Rise of the Phoenix is a strategy game made by Koei. The game is set in ancient China during the historically accurate Chu-Han Contention between Liu Bang and Xiang Yu.
The gameplay and control are one of a kind, quite unlike the similarly themed Romance of the Three Kingdoms or Nobunaga's Ambition series, and its controls were considered more inconvenient. The commands are set in four weeks during one month. The player must first choose the "planning" stage where they can decide to improve their cities or make allies. The next week is called the "Action" stage where the player choose where to move their armies.
The player chooses either to be Liu Bang or Xiang Yu. Liu Bang has below average stats for Politics and Skills however his Charisma is high and hence it is easy for him to make allies, while Xiang Yu has high personal stats while his Charisma is lower.
Although the story is set during a five-year span, as in actual history, where the war took 5 years, the player is not penalized if they don't finish the game under 5 years.
Source: Wikipedia, "Rise of the Phoenix," available under the CC-BY-SA License.