Meet the Chu: A Civilization of GMT’s Ancient Civilizations of East Asia

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 The Chu were one of the strongest, most persistent, and most influential civilizations of Chinese history. They were a major force in politics and culture for over 800 years. Their armies were famed – and feared – for their chariots and their importation and mastery of war elephants in battle.  These traits are reflected both in the “War Elephants and Chariots” bonus which adds two white (temporary) disks in Competition AND in the reduced cost to advance on the Military-Political path of the game’s Cultural Development Tracks Display.  

A lacquerware painting from the Jingmen Tomb of the State of Chu, depicting men wearing precursors to Hanfu (i.e. traditional silk dress) and riding in a two-horsed chariot

Initially a vassal state, being a part of the Zhou* Dynasty, the Chu broke away in the 7th century BC and soon became the dominant force in southern China through its control of the central plain and the Yangtze River Valley.  Although conquered by the Qin* in 223 BC, the Chu briefly regained independence only to fall to the conquering armies of the Han* less than 20 years later. For far more detail than this summary can convey, see Chu (state) – Wikipedia

 (*the Han, Qin and Zhou are all among the 19 civilizations available for players to choose from when playing Ancient Civilizations of East Asia. These, as well as others, shall be presented in upcoming editions of ACEA’s “Meet the…” Series).

Figure 1: ACEA’s Civilization Card for the Chu: This card format should be familiar to those who’ve played either of the other two games of GMT’s “Ancient Civs” Series: Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea and/or Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East. See either of these games’ GMT Sites available Rulebooks for more information.

What’s new with ACEA is the “Build Your Own Civilization” Section, which allows players to modify the Chu Civilization through an optional rule and the “Philosophy” Section. When the Chu player selects a Philosophy, a white disk is placed over the choice to memorialize it: e.g. if “Legalism” is chosen, the player gets two additional tael (ACEA’s money) each turn.
Figure 2: The Chu Civilization’s initial placement of disks on ACEA’s playtest map. The “H” piece indicates the Chu Homeland of Changsha (the produced game’s component will be similar to ACME’s Homeland Blocks). Light brown areas are clear “Steppe land”, dark brown are mountains, and the light green are fertile areas (save for the dark green jungle adjacent to Lanna).

The Chu player is well positioned to expand either north into the lush Chinese heartland between Yellow and Yangtze rivers or south into SE Asia. Chiao Chi, to the image’s left, is one of the Red River’s two fertile areas. Then it is but a short hop to gain sea access to who knows where… but the game’s other players may have something to say about that! Ah, the joys of negotiation in a game of Ancient Civilizations of East Asia!

Next time… Meet the Shang!

Fred Schachter and Mark McLaughlin
Author: Fred Schachter and Mark McLaughlin

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