Rise Of The White Sun - 白日升

I've tried multiple times to get into this game, and it is just a brick wall of a game. No clear idea of what to do, the tutorials are awful and don't really explain much, and mechanics are designed far more about being "historically accurate" than even being remotely fun. You'll typically sit there, confused, unsure what to do, then try and do something only to find that it just didn't work because corruption or something. It's very obvious this was made by one passionate person, but clearly it did not result in a good product. I'm sure this hits all their personal sweet spots, but for me, this game is just a chore to try and understand. Also, no, I will Not be going to your discord to learn how to play. Make a proper tutorial that doesn't just go "here's a bad explanation, go read the wiki which is also wrong, or go ask on my discord." Any further time I put into this game will solely be for collecting the cards for it, then it will likely be shelved, never to be touched again.

喜欢我装甲列车吗

This is an incredibly well-researched game that immerses you in the (quite stressful) world of warlord-era China, as the communists and the nationalists are beginning to rise and attempt to resist foreign intervention in the country while also trying to unify China under their respective governments. It also includes Tibetan spiritualists, various rebel groups, mystics, White and Red Russian expats, Mongolian steppe raiders, and Dr. Sun Yat-sen himself. It is lovingly crafted, but clearly made by a tiny team - I think it's mostly the work of one person. The UI has issues, the English sometimes feels awkward, the tutorials are lackluster, and online documentation for the game is minimal (although there is a bibliography, which is awesome). The gameplay loop itself is in my opinion VERY fun, but I have seen that it is divisive. I genuinely think a lot of the negativity people feel towards it comes from them not accepting the game for what it is - you're at war with almost everyone almost all the time because it's a free-for-all scramble for the country, you make decisions by ordering your generals to do things but the generals might not obey if you haven't paid attention to their needs, and by extension the soldiers may disobey their generals even if the generals obey you. Because of these factors and more, it can feel very frustrating to play the game and wonder, "Why is the game fighting me?" But I think that's part of the fun. Save often when you're still new, and over time you'll learn how to manage the various personalities and material conditions required to achieve your goals. Anyway, 同胞们，中华人民共和国中央人民政府今天成立了！ 中国人民站起来了!

This is a good game? I think? I really like the Shanghai Uprising scenario, I've played through it a few times now with the different factions, and since it's isolated to one city it's within the scope that I can understand it. However, whenever I've tried to venture beyond that, (I tried the Tibet scenario, since I thought that since it's focused on just a few provinces it would be more manageable, and the Wang Jingwei scenario, since it's literally just two people) I've been baffled by the complexity and, unfortunately, rather obtuse mechanics. I'm sure I'll get the hang of them eventually though. I'd certainly advise you to try it if you like strategy games, but only if you're prepared for a very steep learning curve for a while!

If you are a history buff, and don't mind navigating lacklustre tutorials, obscure mechanics, poor UI, and repetitive clicking over tens of turns, this game scratches a very niche itch. Pros: Well researched and unique play style Cons: See above

Instead of writing about the game mechanics or UI/graphics (which, according to a lot of players, needs improvement) or whatnot, I'd instead like to share a story from one of my playthroughs, the tale of qinghai: >at first don't care about it at all, qinghai is and always will be unsavable >some bandits popped in my famine-ridden districts, gotta get rid of em >i'll pay you $50 to ♥♥♥♥ off into qinghai and also conquer some land for the glory of gansu >place bandits under the command of my statesman character, beelines straight for xining >hey, this conquering thing is pretty easy, let's take a security zone around xining and leave it at that >statesman gets declared qinghai governor, immediately begins reforms in the capital only because the rest is under hostile control >things are finally looking up for qinghai, or at least the part that i have >missionaccomplished.jpg >rebels immediately begin spawning across the rural areas because i didn't invest into ending the famines there >also, i'm very sure i pissed off the monks somehow >don't worry, we've got a handle on this >immediately begins spawning troops to solve qinghai, we're taking the ENTIRE damn province this time >neglects developing my provinces in order to move around soldiers >encirclement campaigns are actually successful, even managed to eliminate the red ma warlord that annoyed me so much >but it isn't enough, rebels keep spawning even as i try to send food relief >some spirit soldiers take over the capital, immediately undoing all my half-finished reforms >send multiple tiny armies at it, they all fail because apparently will is stronger than bullets >the situation in the province is now even worse than when i started the intervention >am now qinghai governor in name only >missionaccomplished.jpg >qinghai is and always will be unsavable >at least i got a snazzy title out of it 10/10 would enter qinghanistan again it says something about the quality and the depth of the game that i got sucked into that sort of situation naturally, and that's just one of the many emergent stories you'll find in Rise of the White Sun. Extremely addictive and worth picking up if you're at all interested in the Chinese warlord era!