Talk:The Dai Viet Uprising/@comment-2001:E68:5444:35B6:6890:A71D:9CCA:9F28-20181222191537

Well i have beaten this mission several times. One way is to take the fight directly to the Ming, wiping out their bases especially siege workshops so they cant launch attacks. (Yes, they told you to run from Ming, dont listen to them, Ming is beatable). This costs a lot of elephants, so you need to fully explore all the gold and stone, and go into trade, in order to build castles, rams, elephants, army. I was able to get my win time down to 3.5 hours on the game clock. (2+ real hours). Ming has a lot of bases with fortified walls, narrow terrain, and castles, so it takes awhile. But it is very satisfying to win this way.

The second way, playing the way the mission is intended, just build lots of scorpions and elephants and it will clean up the massive chinese armies guarding the villages. Forget about rattan archers; Ming patrols are so clumped up that scorpions will get more value. I was done in 1.5 hours on the clock (1 hour real time), fast enough to avoid needing a trade line but i did sell excess resources in the market.

Regardless of the path chosen, you would want to fast castle with 4 on stone early so that you can immediately fortify the two allies. You would want fortified walls also. Defensive mangonels behind the walls are a low pop counter to rams. Sometimes you need a defensive elephant so build a stable. You can put a few rattans in allied towers. Also, a second layer of walls never hurts. If they breach one they still have work to do.

If you do fight Ming, Rattans are easier on your eco and can retreat once the chinese turn on their spam. Replenishing elephants and rams under chu-ko-nu barrage is costly enough. Better not to lose the scorpions which become a lot less effective as they drop in numbers. If you just liberate villagers, scorpions are fine, because the mission finishes a lot sooner so gold isnt a problem and scorps need less researches and even counter skirmishers.