Huangdi

Huangdi is a Chinese strategy game where the player takes on the role of an emperor of China. The objective of the game is to rule as best as possible until the emperor dies either of natural causes or assassination, upon which the game gives a description of how the player fared, depending on how happy and prosperous their people were, how much attention they gave to their children, and other choices. Although it features a war and diplomatic system, conquering the map - which also features Japan, the Roman Empire and some other famous geopolitical powers around Eurasia - is not the game's main objective and is difficult to achieve.

The game begins with a questionnaire with the answers defining the emperor's initial statuses. The game starts in the main palace, where orders can be given to the ministers, like declaring war, entering a diplomatic session with any country, or firing and hiring ministers. It can also be defined how the budget will be spent in a specific province, or they can be delegated to the magistrates.

After exiting the main palace, the player gains access to some buildings from the forbidden city - that's it, the Chinese imperial palace -, and by clicking certain buildings the emperor can train martial arts, study, visit the imperial alchemists, rest, visit the emperor's mother, call someone from the harem, or go to their private quarters, where the player can create a schedule for the next month which might see them going on a hunt, visiting the city, or one of the palaces they built through their empire. Anyone from the emperor's harem may be dismissed except the queen, and the emperor may summon their children, which - by summoning them a lot - will help the player have a more favorable end game description after the emperor dies.

All in all, the game gives the player a lot of liberty to manage their empire, although if they are too idle assassins will visit every night, and whether they are successful or not depends entirely on luck, but a premature death can easily be dodged by using save/load options.

The game also features a diplomatic session, where the emperor can negotiate truce pacts, alliances, trade pacts or tributes. If the player declares war, they can send the troops they prepared against the enemy's provinces. To have an army, the player must hire soldiers and buy arms with public money before creating the divisions to deploy into battle, which can be infantry, cavalry, or lancers. The war minigame features several squares in 3 columns where troops can be placed and moved between. The player can put army divisions close to their general, with the player's army and the enemy army being either in the left or right. The battle is turn based, if the player does not put any soldier in their square tiles during the player's turn, the enemy will move their armies in their turn. The player can move their divisions, use them to attack the enemy, or try to negotiate with the enemy at the start of their turn, which features diplomatic decisions like truce, tributes, demand for surrender and others, which depends whether the player is invading or the one being invaded. After a few turns played, the battle will stop to be continued in the next month.

Besides having a national army, the player can also assign provincial armies, which are useful against enemy attacks and rebellions, but if a province magistrate declares independence, the provincial army will become his.