Personally, I think the Japanese Warring States Period aka Sengoku Jidai, would make for an interesting CoG setting. There are hundreds of factions and personalities to follow along. There are also a lot of places where a single choice could change everything, which I think would make it easier to write about. Theres also the Boshin War, a bit less complicated since there are less factions involved, but still and amazing war to write/read about.
It’s not that time period It’s not interesting I think it’s just been done to death least ironically enough and mainstream popular culture. I would take the Civil War of the North and South courts I would take the formation of Japan and the evolution of the godhead of the emperor over the Warring States period. I would take the c********** that was the 30-year. Or if you want to get really Americana here old little Wars dubbed as the Indian Wars between the conflicts of the different tribes and they were very different and the US Army and settlers over a span of arguably two hundred years.
In a lot of cases, how “funny” a period is can be based on proximity and personal connections. Someone sitting where I am might find the Falklands War to be farcical. Someone in Buenos Aires or Cheshire, who lost a parent in that conflict? Probably less so.
The one portion of the Sengoku Jidai which probably could use more love is the Imjin War, which is kind of unique in the period for being an example of an almost-binary morality which certainly doesn’t fit most parts of that period (not that it stops people from applying it inappropriately). In addition, the stakes are much higher, since that conflict that did a great deal to decide the fate of all three participants (Hideyoshi’s regency, the Korean Joseon Dynasty, and the Chinese Ming Dynasty). Add to that the fact that the Imjin War featured a lot of factors which presaged wars to come (both in the sense of Korean Hwach’a and Geobukseons, and in the brutal way which the Japanese invaders treated the locals) and you have a really interesting setting.
I take it you not a fan of of Japan’s most aggressive
Peasant turned Warlord Regent.
Not necessarily. Hideyoshi had his reasons for doing what he did. From certain points of view, they could even be considered good ones.
Still, you don’t do shit like pile up a gigantic mound of Korean noses and ears as a monument to yourself and still come out looking like a hero.
see that’s funny unless you were there then it’s atrocious barbaric you got to love the Japanese headhunting custom.
I still want to play that Hideyoshi life sim. Sadly it’s in Japanese which encourage me to learn the language.
Not really.
Mass murder of non-combatants is still mass-murder of non-combatants, be it Tilly’s troops at Magdeburg, Trotha in German Africa, The 7th Cavalry in the American Old West, or Samurai in Korea.
Hideyoshi was an interesting figure. However, as much as I like the little monkey, I’m more interested in The Demon King himself, Oda Nobunaga. Especially his early years, which I don’t think was explored very much in pop culture. I’d love to know more about his relationship with his father in law, Saito Dosan aka the Viper of Mino. Of course, his relationship with his wife, Kicho/Nohime, is also interesting.
True. I don’t think there’s been as much media about Nobunaga as “The Fool of Owari”, as compared to his later, more fearsome incarnation. It’d certainly be interesting to see him played as the underdog.
You’re actually pretty good at putting them in your own game. The peasants where most likely partisans anyway…right.
Sure, but there isn’t exactly a memorandum from the Duke of Wulfram going around to the effect of “Hey, send me Antari heads to show me how brave you are”, is there?
I am a sucker for my underdogs. It’s something that’s kind of interesting your own game I remember playing Saber I thought to myself our protagonist is blandly McBlandy and Caz was way more interesting it wasn’t until Guns I appreciated the formative years the first game was.
True so true. At least we’re not impaling are enemies yet. I think that could be for the possible maybe avoidable fail state period.
I do think it would be nice, generally speaking, to see more historical settings outside of Europe and North America, anyway This is a bit of an aside, but the fact that, for many Western readers, the history would be less familiar, can even be a bit of an advantage… when I was first reading about Japanese history, it actually felt quite suspenseful for me, because I had no idea who the winners and losers were supposed to be, something that doesn’t really happen when I’m reading Western history. Also, in general, more exposure to history worldwide would be a good thing, and the greater diversity would be interesting and fun, too
Then again, the lesser-known parts of Western history offer that sort of suspense too, especially the Thirty Years’ War, mostly because,
1: It’s a major and deeply traumatic event which still normally doesn’t get taught, at least in North America.
2: Nobody won.
Check out the spring and Autumn annals during the earliest of China’s Warring States period. Their drama would put the Warring States the same when it comes to internal feuds.
True enough; I was saying that more as a general thing, and also to some extent speaking for myself personally… the Thirty Years’ War is one where I did learn its overall outline (it’s even something I’ve specifically listed as a source ), whereas Japanese history in particular was an area I personally never knew as well…
Plus, I’d also push for more nonwestern stuff for the sake of more diverse representation and all… though there are plenty of “exotification” tropes that people need to make sure to avoid…
I wholeheartedly agree that the Thirty Years’ War is an interesting setting in terms of sheer apocalypticness of the warfare, and the politics are fascinating as well considering how many different powers got involved, and the precarious situations the states of the Holy Roman Empire ended up in. In addition to military ventures, I could see a fascinating choice game about a regular person, maybe a peasant, just trying to survive through the violence, or perhaps a game about the leader of a minor principality trying to navigate the politics and turmoil…
When it comes to China, the Three Kingdoms Period seems to be a typical favorite, for good reason, and I think another dramatic period was Wang Mang’s usurpation in the middle of the Han dynasty…
The Three Kingdoms period is as mythologised and fictionalised as the Sengoku Jidai, probably because most common perception of it is based on a work of historical fiction which unsubtly pushed a very specific narrative, and not an actual historical source. A more even-handed take on the period might make for an interesting story.
There’s this one thing from the Sengoku period that I’ve always found fascinating and I’d think @Cataphrak would like as well. During the Sengoku period, the Cavalry Charge was invented by the Daimyo Takeda Shingen. His cavalry was so fearsome that they were practically unbeatable, no army could stood up to it. However, within the same generation, Takeda’s famed Cavalry was annihilated and rendered obsolete by the rise of firearms. I always thought that chain of events was like a condensed version of military history from Europe.
Not quite. The destruction of the Takeda cavalry at Nagashino was more a failure to use them effectively as part of a combined-arms force than any blanket obsolescence. In Europe, the role of shock cavalry as the arm of decision would actually be revived not long afterwards by Gustavus Adolphus (among others) as a force to be used in coordination with the same breed of pike and shot tactics which the Oda were beginning to get a grasp of by the 1570s.