The fate of China - ROTK 11 AAR

[jbutton]

The year is 190AD and peace has lasted for about a minute since the Yellow Turban rebellion and the defeat of the Ten Eunuchs. A new threat has quickly emerged in the form of the powerful warlord Dong Zhuo. During the eunuchs rebellion, Dong Zhuo managed to use the chaos to sieze the capital and the Imperial Court making him the most powerful man in China and the biggest threat to the Han Dynasty. Dong Zhuo not only had the biggest army in the land but his troops were veterans of the Liang uprising and the most feared and battled hardened force in the land but Dong Zhuo had another ace up his sleeve and that was Lu Bu. His name struck fear into the hearts of men, no one wanted to cross swords with the greatest warrior China has ever seen.

Despite the overwhelming odds in the favour of Dong Zhuo a few brave heroes rose up against the tyrant. Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu formed a great coalition of regional warlords to oppose the great dictator. Yuan Shao was named leader of the coalition and soon more flocked to their cause, including Liu Bei, Sun Jian and Gongsun Zan. The fate of china was soon to be decided.

Lay of the Land

Cao Cao's Forces

Sovereign: Cao Cao
Strategist: Chen Gong

Cities

Chen Liu

Yuan Shao's Force

Sovereign: Yuan Shao
Strategist: Feng Ji

Cities

Nan Pi

Liu Bei's Force

Sovereign: Liu Bei
Strategist: Guan Yu

Cities

Ping Yuan

Sun Jian's Force

Sovereign: Sun Jian
Strategist: Cheng Pu

Cities

Chang Sha

Dong Zhuo's Force

Sovereign: Dong Zhuo
Strategist: Li Ru

Cities

Luo Yang
Chang'An
An Ding
Tian Shui

Ma Teng's Force

Sovereign: Ma Teng
Strategist: Han Sui

Cities

Wu Wei

[Caillagh de Bodemloze]

This seems like an interesting beginning to your AAR, jbutton. I'm looking forward to finding out what the coalition will do and how Dong Zhuo will respond!

[Turkafinwë]

Down with the tyrant Dong Zhou! Like Caillagh I'm interested on what the coalition will do and how this AAR will progress!

[Alwyn]

Great start! I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of leader Yuan Shao will be. I imagine that Cao Cao, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu might have different ideas about how to take on the tyrant - I wonder how Yuan Shao would deal with that division, if it happens.

[Swaeft]

Good luck with this AAR! It already promises to be an interesting one

[jbutton]

((For this AAR I have decided not to play as a single person and let the AI takeover))

190

As the year turns and the coalition forms, peace sweeps the lands for a while but a storm is coming and everyone knows it. The first few months of the year pass by without anything to note, perhaps both sides are too afraid to make the first move. Li Ru and Jia Xu know better to rush things but the generals of Dong Zhuo are hot headed enough to force something but this was not the case. Dong Zhuo sits idly by at Luo Yang with the gates surrounding the area garrisoned to capacity. The coalition however quietly gathers their troops and supplies for the war to come, the mood around china is gloomy and full of apprehension. Should the coalition fail, the fate of China would be sealed and the dark times under the tyrant Dong Zhuo would begin. In the North, a dispute broke out between Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao and Liu Yu. The two members of the coalition schemed to declare Liu Yu emperor due to his royal linage and the fact no one had seen Emperor Xian alive in quite sometime. However, Liu Yu refused and called their integrity into question. In the following weeks, Gongsun Zan would claim that men under his banner were killed on their way to Ji to treat with Liu Yu however Liu Yu disputes this, saying that if his men were killed it was by the Black Mountain Bandits who frequently conduct raids on the North.

June

Yuan Shao left Nan Pi to meet with Cao Cao, Yuan Shu and Liu Bei at Ping Yuan. This gave Gongsun Zan the opening he needed to strike and he mustered his force of elite cavalry to attack Ji before Yuan Shao returned to stop it. Gongsun Zan marched his host of 24,000 men against Liu Yu with himself, Tian Kai and Gongsun Yue commanding separate forces. Liu Yu had been naive in thinking the war would not reach him but he hadn't expected an attack to come from Gongsun Zan. He sent Wei You with a skirmishing force of 5,000 men to try delay the attack whilst he mustered his force but it was quickly swept away under the hooves of the elite riders. Gongsun Zan sustained minimal damage in the fight and marched on. Under prepared and outnumbered, Liu Yu marched what he could to face Gongsun Zan in the field, he fielded around 17,000 men against Gongsun Zan's 23,700. The battle was swift but brutal, the sounds of hooves beating the ground and arrows raining from the air filled the battlefield but as the fighting drew to a conclusion the sound of screams of dying men could be heard instead. Liu Yu perished in the ensuing chaos and the Ji garrison surrendered to Gongsun Zan's army.

The news of the fall of Ji worried Yuan Shao who hurried back to Nan Pi, he and Gongsun Zan had a precarious relationship and now Nan Pi was left wide open for an attack should Gongsun Zan wish to do so. The coalition was starting to show cracks already.

July-December

July marked the first move by the coalition, seven months after its formation. The campaign was start by none other than Yuan Shu. The goal was to capture the surrounding gates of Luo Yang, giving the coalition a back door into the capital and cutting off supplies from Chang'an. Chen Lan leads Yuan Shu's forces against Wu Gate which defends the western pass. The gate was fully garrisoned but Cao Xing, the gates commander, had returned to Luo Yang. The defenders were quickly overrun by Chen Lan's forces and captured, they left no men alive. The next step in the campaign was to secure Han Gu Gate, this would leave Luo Yang wide open for an attack. Chen Lan once again leads the main army but Ji Ling arrives with Yuan Shu's veteran troops to lead the Vanguard. Ji Ling smashes a small force that sally's out to meet them but is then ambushed by Cao Xing and routed. Chen Lan is too slow to rescue the vanguard and is immediately thrust into battle with Cao Xing who is reinforced by Dong Zhuo himself. Bloody fighting takes place as Chen Lan and Yue She organise a retreat back to Wu Gate as the fighting continues into the new year.

Whilst the coalition made their moves, Dong Zhuo made his own. Jia Xu had been given command of the elite Liang rebellion veterans to defeat and subjagate Wu Wei, which was controlled by warlord Ma Teng. Ma Teng had joined the coalition but none of the famous warlords had come to his aid or sent him supplies and he was surrounded by Dong Zhuo's forces, he was low on troops, supplies and his only experienced general was Han Sui. Hope was in short supply at Wu Wei and any that did remain was crushed when his 14 year old son, Ma Chao, reported enemy movements that he discovered whilst on a scouting mission. The army was twice the size of what Ma Teng could muster but he gathered what men he could to fight. Ma Chao and his childhood friend, Pang De, begged Ma Teng to let them fight and he did so reluctantly. Jia Xu arrived with 40,000 men compared to Ma Teng's 16,000, all hope was lost and Wu Wei was certain to fall. Han Sui was back at Wu Wei preparing the evacuation, hoping to sail the Yellow River and take refuge with Zhang Yang.

The fighting began, Ma Teng had picked the battlefield and met Jia Xu's forces in a pass, limiting his advantage. As the fighting began Ma Chao and Peng De proved themselves able commanders and won many small skirmishes as Jia Xu's forces tried to break through, Ma Chao slayed many men as he rode the battle lines ontop of his white horse like a man possessed. Pang De held his line strong with great discipline as they began to push back Jia Xu's forces. Seeing the danger he was in, Jia Xu committed his elite troops who had been sitting in reserve to reinforce and their experience showed. They started to push back Pang De and Ma Chao, Ma Teng's forces were nowhere to be seen and now Ma Chao and Peng De began to fall back. Jia Xu ordered his men to chase them and cut them down. As they emerged from the pass, Ma Chao and Pang De formed up in the open field and braced as the tyrants army crashed into them, bloody fighting began and Ma Chao and Peng De started cutting men down left and right. If Wu Wei was to fall then they would take every man down with them that they could. In the distance the sound of hooves could be heard but before Jia Xu could realise what was going on, Ma Teng was leading his best cavalry men and crashing into Jia Xu's army from both sides causing mass panic, Ma Chao ride forth, cutting his way towards Jia Xu who began to flee but he was eventually fought off and regrouped. A crushing defeat for Dong Zhuo and Jia Xu to end the year.

Minor Notes

• The governor of Shou Chun joined Cao Cao
• Liu Biao gained control of Jing by convincing Huang Zu to join forces with him.
• Sun Ce subjugated the bandit who had taken over Wu Ling
• Xu Chang surrendered to Lu Bu without a fight.
• The Taoist Sect spreads to Shang Yong, coming under the rule of Zhang Lu

[Alwyn]

There's a lot of action here to enjoy and you summarise it well, with some good lines such as the ones about Liu Yu not expecting an attack and being surprised, when an attack came, by who lead it - as well as the one about Wei You's skirmishers being "swept away under the hooves of the elite riders".

If you wanted to, you could add more details to updates like these, so that anticipation and suspense can build up in your readers. You could start with a summary of a series of events, like the one above, and then turn each paragraph of the summary into a separate update. This is just a suggestion - it's your call, as it's your AAR, of course!

[Turkafinwë]

Already the coalition is facing troubles from within with Gongsun Zan's unlooked for attack. Like Alwyn said, a lot of action in this update, great battles allround.