History, with the layers visible.
This archive connects a historical setting to an original card game. It distinguishes evidence, received narratives and the choices made by the designer.
Three kinds of meaning.
Historical context
Dates, people and technologies are linked to institutional references or received primary texts. Period boundaries vary. Ancient narratives may preserve valuable information without supplying independently verified numbers or motives.
Game interpretation
Ranks, powers, army labels and the fictional 5 × 9 battlefield belong to Fight the War. They are not archaeological facts. The four commanders and two reforms span different generations; their presence in one set is a design choice.
Illustrated reconstruction
The artwork is AI-assisted and composed into consistent, non-AI card frames. It is evocative rather than a fully authenticated reconstruction. Qin black and Zhao red distinguish factions in the deck; they do not establish historically uniform clothing or national flags.
The collection
Created by Lim Boon Chuan, this P2.0 collection contains 40 core designs and two guaranteed SR reforms. Printed duplicates make a 60-card set. The core v0.1 and optional SR0.1 rules remain provisional; no completed balance study is claimed.
Sources checked 13 October 2026
- Getty Research InstituteWarring States · Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Alternative period boundaries: 403–221 and 475–221 BCE. Dates describe historical conventions, not a single universally agreed starting event.
Read the source ↗ - Robert Eno · Indiana UniversityThe Warring States Period (453–221)
University teaching text on the successor states, political change, Handan and Qin’s expansion. Its 453 starting point differs from other conventions.
Read the source ↗ - Columbia University · Asia for EducatorsBook of Lord Shang: Making Orders Strict
Primary-text teaching resource with context on Shang Yang, law, agriculture and warfare. It dates the reforms’ beginning to 359 BCE; this site uses the broader mid-fourth-century label.
Read the source ↗ - University of WashingtonA Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization · Crossbows
Evidence for early crossbows and bronze trigger technology. The page also covers later periods; its Song formations and later illustrations are not used as Warring States evidence here.
Read the source ↗ - National Museum of China中国靴子 · Chinese stirrups
Discussion of early cavalry, Zhao’s riding reform and later stirrup development. The deck’s Warring States riders should not be read as medieval knights.
Read the source ↗ - National Ethnic Affairs Commission胡服骑射 · King Wuling’s reform
Institutional historical account dating the clothing and mounted-archery reform to 307 BCE. Used for the date and clothing context, not as evidence for the game’s abilities.
Read the source ↗ - The Metropolitan Museum of ArtChina, 1000 BCE–1 CE
Chronological and material-culture context, including Chu lacquer and Qin’s imperial period. Qin unification is dated to 221 BCE.
Read the source ↗ - Sima Qian · Shiji, chapter 73Biographies of Bai Qi and Wang Jian
Received primary text in Chinese, hosted by the Chinese Text Project. Commander stories and reported mass killings are attributed to this account; transmitted troop totals are not treated as verified counts.
Read the source ↗ - Sima Qian · Shiji, chapter 81Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru
Received primary text, including accounts of Lian Po and Li Mu. Read the Chinese original alongside scholarly interpretation; later narrative is not an eyewitness transcript.
Read the source ↗