National Revolutionary Army

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"Eight hundred heroic hearts beat as one, undaunted before the thousands of foes.*

*With mighty attack and stalwart resolve, arise, comrades, arise!*

*Answer the call to arms, follow the path of eight hundred heroes.*

*China is not dead. China will not die."*

- *"800 Heroes Song"*
The **National Revolutionary Army** or **Nationalist China**, or simply **Blue Chinese**, are a minor faction in the background of Paradox. They will be encountered in a single player mission, and their units and equipment may be found in skirmish maps.

## Background

*"Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape, and they will prefer death to flight."*

-  Sun Tzu
### **To Topple a Dynasty**

The once-revered Qing dynasty in its last years began to show telltale signs of decline. A dynasty utterly resistant to the thought of opening up to foreign traders and promoting international trade, the Qings sheltered themselves from the outside world, under the reason of being contented with their own resources. But this still did not stop powers such as the Britain and Portugal, who weren't fine with their own unlike them. Facing two defeats over the opium wars and failing to stop the formation of Western ports, the dynasty's cracks were slowly exposed by uprisings such as Taiping, Nian, and Pingnan Guo where their Eight Banners had to rely on local Han soldiers due to their incompetence. Worse, even the Guangxu Emperor's attempt at modernization ended in failure, as a conservative coup led by Empress Dowager Cixi deposed her own puppet emperor and put him under house arrest.

Her rule became infamous to Chinese history using her power to accumulate vast quantities of wealth, driving China into near-bankruptcy. Anti-modernization and xenophobic attitudes held much sway over the court itself, as she kept Western demands for further trade concessions at arm's length and even threw her support with anti-foreign bands, letting them loose against Christian missionaries in what is now known as the Boxer Rebellion, prompting a Western invasion of Beijing and further expansion of their territory.

After Cixi's death in 1908, her nephew Puyi was proclaimed emperor at the young age of 3. However, as he grew up, it was clear that his royal upbringing was hardly conducive to the raising of a well-balanced child; when he discovered his absolute power he had over his own eunuchs, he had them frequently flogged for the most minute of transgressions. But even if that power went to his pre-pubescent head, it will inevitably not last long as the past, smaller uprisings gave rise to the *Tongmenghui*, a secret society that is also a merger of smaller revolutionary groups responsible for such uprisings. When further anti-Qing sentiment spread due to the dynasty's own mishandling of local railways, they launched the following Wuchuang Uprising that eventually forced the loyalists to make negotiations with the rebels after the decisive Battle of Yangxia. The negotiations led to Puyi having to abdicate from his throne, and the formation of a provisional government led by Sun Yat-sen (deemed hero of the Xinhai/*Double Ten* Revolution, named so because the uprising occurred on October 10), Li Yuanhong and Huang Xing.

## Gameplay Mechanics

### Resource Mechanic

By replacing their organic parts with that of metal and wires, the NRA has learnt how to cheat death. Whenever an NRA unit is killed they are simply "disabled", in which they are reduced to a husk, thanks to their general hardiness, which can then be revived by an Engineer. But, due to the repairs being rudimentary, the revived unit suffers massive decreases to their stats, and the commander must spend scraps to restore them to full functionality. Though the husk can still be destroyed, after which the Engineer can only scavenge it to recoup some of its loss.

### Build Mechanic

As the war had dragged on the NRA began to use a series of trench networks to hold against the PLA horde, eventually this led to them advancing computer and radiotechnology to ensure constant communications, until eventually the communications officers and soldiers would be modified so that the former can be implanted into the radio itself and the latter would have radio built into their head to ensure constant communication and coordination. Jade Pylons produces "communications" a special field which the NRA can only be built on, and NRA units under a communications gain increased stats, range, and healing, but when outside of it they are heavily slowed.

### Grit

What would have originally be an admirable trait of duty and dedication twisted by the madness of the war and the nuclear exchange. In place or morale the NRA has grit, when their combat prowess increase proportion to grit loss rather than the opposite of morale. And instead of breaking when it hits zero like most morale, NRA units are instead becomes “unyielding” where they instantly heals and gains a massive boost to their range and armour, cause terror, but immobilised and decrease their damage, spreading this grit to other nearby NRA units for a potential domino effect. Thus the blue blockade can become an unbreakable wall when the enemies recklessly throw everything at them.

### Reinforcement

A unique mechanic shared by the PLA. In MFDM the NRA creates their reinforcement from a dedicated building instead of calldown, trained instantly in a preset number but has a cooldown. They are also able to take one of 24 support from the People's Net Centre, split between Alliance and Strange Bedfellows. The former provide general upgrades, secondary income, and additional reinforcement options called down the normal way to supplant the main forces. The latter provide even greater, game changing, upgrades that would eventually completely change their gameplay, but they are more expensive, provides no additional reinforcements, and each upgrade comes with a drawback that further force the commander to change their gameplay.

## Souless Hearts of Iron

*"I write this as the last testament of the KMT in the Eastern Zone of the Endless Trenches. The atomic fires have consumed the commander, and both the communists and my fellow nationalists have all died. I stare into a barren wasteland barely changed after the fire, and level my pistol to my head, and dream of the family I never had."*

-  Pvt. Bang Li, found carved onto a KMT Mastiff. Pvt. Li's body was not found.

### Defences

Due to the NRA small numbers. All of their defense are only manned by a skeleton crew, more often these crews are directly mounted into the machine. Thus all of their defenses only works hat half power but can be garrison to increase its power, with the garrison themselves also using their weapons to fight.

### Deathmatch Reinforcements

Unique to both the NRA and PLA, and the neutral minor factions. Their reinforcement are not sent in via packages but are instead built within dedicated structures only in MFDM like normal unit, but each of these units has a cool-down between production but come in packages. And depending on which ally they chose they could potentially gain a second reinforcement branch that comes in the usual way.

**Iron Heart Vanguards**

These forces can be called upon during Minor Faction Deathmatch by default. The Iron Heart Vanguards, or simply Vanguards, are the greatest soldiers of China, whether before or after the war, rebuilt back from the brink of death with cybernetics to serve as a Kuomintang guards and enforcers in battle, the symbol of the union between flesh and machine. Providing a small but elite mobile reserve able to exploit the gains the defensively oriented National Revolutionary Army makes with well trained and disciplined troops.

**India Expeditionary Company**

These additional forces can be called upon during Minor Faction Deathmatch if you choose India Support at Consulate District to support the Vanguards. Indian forces act as a highly-mobile, highly-numbered strike-force brought in to help provide a more mobile and responsive defence to the entrenched and undermanned NRA to bulk up the defense line and push back any sudden breakthroughs. All of their units can’t gain veterancy.

### Deathmatch Protocols

Due to their myriad of support, the Blue Chinese have a total of eighteen protocols, three per support branch.

### Continental

 File:IconRebs.png | Hawk Intercept
 File:IconRebs.png | Earthquake

### Syndicate

 File:IconSyndicate.png | Cheap Drugs
 File:IconSyndicate.png | Fog Rolling In

### International Inc

 File:IconIntInc.png | Camerabolt
 File:IconIntInc.png | ERA Protection

### Black Hand

 File:IconCult.png | Gas Mines
 File:IconCult.png | Psycho Syrum