IV: The Blue Wolf and the White Deer) is a turn-based grand strategy game, and it's the fourth game in the Genghis Khan series (third if you're going by overseas release date given that the 3rd GK Khan is treated as the 2nd game in the West). Released on the PC in 1998 and the PS! version in 1999, I'll be playing the later version. Unlike Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga's Ambition, where you play as Chinese or Japanese warlords, respectively, in order to unite and take over their respective countries, Genghis Khan has you play as one of the many rulers of Eurasia in order to conquer the known world. Its gameplay is also a unique mix of 4x games like Civilization, yet it is still a grand strategy game at heart.

Unfortunately, this is the last game in the Genghis Khan series, and due to the low sales in comparison to its two mainline series, it was cut short and thus never released in English, unlike the other games.

How am I going to play this despite my clear lack of knowledge regarding Japanese?

Through a rather convoluted and brute-force method using Google Translate's feature of directly translating images, thus:

1. I took screenshots of the menus and UI.
2. Used Google Translate's direct image translation.
3. Then I used Photoshop to add text next to the JP text for easy identification.

All that hard work was because I loved Koei's strategy games, especially the historical simulation ones.

1. Wanna have the chance to play the game yourself?

A rather obscure and old forumnot only has has download links to the Vanilla Genghis Khan IV and it's expansion pack (called a Power Up Kit(PUK) in JP) but it's users have provided an partial english translation of the menu for the Vanilla version.
Update: The links from that forum are all dead so here's the new download links I've made for myelf.

1. Here's the iso for Genghis Khan IV. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sv8evMmWmuF6A5l3qKy2FTeehYGp-e_5/view?usp=sharing

2. Here's the iso for the PUK. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SyEFWYlMRKh6BX1084RxuOB2XTP-orK0/view?usp=sharing

3. And here's the partial english translation that only works if you only have the OG version installed and not the PUK. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cf3Kmr2lj_3eQivt0XCvYRfYeAflWwXB/view?usp=sharing

To Install GKIV on your PC:

Mount the img files using a virtual CD-program like Daemon Tools or WinCDEmu and run the autoplay.

After installing, right-click the GK shortcut and set the following settings.

-Set compatibility to Windows XP Service 3.
-Run as Adminstrator
>Keep your appropriate GK Img file mounted on your virtual cd (Vanilla for Vanilla, PUK for PUK) at all times or the game will refuse to run and will prompt you to mount the GKIV disk
-Have fun!

Besides a glitch where the BGM isn't playing, the game surprisingly works well on my Windows 10 PC. Searching the Japanese internet reveals a way to restore the BGM but all the links to the required files are dead, so may as well listen to the soundtrack on youtube instead the youtube video died so here's a link to the PC soundtrack I've fortunately downloaded from that video and also a link to where you can download the PS1 version as well:

Genghis Khan IV PC soundtrack:
1. Overture (Ruler select screen)
2. Japanese Strategy
3. East Asian Strategy
4. Mongolian Strategy
5. Mongolian Strategy 2
6. Indian and Southeast Asian Strategy
7. Islamic Strategy
8. Eastern European Strategy
9. Western European Strategy
10. Offensive Battle
11. Defensive Battle
12. Siege Battle
13. Outnumbered Battle (Plays in battles if your ruler or an heir is outnumbered by the enemy)
14. Banquet
15. Love Scene
16. Diplomacy

Genghis Khan IV PS1 soundtrack
https://www.zophar.net/music/playstation-psf/aoki-ookami-to-shiroki-mejika-iv-genghis-khan



For those who want to play the game but are Japanese illiterate.

Here's are links to two pdf files I've made. This from the GKIV PUK game manual that I've google translated, it explains how the game works, controls and all the useful information needed to give context.

This one contains translated screenshots of menus for the PS1 port of the game.

List of Scenarios and it's playable nations.

Scenario 1:Wolves Running in the Meadow

This is the map of Eurasia in Scenario 1189, which I chose due to having more playable rulers. I'll let you guys decide which ruler I'm going to play as to conquer the world. Let's meet the rulers.

Born Temujin, his life started off rough, with his father being killed by a rival tribe and his father's tribe abandoning him and his family, forcing them to survive in the steppes by themselves. Despite this, he overcame this harsh time, and with the assistance of the Keraits,he managed to become Khan of his tribe. Later, he defeats a coalition of Mongol tribes who stood against him, which includes the Keraits and the Jadarans led by Jamukha, and later becomes Khan of all the tribes, renaming himself Genghis Khan, beginning his goal of world conquest.

Given that this game is named after him, it's no surprise that Mongol Empire is easily the most powerful nation in the game. Genghis has extremely good stats and skills, and he has the largest number of officers, and all of them are good. He starts off allied with the Kerait, but almost all of his surrounding neighbors are hostile to him. The above advantages and having the extremely powerful Mongol Cavalry as a military unit mean he'll be dominating them and the world sooner than later. A very easy game.

The Jadarans are said to have descended from a legendary Mongol ancestor and were one of the leading Mongol tribes. Jamukha was a childhood friend, a blood brother, and eventually a bitter and determined rival to Genghis Khan. Betrayed by his own men, Genghis gave his old friend the choice that he rejoin him with no problems, but Jamukha refused and insisted that he is to be killed bloodlessly because he will never stop opposing him

The Jadarans are good overall but are heavily outclassed by the Mongol Empire in terms of quality (only Jamukha and his officer Jebe are good, but the rest are mediocre) and quantity (only 6 officers vs. Genghis' 10). He's still a powerhouse in his own right due to being able to recruit the Mongolian Cavalry.

The Kereits were one of the oldest and most powerful Mongol tribes. Toghril Khan was essentially the best friend of Genghis Khan's father, who helped him regain control of his tribe after a civil war and later helped Genghis' rise to power when he was weak. Unfortunately, he became worried by Genghis' alarming rise and, persuaded by his son and Jamukha, stood against him, but he lost and was killed trying to flee.

The Kereits are the weakest Mongol country of the trio. Their leader is good, but he's not as good as Genghis or Jamukha and he's old and likely to die soon, while his successor and the rest of the officers range from bad to mediocre. He starts off allied with Genghis, though, so it might provide enough time to build up and expand before the alliance expires and hope the Jadarans weaken Genghis enough. He can recruit Mongolian cavalry to his advantage.

The Jin Dynasty was founded by Jurchen nomads who rebelled against their overlord, the Lia Dynasty, and conquered Northern China from the Song Dynasty, who were driven to flee to Southern China, where they engaged in fierce on-off wars for control of the entire country. Later, they lost their nomadic heritage and essentially became a Chinese dynasty no different from the Song. They later became embroiled in a bitter and desolate war against the Mongol Empire after the defeat of Western Xia and were eventually conquered.

The Jin Dynasty starts off with three cities, but they have a low cultural level (besides their capital, which has a high weapons culture), and they have few officers of mediocre quality to manage them properly. They start off surrounded by multiple countries but are allied with the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty; however, the latter are hostile to the Jin and will likely attack once the alliance expires, and worse, the Mongol Empire is hostile to them as well. On the plus side, the Jin can recruit a multitude of military units, such as cavalry, bow cavalry, crossbows, and siege units such as artillery and siege towers.

The Western Xia was founded by Tibetan nomads and essentially adopted a Chinese-style government with Buddhism as their religion. They were mostly neutral in the conflict between the Jin and the Song, although they did make brief attempts at expansion at the expense of the above. They later became the first target of the Mongol Empire, which was vassalized after being defeated and utterly destroyed after it tried to rebel against them.

The Western Xia, or Xi Xia, have two cities of low cultural level and multiple officers of good quality, but some of them, including the ruler, are elderly. The successor is young and a good military officer with good stats. Their military roster enables them to recruit cavalry and bow cavalry, which gives them an advantage. They start off allied with the Jin Dynasty, but the Song and the Mongol Empire are hostile and will likely attack them.

The Song Dynasty was established after the collapse of the previous Tang Dynasty and adopted an economic-focused system of rule. While this enabled them to develop a rich commercial, industrial, and academic edge. It made them weak against military threats, given how they were driven out to Southern China by the Jin Dynasty after correctly guessing that they didn't stand a chance, although they weren't pushovers in successfully defending against the Jin.


The Song Dynasty or Southern Song have two cities of high cultural level, and their officers have good political stature and skills but not militarily. Fortunately, the high cultural level of their cities enables them to recruit officers of high quality. Their military roster is nearly identical to that of the Jin Dynasty, except they lack bow cavalry and only have catapults as siege units. They start off allied with Jin, but they are on bad terms and will likely attack the Song once the alliance expires, and the Mongol Empire, Xi Xia, and the Ly Dynasty don't like them either.

The Kingdom of Goryeo starts in a rough position. They have a single city of low cultural level; their ruler is terribly mediocre; and his two remaining officers are good but start off with low loyalty. Their military roster is poor as they lack the horse specialty item to even recruit their available cavalry unit. They border the powerful Kamakura Shogunate, who may decide to attack the country if they aren't protected, and worse, the Mongol Empire hates them as well. Their only advantage is that they have quality specialty goods to trade with, enabling them to earn funds quickly and boost their city's cultural level.

The Kamakura Shogunate was established by Minamoto Yoritomo of the Minamoto Clan, a Samurai Clan that rose to power after the Genpei War, in which he defeated the Taira Clan, another prominent and longtime rival samurai clan that took control of the imperial government.

The Kamakura Shogunate starts off in a great position; their only neighbors are the weak Kingdom of Goryeo and the outclassed Hiraizumi Administration. They have many officers of good quality, and they can recruit Samurai, a bow cavalry unit that stands up to the powerful Mongolian Cavalry. Their only problem is that the small area of Japan limits the construction of facilities to improve the cities.

The Hiraizumi Administration is led by the Fujiwara clan, a once prominent noble clan that once ruled Japan, but assertive emperors and the rise of the Samurai class rendered them to the point of irrelevance.They were neutral in the Genpei, but after sheltering Minamoto Yoshitsune, brother of Yoritomo, the Kamakura Shogunate declared them a threat and destroyed them, unifying Japan.

The Hiraizumi administration starts off in a poor position. Their single city has little room to expand, and most of it is under the Kamakura's influence. Both the ruler and his successor are nothing special in terms of stats. Their remaining officers, Minamoto Yoshitsune and Benkei, are another story, being excellent military officers but poor politicians. With their strength, they might be able to resist and even conquer Kamakura. Just like the Kamakura, they can recruit the powerful Samurai Cavalry.

Tibet is located and surrounded by a mountain range that makes it very easy to defend against hostile attacks, but their few officers have poor military stats, and they start off lacking horses in their territory, which limits their military roster. Their advantages are that their officers have good political stature, their city has a good academic and cultural level that gives them the chance to have officers of good quality, and the Mongol Empire likes them.

The Ly Dynasty of Vietnam starts off in a rough state. Only having three officers of average quality and being able to recruit weak military units means their neighbors, the Song Dynasty and the Khmer Empire, can crush them with ease. Their only advantage is that they are in economic trade, given that they are surrounded by specialty goods that they can sell at a high price.

The Angkor, commonly known as the Khmer Empire, starts off with an excellent starting point. Their ruler has excellent stats and skills, though he is rather old, and he has an okay successor ready. Their city has a high architectural culture that gives their facilities a high chance of surviving natural disasters. They can recruit elephant cavalry and horse archers (although they can't recruit the latter due to a lack of horses in their area), and their only neighbor is the weak Ly Dynasty. They have the potential to freely expand and bide their time to take over at the right moment.

The Qara Khitai or the Western Liao is a Central Asian country founded by Khitan nomads who were driven out of China after the Jin and the Song destroyed the Liao Dynasty. While the Jin Dynasty, they retained their nomadic roots but also kept the Chinese-style government that their predecessor practiced.

They start with two cities surrounded by plentiful resources (including horses) to trade with, and their military roster is well-rounded if rather unimpressive. All to balance their rather mediocre but skilled roster of officers, their ruler has no successor to retain his country, and their neighbors, the Khwarezm Empire and the Ghurid Dynasty, hate them.

The Kwarizem Empire started as vassals to the Seljuk and later the Qara Khitai but became a great power in their own right to the point where they destroyed the former and rendered the latter irrelevant, but were always wrecked by instability that led to one ruler being replaced in a coup by another. They later made the mistake of killing Genghis Khan's ambassadors, who only wanted to trade and forge an alliance, which resulted in Genghis' armies utterly destroying the empire and massacring the populace.

The Kwarizem Empire starts with two cities with balanced cultural levels. The ruler has average stats, but he's old and not likely to last long, and the Qara Khitai, the Ghurid Dynasty, and especially the Mongol Empire hate them. Thankfully, his officers are of good quality, his country's military roster is strong, and he has a talented successor soon to be born and other good officers in his country ready to be recruited.

The Ghurid Dynasty started off as a vasal state in Afganistan ruled by powerful empires such the Seljuks until they rebelled after the later being weakened and became an empire. Interesting it functioned as a dyarchy (dual rule) between brothers, with the senior ruler set in the capital at Afganistan while junior ruler is in India to continue his expansion. Unfortunately, they lose to the combined forces of the Khwarezem Empire and Qara Khitai and the junior ruler got assassinated. However, their remaining powerbase eventually developed into the Delhi Sultante and spread the religion of Islam to the entirety of the Indian continent.

The Ghurid Dynasty starts off with a unique starting position. Their two cities and the officers that reside in them are from different cultures, Islamic and Indian, respectively. This enables them to recruit both Islamic and Indian military units but also requires that the unit be led by a general of appropriate culture, or else the unit's attack power is halved. Otherwise, their officers are of good quality, which they'll need as the Khwarezem Empire, the Qara Khitai, and the Hindu Dynasty are all hostile towards them.

The Hindu Dynasty (Koei mashing several minor Indian dynasties into one faction) starts with a single city of average culture level in a safe and remote area filled with plentiful resources and enough space to expand and build a city or two before fighting the Ghurid Dynasty. Their officers are of good quality.

The Ayyubid Dynasty was established by Saladin, a general of the Zengid Dynasty of Iraq, after he overthrew the Fatmid Dynasty in Egypt. He later conquered Iraq, defeated and conquered the Crusader States, and later fought the Third Crusade to a stalemate and settled for a truce offered by Richard I of England.

The Ayyubid Dynasty is the most powerful nation in the Middle East. Their two cities of Cairo and Damascus have a high culture level; their ruler, Saladin, is one of the best rulers in the game with many skills and excellent stats; he has enough blood relatives that success is assured; his officers are of good quality; and they can recruit excellent military units including the Roman Empire's unique Flamethrower unit. They start off allied with the Abbasid Caliphate, and their only immediate threat is the Roman Empire, but they are hated by nearly every nation in Europe.

Once a powerful empire that spanned from North Africa to Persia, the Abbsaid Caliphate is reduced to a rump state in Baghdad where they are only used by other rising empires like the Sejluks and the Kwarizem for their religious authority and the Abbsaids attempting to use them to restore their lost authority only to fail miserably. They were eventually destroyed by one of Genghis Khan's sons.

The Abbsaid Caliphate starts with a single city with a high academic culture level, enabling them to recruit officers of good quality. Their starting officers are also good. Their military roster is identical to the Ayyubids', but they lack siege units to recruit, but they have the unique Assassins to make up for it. They start off with an alliance with the Ayyubids.

The Almohad Caliphate starts with two cities with no roads to connect them and is surrounded by hostile Western European countries. Makkarech has a good level of culture, while Tunis does not. Their ruler is quite good, and his officers are of good quality, while his only worthwhile military unit is the camel cavalry.

The Eastern Roman Empire has survived for a long time as despite disasterous defeats, political instability due to weak emperors and court intrigue and being surrounded by enemies from both Medieval Europe and Islam, they still come up strong albeit with reduced territorial holdings. The reign of Isaac II saw the beginning of the end for the empire as his rule saw widespread corruption and the slow lost of further territory gained from his predessors and not only he picked unecessary fight with Third Crusade, his disasterous reign would pave the way for infamous Fourth Crusade...

The Byzantine Roman Empire starts off with a city of high cultural level surrounded by valuable resources to trade with. They have an alliance with Hungary, the Principality of Kiev, and the Holy Roman Empire, and given that, they already start off with roads connected, enabling them to trade, earn money, and raise the culture of their city even further. Their ruler, Isakios II, is rather average, as are his successors, but one of his officers,Theodore Manghapas, is great and may be chosen as a worthy successor. They have an excellent military roster. Their main objective is to destroy Venice, and Venice in return is hostile to them, but the real threat is the powerful Ayyubid Dynasty.

The Principality of Kiev starts with the two cities of Novgorod and Kiev. Their officers are average at best, but they can recruit good military units. They are allied with the Roman Empire, a great trading partner, and are friendly with Norway, with no hostile countries. Their only immediate neighbor is Poland and that's not even much of problem given how weak they are.

Poland starts off rough; their ruler, Casimir II, is rather average in stats, but he's old and soon to die, and his successor, Leszek, is even worse. They are surrounded by powerful neighbors; the closest is the Pricipality of Kiev. At least their only remaining officer is good, and their military units are good, although they lack cavalry, and their neighbors neither like nor dislike them.

Hungary starts off in an interesting position. Their ruler, Bela III, has great stats, but he's rather old and he'll die soon, and his successor is rather bad. At least the remaining officers are good. Their land is surrounded by rich resources, and given that they are allied with the Roman Empire, they can be an excellent trading partner. Their military units are unique in that they can recruit powerful European units while also having bow cavalry.

Norway starts off in a faraway and safe location where they can safely build and expand at their own leisure. The officers are good, but the only military unit that's actually special is the Viking, a powerful infantry unit that has an attack bonus on water tiles. Unfortunately, the Holy Roman Empire, France, and England hate them, so they'll need to bide their time well.

The Republic of Venice starts off with one city that has a high level of culture but only has two elderly officers, including their leader. Dandolo is rather average, but he has the negotiation skill that allows him to make less loyal officers from other countries defect, and his only officer has good political and intelligent stats. They can recruit good military units, which they'll need as the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Empire hate them.

The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies starts off rough. Their area allows only a few facilities to be built, his officers are nothing special, France, the Roman Empire, Venice, and the Almohad Caliphate hate him, and the ruler is old. Because he has no heir, it's game over if he dies. At least the faction can recruit the powerful Vikings.

The Holy Roman Empire starts off with two cities far away from each other: one in Italy and one in Germany. The Ruler, Friedrich I, has extremely great stats and skills, although not as good as Philip II. His officers are good, and he can recruit excellent military units, including crossbowmen, but his neighbors, England and France, are just as powerful, and they don't like him.

France starts off strong. Their ruler, Philip II, is the best character in the game, with extremely good stats and skills, and his officers are good. Their neighbors, England and the Holy Roman Empire, are hostile to him just as they are hostile to each other. His military units are similar to those of England and the Holy Roman Empire, but they can recruit Siege Towers.

England is led by Richard I, and he's the guy with the highest war stat, a good intelligence stat, but a low stat in politics, but he has good officers to make up for it. His neighbors, France and the Holy Roman Empire, are just as powerful, and they hate him just as much as they hate each other. His military roster is similar to that of France and the Holy Roman Empire but lacks siege weapons, but he can recruit longbowmen.

The Kingdom of Castile starts out in the center of Spain. Their officers are good, their location allows them to build facilities, and they have plentiful resources, but their biggest problem is that they lack horses and can't recruit their cavalry unit. Given that they are next to the very unfriendly Almohad Caliphate, which can recruit cavalry units, this is going to be a fight for survival.

And these are all the rulers of the game. There are 33 in all, so take your time in choosing what faction I should play as. This is my very first LP, so go easy on me for a bit, but don't be afraid to ask me some questions nor tell me I'm doing something wrong.

Contents.

Spoiler

Tibet (PS1 Playthrough)

Chapter 1:The Land is peaceful. For now.
Chapter 2: Comfy build up in Tibet
Chapter 3: Eye of the Storm
Chapter 4: The long road to India
Chapter 5: The invasion of Delhi and the elephant rampage.

Kingdom of Sicily (PC Playthrough)

Chapter 1: Vikings in Italy
Chapter 2: Tunis must be destroyed.
Chapter 3: The New Era
Chapter 4: "Holy" "Roman" "Empire"
Chapter 5: Battle for Venice
Chapter 6: Rise to power
Chapter 7: Pest Control
Chapter 8: Empire Building
Chapter 9: The Battle for Europe
Chapter 10: War of the Lions
Chapter 11: An Explosive discovery
Chapter 12: The conquest of the West and...
Chapter 13: Tidal Wave of Islam
Chapter 14: Sicilian Crusade
Chapter 15: The Norman Empire

 

[lightbane]

Pics are too small. Try enlarging them please.

 

[Thorakitai]

Pics are too small. Try enlarging them please.

Got it. I feared that images may be too large and encourage long loading but I may have overreacted by using thumbnails.

 

[Modron]

The Angkor, commonly known as the Khmer Empire, starts off with an excellent starting point. Their ruler has excellent stats and skills, though he is rather old, and he has an okay successor ready. Their city has a high architectural culture that gives their facilities a high chance of surviving natural disasters.

Are they famous for weathering disasters? I thought the Khmer Empire was brought down by a prolonged drought?

 

[Thorakitai]

The Angkor, commonly known as the Khmer Empire, starts off with an excellent starting point. Their ruler has excellent stats and skills, though he is rather old, and he has an okay successor ready. Their city has a high architectural culture that gives their facilities a high chance of surviving natural disasters.

Are they famous for weathering disasters? I thought the Khmer Empire was brought down by a prolonged drought?

That was during the decline of Khmer Empire.

This Khmer Empire is ruled by Jayavarman VII(the ruler pictured in the screenshot), renowned as it's greatest king, who not only was a great conquerer who expanded his territory, he built numerous hospitals, highways, rest houses and temples for his people.

So giving him high stats and his country a high architecture culture is Koei showing off how they really did the research regarding history.

 

[Demo.Graph]

I haven't read much of the descriptions, but I vote this guy.
Just look at that mouth of his. Those are the lips of the smacker of the worlds.

Also

this

 

[vazha]

Looks nice, will follow. As for who to play as, surely the kkkodex choice would be the hardest option available?

 

[abnaxus]

 

[Modron]

I vote for

 

[Azira]

Tibet

 

[baud]

let's take France and go kill the English

 

[Lucumo]

The Holy Roman Empire seems like the only right choice here.

 

[vazha]

Two Sicilies get my vote, but if push comes to shove, I might be persuaded to opt for Potatoland instead.

 

[mondblut]

Through a rather convoluted and brute-force method using Google Translate's feature of directly translating images, thus:

1. I took screenshots of the menus and UI.
2. Used Google Translate's direct image translation.
3. Then I used Photoshop to add text next to the JP text for easy identification.

Man, that's some dedication. I loved Ghenghis Khan 2, but I'd never go to such lengths.

This one. He's got "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" written on his face.

 

[Reinhardt]

kiev. will you do better than original owners against khan?

 

[Nutmeg]

For me, it's Rome (East). Or one of the hard mode Mongols (Kereits).

 

[Thorakitai]

This is going to be interesting playthrough given that I've mostly played militarily strong factions.

Chapter 1:The land is peaceful. For now.

All right, let's get started.

Genghis Khan IV PS1 OST - East Asian Strategy

1189, while wars rage across the land, Tibet remains peaceful and free to develop and flourish its land and culture. The Tibetan state has long since collapsed, and only local clans and lamaist temples rule Tibet.

Let's take a look at our city, Lhasa.

Here's how much of an improvement Genghis Khan IV is in comparison to the previous games: Rather than a 2d world map that's abstracted by menus, it's a full world map with an isometric view where you can see and control everything in a full map of Eurasia. Directly controlling your officers with tasks like building and developing your city and leading armies, this game has elements of a 4x game similar to the Civilization series, yet it's still a grand strategy game at heart.


Llhasa is surrounded by a circular mountain range that allows only two ways to get into the area, and one of them has a river that further reduces the movement of units. The terrain surrounding Tibet also reduces the movement of units when compared to the regular plains of the outside, which slows down invaders but also makes it a pain for our units to traverse. We have 5000 gold, 10,000 food, 5000 troops, and 3 officers, including our ruler. Besides the food, it's a rather modest sum to start with.

The fraction indicated in the stat screen is the growth level of the city. See the AOE that surrounds our city? The higher the growth level of the city, the more its Area of Influence (AOI) expands, which not only allows us to build more facilities that improve the city itself but also allows us to acquire specialty goods for our city to trade with other factions.

The main theme of Genghis Khan IV is all about cultural exchange and development. Cultural levels affect the city and the officers that reside there in many ways:

From top to bottom, respectively.

1. Farming Culture: increases the amount of food earned by farming and the chance to resist drought and famine.
2. Pastoralism Culture: Increases the amount of food earned by ranches and increases the chances of officers and sons born in the city to acquire a better cavalry unit rank.
3. Weapons Culture: Increases the attack power of all military units and increases the chances of officers and sons born in the city having a better archer unit rank.
4. Tactical Culture: It increases the morale of military units and the number of troops that can be recruited. Generic officers recruited and sons born in the city may have a better War stat, more military skills, and a better infantry unit rank.
5. Nautical Culture: increases the mobility of maritime units and reduces the chances of naval accidents. Generic officers recruited and sons born in the city may have a better naval rank.
6. Architecture Culture: Reduces the build time for facilities and increases the chances of facilities surviving natural disasters like an earthquake.
7. Academic Culture: Generic officers recruited and sons born in the city may have better Politics and Int stats, develop domestic skills, and, in general, increase the chances of producing officers with better stats.
8. Arts Culture: Increases the income gained from facilities and reduces the chance of officers' loyalty dropping.
9. Medicine Culture: It increases the recovery rate of injured soldiers, reduces the effects of the plague disaster, increases the fertility rate of your wives, and increases the lifespan of your officers.
10. Crafts Culture: Increases the number of specialty products produced and the income gained from trading these products


The city of Llhasa has an acceptable level of academics, pastoralism, architecture, and crafts. So the city is able to recruit better generic officers that have a cavalry affinity, they can build facilities faster, are disaster-proof, and can produce and earn more goods.


Now let's take a look at our officers, and I'll explain the officer stat screen.

Our current ruler of Tibet is Sakaya Pandita. He's only 9 years old, so he'll last a long time without suddenly dying of old age


Officers have three stats: Politics, War and Intelligence respectively. Their Politics stat determines how effective they are at domestic tasks such as building facilities and roads, trading goods, ensuring a successful diplomacy etc. The War stats determine how effective their troops are on the battlefield and also affect some domestic factors, such as the number of troops recruited. The Intelligence stat affects the success of battlefield ploys and their resistance to being affected by an enemy officer's ploy, and it also affects how successful a spy officer's espionage tactics are.


Below the officer's stats are the unit rankings, (From Top to Bottom) Infantry, Archers, Cavalry and Navy; the higher the rank, the better his troops are. An officer with a high war stat who leads a unit with an E rank will lose to an officer with an average war stat but with a A rank.

In the center row are an officer's domestic and military skills.

(From left to right)

For domestics skills:

1. Farming decreases the build time when constructing farms.
2. Market allows you to have better rates when buying or selling food and also increases trade earnings.
3. Construction decreases the build time when building facilities.
3. Culture increases the number of cultural levels you earn after returning home from trade (I'll elaborate on that later).
4. Negotiation allows the officer to increase his chances of success in diplomacy and espionage.
5 Recruit allows you to increase the chances of finding and recruiting officers.

For military skills:
1. Mobility increases the movement points of an officer's troops.
2 Assault allows the officer's infantry to use the "Charge skill."
3. Transport; unfortunately, I haven't used it and unware of it's effects.
4. Arson allows the officer's units to use the skills "Fire" and "Fire Arrows" for their arrows a chance to burn a target's tile, inflecting flame damage at the beginning of an enemy's turn.
5. Siege allows an officer's infantry to scale over an enemy's walls
6. Ambush allows the officer's infantry units to disappear from sight, and if an enemy troop approaches the hidden unit, the infantry automatically attacks and forcibly ends their turn while suffering no counterattack damage.


Sakya Pandita is excellent at handling domestic issues such as construction and diplomacy, and he's an excellent espionage agent, but he's lousy at leading troops to battle. He's also an excellent diplomat and great at recruiting officers.
Biography: Sakya Pandita is a renowned scholar, philosopher, and artist who made peace with the Mongols when they were poised to invade Tibet when the local clans stopped paying tribute to them and, in return, recognized him as the ruler of Tibet under the Mongols.

Takpagentzen is an okay political and intelligence officer, but he has no skills.
Biography:He's basically Sakya's father, who willingly turned Tibet into a tributary vassal for the Mongols after seeing their expansion and later advised his son to do the same. Strangely, he's not the faction ruler.

Sangye is another average political and intelligence officer, although he's able to construct farms quickly and be a good diplomat.
Biography: A Tibetian monk who called a meeting between the leaders of the Tibetan clans and promoted peace between the Mongol Empire and Tibet.

And here are our available military units: Military units are divided into 5 classes: infantry, archers, cavalry, bow cavalry, and siege weapons.

Translation:

Attack Power	Number of Attacks
Movement	Cost

We can recruit light infantry and shortbowmen (highlighted by the circle), the most basic military unit whose only advantage is that they can strike twice and move farther when compared to other non-cavalry units. We could recruit Lancers and Hunting Cavalry(highlighted by the triangle sign), but Lhasa lacks the horse specialty resources that are required.


So those are our starting officers, our available resources, and our troops. Unfortunately, a looming problem makes the future of Tibet uncertain.

Above our closest neighbors, the Western Xia, are the Mongol tribes and we are a bit too close for comfort. While we are friendly with Genghis, the other tribes are not, and the closest Mongol country next to us is the Kereits. Who'll likely expand south due to being initially allied with Genghis and later is busy fighting the Jadarans.

The Kereits may be the weakest Mongol country in terms of officers, but they can recruit the Mongolian Cavalry to make up for that weakness. The Mongolian Cavalry has all the advantages of bow cavalry, they can move the farthest, strike twice, and have a range attack, but they are nearly as tough as cavalry such as knights, unlike bow cavalry. They are the most powerful military in the game due to their extreme versatility.

Our closest neighbor is the Western Xia, and while they can be an effective buffer against the Kereits, they probably won't hold for long in a prolonged conflict due to the power of the Mongolian Cavalry.


So that's the starting situation of Tibet. They are nearly isolated and safe from immediate conflicts, but that's not going to last for long, and we'll need to do more than just promote culture if the nation is to survive future threats and beyond.

 

[Thorakitai]

Chapter 2: Comfy build up in Tibet

​

1189-1197

First things first. I'm going to have Sakya recruit generic officers while the other two officers expand the city and build ranches to increase our food income.


All facilities that aren't villages, towns, or focused on food production provide income for the city; they are also one way of increasing the cultural level of the city, although this is very limited given that you'll be running out of building space soon enough.

Oh, a random merchant. These merchants randomly pop up and give you nice stuff like a specialty good for your city (such as valuable horses to recruit cavalry units), gold in exchange for a certain amount of food or specialty goods, and a fallen noble woman to add to your harem to fall in love with. In this case, he's giving me a free officer.

While the generic officers I can recruit are slightly better when compared to hick cities that have little-to-no academic culture, their noticeable lack of military aptitude is problematic. While Tibet's academic and pastorial culture level helps the chances of officers with stats and cavalry aptitude, it's still up to the RNG at this point until I can raise it to 50, and the lack of tactics culture (if you have a culture level lower than 20, you can't build facilities for them) prevents them from getting a good infantry aptitude, which I badly need since that's all I can recruit. I'll have to stop because having more officers means more salary expenses.

With the gold income dropping due to city expansion costs, I stop and sell the excess food that I have.

Next, I have one of my officers build roads to prepare a way out to the outside and prepare for my plans for trading. The game has a rather effective delegation option where you have an officer automatically do whatever tasks they have and direct them to a destination, a city, or a unit. Pretty handy. Here's a very handy way to connect roads from beginning to end without having to manually select and order the officer to build every strip of road.

Oh, and here are the natural disasters. Disasters like typhoons and plagues randomly move around the map and destroy facilities, while the latter can permanently destroy fields and crops and lower troop counts. They can only be resisted by having a high architectural and medical culture.



Next, I have Sakya return to the city and perform a banquet.

The Ordo mechanic is where you can interact with officers and increase their loyalty level, although only the ruler can significantly raise loyalty compared to an ordinary officer, and officers of different cultures can be difficult to raise; some even have a set cap where you can't even raise it to 100. But that's not the only mechanic for that.

There's a minigame where if you invite your wife to the banquet, you'll need to select the right words for her to improve her mood and have sex with you. Getting her affection meter down by half only gives you a chance to make love

Oh, she likes being listened to. Some wives are random in their responses, but some also have a preferred response.

Nice. She's now ready for lovemaking.

After a few turns of building ranches and academies to bolster the city's respective cultural levels, I then ordered my officer to go on diplomatic duties and ask for an alliance with my neighbor, the Xi Xia, for access to their roads. They already start off with their roads connected with those of the Jin Dynasty and the Song, and once my roads are connected with theirs, I can now begin trading.


Now here's the diplomacy between the ruler. For him to accept our alliance, we must give our daughter for marriage, a cultural item, and a significant amount of money. I lack the first two options; I hope my diplomat can persuade him with 4000 gold at hand.

Crap, he failed, and I got a slight penalty in our relations between them. Let's try that with a higher amount of 7000.


*few turns later*

Well, fuck you too.

A few turns later, I'm finally going to send Sakya, who has a high POL stat and the Negotiation skill, with 10,000 gold in cash.

Oh, two factions decide to create a new city.


You can create a new city with the migrate option, in which you need an officer and a good amount of gold and food, and send them off to a preferred location. It sacrifices the city's growth level to do so, though.

Finally, you cheapskate.

Now, while the new road is being built and Sakya comes back home, I've sent my officers back home and concentrated on gathering troops.


*Screenshot of battle at Constantinople*

Damn, the Ayyubids are going on a full-on invasion against the Byzantines.


After a journey of successful negotiations. It's time for a banquet to relax and have a loving time with my wife.

And next turn, she's pregnant. I hope it's a boy.


And that's it for this round. Peaceful, but this is just the early game, where the build-up phase is just a prelude to a storm.

 

[Thorakitai]

Chapter 3: Eye of the Storm

1197-1203

Back to the program.



Tibet is busy building ranches and academies to increase the country's pastorial and academic culture, setting up roads and alliances to finally trade with the other countries and finally Sakya Pandita manages to get his wife pregnant, hoping it's a boy so that he'll have an heir.

The fragile alliance between the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty has passed and the two countries are on an ongoing war against each other.

This screen displays the results of the harvest gained from the fields facilities of every city. Green means more food gained than usual, red is less gained and the yellow is just the regular harvest with no gains or losses. The advantage of ranches is that they aren't handicapped by this system.

A few turns later and my wife has finally given birth and... it's a girl. At least she'll be a useful for binding an officer and or a kingdom through marriage.

And Genghis' forces are dominating the Jadarans although they fail to take over the city.

Aside from the wars of China and the Mongols, France doesn't take too kindly with the Holy Roman Empire building a new city and declares war by sending an invasion force towards the new city.

Damn, The Keraits have finally move south and are targeting the Xi Xia. This is bad news.

And a few turns later. The Song Dynasty takes over one of the cities of Jin Dynasty while The Jin Dynasty manages to take over the capital city of the Xi Xia, making it theirs now and the death of the current ruler means my alliance with them is null and void. As if my situation couldn't get any worse.

Fuck me.

Genghis Khan and his forces are going down south and are going to take over the last remaining city of Xi Xia. Their captial city that the Jin has taken over is the only city from which the Xi Xia can recruit their cavalry and their only city has none. I've renewed my alliance with the Xi Xia, only to see an even worse invasion than the Keraits.

See those stats? That's Subutai, a famous general under Genghis Khan, what he lacks in POL stat (17), he makes up for having a high war stat of 93 and he has great aptitude in commanding units, especially cavalry.

At least I've finally managed to connect a road that leads to china itself.

An explanation regarding trade and it's connection to the Culture mechanics of the game.

There are only three ways to increase the culture level of the city.

1. By building facilities, you can slowly increase the culture level of the city and building a set number of facilities (usually 20) levels up the present facilities, increase their culture and income gain even further. But you are limited by your surroundings and you can't just demolish a facility to create a new one to raise another culture level, because it will drop whatever cultural level if you do.

2. By acquiring cultural items through conquest or a specific level of culture level in your city. Cultural items permanently increase the cultural level of every present city, can be used a diplomacy offer to forge alliances (and to increase the cultural level of the city you eventually want to take over)

3. And finally through trade. If your officer sells his goods to city that has a high culture level than his home city, once he returns, he'll increase the culture level of his home city by 1 point, 2 points if he has the Culture domestic skill. This might not seem much but send 2 or 3 officers to trade and you'll see your city's cultural level skyrocket in a few years.

I'm hoping to the trade with Xi Xia before the Mongols crush them.

And the Song has conquered the capital of the Jin Dynasty, crippling the Jin's military power. The cities of the Song Dynasty have a high culture level, enabling them to recruit generic officers of good quality more frequently. The Jin Dynasty, for all their military power, are unable to keep up with the Song.

And my wife got pregnant after some love time.

And finally my traders arrive home, bringing an increase of culture after their journey. Now I can build Barracks facility and increase the Tactics culture of Llhasa, so I can finally start making military capable officers.

And an interesting diplomatic mission from the Xia Xia.

Sorry but no.

Finally my wife has given birth to a boy. You are asked to give the boy a name and choose a face from set portraits that vary from one culture to another. The stats of the boy depends on the stats of the husband and wife and the culture level of the city. It's highly likely my son will be just as intelligent and politically able as his father but who knows what the RNG is cooking.

Another diplomatic mission from the Xi Xia and it's a gift of gold.

A few turns later and Genghis conquers the Xi Xia and takes away the recently conquered city of Xingqing from the Jin, leaving them with small city up to the north. He then turns his eye on the Keraits. The Jadarans attempt to attack Genghis while he's focused on the Kereit but his forces are easily swept aside.

Given Tibet's high relationship with the Mongols, signing up for an alliance would be easy.

And the Kamakura Shogunate has conquered the Goryo Dynasty of Korea. With the power of the Samurai, the Koreans never stood a chance.

With Genghis out on the field for the conquest of the Keraits, there not much Tibet can do but build and prepare since you need the faction leader to be inside the city. With Tibet's naturally high relations with Genghis, an attack is quite unlikely and I'll be able to ask for an alliance.

My son is being tutored by one of my officers. Hope he gains some military know-how.

To end this chapter. Here's an event regarding England and France.

Prince John: This is his majesty, Philip. Thank you for coming.

Philip II: So, have you made up your mind?

Prince John: No.... but for me to take the throne from my older brother?

Philip II: In comparison, you are a worthy king and a man of great talent. What are you talking about? Richard is too preoccupied with the war.

Prince John: Hmmmm... If it's for the sake of the people, I have to make up my mind.

Philip II: Make a decision for the sake of your people! Please leave it to me.

Prince John: What about your older brother?

Philip II: Let me spend the rest of my life quietly under your protection.

Current status of Eurasia as of 1203.

Oh boy, with the Genghis ultimately dominating the north, it's suicide to even think of fighting against him. As always, I'll just continue to trade, develop and bide my time but I'm honestly thinking of moving further south.

 

[Lucumo]

let's take France and go kill the English

(France captured London and Philip II put Richard I to the sword.)

 

[Demo.Graph]

Oh, I got killed!

 

[Thorakitai]

Chapter 4: The Long Road to India (1203-1220)

Let's get started.


And the culmination of the events in England regarding Prince John and Richard I.

Then Philip II had the Duke Leopold of Austria trap Richard I so he could never go home. Leopold once suffered the humiliation of having his flag trampled by Richard I. That's why he hated him so much that Philip II took advantage of it.

Richard I: What are you going to do about it?

Leopold: I have a grudge against you." Hehehe.

Richard I: Are you trying to fight me? I can't say that's smart. How about it, I'll pay you. I'll give you 100,000, 150,000, whatever you want.

Leopold: Ho? Is that true?

John: You can eat all the good food you want. You can have everything you want. The king can't stop, can he?

Walter: (This is not a good sign for the future of this country. I don't know where this is going.)

John: What are you doing? It's a pity that Lady Berengaria is a widow at such a young age. What do you think? I'll welcome you to my side of the family.

Berengaria: Dear John! There's a limit to how much you can play with me.

John: Hahaha. Well, good. From now on, I will be at the helm of this country. I will steer this country from now on.

John: I was only seduced by Philip... I was just intrigued.

Richard: John...I'll let you off the hook for once. If you'll just lay low. But Philip...I will not forgive him. I'll pay you back a hundredfold.

This CPU-only event has England directing its aggression towards France, and the Holy Roman Empire gets 20% of London's gold.


I've brought Sakya back to the city to use his recruitment skill to gather generic officers, and I'm hoping that the culture level of Lhasa is enough to finally give me some talent. I've also felt the need to construct a road to the eastern exit of the mountain range in order to prepare my plan for colonization and the eventual invasion of India.

Also, with my city being rich in funds, I'm going to have my officers sign allegiances to Genghis Khan and the Song Dynasty. The former so that it'll eliminate the slight chance of him attacking Tibet, and the latter to trade with since their capital has a very high cultural level that'll strengthen Tibet.

Wait, what? It seems Genghis died in battle during one of their failed sieges of the Keraits, leaving his eldest son Jochi in charge.

My officers reached Onon and the Song Capital of Nanjing and successfully signed an alliance.

Meanwhile, in Europe, France has finally taken a city from the Holy Roman Empire.

Damn, this guy repeatedly refuses to join despite Sakya's attempts. He's rather good, and I'd like to finally start my military conquest.

Meanwhile, in Europe again, England, France, and the Holy Roman Empire are busy beating the crap out of each other.

Oh, a fallen noblewoman? Sure, I'd like to add her to my harem.

Finally, I managed to recruit the turban wearing follow and now I'm going to celebrate with a feast to boast their loyalty... alongside my two wives. Too bad I failed to convince them for an intimate nighttime.

A few turns later, and the new recruits are far more militarily skilled when compared to the previous ones. Thanks to the trade with both the Mongols and the Song Dynasty, Llhasa's culture level is rather high.

Time for a feast.
While my first wife is rather receptive, my second doesn't seem to be in the mood. That's what happens when you don't fill the affection bar to the fullest.

Oh? What's this? A spy?

Sorry but your going to die.

More recruits, more banquets, and finally a successful twosome bedtime.

Now I'm sending a settler unit (Highlighted yellow) to the eastern exit to India, secure in my wealth. It reduces the growth level of Lhasa, but that can be quickly remedied.


I've placed my new city in position to grab the three specialty goods, especially that gold pile, which will prove useful.

A few turns later, my son is ready to become an officer. Not bad, He's of average intelligence, but at least he can command an army, and his troops can move farther thanks to the mobility military skill. I'm going to send him to the new city, ready for the invasion of India.
Oh, my son introduced me to rather surprising recruit.

Yelü Chucai was a highly regarded advisor and administrator to both Genghis Khan and his successor Ogudei, who convinced them to rule, tax, and use the talents of the people they conquered instead of just killing them, burning their cities to the ground, and looting their riches. Saying to Ogudei, that "Empires may be conquered on horseback, but they could not be ruled on horseback".
Damn, he makes Sakya look like a mediocre officer in comparison. The man has every domestic skill and he's just 19 years old! I'll be sending him to the new city to speed up the expansion even further.

Thanks to my son and the new godlike domestic officer, the new city has expanded rather quickly, and the newly connected roads enable them to make use of the plentiful specialty goods.

By this point, all I've been doing is building up (trying to have sex with my wives to have more sons), so I'll just fast-forward to the endpoint.

During the build-up, the Roman Empire has finally conquered Venice, the Almohad Caliphate has destroyed the Kingdom of Castile, the Ayyubid Sultanate has conquered the Abbasid Caliphate, the Song Dynasty has conquered the Ly Dynasty of Vietnam, and the Hindu Dynasty has conquered the city of Delhi from the Ghurid Empire, derailing my plans for a bit.

After a very long time developing the new city. It's time for Tibet to finally invade India. While the Hindu Dynasty's elephant cavalry units might trample my army of light infantry and shortbowsmen, they have sent half of their army to attack the Ghurid Empire's newly settled city instead, and I've built a road to Delhi for my army to move quickly. This is a great chance to finally expand Tibet's reach, but it'll be tough.

Current status of Eurasia as of 1220.

Tune in next time. I'll finally have a battle.

 

[Thorakitai]

Chapter 5: The invasion of Delhi and the elephant rampage.(1220-1221)

Chapter 5: The Tibetian Invasion of Delhi.

Now's the time to invade India by attacking the Hindu Dynasty's city of Delhi. Half of their army and officers is busy besieging the newly settled city of the Ghurid Dynasty so it's now or never.

Hah! Not only they failed to their assault, their army is confused and they suffer a movement penalty as a result.

I've now begun to send my army to Delhi. The monk guy here is one of few "good" military officers around and a valuable asset. He has a war stat of 64 and he has 3 key military skills, Arson, Siege and Ambush. Arson let's his infatry units set fires and archers to use fire arrows, Siege allows infantry units to climb over walls and Ambush gives him the ability to hide infantry and attack unsuspecting enemy units caught in their range and forcibly stop their turn. His legion will command mostly infantry but his command unit (1#) is a shortbowmen. If a command unit falls in battle, then the rest of his units will fall as well as the reinforcement units regardless of how much troops they have left.

To assemble an army, you must have enough soldiers, enough gold to pay the costs of deploying them outside the city and food to keep them supplied.

My son Wadu is nearly as good as the monk but he's only military skill is mobility, in which his units can move farther than an ordinary officer. However, because he's a royal, his units have 1000 men as opposed to an ordinary officer being only able to command 600. His legion is composed of shortbown units to take advantage of his B rank in bows.

To be extra sure. I have Yelu Chucai as a spy to perform espionage tasks as my army marches to Delhi. In this case, he'll be disrupting enemy armies by confusing them.

Tried to bride the officer due to not being completely loyal but failed. Also, note how my armies movement is reduced inside Delhi's area of influence.

And one of the confused armies are heading back to Delhi as a response to my army. Oh boy...

The enemy unit is close to the city but not near enough where they'll act as reinforcement unit if I start the siege. I'll have Yelu assassinate the officer...

and it fails...

I've arranged my units so that if the enemy attacks, each of them can act as a reinforcement unit to one another.

Next turn and the enemy unit decides to camp next to the city. alas, I've failed another assassination attempt and I'm forced to slowly go on a defensive approach again.

The third assassination attempt failed and Yelu nearly got caught as a result, losing his position as a spy and turned in a regular officer unit that can do nothing but return back to the city but at an increased movement speed. I'll have to send a unit to attack it and see how strong it is and by comparison my forces and theirs.

The first battle between Tibet and the Hindu Dynasty begins!


Genghis Khan IV PS1 OST - Field Battle:

And now I'm at the battle screen. The position of the units depend on the positon you attacked them on the map. I attacked from east and my unit is placed as such while the targeted unit is placed in the center. The attacker starts the turn, which can be painful if cavalry units attack as they'll reach and damage you first.

I've moved to the corner to see avoid their cavalry and see what they'll do. The light infantry is the most basic unit that everyone can recruit cheaply but they can move the farthest when compared to other non-cavalry units and can act twice.

Heh, a successful confuse tactic. Confuse not only affects the targeted unit but may also confuse any units near him and their units can't passed through confused units.

If infantry units surrounds an enemy, they'll have the option of simultanously attacking it, dealing massive damage and reducing counter attack damage.

I'll have my remaining units rush towards the commanding unit as soon as possible. Unfortunately, one of the elephant units woke up and but he'll never get past the confused units.

As expected. The elephant units can tear through my units with ease. These light infantry will have to delay them with bodies.

One unit dead but the elephant cavalry continues to crush my remaining light infantry that I've used as a distraction.

I've failed to confuse elephant units and unfortunately forgot that my repeated rallying to cure my confused units(who suffered it as they are attacking the commanding unit) didn't work because he was facing the wrong direction. As a result, all of my units are crushed by the elephants but thankfully the commanding unit is still confused and I'm able to barely kill it.

Damn, nearly close to losing. With the victory, I can now have my units surround the city.

Meanwhile at Constantinople, the Ayyubids launch their biggest invasion force to finally crush the Romans.

Another enemy unit tries to get near Delhi but it's too late and I'm ready to attack the city. If the skirmish battle was that tough then a siege with heavy garrison will be even tougher and I'll use every dirty trick to make it through.

Go for it my son!


Genghis Khan IV PS1 OST - Siege Battle: *Listen to this great song!*

The siege starts with a heavy rain that impedes movement and reduces ranged missile attacks. My son's forces are placed in the east while the rest of Tibetian army is in the south.

Thankfully, thee Delhi's growth rate isn't fully developed or that sad excuse for a castle would have been larger and more complicated to navigate. The enemy is mostly composed of shortbowmen while the commanding unit is an elephant cavalry. Great news as they are utterly weak in melee despite their advantage of range attacks over their walls (Enemy units can't attack units inside the castle walls unless you have siege weapons) and the purple monk's infantry can climb over the walls.

My units have finally reached the gates, battering them twice while the enemy archers fire upon them.

The next few turns, My son has manages to neutralize the enemy archers by confusing them, rendering them immobile while the infantry manages to break through the gate while the rest climbs over the walls. The archers try to put a valiant fight but...

Soon, I've managed to slaughter most of the defenders and the commander is nearly finished. They try to summon reinforcements (The defender can summon as many replacement units as they want until the number of soldiers in the city runs out) but it's too late. Had he deployed elephant units from the start, it would be my units that'll get slaughtered.

With the commander's defeat, the city of Delhi falls to the Tibetian army.

All of the prisoners refuse to join Tibet and are executed.

Tibet has also acquired some cultural items from the Hindu Dynasty as a result of the capture. We got a seeder(Agriculture) and learning arabic numerals(Academics) and Ayurveda, an Indian medicine system comparanle to Chinese Accupuncture (Medicine). These will permanentally boost the culture level of every present city Tibet has and can be used as diplomacy funds instead gold. Tibet can also recruit Elephant Cavalry as well but they'll not as effective in our hands given how I don't have Indian officers at my disposal.

The Hindu Dynasty doesn't take too kindly to my recent conquest of their city and has sent their forces to reclaim Delhi.

Current Status of Eurasia.

I'll end at this point. Tibet's conquest has now begun.

 

[Demo.Graph]

Those are actually Indian numerals. They're often called Arabic, because Europeans had learned them from Arabic literature on astronomy.

 

[Thorakitai]

I don't like to say this but I've severely underestimated how slow-paced this game in comparison to Koei's other games. It's all about city building and it doesn't help that the AI is too passive to offer a decent challenge. I just don't have the energy to continue on.

This being my very first LP, I was genuinely surprised at good reception and it sucks that I have to throw the towel on this LP.

Still, I'm planning on another Koei game in mind to show off for another time.