The RTK series always had building. You had to improve your cities, recruit troops etc. Helps too if you know about Three Kingdoms history since RTK is all about the generals and advisors especially who is loyal to which faction like how Zhuge Liang is loyal to Liu Bei.

Oh, it's still very much a wargame, although on a strategic level, not tactical or operational. The city building elements are very limited. There is an important city management portion, sure, but it's entirely devoted to war : Cities are sources of troops and weapons, they are places where you recruit and assemble your leaders, they are gold for your officers and your war engeeniers, they are food for your troops (often the limiting factor for my campaign), they are fortresses to be taken or defended... The civilian stuff is non existant.
And when troops from several cities fight for a mountain pass or when your fleet crosses the Yellow River en force, using special maneuvers, subterfuge, siege engines, and fortifications, the wargame part is simply glorious.

But it's a complicated, and very, very LONG game (all campaigns are "conquer all China!" stuff). So it might not fit your taste. Clearly an Empire sim rather than a battle sim.

No, I like the conquer the world part. Just I seem to remember ROTK2 didn't even deal with the micromanaging and building aspect of the game. Perhaps my memory is just a little foggy on it. That was about 20+ years ago.
I'll give it a try at a later date. I just wanted a simple game, that I remember that being. My main game is still Wasteland 2, but after that is finished, I will get into it if nothing else has come out. So, Backlog it goes.

Regarding the ROTK games, which games of the series other than VIII have something similar to a RPG format?
Sometimes I just like to be just a lowly officer for a change instead of always being a big guy on the throne.

I'm starting a project of translation in english of Nobunaga no Yabou Souzou 14, if someone is skilled in japanese language or simply fan of Koei can contact me :) Koei not will release never Nobu 14 but we can create a unofficial translation patch :)

I just got a copy of Gemfire for my Sega Genesis. I believe there was a DOS release of it too, though it seems harder to come by than the console versions.

There was indeed a Dos version! ^_^

I loved their titles back in the day. They were so popular for a while that several of their games even made it to consoles. I remember spending tons of time with Liberty or Death and Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Koei games on gog would be awesome. Count me in.

Really like the RotTK games and I'm bummed I have never even heard of Bandit Kings of Ancient China (sounds like it would be right up my ally).

I also actually really enjoyed the PS1 (maybe PS2? I played it "late" on a PS2 I had bought a few years back and I'm not sure if it was a PS1 or 2 game, but anyway too rambling already... ;) ) a game called Nobunaga's Ambition. It DID have real time battles which will immediately intrigue you or completely turn you off. But it was fun to hunt down and recruit officers, assign them either as provincial rulers or generals, give them titles and train their skills with everything from combat training to tea ceremonies. Aside from the battles, very similar to RotTK and still under the KOEI brand I think.

They used to have the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a Langrisser styled strategy game series:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzIWZROg0BE

Would love to see that on GOG as well, but it's only available in Chinese. I've only played and seen the Chinese version.

It would be fantastic if Koei released the RoT3K series on GoG. Same for Nobunaga's Ambition.

Celtic Tales - Balor of the Evil Eye, awesome game

i would love to see good koei games on gog like the romance of the three kingdoms series, but not the rubbish that koei has been putting out in recent years.

Nobunaga no Yabou 14 Souzou is awesome game and the best of the serie Nobunaga but KOEI will not release never product in english, its possible translate it but we needs more voloonters and help.