As other HunchBluntley said, it means "Eastern", and FYI, it was used from a European side back when the USA didn't even exist.
Used from strategic, diplomatic, mercantile, cultural points of view. Sometimes on a negative note, but sometimes on neutral or positive notes, especially when used to sell goods coming from the Silk Road. Even cities were named as such because they were ports where ships coming from the Levant full of goods from Middle East and afar.
Last times when terms like "oriental empires" were considered as offensive terms, were because some western people refused to agree that eastern countries could have empires too, capable to rival the western empires in cultural ways and in terms of power.

As mystral said, maybe the title here is used to further add other countries, in the opposite way game series like Cossacks went (lots of people I knew back when the first game released weren't aware the game wasn't only focused on cossacks but had many other playable countries...).

So, can we go back to gaming?

Well despite the confounding / bizzare political correctness mutterings about a word by one particular commenter. It sounds like a good game so I'm going to snap this one up.

Grand Oriental Empires Guide

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1156684266

There is a limit of 8 units per tile. If you try to order a stack onto a hex such that there will be more than 8 units, it won't move.
Yes the GOG version supports multiplayer, but currently only with other Galaxy users. Crossplay with Steam users might be added in future if the game does well on GOG.

Thank you for all your replies re multiplayer. I don't mind not being able to play with steamers, but I do wish to play with GOG grognards. I've grabbed this. Had always been a fan of Armada 2526 and the expansion (Teyes rushing Dreadnoughts and killing the galaxy as bug eyed critters. How these flying bugs have the best dreadnoughts is beyond me), bit had been waiting for a non DRM version.

I've got that, the units-per-tile limit. It wasn't applicable when I had the issues. So today I haven't run into the "Can't move army" bug.

Instead, I keep running into issues with army management. Unit tokens in the line sometimes become unselectable, so I can't, for instance, move it to another line, or select it separately to give orders individually and split the army. Toggling the 'sticky selection' to either mode doesn't work. Sometimes I can work around it by giving the whole stack an order, but then selecting THE REST of the stack to give a different order. But sometimes that doesn't work.

I'm really enjoying the game (despite these small bugs), but there needs to be an army management window.... Perhaps "manage all stacks within this city's radius" so you can easily drag the various units/leaders/etc into different armies and give them their lines and click go all at once, rather than managing individual stacks. I've got 4 stacks ready to go invade the enemy and it's taking forever just to move bit around. (Real time, not turns-time.) And I'm only in the 90s for turns. I can't imagine late game!

Trying to manage my lines to get 5 in front, 3 in back is an exercise in frustration, both for which ones are there -- and to keep it 5 and 3 instead of 4 and 4.

What's the meaning of the fullness or not of the flag representing the stack? I can't find any information about that. At first I thought it was average efficiency, but I often see it "empty" but each individual unit in the army is full...

The units have to be able to fit into the hex, and generally you can't fit more than four across.

It seems that 'officially' the word 'oriental' is considered offensive. But someone forgot to tell anyone from Asia, or pretty much anyone... I certain don't see a problem with the word. Having said that, I think the game title is lacking. 'Oriental Empires' just doesn't have much punch to it.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-tsuchiyama-oriental-insult-20160601-snap-story.html

Wait are you the Bob Smith of Ntronium games and former wargame designer, Total war designer fame, aka the dev himself? Your user name Neutron at home suddenly rang a bell.

In any case I bought this game (been waiting to do so since I was a huge fan of 2526 and its asymetric victory condition nature) and had heard of it profiled in Explorminate the game site. I make it a rule to only buy DRM free, so I had almost written this off until I saw it here on GOG.

This game has exceeded even my inflated expectations.

1. The game does a fantastic job of presenting ancient China and its philosophies through the ages. It is chock full of flavour. The Chinese translation is excellent (but I dont read small font well, so I eventually switched to english, and also wished we could select traditional script). Frankly, some of the concepts presented in the tech screen is not well known by the younger Chinese today, but the coverage and grasp is great.

2. I love, love that you don't have direct control of the troops, but instead lay down ROE and some general strategic positioning. The resolve on strategic map is brilliant, and the map itself is a landscape painting eye candy. As a wargamer, I HATED games which gave you unrealistic control over too much. As a head of state or commander, you should not get to say where this squad goes and stands. The interplay between troop types is very rich.

3. Armada's trading system and interface is back, and working very well.

4. Anti blobbing with authority, very crusader kings desmene size limitation, very well liked. This is in line with the anti fustration design decisions in Armada 2526 in that you did not and should not have to blob all over to win.

5. This has inspired me to reread a lot of history again. For example, never really knew about the Han 韓 kingdom, I did read my Spring Autumn and Warring States before, but they died so soon and without much fanfare that I had forgotten them. The internet Sinosphere are talking about how amazed they are that this game was made by someone who is not chinese (we assume). I'm reading about the Dog Rong and talking to some of the old folk to get references on some of more obscure topics.

In any case, Bravo. I love the theme, the design and the interface. I've been trying to get my IRL friends to get this, especially those disappointed by Civ 6. I hope to get more people exposed to this gem, and with the added benefit of hooking more people on Chinese history. GOG wise, we need the players (I've unlocked several achievements, but several of them are legendary, with 0% having it. That' can't be right).

My distinction between hardcore and casual gamers are that hardcore gamers know what they like, and they follow designers by name, and I finally had to check the full dev name to find out who actually is "Bob" from Ntronium, so I have added Bob RT Smith into my small list of game designers where I insta buy whatever they make.

Yes, guilty as charged :). Really glad to hear that you like the game, and understand what I'm trying to do with it,

Chinese history is such a vast topic, I feel like I've only scratched the surface with OE, and the more I research and learn, the more it seems I don't know. Anyway I'm pleased anytime the game causes someone to take a deeper interest.

Gog, give this man his Golden Hue at once !
(it may sounds like not so much, but I promise you it will grant you more satisfaction coming in here).

In that case, thank you for making so many enjoyable games. I am here in game looking at the silk and metal armour of the noble dagger axeman and marvelling, because they look like those drawings in the Palace Museum come to life. An immense amount of research have obviously gone into this.

I hope you have plans to target the Chinese market beyond steam (Physical Boxes, Traditional Chinese), and look forward to anything new from you.

Do you have a blog/ site/social media ? I had read about Oriental Empires on the Ntronium Armada 2526 forums years ago, and had filed it away to check out and years later I see it on GOG and I buy it, but now want to follow any new developments more closely.

Well mostly I just point the artists at reconstructions made by people who write Chinese Military History books. Those folks who research from the primary sources are the real heroes here.

Sorry, I don't have a blog related to computer games. I'd suggest subscribing to Iceberg-Interactive's twitter or Facebook to see anything new I might do. However, games take several years to develop, and OE is going to keep me busy for a while.

What is the balance between strategy and tactics here? If I like to take my time and think and don't want to command every single unit, will this game be fun for me?