Zhōng Huì 钟会

Translated Description:
"The Audacious Schemer 桀骜的野心家 (jié ào dè yě xīn jiā)"

Who is he:
This is one of those guys who smiles at you and could seem to be the most reliable guy, except that he's been secretly plotting to take over the world! Unlike "Brain" from "Pinky and the Brain", Zhong Hui doesn't just talk about it, he has consistently taken action to carry out his audacious plans. In the final few chapters of ROTK, Deng Ai 邓艾 had led the Wei forces to successfully defeat Shu Kingdom. Although Jiang Wei 姜维 surrendered, Jiang Wei never lost hope in reviving Shu. It just so happened that Zhong Hui was jealous of Deng Ai's success, and plotted with Jiang Wei to rebel and take back the kingdom for themselves again.

Alas, like a hollywood double agent script, Zhong Hui's actions over the years had already raised suspicion and his ploy to rebel was uncovered quickly. In the madness that followed, both Wei forces and the rebels of Jiang Wei and Zhong Hui clashed in the bloody melee. Neither Jiang Wei nor Zhong Hui survived, and thus sealed the fate of Shu kingdom forever.

Character ability 1: Amassing Power 权计 (quán jì)
After you receive 1 unit damage, you can draw 1 card, then place 1 on-hand card on your character card. This card will be known as a "Power" card. Every "Power" card you have on your character card, your on-hand card limit increases by +1.

(Note: "Power" cards are viewed as being removed from play.)

Character ability 2: Uprising 自立 (zì lì) [Awakening ability]
At the beginning of your turn, if you have 3 or more "Power" cards, you must reduce 1 unit of your maximum health limit, then either regain 1 unit of health or draw 2 cards.

You also acquire the ability "Eradicate 排异".
(In the action phase, you can discard 1 "Power" card and allow any player to draw 2 cards. After drawing 2 cards, if that player has more on-hand cards than you, you inflict 1 unit of damage on that player. Limited to once per phase.)

Ability's relation to story:
The abilities of Zhong Hui are simple yet well-designed, contrast to those of OKF2012 characters, who are sophisticated and poorly-designed. They represented different actions in Zhong Hui’s life and shared similarities with Deng Ai (his rival) and Jiang Wei (his seemingly comrade). “权计” was a mixture of权(power) and 计(schemes). It showed how Zhong Hui was promoted to his place. He seized power by presenting schemes to his boss in the Rebellion of Zhuge Dan, while plotted secretly to steal the troops from his comrades in the Conquest of Shu Kingdom, against Zhuge Xu and Deng Ai. Noticeably, he could use this ability only when he suffered damage, referring to the fact that he crawled to his place by his actions in military campaigns. If Zhuge Dan did not rebel, he would not be able to present his schemes; if Jiang Wei did not attack Wei Kingdom, Sima Zhao would not initiate the Conquest of Shu Kingdom, and Zhong Hui would not have seized power from his comrades.

You may notice the similarity between Deng Ai’s “Amassing Terrain” and Zhong Hui’s “Seizure of Power”. Both of them involve cards removed from game, and these cards served functions before and after awakening. However, the sources and functions of these cards were different, presenting the difference in their lives. For the sources, Deng Ai’s “Amassing Terrain” is activated by loss of cards outside his turn. This is because Deng Ai was originally a low-ranked agricultural official, who developed farmlands when there were deficiencies. Zhong Hui’s “Seizure of Power” is activated by suffering damage. This is because Zhong Hui was born of high class as a strategist of Wei (symbolized by damage-triggered ability like “Bequeathed Strategies” and “Eternal Loyalty”), and he seized power in military campaigns. For functions, Deng Ai’s “Terrain” allowed he to reach his enemies easily for improved logistics, while Zhong Hui’s “Power” allowed him to store more cards, symbolizing Zhong Hui hiding his ambition before his rebellion.
His awakening ability, “Uprising”, referred to his notorious rebellion after the Conquest of Shu Kingdom. The ability mechanism resembled Deng Ai and Jiang Wei, as he needed to accumulated three cards removed from game (similar to Deng Ai), and he could choose to regain 1 unit of card or draw 2 cards (similar to Jiang Wei). It should be noted that Zhong Hui’s “Uprising” was more difficult to activate when compared to Deng Ai’s “Conduit”, suiting the historical fact. Deng Ai was promoted for his contribution of constructing canals and became a general to “Blitz” the Shu Kingdom, which turns out to trigger the rebellion of Zhong Hui.

Literally, “排异” means “eliminating those who oppose you”. This ability allowed Zhong Hui to use his political and military “Power” accumulated before his rebellion to seemingly support a character. However, if that character has more on-hand cards than you, you are indeed injuring him. This is reflected by the fact that Zhong Hui denounced Deng Ai by accusing him to be ambitious and rebellious (with too many cards that can harm someone).

Tactics:
As foretold by ZYZ # 17, this ability correlated to Jiang Wei and Deng Ai very much. Zhong Hui can delay the awakening of Jiang Wei by letting him to draw cards (Jiang Wei awakens if he has no on-hand card at the beginning of his turn), while replenishing Jiang Wei’s combat ability by allowing him to draw more cards after awakening without damaging him. On the other hand, Zhong Hui and Deng Ai were independent to each other before awakening (before Zhong Hui’s uprising, they both served Sima Zhao and fought against Shu), while Zhong Hui can suppress Deng Ai by activating “Conspiracy” against him. After Deng Ai’s awakening (becoming a general against Shu) and uses of “Blitz” (victory over Shu Kingdom), he would have lower health and a whole bunch of cards. It would be easy to deal damage to Deng Ai by “Conspiracy”, while the damage would not activate “Amassing Terrain” (Deng Ai cannot resist Zhong Hui’s false accusation).

BTW, if you observe carefully, Deng Ai had an advantage when fighting Zhong Hui, because Zhong Hui’s “Taunt” on Deng Ai would always activate “Amassing Terrain”, while “Amassing Terrain” would allow “Deng Ai” use “Blitz” on the weakened Zhong Hui.

How to obtain this character?
Zhong Hui is available in the 2012 release of OverKnight Fame, otherwise known as OKF2012 (一将成名2012). Click here to purchase now!