After many years of war, a time of peace has come. Unfortunately, the great Emperor is dying and you, the young, inexperienced Huangdi, are in charge of the country. Your father's court adviser still has a few things to teach you. He will help you build your first prosperous city.
The prologue will introduce you to the world of Chinese Empire, explain the most important mechanics in the game, teach you how to manage resources and goods, and how to optimally build cities.
Each citizen plays an important role for the entire empire. By assigning employees to strictly defined tasks, it allows you to maintain order, efficiency and control over the entire ecosystem. Workers can cultivate crops, extract resources, produce goods, breed animals, slaughter, trade, etc.
Each building must be connected to the rest of the settlement by roads in order to function. It is on the roads that residents march to go to their work or move goods. A well-designed road network will increase the effectiveness of the entire empire.
Resources are obtained in many ways. Some we can obtain from crops, others from extraction, and others from trade. The processing of raw materials also plays a key role, because from specific ingredients we can now produce completely new goods such as bread, paper or silk.
The game has a full year cycle. Each season has a unique palette of colors and climate. Seasons also affect the gameplay as modulators, e.g. slowing down residents in winter or increasing crop growth during rain.
The map of the continent allows you to manage trade routes more conveniently. You can import goods from distant regions in exchange for produced goods.
Each year, the player chooses one of three drawn cards. The bonuses contained in the cards work for another year. They affect the game in various ways: increasing or decreasing the efficiency of workers, buildings, adding weather bonuses or random events from the region, e.t.c.