In Progress Repulsive Stupid Idiot Plays Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11

[XenomorphII]

Good show. It makes a lot of sense to try and grab City 2 ASAP. In previous games the loyalty mechanic was a big factor, so that you could use intrigue options to bring in or even incite rebellion - and of course, nobody ever actually likes Dong Zhuo. Pity that's not really a big option in ROTK11 (did they cut out loyalty entirely? I forget).

No, loyalty is still there. It is just that it is usually simpler/quicker/more effective to just conquer, imprison, then employ, because the time delay for orders to be carried out to most cities and the general abundance of gold makes it easy to counteract the loyalty lowering mission. Though it can be effective to target a viceroy of a much stronger force later on in the game with a mass loyalty attack, and then try to get him to rebel.

 

[RK47]

There's 2 ways to win as Yuan Shu, the way I see it. You could simply occupy the empty cities to the east. Completely detaching yourself from the conflict and focus on capturing Wu's officers early to bolster your ranks. You have 16 people. Enough for rapid development of two cities.

Or. You could just join in the main war like the rest and hopefully cap some nice officers.

 

[XenomorphII]

Well once he takes Xu Chang he will have access to a pretty fair number of Cao Cao's officers since many of them can be found there with searching, and and able officers is Yuan Shu's biggest weakness. Find and hopefully employ Guo Jia as strategist and deploy him and make the enemy retreat repeatedly, as the only person that Dong Zhuo has to counter his high INT is Jia Xu.

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Sounds like something that I wouldn't dare touching even if it was a matter of life and death.

Ahh, much like your aversion to toilet paper.

Hey, I'm glad so many people are interested in this! I wasn't sure how much of a response this would get and I'm really surprised so far. Thanks for the feedback and everything too. This is my first LP so tell me if there are things I can improve on. I'm also typing this as I play, so I don't know whether that's a good way to do it or not. We'll see how it goes. Anyway, thanks everyone!

Chapter 2 - This is the Chapter Where I Learn This LP Will Take Forever

For my first order of business, I send out Qiao Rui, Han Yin and Yuan Yin to capture Xu Chang. I give them 2,500 men and 1,000 gold, a full fourth of my total supply. My hope is that when they capture Xu Chang, they'll be able to develop it quickly enough that it will make up for my initial investment. It will take them 40 days, or 4 turns, to reach Xu Chang.

Sending troops cost me 10 of my 40 action points. I order my 3 officers with the highest leadership, Ji Ling, Zhang Xun and Li Feng, to patrol the city to raise order.

This raises Wan's order to an unimpressive 79. Order represents peasant happiness with your rule and the general safety of the area. With a low order, it's possible for bandit camps to spawn on your territory, which generate bandit units that continually attack your buildings. This is something I can't afford to deal with right now. Also, the lower your order, the more susceptible you are to enemy plots. It's important to raise it before we start building much.

With my remaining 10 AP, I reward my two most disloyal officers, Chen Lan and Li Feng. This will reduce the chance of their defection, which was probably pretty likely.

I spend the next few turns developing my economic infrastructure. Wan has three different plots of land to build on.

On the plot in the northwest, I begin building a barracks. My officers aren't very good and don't have any particular aptitude toward any one military skill, so it will likely be followed by a stable, which produces horses for cavalry. To the south is the economic complex. I begin by building a market, which increases the amount of taxes you receive at the end of every month. In the center I'll build a mint, which increases the output of all adjacent markets by 50%. Lastly, in the east is the agricultural complex, where I build a farm. Farms function a lot like markets except that they provide food at the end of the month. In the center of the farming complex, I'm going to place a granary, which increases farm output by 50%.

I also get a strange message from my adviser, Yang Hong.

Liu Biao is one of the non-coalition warlords. He's the light blue to the south of me. None of his cities are adjacent to mine, but our proximity must be putting him off. Even though I'll be his first target, I'm not too worried: he's far away and isn't very powerful.

On February 11, Qiao Rui's detachment finally reaches Xu Chang and captures it. Order in Xu Chang is currently 50, so I'm going to have to spend several turns raising the order before I can even consider building. Depending on how things go in Wan, I may send over a few people to speed up development but right now almost everyone is busy. For now, I'll consider Xu Chang a work in progress. Our backup plan is secure and that's all it needs to be.

About a month later, Yang Hong informs me that Liu Yu no longer views me as favorably. This doesn't matter at all because Liu Yu is on the other side of the map and he'll be dead in a few months, but perhaps it foreshadows my diplomatic relations with other warlords. I'd like to keep my relations up with Cao Cao for now since I know I will depend on him very soon. Yang Hong also informs me that the barracks I began a month ago is now complete, meaning I can begin recruiting troops. I'll do this in a little bit - right now it's more important to develop my economic infrastructure.

Thanks Yang Hong. A month passes, Spring changes to Summer and a number of my buildings are complete. Things are looking positive.

Note the red circle on the mini-map. That's us, in case you hadn't figured out our relative position. We're right in the middle of China. This is pretty good because it gives us a lot of options for expansion. What I'd like to do is gradually migrate east and south, absorbing many of the unclaimed cities and building up my economic power. While the rest of the lords fight Dong Zhuo and each other, I'll take advantage of the relative stability of the remote southeast. It will also staunch the growth of Sun Jian who, if unchecked, will become a monster.

I begin to search for free officers nearby and find Liu Yao. Liu Yao was the brother of Liu Dai, one of the lords in the coalition, and the administrator of Jiangdong. He was killed by Sun Jian's son, Sun Ce, and his lands were the foundation for the Wu kingdom that Sun Quan established. His stats aren't phenomenal but he's fairly competent and would be a nice addition to my force. Yang Hong says Yue Jiu has a good shot at hiring him, but Yang Hong is also a moron. It will only take 30 days to reach Yao, so even if Jiu fails, it won't be that big of a loss.

Things are progressing nicely. My buildings in both Wan and Xu Chang are being completed and I'm surprised that Xu Chang is already self-sufficient. I draft my first troops, gaining 1826. The number of troops you can draft is determined by your charisma and leadership. Ji Ling, Liang Gang and Yuan Shu all have fair leadership abilities so it's alright if I draft with them. Drafting with characters that have low charisma and leadership, like Yang Hong or Yuan Yin, is a waste of money though. Wan's running low on funds though, so we'll need to be thrifty.

On May 1st I get a nice surprise.

Haha, Yuan Shu really is a dick. We were appointed Lieutenant General, which increases the amount of troops Yuan Shu can personally command. It also allows us to give our officers ranks, which, in addition to increasing their troops, also confers small statistical bonuses. There are our current ranks.

The white ranks are ones we can currently give and the gray ranks are ones we'll need to be promoted to give. All ranks except the bottom tier require that the person receiving the rank have a certain number of deed points. Deed points basically represent the character's fame and the amount of work they've done for the realm. Speaking of deeds, let's see who the most famous people in the game are right now.

Most of these guys work for Dong Zhuo. Something tells me this list will be pretty different by the time this game is over.

I also received news that Yue Jiu failed to recruit Liu Yao. Nice going. Things progress smoothly for a couple of months and I transfer 15,000 men over to Xu Chang as a precaution. Although I doubt Dong Zhuo will send anybody, Xu Chang is adjacent to Hu Lao Gate, one of his biggest bulwarks. I'm hoping that Cao Cao will attack soon...

And then I eat my words. As if on cue, Dong Zhuo sends Lu Bu with 11,000 troops.

This is really bad. Lu Bu is it. He's the boogeyman, the big bad wolf, the ace up Dong Zhuo's sleeve. You can't see it in the picture, but the supply train is still on the way to Xu Chang. If it can reach Xu Chang before Lu Bu, we might have a chance.

He's a monster. The good news is that it's just Lu Bu by himself, which means that his unit has a total of 26 intelligence. This means we might be able to trick him into retreating or even better, confuse him and attack in his bewildered state. All of this means nothing if Lu Bu gets to the supply train before it gets to Xu Chang though.

Maybe this wasn't as clever an idea as I thought.

What the hell? Instead of gunning towards the supply convoy like he should have, Lu Bu and Hua Xiong, Dong Zhuo's other ace-in-the-hole, decide to build an archer turret. Wei Xu continues to travel south with a contingent of 5000 soldiers, but he's not nearly the threat the other two are. Taking advantage of Hu Lao Gate's diminished troop levels, Cao Cao sends his entire force to conquer it, which will divert Lu Bu and Hua Xiong's attention long enough for me to get the convoy to Xu Chang and a decent defense up. This is the deus ex machina I was looking for.

Suddenly, something happens. Ji Ling has something he wants to talk to me about...

Apparently a powerful warrior named Huang Zhong is in the area. Ji Ling requests permission to search for him...

...and of course I oblige.

Ji Ling searches the streets of Xu Chang for Huang Zhong.

Just when he's about to give up, he sees a mysterious, glowing beard. A beard of such quality, such splendor... it can only belong to the famed Huang Zhong.

Ji Ling propositions that Huang Zhong join my army but it's not that simple. Huang Zhong challenges Ji Ling to a duel. If Ji Ling wins, Huang Zhong will join. If Huang Zhong wins, he'll leave and never join my army.

It's decided. They duel.

This is the duel screen. On the top left is Ji Ling with a war stat of 83. On the right is Huang Zhong with a war stat of 93, a full 10 points higher. You duel by adopting one of four stances: attack, defense, spirit and fury. Attack focuses your character on attacking your enemy. It has a chance to trigger a flurry of unavoidable attacks. In the defense stance, you're better able to block your opponents attacks and has a chance of triggering the ability to dodge every attack for a short period of time. Spirit mode focuses on neither, increasing your character's spirit gauge. As your spirit gauge goes higher, you gain access to special moves that can damage your enemy and even lower their stat. The last stance is fury, the riskiest of all. It has a very slight chance of triggering a series of high damage, unblockable attacks, but leaves you very open and it rarely occurs.

My strategy for this fight is to stay in defense mode long enough to gain enough spirit to activate "musou", a special move that cripples the enemy and lowers their war stat.

Huang Zhong and Ji Ling trade blows for a short period of time, but they keep blocking. Ji Ling scores the first hit.

Although Ji Ling blocks Huang Zhong's attacks, each one still does a little bit of damage, chipping his life away.

Huang Zhong triggers his attack stance, which gives him a quick flurry of attacks. Fortunately, Ji Ling dodges them all. Each dodge significantly raises my spirit bar.

Ji Ling triggers his defense stance, letting him block all of Huang Zhong's attacks. Unfortunately it's sort of a waste, because none of the blocks increase his spirit.

Huang Zhong triggers his attack stance again and this time lands several blows on Ji Ling. This is looking really bad. Fortunately, Ji Ling's spirit bar is almost maxed out.

Ji Ling's spirit reaches the max and I select musou from the list. Musou requires three full bars of spirit energy and has a chance to lower the enemy's war stat. This is it. This has to work. If this doesn't lower Huang Zhong's war stat, it's over. His health war stat are too much higher than Ji Ling's to catch up.

It works. The mosou attack seriously lowers Huang Zhong's health and war stat. This doesn't mean the fight is over though. Huang Zhong has one full spirit bar and slightly less health than Ji Ling.

They exchange a few blows and Huang Zhong unleashes a mortal blow, a special move that depletes a fair amount of health.

The mortal blow does just enough damage to raise Ji Ling's spirit to one full bar, letting him do a mortal blow in retaliation, ending the fight. Ji Ling has won.

Huang Zhong submits to Ji Ling and pledges his loyalty to Yuan Shu. Not bad, Ji Ling. You've earned your keep today.

Yuan Shu tells him that he expects great things from him. That's sort of an understatement. What he means to say is "I expect you to be the guy who saves us from immediate destruction. Like, right now, because Lu Bu's breathing down my neck and I'm pretty sure he's gonna cut my balls off any minute now."

Huang Zhong formally joins after the duel. This is the best possible thing that could have happened. Huang Zhong is a seriously good officer, by far the best we have, and in Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel was one of Liu Bei's legendary Five Tiger Generals. We've still got to deal with Lu Bu though. Instead of dealing with Cao Cao, he continued South to attack Xu Chang. Hua Xiong attacked Cao Cao but was tricked by one of his ploys. His unit is confused, which means it can't take actions and receives huge damage from anyone who attacks him. By the way, let's check out Huang Zhong's stats.

Yeah, this guy's the real deal.

Lu Bu is far enough way that he won't be able to reach Xu Chang by the next turn, but will be able to reach any units I send out to attack Wei Xu. It's smarter to stay put for now and let him get closer.

Lu Bu moves closer, but not close enough to confuse. Wei Xu attacks the city and loses 600 units, which is a lot more than I expected. Cao Cao continues to wail on Hua Xiong. Hopefully he'll be defeated next turn and Lu Bu will be forced to draw back to defend the gate.

I send Yan Xiang, my smartest officer in Xu Chang, out into the field with 1 soldier to confuse Lu Bu. It works.

Huang Zhong goes in between Lu Bu and Wei Xu and does a whirlwind attack, an S-rank pike tactic that deals damage to both Lu Bu and Wei Xu.

Yuan Shu and Ji Ling follow it up with a rush attack, a B-rank spear tactic that pushes enemies back.

Elsewhere in the world, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan lead a joint attack on Liu Yu and Sun Jian has captured his first city. Great.

The next turn, Yan Xiang re-confuses Lu Bu, Huang Zhong does a second whirlwind attack and Yuan Shu and Ji Ling do a rush attack on Wei Xu. Wei Xu is down to 429 troops and there's a very good chance we could capture him. If this happens, we can imprison him long enough to make him disloyal to Dong Zhuo and recruit him. I recruit more troops in Wan, but we're running seriously low on money.

Instead of taking the gate, which has 0 soldiers, Cao Cao retreats back to Chen Liu. Wei Xu retreats just as we're about to crush him, but is replaced by Song Xian, who's manning a battering ram. Battering rams can do serious damage if they attack the city, so I need to keep him away at all costs. I position Huang Zhong in between him and Lu Bu and use my final whirlwind tactic, damaging them both. The Yuan Shu unit also attacks Song Xian.

The Yuan Shu unit defeats Song Xian and captures him. I try to recruit him, but he refuses so he gets a one-way ticket to my dungeon. Enjoy the vacation, pal. Huang Zhong attacks Lu Bu again and kills about 750 men, taking 0 casualties. The next turn goes similarly. Yuan Shu and Huang Zhong attack the bewildered Lu Bu, knocking him down to 5,000 troops.

Li Feng reports that 18,000 more troops are heading our way. This is really bad. Unlike Lu Bu, who is easily tricked, Zhu Jun and Li Ru are both smart guys who won't fall for our stupid bullshit over and over. I can only hope that Cao Cao comes to the rescue again. Meanwhile, I continue to wail on Lu Bu, knocking him down to 3,600 troops.

Meanwhile, Ma Teng sends 18,000 soldiers led by his son Ma Chao to attack Dong Zhuo's western city of Tian Shui. Despite Ma Chao's competence, this attack will probably not go well.

Liu Yu falls to Yuan Shao on September 21st of 190. He is the first of the warlords to fall.

I continue to deal damage to Lu Bu, but this may not be enough. Dong Zhuo is sending more troops to Xu Chang and I don't think I'll be able to hold out much longer. I'm beginning to think that after beating Lu Bu, I should pack up and send my troops and gold back to Wan.

Yuan Shu defeats Lu Bu, but the general escapes before I'm able to imprison him. Dong Zhuo's main threat is defeated but at least 18,000 more enemies are on the way and there's no telling if Lu Bu will be back. I don't think I can keep this up much longer. If the city begins to fall, I may send my troops east through Kong Zhou's territory to Shou Chun, where they can establish a new base of operations with a significant buffer between us and Dong Zhuo.

But that's for our next episode, when Dong Zhuo's onslaught continues!

 

[Majestic47]

fuck YEAH! :BROFIST: With Huang Zhong you can match Lu Bu blow by blow I think. Just make sure he's disabled by Think Tanks.

 

[Angelo85]

Nice LP! Will keep on lurking

 

[Duckard]

Awesome update! Was that a random thing with finding Huang Zhong just when you needed him, or does the game sort of "help out" when you're about to get annihilated?

Also, the portraits seem pretty good in this game. Especially since they seem to be unique to each officer.

 

[Majestic47]

its completely random, although i do recall some officers appear at certain region according to historical appearance.
but it depends if he plays the historical mode. some officers get along with each other in history books. And they have easier time recruiting and even work with each other.

 

[anus_pounder]

Hopefully Gongsun Zan gets killed off and you recruit Zhao Yun.

 

[Kimagure Majo Yousei]

That actually went better than expected, well done. I was kind of expecting you to die horribly the moment Lu Bu noticed you existed.

 

[RK47]

I found most strong officers have enough weak points to be neutralized by Intellectuals - especially if you have Lu Bu's wife by your side since she has the siren bonus that doubles chance of affecting male generals.

Of course, if you're facing Zhao Yun, you're pretty much fucked.

 

[anus_pounder]

I keep thinking this is the RTK equivalent of a troll/smugface mix.

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Awesome update! Was that a random thing with finding Huang Zhong just when you needed him, or does the game sort of "help out" when you're about to get annihilated?

Yeah, it's totally random, it just happened to come at the most serendipitous moment it possibly could have. Sometimes when there's a really good free officer roaming around in a city near you, one of your officers with comparable stats will tell you about him and they'll fight. I can only hope it happens a few more times. We need some guys with high intelligence now.

Also, here are the settings I'm using if anyone wants to know.

Chapter 3 - The Great (Awful) Debate and the Defense of Xu Chang

The game begins with words of wisdom from my adviser, Yang Hong: there are a lot of troops in Luo Yang. Thanks Yang Hong. With an army of 10,000 pikemen, Zhu Jun draws closer to Xu Chang. Zhu Jun on his own isn't particularly dangerous. He's a competent general but can't match Ji Ling or Huang Zhong. However, he has way more troops than either of them and has backup on the way. For now, the smartest course of action is to return to Xu Chang and drill my troops' will back up. Will allows you to perform tactics and it's going to be necessary if I want to keep up the defense. I also have Liu Xun search Xu Chang for more officers.

He finds Zhong Yao, one of Cao Cao's advisers and the father of Zhong Hui, one of the central figures in the fall of Shu. I try to recruit him but it's no good, he refuses.

More bad news: Hua Xiong is leading an army of 11,000 cavalrymen to Xu Chang, but...

Cao Cao has sent a group of armies out to attack Hu Lao Gate. If Cao Cao's armies can intercept Hua Xiong, or even better, capture Hu Lao Gate, Xu Chang might be saved.

There's more good news: Huang Zhong has managed to employ Zhong Yao. Zhong Yao is our officer with the highest intelligence, so I immediately appoint him to strategist. Smell ya later, Yang Hong. Strategists are the officers that tell you whether you will be successful at any given action. The higher an officer's intelligence is, the more likely they are to be correct. Yang Hong's intelligence is 76, the same as Zhong Yao's, but I think I like him a little better. In fact, Yang Hong said I wouldn't be successful if I sent Huang Zhong to recruit Zhong Yao. He just wanted to keep his job.

And then...

The very turn after I recruit Zhong Yao, he wants to talk to me about recruiting someone else.

Lu Fan originally served Yuan Shu but joined Sun Ce, Sun Jian's son, after Yuan Shu declared himself emperor.

Zhong Yao asks Lu Fan if he'd like to join. Apprehensive, Lu Fan suggests they have a formal debate.

This is the debate screen, by far the most ridiculous thing in the game. It functions similarly to the duel screen, with Zhong Yao on the left and Lu Fan on the right. The weird, glowing orb in the middle that says fact displays the topic of the debate. The buttons on the left are my topic "cards", and their number indicates their strength. A card with a 3 is more, uh, persuasive (?) than a card with a 1. Right now I don't have any fact cards, but neither does Lu Fan. I can reshuffle my deck and hope to get some fact cards, but I'm going to play my logic 3 and hope he doesn't reshuffle.

Lu Fan also plays a logic 3 card. Their arguments are so similar that the words literally evaporate into magical energy.

I play a fact 1 card that I get after drawing a new card but Lu Fan shuffles his deck and gets a fact 3. He pummels Zhong Yao with an incredible fact about Emperor Guang Wu.

I reshuffle my deck.. I mean, uh, rearrange my thoughts, but don't get any fact cards. I do, however, get a sophistry card. Sophistry allows me to repeat what Lu Fan is saying and confuse him, lowering his morale. It makes him mad, though, and when his anger reaches the limit, he'll unleash a super special debate attack that, uh, persuades me.

Zhong Yao counters Lu Fan's petty logical argument with a fact about time that physically knocks him back. This changes the topic from facts to time. I have two time cards and he has none, so I can, uh, persuade him about time now.

In... incredible...

The force of Zhong Yao's argument has such magnitude that it sinks the ancient stone column that Lu Fan is standing on into the ground.

Zhong Yao tries to further his argument about time, but it's no use. Lu Fan shouts "shut it!", one of the deadliest tricks in Chinese debate. This surprise maneuver knocks Zhong Yao's ancient column down to Lu Fan's level.

But two can play that game. Zhong Yao counter's Lu Fan's bellow with one of his own: "I'm not interested in what you say!". If we weren't standing on ancient pillars high in the clouds, onlookers might have gasped.

Lu Fan gives a rousing speech about great deeds but it's no use...

...because Zhong Yao topples him with a story about a wayward horse.

The topic changes to facts and the two square off once again. They each use fact 2 cards which once again causes their words to evaporate into mystical energy.

Lu Fan let's out a really good fact that knocks Zhong Yao's pillar down even further. It looks like this debate is coming to a close.

Zhong Yao tells a fact so relevant, persuasive and meaningful that it fills Lu Fan's rage orb, causing him to stomp his feet on the ground and unleash an ultra-powerful debate attack.

Fortunately, Zhong Yao has a settle card, which lowers Lu Fan's rage meter and averts the potentially super persuasive argument.

Once again, Zhong Yao and Lu Fan say the same fact at the same time. This makes Zhong Yao so mad that he, too, begins to stomp his feet.

Unfortunately, Lu Fan also has a settle card and calms Zhong Yao down.

Lu Fan tries yelling at Zhong Yao again but it fails. Zhong Yao wasn't listening.

The debate continues. Lu Fan tells fact after fact, persuading Zhong Yao further and further that perhaps Lu Fan shouldn't join the army. Then, just as Lu Fan gets one last fact in, Zhong Yao has a breakdown. He stomps his feet and gets furious. This time, Lu Fan doesn't have a settle card. He'll have to deal with Zhong Yao's fury that hard way: irrational discourse.

Zhong Yao shouts "HEY!" as loud as he can.

The force of Zhong Yao's "HEY!" shatters Lu Fan's pillar and throws him into the air. This debate is over. Zhong Yao has convinced Lu Fan to join Yuan Shu's army.

Zhong Yao celebrates by taunting Lu Fan and doing a victory dance.

Lu Fan formally submits to Zhong Yao's superior debate skills and joins Yuan Shu. Let's take a look at his stats.

He's pretty good all around. He's not great at any particular thing, but he's versatile and has a high naval skill, which will be useful as we head south.

I send both Zhong Yao and Yan Xiang out to confuse Zhu Jun but they both fail - he's too clever. This fight probably won't go as well as the Lu Bu fight.

Ji Ling and Huang Zhong leave Xu Chang to battle Zhu Jun. They both deal significant damage to him, but also receive a fair amount as well. Another important thing to note is that when enemies are near a city, soldiers from that city will desert. We've already lost almost 2,000 soldiers in Xu Chang just from desertion.

Zhu Jun does a whirlwind attack, dealing huge damage to both Huang Zhong and Yuan Shu's unit. Zhong Yao manages to confuse him so Huang Zhong and Yuan Shu attack, dealing massive damage with no casualties. Cao Cao's army destroys the archer turrets near Hu Lao Gate and advances. They don't seem to have gotten Hua Xiong's attention though - he continues to charge toward Xu Chang.

It's too much. Cao Cao captures Hu Lao Gate, but there are too many soldiers and they're not turning back. I can't hold Xu Chang, I have to retreat. I send as many units as I can back into the city to create a supply convoy with all of my resources. I move all of my officers back to Wan so they won't be captured. Lu Fan, leading an army of 4,000 men, heads east to Shou Chun. It will take 80 days, or 8 turns, for him to reach it.

Several officers are stuck in Xu Chang, unable to escape. In a last ditch effort to deny Dong Zhuo any potential free officers that might still be there, I search the town with Zhong Yao and find Xun Yu.

Xun Yu was one of Cao Cao's chief advisers and was the man responsible for recruiting many of his prominent officers, such as Sima Yi, Guo Jia and Xun You. His stats are absolutely bonkers so I immediately appoint him as strategist. He has 95 intelligence, which means his advice has a 95% chance of being right. That's quite a bit better than Zhong Yao's 76%.

Li Feng also finds Xi Zhicai in the city, another of Cao Cao's early advisers. Unfortunately he fails to recruit him though. Nice going.

It looks like Cao Cao is attacking Luo Yang with only 17,000 soldiers. Good luck, buddy.

Absolutely incredible. The turn after I get Xun Yu, while Xu Chang is burning, he wants to find another officer.

I've never seen this text before. Maybe this is a special event. He wants to recruit Guo Jia, who was Cao Cao's chief strategist in his early years. His strategies were one of the main reasons that Cao Cao was able to solidify his position in central and northern China and it would be a huge boon to get him on my side.

Incredible, this is a special event. I've never seen this before. Xun Yu brings Guo Jia to the court without a debate.

Guo Jia presents himself to Yuan Shu.

Awesome. Guo Jia pledges allegiance to Yuan Shu without a debate or persuasion.

Guo Jia is without a doubt one of the best strategists in the game. With him on my side, we stand a fighting chance against Dong Zhuo. We can only hope he isn't captured when Xu Chang falls.

I search Xu Chang again and find Xu Zhu, one of Cao Cao's bodyguards. Xun Yu successfully recruits him.

His warfare stat is very high but the rest of his stats are pretty mediocre. He won't be leading any troops on his own, but he'll be a great supplement to a high leadership army.

Zhong Yao searches Xu Chang one last time and finds Chen Qun, another of Cao Cao's administrators, and successfully hires him. I don't know for sure, but I think we've successfully recruited everyone left in the city, denying Dong Zhuo their strength and building our own.

On December 21st, Dong Zhuo captures Xu Chang. Yuan Yin, Yuan Shu's nephew, Yuan Xiang, the strategist who confused Lu Bu over and over, and Zhong Yao are taken prisoner. The rest manage to escape back to Wan. It was a noble effort and we managed to kill about 5 times the number of soldiers he did, but we were overwhelmed and just weren't able to hold it.

The bad news doesn't end there. Despite Cao Cao's attack on Luo Yang, Dong Zhuo feels confident enough to attack Wan.

He's sending Li Su and Sima Lang, two units that, on their own, aren't particularly dangerous. What I'm worried about is that he'll send Lu Bu or Hua Xiong after we finish them off.

At the turn of the year, Yuan Shu's son, Yuan Yao, comes of age and pledges allegiance to his father. He's not particularly good, but he is his heir so he will be important. Also, my fears are confirmed.

Lu Bu is coming to Wan. The good news is, like last time, he's by himself. He's also in a siege tower, which has low mobility and works best against cities. Because Wan is on a hill with few entrance points, it's very easily defended and I think we can probably hold this attack off.

This seems like a good stopping point for now, but before I end this chapter, let's take a look at the map of China.

A lot has happened in the year since the game has started. Our neighbor to the south, Liu Biao, has conquered the cities of Xin Ye and Jiang Xia, two cities very close to mine. His expansion doesn't mean much, though. He has few soldiers, poor officers and a weak economic infrastructure. He won't be much of a problem and I don't expect him to be a threat.

Zhang Lu has captured the city of Shang Yong, the city to our immediate west. Like Liu Biao, Zhang Lu doesn't have many officers, soldiers, or the infrastructure to maintain Shang Yong. He is not a threat.

Dong Zhuo has taken Xu Chang from us. He's currently under attack by Cao Cao in Luo Yang and he's attacking our city of Wan. He must have a vendetta or something. You can also see he's sending an army to attack Ma Teng. I really can't predict who will win this particular battle, but even if Ma Teng wins, it will greatly weaken him and Dong Zhuo will likely defeat him in the next few months.

Tao Qian, the light green in the east, has captured one of the forts in the southeast and is trying to expand further south. We need to get to Shou Chun before he does and halt his growth.

Yuan Shao in the north defeated Liu Yu and successfully boxed in Gongsun Zan. Yuan Shao will probably become the major power in the north and be one of the people I fight after Dong Zhuo. His neighbor, Gongsun Zan, is attacking Gongsun Du and will probably win. It won't matter, though, because Gongsun Du's officers aren't good and his city isn't important or economically strong.

Lastly, Sun Jian has expanded to the south and will likely continue to expand. He'll eventually meet up with Liu Biao and will destroy him. I think our long-term goal should be to cut off Sun Jian's growth by getting to Liu Biao before he does.

Although things are looking grim for Yuan Shu, I believe we can hold out in Wan and we have an army heading towards Shou Chun. There's a significant buffer between us and Dong Zhuo in Shou Chun and we can continue to expand to the southeast. We have some very good officers now and there are still many free officers we could recruit. Things will be difficult in the coming months, especially after the loss of Xu Chang, but if we can make it to the southeast, I think we have a very good chance.

 

[RK47]

I'm not even worried. You can still run to the east if the going gets tough, there's plenty of effective core officers in your roster now to bring city development up to speed in no time.

 

[anus_pounder]

Huang Zhong, Xun Yu, Guo Jia and Xu Chu.

 

[Tigranes]

That's some hyper-efficient recruitment. You now have enough strategists to milk the intrigue card over and over again, just need to get some more decent warriors. From what I remember capture/kill chance is also related to how you defeat their army with whom, so you'll never get rid of Lu Bu this way.

Re: LP, enjoying it a lot, personally I'd prefer a bit more narrative (Yuan Shu being the crazy fucker he is), though doesn't have to be larpish, but whatever you feel comfortable with.

 

[Gold]

Good luck staying with this LP to the end.

 

[anus_pounder]

That Debate scene has to be one of the most hilarious bits I've ever read in any LP.

 

[RK47]

You should watch more chinese war movies. I remember the latest one White Vengeance had this debate where both advisors decide to settle in in a game of checkers over 5 boards. Fucking extreme. At stake, is a prisoner. Every loss means the guy gets mutilated. I don't know if it's incline and decline, but it's intense as fuck.

 

[RK47]

Also to the thread starter, a message from carebear:

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Hope this works, the preview button keeps messing up and I can't see this post!

Chapter 4: The Fall of Lu Bu?

When I start up the game, I take a quick survey of my surroundings to draw up a strategy against Lu Bu and I see something: Liu Biao has a naval unit attacking one of my markets.

You dumb asshole, Liu Biao.

You're dead. That's it. As soon as I've taken care of Dong Zhuo's attack on Wan, I'm going to kill you. I had no problem with you and even though we would have fought eventually, it wouldn't have happened for at least 5 or 6 more years. But that's it. You're dead and you brought this upon yourself.

Xin Ye, the city to my immediate south has only 6,000 soldiers and 1 officer. Xiang Yang, Liu Biao's capital, has 3 officers and 11,000 soldiers. He has four cities but only 41,000 soldiers. By comparison, I have one city but 34,000 soldiers. He is spread out so thin and has such mediocre generals that it would be very easy to bully him into submission.

But right now we have bigger problems. Cao Cao's daring attack on Luo Yang has momentarily diverted Lu Bu and Sima Lang, but that won't last forever. It has separated Li Su from them, which will make him much easier to defeat. I draft troops, create more cavalry and contemplate the idea of sending down a small detachment to take out Liu Biao's troublesome naval unit.

Xun Yu finds and recruits a new officer named Li Yan. He's a really solid guy and we'll definitely be relying on him in the near future.

It's not much, but I send Li Feng with a troop of 5,000 crossbowmen to deal with Lou Gui, Liu Biao's naval general.

I also hire Du Ji, another very competent political officer. I have so many officers now that after I capture Shou Chun, it might be smart to send some even further south. The main speed bump in expansion is officers; if you don't have enough, it can take far longer than it needs to. We have more than enough to develop two or three cities at the same time now.

Li Feng uses the incinerate bow tactic on Lou Gui and deals significant damage. Lou Gui doesn't catch on fire though.

Lu Fan has finally reached Shou Chun. I transfer a number of less important officers to Shou Chun. Lu Fan was carrying about 5,000 gold, so I can start development immediately. It's a little hard to see in the picture, but it looks like Kong Rong had the same idea I did. For a while it was a race between the two of us to see who would get there first. Meanwhile, Tao Qian has captured the free city of Wu, Ma Teng is fighting a losing battle against Dong Zhuo and Gongsun Zan is about to defeat Gongsun Du.

Li Su gets close enough to Wan that I can start to attack him. I send out Guo Jia, who confuses him. Three units, one led by Huang Zhong, another led by Ji Ling and a third led by Yu She and our new recruit, Li Yan, wipe out nearly half the unit. Sima Lang and Lu Bu seem to have returned back to Luo Yang, but I receive word that a new cavalry unit led by Hu Zhen is coming. Hu Zhen only has 11 intelligence so this will be no problem.

RIP, but we all saw it coming. Gongsun Zan now has two cities, just as many as his neighbor Yuan Shao. His personnel, though, are not nearly as good and he'll probably be wiped out. There's a good chance that Yuan Shao will be the most powerful warlord north of the Yellow River, but I did notice something interesting: Han Fu has both Zhang He and Zhao Yun. These were two of the most distinguished characters of the era and could easily go toe-to-toe with Yuan Shao's best. If Han Fu manages to capture Liu Bei before Yuan Shao does, it could lead to a very interesting scenario.

I easily defeat Li Su without sustaining a single casualty but more troops are on the way, this time led by Lu Bu. Like last time, Lu Bu doesn't have a strategist so he'll be easy to trick but it will be difficult to deal with all three at the same time. I can only hope that the difference in mobility is enough to allow me to take them on one by one.

More guys coming our way. There are a few units off-screen, but there are 50,000 units heading to Wan now. I'm going to fight farther away from the city so I don't have to deal with as much desertion.

Dong Zhuo finally defeats Ma Teng. It wasn't unexpected, but it's not good news. My biggest fear is that in addition to facing Lu Bu and Hua Xiong, I'm going to have to also fight Ma Chao and Ma Teng now too.

The battle has begun. Xun Yu starts out by confusing Hu Zhen. Ji Ling, Xu Zhu and Huang Zhong all form a line and begin attacking Hu Zhen. The next units that will cross into our territory, Hua Xin and Xun You, are battering rams so they can't hurt us directly. However, they're lead by strategists, meaning that they could potentially disable our units.

I also manage to defeat Lou Gui's unit in the south. I begin moving Li Feng's troops back home where they can take part in the defense.

Lu Bu lets loose an archery tactic, dealing more than 3,000 total damage to my troops and destroying the small Xun Yu unit. The attack is spread out, though, and it also damages Hu Zhen. Hua Xin, one of the battering ram units, confuses Huang Zhong.

Maybe I should have fought closer to the hill?

Guo Jia confuses Lu Bu from far away and Ji Ling scores a powerful hit on Hu Zhen. Xu Zhu follows up with a sideswipe tactic that deals damage to both Lu Bu and Hu Zhen. Xun Yu returns to the field and Zhang Xun joins with a small cavalry unit.

We have a somewhat strange problem near Shou Chun as well. Liu Dai is sending a unit south to take Lu Jiang, one of the free cities to our south. I don't want him to get that city so I send a small unit south to beat him to it.

Xun Yu confuses Lu Bu's unit and Xu Zhu deals another huge blow with a sideswipe attack. Zhang Xun attacks Lu Bu and Ji Ling attacks Hu Zhen, knocking him down to under 1,000 men.

Zhong Yao, the strategist responsible for recruiting so many of our best officers, has betrayed us and joined Dong Zhuo. He was taken prisoner when Xu Chang fell and I was never able to free him. It's unfortunate, but it's not a huge deal and he did a lot for us. More importantly, Hua Xin and Xun You confuse two of my units and Gao Shun, leading a siege tower, shoots Zhang Xun for significant damage. The two units that were confused manage to regain their senses by the time it's my turn, but they lose a whole turn from it.

Huang Zhong finishes off Hu Zhen's 10,000 man army and captures him. I take him prisoner, but I doubt Huang Zhong will be able to make it back to Wan. I'm beginning to think that Wan might fall too. I didn't expect an attack of 50,000 soldiers. Zhang Xun manages to confuse Lu Bu and Ji Ling deals several thousand casualties to Hua Xin.

Instead of finishing off Huang Zhong, Dong Zhuo decides to destroy Guo Jia and Xun Yu with ranged attacks. Wan is close enough that Guo Jia can get back into the fight the very next turn and confuse Gao Shun. The rest continue to deal damage to Hua Xin and Lu Bu. Xu Zhu kills over 3,000 men with a sideswipe attack that hits Hou Cheng, Lu Bu and Gao Shun.

Dong Zhuo deals minimal damage on his turn. His strategists spend their time trying to confuse Huang Zhong which fails half the time. Xu Zhu is our main damage dealer this battle. Every turn he uses a sideswipe technique that deals 2,000-3,000 damage to the enemies. Ji Ling attacks Hua Xin once again and Zhang Xun does a cavalry tactic that pushes back Hou Cheng one square.

And then I notice something.

Lu Bu's loyalty is only 94. That's fairly high, but I also have some pretty persuasive officers.

Guo Jia says Chen Qun will succeed in recruiting Lu Bu if he attempts it. We have to try this. We have to give it a shot. If we're successful, we'll take away Dong Zhuo's greatest weapon and surely win the battle. If we fail, we may lose Wan.

Damn, it fails. The good news is that Dong Zhuo spends most of his time trying to confuse my armies and fails. Ji Ling defeats Hua Xin's unit, Zhang Xun deals even more damage to Hou Cheng and Xu Zhu uses his last sideswipe attack on Lu Bu and Gao Shun, dealing about 1,700 damage. None of the enemy is confused, though, and we'll likely take huge casualties next turn.

In the southeast, Han Yin's unit has taken over Lu Jiang. Shou Chun is almost completely developed now, so I can afford to send a few men down to help develop Lu Jiang.

I also notice that Ma Chao, son of the deposed ruler Ma Teng, is a free officer. Guo Jia informs me that Lu Fan is capable of recruiting him. He's quite far away so if Lu Fan fails, it will have been a huge waste of time.

Zhang Xun and Huang Zhong sustain heavy damage, but their main damage dealer, Lu Bu, goes for Xun Yu. Xun Yu's unit is defeated, but Wan is close enough that he's able to come back the next turn and confuse Lu Bu. Xu Zhu finishes off Hou Cheng's unit.

Of course he refused to join my army so I imprisoned him. Huang Zhong is confused and in fire. There's a good possibility that he will be wounded or wiped out entirely next round, so I send Zhang Xun over to settle his unit down. This removes the confuse status, but he's still stuck there until the next turn. Ji Ling attacks Gao Shun and kills 800 men.

The battle continues and draws closer to Wan. Zhang Xun and Huang Zhong are too badly wounded to be much help, so I move them back to Wan. Zhang Xun makes it but Huang Zhong will need another turn. Ji Ling and Xu Zhu attack Gao Shun and Xun You.

Gao Shun challenges Guo Jia to a duel completely out of the blue. Uh, no thanks.

I also get an unexpected surprise in Lu Jiang, the city I just claimed.

He's not fantastic, but he'll be a big help in the developing areas.

Guess who's joining the party? Our buddy Hua Xiong has decided it might be fun to flatten us from two angles at once. He's commanding an army of 10,000 cavalrymen from Xu Chang, the city he conquered from us. This isn't going to be fun.

Huang Zhong and Xun Yu both retreated to Wan to resupply. Xu Zhu attacked Gao Shun, but Ji Ling was confused and wasn't able to act. Lu Bu was also confused and I hope to leave him that way.

Yan Xiang, another of the officers taken captive in Xu Chang, defects to Dong Zhuo.

Lu Fan's attempt to hire Ma Chao also went poorly. Hua Xiong continues to charge towards Wan.

But none of this really matters because. . .














...

The great Lu Bu has joined Yuan Shu. Together we will conquer the world!

Throughout the battle, I continually sent officers to recruit Lu Bu after I saw his loyalty was low. Although they failed, it lowered his loyalty to 91. Last turn, I sent Xun Yu back to Wan because I knew he and Guo Jia were the only officers I had who could possibly recruit him. I took the risk of removing Xun Yu from the field, but it worked and the tides have turned.

Lu Bu shoots his former subordinate Gao Shun, killing 500 men. Guo Jia confuses Xu Rong, Xu Zhu attacks Xun You and Huang Zhong returns to the field with a unit of pikemen, knocking Gao Shun down to 500 soldiers. Zhang Xun also returns to the field, heading east to block off Hua Xiong. He'll likely lose a lot of men, but he's needed to protect Wan.

Ji Ling destroys Gao Shun's unit and plunders a significant amount of food. Lu Bu unleashes a powerful incineration attack that deals 1,300 damage to Xu Rong and leaves his unit on fire. Xu Zhu attacks Xun You and wedges him in between himself and Huang Zhong. On the eastern front, Zhang Xun has confused Hua Xiong, but a second detachment from Xu Chang led by Xu Huang, an extremely good general, is on the way.

Instead of immediately returning to the battle, Xun Yu remains in Wan and recruits Xiang Lang, a competent strategist who may be helpful in the battle.

Xun You tricked Huang Zhong and Xu Zhu into fighting each other, causing about 1,100 casualties. Xu Zhu, Huang Zhong and Ji Ling retaliate, knocking him down to 450 soldiers.

Lu Bu once again uses the incinerate tactic on Xu Rong, this time scoring a critical hit that deals almost 1,500 damage.

It looks like Gao Shun is coming back for more. Luo Yang's troop size has dropped from 110,000 to 21,000 but Chang An still has about 60,000 men left. At the start of the battle, Dong Zhuo had a total of 260,000 soldiers but now he has 210,000. In comparison, I had 35,000 and now have 30,000, although I gained 5,000 when Lu Bu joined me. We've killed ten times more men than we've lost. Still, I don't know if I'm going to be able to hold out much longer.

Xu Zhu immediately finishes off Xun You's unit and Lu Bu continues to decimate Xu Rong, killing 1,500 men in a single incineration attack. The flames alone kill 400 men. It seems, at least for the next few turns, that the western front is secure. I can begin to move men over to take on Hua Xiong.

Xu Huang performs a pike tactic on Zhang Xun that drags him one square forward and kills 1,000 men. Guo Jia confuses Hua Xiong and Zhang Xun attacks, dealing a small amount of damage. Xu Huang has a skill called "indomitable", making him immune to confusion. He'll be hard to take down. There is another option, though.

Huang Zhong challenges Xu Huang to a duel.

The duel is going well so far. Even though Huang Zhong is focusing on defense, he gets a few attacks in. In the fifth bout, he triggers his defense mode which makes him invulnerable for a short period of time. Almost immediately after the effect wears off, Huang Zhong triggers it again.

The fight continues for several more rounds in Huang Zhong's favor. Then, Xu Huang unleashes a level 2 spirit attack that has a slight chance to critically injure an opponent and lower their war stat. It works and Huang Zhong is seriously wounded.

Huang Zhong builds up enough spirit energy to perform a musou attack, which, on top of dealing a lot of damage, has a good chance of injuring Xu Huang as well.

It doesn't work, but it lowers Xu Huang's health enough that one or two more hits will take him down.

It doesn't matter though. Xu Huang shames himself and Dong Zhuo by retreating. Huang Zhong has won the duel but doesn't receive the satisfaction of defeating Xu Huang. More importantly, Xu Huang remains uncaptured and Huang Zhong is wounded. You have to wonder who actually won this duel.

That's pretty bad. I'm going to move Huang Zhong back to Wan to let him rest as soon as I can. One nice thing about the duel is that even though it was inconclusive, a lot of Xu Huang's soldiers were disappointed about his retreat and deserted. He only has 4,000 units now, which is significantly less than what he started with.

Ji Ling charges out of Wan with fresh troops and knocks Hua Xiong back; Xun Yu tricks Xu Huang into temporarily retreating. Xu Rong, with 4,000 troops, seems to be retreating, although he's taking a very strange route that leads east to Xu Chang.

The shift from Autumn to Winter makes me realize that this battle has been going on for the entire year. We've been defending Wan from Dong Zhuo for ten straight months and there's still no end in sight. Guo Jia reports that another unit, led by the strategist Xun You, has left Chang An. Ji Ling, Huang Zhong and Zhang Xun gang up on Xu Huang. Gao Shun approaches from the west. Lu Bu is currently stationed in Wan drilling troops' willpower back up. When Gao Shun gets closer, he'll attack.

Guo Jia tries to confuse Gao Shun but he fails and wastes a turn. Lu Bu charges out with 4,000 cavalrymen, a small unit for anyone else but big enough to do critical damage with Lu Bu, and charges Gao Shun. The force of the charge deals tremendous damage and Lu Bu automatically challenges Gao Shun to a duel.

Lu Bu issues his challenge!

Stern words from Gao Shun.

Lu Bu starts out in attack mode. He immediately scores 3 hits, each one demolishing Gao Shun's health. He receives one hit but shrugs it off.

What! Get the hell out of here Xun Yu! Just as Lu Bu is about to land the coup de grace on Gao Shun, Xun Yu butts in and makes a fool of himself. I immediately transfer him out for Lu Bu.

He finishes it with a single blow.

I capture Gao Shun and place him in my prison when he refuses to join. He's an excellent cavalry general and, if we're lucky, will make a great addition to our force. Even if he escapes, denying Dong Zhuo one of his top generals for a few months is still a very good thing. With Gao Shun captured and the main threat on the western front subdued, this battle is beginning to look a lot more manageable.

This seems like a good point to break. We've weathered Dong Zhuo's assault for almost a full year and knocked his forces down from 260,000 to...

198,970. He's taken terrible, potentially destabilizing losses and we're still in Wan. Still, Chang An has tens of thousands of troops left. Who knows how this could go!

 

[RK47]

Lu Bu = Win. Nothing else needs to be said.

 

[laclongquan]

How about Rat Diplomacy with Dong Zhuo to buy time and finish off Liu Biao? Truce with the strong and devour the weak.
Let Cao Cao use up his troop on Dong for a change.

 

[Angelo85]

From the looks of it that isn't even needed. He just crushed 1/5th of the biggest army and strongest leader around. As Queen once put it so fittingly: nothing's gonna stop me now :D

 

[Kimagure Majo Yousei]

Lu Bu's legendary cockroach hat of +5 unfairness!

Though this was kind of anticlimatic compared to how Lu Bu was put against Dong Zhuo in the novel.



In an unrelated note, how do custom officers work in the game?