3K Mandate of Heaven. The Yellow Turban Rebellion Pack We Need (and Deserve) 全面战争：三国 天命

Artstation: Bayard Wu 

With the announcement of the Mandate of Heaven DLC last week I feel that the world had strangely gave me an early Christmas gift and filled up a hole I've always had with 3K media. If you have not yet checked out the impressive trailer done by CA, you can see the trailer of the upcoming DLC here.

For starters, CA again hit a home run with their newest trailer. And I want to extend my deep thanks to whoever is in charge of storytelling of 3K at CA. This trailer- and all of their other 3K trailers really showed that they cared about the source material and making you feel the characters that inhabited this setting and their personal struggles. The combination of inspiring music, gorgeous and well- edited cinematic visuals, and meaningful lyrics- deftly set to the Daoist Daodejing's quote about (government) hypocrisy is truly triple A world building. It's safe to say I am intrigued to see what this DLC brings.

DYNAMICS OF THE CONFLICT

A little quick note about the background of this conflict. The DLC actually takes place 8 years before the official beginning of the grand campaign. Instead of the year 190 AD, now the player is able to jump into the last days of the waning Han dynasty, right before the eruption of the catastrophic Yellow Turban Rebellion.

In short, this is the prequel that the "Yellow Turban Rebellion" pack should have been. A different setting, conflict, and factions that should gave a different feel. 

I really have to give CA props for the decision to rewind the timetable back to this period, mainly because of all the media that covers the Three Kingdoms as a setting, the Yellow Turban Rebellion was often left out- or was only briefly covered as a small set piece. This is true for both domestic productions in China as well as overseas productions- as seen in the majority of the KOEI games. Usually the games/ movies take place en media res, right at the height of the rebellion where the world is already falling apart. But for the first time in a Triple A production we will actually have the opportunity to cover the entire conflict through a fully fleshed out prequel.

Music: Corruption

BACKDROP

In this prequel, the player's able to play as either the Yellow Turban Rebels, the Han Imperial court, or even as the leaders of the 3 eventual founders of the 3 Kingdoms.

The year is 182, the Han court was rife with corruption and cannot tend to the plight of its suffering peasants, taxes were crippling, there were many famines and floods, and many who are tired of the corruption at the court and the ineptitude of the setting emperors sought to remove the Liu clan through a massive coordinated revolution. 

WARRING FACTIONS: THE YELLOW TURBAN REBELS

The architect of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the 3 Zhang brothers of Zhang Jue (right), Zhang Bao (left) and Zhang Liang (center) flanked by a prominent yellow sky. Zhang Bao was known as the "General of Land" (地公将军), Zhang Liang was the "General of the People" (人公将军); and Zhang Jue was the "General of Heaven" (天公将军”.) 

The Yellow Turbans claimed to be Daoists, and rebelled against the Han dynasty in response to burdensome taxes, rampant corruption, and famine and flooding, which were seen as indications that the Han emperors had lost the mandate of heaven.

For 14 years, the rebellion was planned and coordinated by the 3 brothers, Zhang Jue, Zheng Liang, and Zhang Bao. At first they only branded themselves as travelling healers and medicine men.  They called themselves humble preachers of a faith called "Way of Supreme Peace" 太平道. However, in reality, they were coordinating with many locals for a massive rebellion. Each town, each commandery was eventually staffed with a Yellow Turban sub commander, and a cabal of loyalists. 

Weapons were secretly stashed, and peasants secretly drilled with their staffs and batons in the fields. When asked, they replied they were merely practicing their faith through ritual exercises in honor of the Way of the Supreme Peace. Zhang Jue told them that the only way to usher in a new age was to utterly destroy the Han dynasty and place him in charge to uhser in the new order. All of the rebels would be distinguished by a yellow turban or yellow head scarf to mark their allegiance. In all, over 300,000 followers plotted to overthrow the Han at a given signal. 

WARRING FACTIONS: THE HAN IMPERIAL ARMY

The Emperor still had several loyal allies blessed with sobriety and great abilities. The brother-in-law He Jin (left)  rallied many capable generals for the imperial cause- including Yuan Shao, and Cao Cao, and personally raised many dangerous regiments to fight for the throne's behalf. The capable and wise Prince Liu Chong (right)- Prince of Chen was a skilled warrior and a uniquely diligent and benevolent Han warrior prince during this period and aided his clan in the struggle. The scholar- general Lu Zhi (center) was a learned minister who marshaled the armies that ultimately eventually crushed the rebels. He was the mentor to 2 of the great warlords of the Three Kingdom era, the patriotic cavalry general Gongsun Zan, and Liu Bei- the founder of the kingdom of Shu. They are flanked by an apt azure sky.

LATE HAN CORRUPTION- RULE OF THE EUNUCHS

The extreme level of Yellow Turban's coordination could not have came at a worse time for the sitting Han court. At the start of the 180s, the imperial court was plagued with many problems. The corrupt and deeply inept Emperor Ling-  had delegated an alarming amount of power to the eunuch at court, including many eunuchs who had raised him since his infancy. These eunuchs were openly corrupt and frequently solicited high bribes as middlemen to the emperor and frequently increased taxes from the peasantry in order to bolster their personal wealth.

THE INEPT REIGN OF EMPEROR LING

Worse for his dynasty, rather than actively turning on the eunuchs and combat the growing state of corruption, the Emperor himself was in on the extraction process. In order to amass a large amount of personal wealth, Emperor Ling had resorted to selling key government positions for anyone who would pay for them. The arrangement being- if someone is qualified for a key position- (the titles themselves were very lucrative, since possessing such titles allowed the title holder to gain much from taxes of rice plus privileges and salaries) however in order to get the title, one must pay up a huge fee  up front to the Emperor personally.

Rather than actively combat corruption, Emperor Ling placed deep trust on the corrupt eunuchs, worse yet, he became a gatekeeper of said corruption in order to amass a large personal fortune. To make the matters even worse, he was convinced by terrible advice in 188 to dole out key provinces to be governed by highly independent governors- who, in time, would become the warlords of the Three Kingdom era. 

Emperor Ling's faults did not end here, just as the imperial court was wracked by infighting, and open bribery which he presided over, one of his key ministers Liu Yan suggested in 188 that Emperor Ling should invest the governors of the great provinces with a high level of autonomous power in supervising all local affairs. Emperor Ling did so, and as a result- essentially empowered almost all of the governors to become completely independent warlords. Many have blamed the rampant warfare of the early 3 Kingdoms period as having ended the Han, but in truth, the Han's authority slipped away here through Emperor Ling's fingers. 

Despite this, the emperor still has allies, and could rely on his cousin Liu Chong- the skilled Prince of Chen to come to his aid. He could also rely on his brother-in-law He Jin, and the wise scholar- general Lu Zhi to come to his aid. Little did the imperial court know, right beneath their notice, the Yellow Turbans have already sent agents into the capital itself to solicit various ministers to join the rebellion. The match which would cause nearly 2 million peasants to rebel simultaneously in rebellion would soon be struck. Millions would fight, and millions more would die in its wake. 

THEMING- YELLOW VS BLUE INTERPLAY
THE HAN PLAYSTYLE

From what the gameplay trailer presented, it seemed that the developers at CA understood well of what a prequel should be for 3K. In the gameplay video, the developers showed that in order to play the Han, you are essentially inherited a crumbling state that's fatally drifting toward a whirlpool of oblivion. The treasury is almost bankrupt, the court is filled with hostile factions, and the great state which covered almost the entire campaign map is so crippled it could only field a tiny handful of armies. Aka- the Western Roman Empire experience from Attila Total War.

Prince Liu Chong 刘宠 with his trademark crossbow. During the turbulence of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liu Chong defended his territory with an elite unit of 1,000 expertly drilled crossbow guards. Himself a nationally renowned crossbow marksman he wrote several books on the art of crossbow fighting. Athletic, diligent in governance, and kind to his subjects, he was beloved by the masses both within and without his fief of Chen. His skills and benevolence would cost him- seeing his threat as a truly capable and beloved claimant for the Han throne, the warlord Yuan Shu had him assassinated during the early stages of the 3 Kingdoms era.

Another interesting figure worthy of exploring was Lu Zhi- though he was depicted as a scholar in the game's cinematic, Lu Zhi was also a fearsome general who dealt the Yellow Turban Rebels a series of crushing blows early in the Rebellion. Unfortunately for him, his great achievements would end up destroying his career. Though qualified for an imperial promotion, because Emperor Ling required that all those entitled for promotion must pay bribes to secure the promotion, Lu Zhi got into trouble for refusing to pay the bribes. The eunuchs eventually sacked him because of his incorruptibility and he would die in poverty by the beginning of the 3 Kingdoms era. However he would have trained both Gongsun Zan and Liu Bei as his students.

And although your elite imperial soldiers are individually tough and well trained, they have terrible replenishment rate- and if not carefully used, will be destroyed by being swarmed by the rebels. Since there will be many Yellow Turban hotspots, they will also be forced to act as a hammer in an endless wack-a-mole. And this is why if one play as the Han empire, one probably has to rely on its regional warlords to crush the rebels. You are a paper tiger, and there are just enough who oppose you in the realm to unveil you for what you truly are. Then you are in pieces.

THE REBEL PLAYSTYLE

For the players who partake upon the struggles of the Yellow Turbans, they too will have a completely different experience as the insurgents against a sitting power that spans the entire campaign map.

Although the 3 brothers began at the historically accurate hotspots in the modern Shanxi and Hebei provinces. Playthroughs with the Yellow Turbans showed that they have the ability to quickly blob up across the map by taking settlements without engendering any hostility from said settlement, further more, they can liberate whole settlements and snowball them into Yellow Turban convert factions allied to you. These attributes hints at great expansion potentials- where each force of opposition you run into could be turned to your advance so long as you keep the momentum of the rebellion/ revolution going. Although you start out small, the sparks could quickly turn into a massive conflagration against the paper tiger of the Han.

THE FAMILIAR FACES- THE WARLORDS

To add to the mix, a 3rd element is also added into this prequel where the player's able to play as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Jian, the founders (except Sun Jian) of the 3 kingdoms who all made their names in this conflict. Here you can play through their origin stories, and see them develop from larvaes into the cunning masters that they all became.

THEMING: THE PREQUEL ATMOSPHERE

I have to really thank CA for taking this approach for the game, if anything, it made the experience so much richer. Especially in regard to the fact that this is not only an isolated campaign with a locked- in timeframe, but this could also be an early starting date for a grand campaign that continues right into the original grand campaign. Richness and depth are the key. I love how this experience is crafted like the Phantom Menace of the Han, the Attack of the Clones (of Yellow Turbans,) and the eventual Revenge of Dong Zhuo - and each segment continues to the next with different theme and feel. For this: we see a civilization wracked by problems and treachery, at the precipice of great disaster before a lit match would undo this entire age.

We see the Han beset by conspirators who wishes to do great harm in spreading tendrils beneath the surface. Meanwhile, the failing regime is staffed by a last noble band of tragic patriots who would do all to preserve the order (He Jin, Lu Zhi, and Liu Chong,) only to each eventually be destroyed before any of them could continue on into the next age. All the while a new breed - a new breed of fresh and ambitious of warlords watches greedily from the sidelines, knowing that the next age is made for their kind. But before the last defenders of Han all meet their tragic fates- they and the rebels would fight for what they each sees as a different vision of righteous cause: Azure Sky and the Yellow Sky, each a gleam of what China could be.

The new DLC includes a host of new characters, 40 new battle units, including the deadly multi-bow ballista and siege towers. Various field defenses are also added to battles, including stakes, oil pitch fields, and arrow towers- greatly augmenting the 3K experience.

The entire DLC could be found here for Pre-Order, currently priced at $9.99 

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