Siege warfare was heavily in use in the time of Kublai Khan (mid-late 13th century AD)

In the early days of his rise, Kublai was commissioned by his brother Mongke, the then leader of the Mongol Empire, to carve out an empire in the ripe Sung Territory (Northern China). Enlisted as part of the overall vanguard was Uryankhadai, the son of the famous general Subutai.

Khan Siege rescue general picks up from this historical event of 1253. The Sung have captured Uryankhadai and imprisoned him in a remote stronghold. Your mission is to liberate Uryankhadai and bring him back to a safe haven, one of the healing gers, governed by a resident Mongol shaman.

Your enemy, however, is not only the Sung, but the Mongol tribe stationed opposite the Sung tower. They wait for Uryankhadai's liberation, competing for the privilege of his knowledge and skill in battle.

Khan siege is the next game level after Khan conqueror. It uses all the piece movements and rules of Khan. This initial board shows the Sung tower and the archers' range as they fire from the enemy tower:

Opening board : rescue general


(Choosing Game..Players..Game type..Rescue General Start new game will select the siege 1 game for play):



Strategy: Undermine the tower first


Develop your pieces to put a magician within spell casting range of any of the archer-manned red tower squares:



Rescue the prisoner


Secure the captive with a piece within range of the unmanned tower square. Choose a piece of the highest mobility:



Transport the captive to safety


It suffices to manoeuvre your pieces such to get the captive to the winning square, in this case, A3. For black, it is H6.
Note that the winning squares are configurable under Game..Setup position

C1 -> A3 wins. The white warrior, holding the captive (in green), brings him to the healing ger at A3.




Of course, it's not so easy to do this in a game, against a skilled opponent rather hard.

Here, black has played unoptimally, allowed white to acquire the captive, and also left the winning square A3 unchallenged.

Siege exchanges


Pieces that have rescued the captive from the tower may either attempt to gain the winning position, or pass on the captive to a better mobile piece to gain the winning square(s).

Below, we see black's archer has broken into the tower and managed to secure the captive. He sits at E7 (the green circle denotes that he holds the captive).

He can pass on the captive to the black khan. The khan can ride on horseback to H6 to win the game on the next move:



This feature can be controlled under the Game..Rules..Siege menu.


Walking into the enemy tower


Any piece other than a magician that tries to breach the tower will die:

at F3 or at D3, if they move into RED archer armed section of the tower, they die.

Similarly, for black pieces:

at D6 or at F6, if they move into RED archer armed section of the tower, they die.




Legend:

Win square for white: white brings the captive here and wins
Win square for black: black brings the captive here and wins
The black squares denote winning squares for black and white (H6 and A3 respectively)
The red squares denote the tower kill zone. Anything venturing here dies.
The green circle denotes which piece is carrying the captive.
Black circles denote home base squares.