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

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Shit, I lost about 30 minutes of pictures because of a computer crash. I'm really sorry! Nothing particularly important happened but I'll try to summarize it as best as I can remember. Kong Zhou's Ru Nan finally fell to Dong Zhuo, placing Dong Zhuo right in the middle of our holdings. I want to attack soon from Xin Ye, but I'm also dealing with Liu Biao's attack as well. I'm just about to attack Tao Qian's Hui Ji, his final city in the south. This will allow me to divert resources and officers to Wan and Xin Ye, from where I'll be able to attack Dong Zhuo's Ru Nan. I'm also holding off another minor attack from Zhang Lu. I also lost a debate, which was kind of awful.

I'm really sorry about the crash! I didn't lose much, but it feels like the continuity has been kind of ruined. I hope it's not too much of a problem!

Chapter 8 - Ugh

Zhou Tai has proven himself to be a great naval general throughout the battle against Liu Biao. He takes out Liu Biao's unit and nearly destroyed Cai Mao a little earlier. Unfortunately Cai Mao managed to escape. Lu Zhang's unit attacking Shang Yong was also destroyed but another will probably be there soon: Lu Zhang won't stop attacking. He's incredibly weak now and I'd like to attack his city of Han Zhong, but Dong Zhuo has a city with 50,000 troops to the north. I'll need enough soldiers to prevent Dong Zhuo's immediate attack when I take Han Zhong.

I would take Liu Biao's port of Zhong Lu, but I'll need these men in the attack on Ru Nan later. I send them back to Xin Ye for now.

Dong Zhuo himself is sending troops to Wu Gate. This is the first time we've had to confront the man directly and it could be interesting. His troop of 13,000 soldiers significantly raises the stakes and I send out Huang Zhong to help.

Ma Teng's invasion force wipes out a minor unit of Tao Qian's and heads south to Hui Ji. I seriously love the horsebow tech I just researched. It gives all of my cavalry units a ranged attack and allows them to deal damage without receiving any while retaining their huge mobility. Cavalry units are better archers than archer units!

Huang Zhong performs a rake tactic on Zhang Ji's unit outside of Wu Gate and increases his warfare to 94. Pretty cool!

I recruit two prisoners in Shang Yong: Wu Ban, one of Zhang Lu's men and Liu Dai, the warlord from Pu Yang who kept getting raw deals. Maybe now he'll win for once.

Tao Qian sends Liu Yao with 7,000 soldiers to attack Xiao Pei, a city defended by Lu Bu that has 30,000. Not quite a brilliant plan. I'm almost ready to attack Xia Pi but I'd like some more officers to do it. When Ma Teng's army takes Hui Ji in the south, I'll transfer some to Xiao Pei to help with the attack.

The attack on Wu Gate isn't going so well. Dong Zhuo destroys Xun You's unit, sending him back to Wan. The next turn, he deals huge damage to Wu Gate with his siege tower. I need to get Xun You back up to Wu Gate as fast as possible to confuse Dong Zhuo and prevent further damage.

Ma Teng's army attacks Hui Ji in the south. I can't wait until this battle is over so I can move supplies and officers out and finally be done with this entire theater.

The battle for Wu Gate is going poorly and Dong Zhuo is inflicting heavy casualties. Huang Zhong pulls off a whirlwind pike attack and finishes off Zhang Ji's unit. Xun You makes it to the gate but fails to confuse Dong Zhuo. He'll likely be destroyed again next turn.

In the north, Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan battle for control of Xiang Ping. I can't see Gongsun Zan holding out for much longer, but he did manage to completely destroy Yuan Shao's entire first wave of attacks, killing nearly 30,000 soldiers.

Cao Cao is sending a small army to take Luo Yang. This might make Dong Zhuo pull back from Wu Gate. Right now, Cao Cao's biggest problem is that he has too many troops and not enough food. His men will die of starvation if he fields too many soldiers at once.

Xun You fails to confuse Dong Zhuo yet again, allowing him to continue attacking the gate. There's another siege tower coming down to assist him. If Cao Cao's attack doesn't go well, we may not be able to save the gate in time.

Liu Yan begins an assault on Zhang Lu's Han Zhong. Thank you Liu Yan! He has 160,000 troops right now, but only a handful of officers (although many of them are good). Whether or not he takes Han Zhong, I may want to think about allying with him. I have no intention of expanding into Shu for now and I just don't want to deal with him. He'll die very soon and when Liu Zhang takes over, things will start to fall apart.

I just can't hold back Dong Zhuo. I send Xun You into Wu Gate. Next turn, he'll lead a convoy with all the money, food and soldiers in the gate back to Wan, where I might be able to send reinforcements. Dong Zhuo has temporarily won this battle, but it will leave Huang Zhong and Xu Zhu trapped on the other side. Maybe they'll be able to recapture the gate.

It looks like Cao Cao's men were headed for Xu Chang and not Luo Yang. That's pretty dumb!

Wu Gate falls to Dong Zhuo's siege engine unit. Huang Zhong and Xu Zhu are still on the other side and there are several enemy units left. Hopefully some will enter Wu Gate instead of fight.

The gate has fallen but Huang Zhong and Xu Zhu block Dong Zhuo from actually entering. If all else fails, they can enter the gate together and retreat back to Wan.

Xu Zhu and Huang Zhong both get pushed away by cavalry tactics. Their escape route is blocked now and they'll likely be captured. This also threatens Wan, which only has 19,000 soldiers.

Ma Chao finally captures Hui Ji, Tao Qian's last city in the south. Next turn I'll send all of their officers and supplies up north to Xiao Pei and Xin Ye to help there.

Instead of finishing off my armies, Dong Zhuo's men occupy Wu Gate, leaving Dong Zhuo himself exposed. I attack with Huang Zhong and move Xu Zhu north as well. I don't know what else to do but attack Xin Feng, a small port to the north, in hopes that I can escape via the river.

They don't make it. Two cavalry armies out of Wu Gate charge at them and trap them on both sides. Xu Zhu and Huang Zhong both desperately attack Ma Wan.

I transfer my most important men out of the Wu and Hui Ji and delegate authority of the entire region to Li Tong. I instruct him to rebuild the area and support my main holdings with troops and supplies, but not to attack.

Cao Cao sends Li Fu as an envoy. I hope this isn't what I think it is!

Fortunately it's not. He wants me to attack Ru Nan, an area I was going to attack in about a month anyway. I have officers on route to Xin Ye at the moment who will aid in the attack. The attack feels a bit premature, but I accept. We begin our assault on Ru Nan.

I send out Zhou Tai and Su Fei. They'll be joined later by Ma Chao and Ma Teng. But then I notice something -

Cao Cao might have a chance at winning Xu Chang. The battle has been costly, though, and has depleted his total amount of troops from 50,000 to 30,000. It's also exposed Chen Liu, a city that neighbors Xiao Pei. Tao Qian can wait.

When the officers from the south reach Xiao Pei, we march on Chen Liu.

Meanwhile, the battle goes poorly for Huang Zhong and Xu Zhu. Ma Wan is almost defeated but Hu Che Er will likely defeat them both.

Lu Fan enters Cao Cao's court...

...and announces that our alliance has ended.

Cao Cao seems almost eager to fight us. We will meet soon!

And that's it!

The game crashes every time the meeting between Lu Fan and Cao Cao ends. I saved at the end of the turn, so I can't take back the action and this was my only save. I think it has to do with the fact that I have reinforcements under Cao Cao at the same time I broke the alliance, but I have no idea. I've never seen this before.

This really sucks guys! It looks like this is the end of this LP unless I start a new one or we can find a solution to this. I'm really sorry about this, I had no idea this would happen and I can't figure out how to fix this.

Sorry everyone!

 

[XenomorphII]

Eh sometimes things happen. I bet you don't attack somebody you are reinforcing again though.

Anyway I have really enjoyed this LP (and it looks like you were about to start steamrolling, so it was probably about to get tiresome for you) and if you wanted to pick a different scenario and lord, I would certainly be reading.

 

[Angelo85]

What a shame for the LP, but it looked like you were winning anyways, let's just assume you became emperor :D. Are there different difficulty settings or Handicaps you can give yourself? If you play again you might try it against harder odds as you are obviously very skilled in this game.

 

[Tigranes]

Never LP with one save!

Thanks for this and it was a good run. If you start again I'll be reading - as Angelos says maybe we can make it more of a challenge this time, even if you don't end up conquering China. You could even start in a later period - e.g. isn't there a scenario in ROTK11 where Cao Cao and Sun Qian are fairly established, but you can still play Zhang Lu as the one-state with Ma Chao? You start with a great city and a good position, but with strong enemies that have gobbled up the best talents of the era.

 

[anus_pounder]

Gongsun Du - Doesn't this guy's family usually have one province and really mediocre officers at the upper right corner of the map while the rest of China is split between Wei, Wu and Shu ? Assuming I'm not confusing XI's scenarios with the other games, playing as Gongsun Du's family against the entirety of Wei could be a great challenge.

 

[Duckard]

That sucks! I was really enjoying this LP. Hopefully you start another one or something.

 

[laclongquan]

Yeah. He's brother of Gongsun Zan and they split their northern holdings, weaken them both. It's why White Calvary of the north cant get out to play much.

 

[TripJack]

enjoyed your lp while it lasted

i had never even heard of these games...

 

[Majestic47]

You broke an alliance after agreeing to send reinforcement. That broke the code.

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Sorry to see this go.

I enjoyed it while it lasted.

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

'Twas a majestic LP for sure, especially in the beginning, fighting against all odds.

All those Chinese names were confusing though. And the debate minigame is pure WTF. I might try the game sometime in the future.

 

[KickAss]

'Twas a majestic LP for sure, especially in the beginning, fighting against all odds.

All those Chinese names were confusing though. And the debate minigame is pure WTF. I might try the game sometime in the future.

Yeah, in the end I was mixing up our Ding Dongs with the enemy ones.. Maybe different colors for them will help?
Too bad the LP ended prematurely.. It was great

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Alright, I'll give a Gongsun Du game a shot. I've actually already beaten the game as Gongsun Du before (twice!) but I can do it again. I really like starting in the north so this will be fun. The whole crashing thing sort of drained me so I won't start for a little while, but it will probably be within a week.

You broke an alliance after agreeing to send reinforcement. That broke the code.

Yeah, what's really weird is that the game clearly had text to handle it. Half the time when I did it, it said something like "the reinforcement unit under Cao Cao, Zhou Tai" and then would just stop there. Totally lame.

 

[XenomorphII]

Which scenario do you think you will start in this time?

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Probably the same scenario I just played. I've beaten it in 194:

and 225:

By the way, the 225 scenario was so awful and boring. You definitely don't want to see that. That was probably the worst shit I've ever done in a game.

Actually, if I can find a way to get screenshots off my TV, I'll do an LP of one of the Nobunaga's Ambition games. I like Iron Triangle more than I like RoTK so it would be pretty cool to show. Does anyone know how to do that?

 

[anus_pounder]

Out of curiosity, could you spare the time to elaborate on what made 225 so terrible ? Waiting for decent officers to be available, waiting for a good opportunity, that sort of thing ?

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Well, you start out with 6 officers and everyone else has >100. They're also pretty bad and at this point, there are very few free officers. I knew I couldn't take Cao Pi head on because I only had one city and he had 20, so I allied with him and moved troops to all the free cities near his territory. Whenever he attacked Liu Chan or Sun Quan, I'd send troops over and steal it from him at the last minute. I had to do this until I was strong enough to stand on my own, which took a really long time. It was extremely boring and tedious and probably the only way you can actually win as Gongsun in that scenario.

 

[XenomorphII]

What about doing the Guan Du scenario? You would still have an uphill battle, but toppling Yuan Shao and nabbing officers from him should be semi-feasible without resorting to cheap tactics.

 

[Nope]

Actually, if I can find a way to get screenshots off my TV, I'll do an LP of one of the Nobunaga's Ambition games. I like Iron Triangle more than I like RoTK so it would be pretty cool to show. Does anyone know how to do that?

PS2? Then it's fully emulatable using PCSX2.
Otherwise you'll need a capture card (cost varies around $50-$250) for it.

 

[Stokowski]

Enjoyed this LP. Hope there will be a sequel.

Tried to play a much earlier iteration in the series years ago* and got my ass handed to me repeatedly.

* Heck, I think the freighter it arrived on was called Napster.

 

[Majestic47]

Well, you start out with 6 officers and everyone else has >100. They're also pretty bad and at this point, there are very few free officers. I knew I couldn't take Cao Pi head on because I only had one city and he had 20, so I allied with him and moved troops to all the free cities near his territory. Whenever he attacked Liu Chan or Sun Quan, I'd send troops over and steal it from him at the last minute. I had to do this until I was strong enough to stand on my own, which took a really long time. It was extremely boring and tedious and probably the only way you can actually win as Gongsun in that scenario.

lol I played Nanmans before.
http://yougoblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/rise-of-meng-huo-chapter-1.html

 

[treave]

Play RoTK10 and RP the torment of a Codexian State amidst the war-torn lands of the Middle Kingdom!

 

[anus_pounder]

lol I played Nanmans before.
http://yougoblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/rise-of-meng-huo-chapter-1.html

Thanks for the link. I remember reading this ages ago, but I forgot who made the LP and what the link to it was.

 

[Yeesh]

A most regrettable end to a most relentless campaign.

 

[stupid idiot 111hello]

Chapter 1: God Dam It

Welcome to scenic Xiang Ping, a place that, until a few months ago, was not a part of China. In 189, Dong Zhuo ordered his general Gongsun Du to expand control of the Han and invade Korea. The attack was successful and Gongsun Du was able to establish himself in the Lelang commandery on the Liaodong peninsula in northern Korea. Let's take a look at what we have to work with.

Gongsun Du himself was not a major player in the politics of the Three Kingdoms era, although people sometimes did flee to his territory, which was considered relatively stable and detached from the turmoil of central China. In 207, Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi, the sons of Yuan Shao, fled to Liaodong seeking amnesty. Gongsun Kang killed them and sent their heads to Cao Cao. Gongsun Du is a cavalry general, although not a particularly good one. Fortunately, Xiang Ping is a cavalry town and will generate horses automatically. We will likely never run out of cavalry. Gongsun Du's political stat is very low and he only gains 35 AP a turn - not even enough to perform two actions.

Like his father Gongsun Du, Gongsun Kang is a mediocre cavalry general. He's not quite as good militarily as his father but his charisma far surpasses him. Hopefully his stats will continue to develop as he ages. He's also the father of Gongsun Yuan, the man who would declare himself the King of Yan and bring destruction to his family. Perhaps we can avert the fate.

The last of Gongsun Du's sons, Gongsun Gong is the closest thing the Gongsun clan has to adviser. Except for intelligence, his stats are significantly worse than the rest of his family members'.

That's it. Those are all the officers we currently have. Because of our lack of an adviser, we won't even receive advice regarding the success rates of our actions.

The only adjacent force to our own is Gongsun Zan, a serious contender for control of the north and a man with more than double our amount of troops. He has many more officers than we do and even his worst men exceed the capabilities of our best. Despite the shared name and proximity, he and Gongsun Du were not relatives.

The first few years of this game will be very difficult. Not only will we need to scramble to get more officers, but we need to compete with the much more competent Gongsun Zan. Not only this, but we're not a part of the coalition against Dong Zhuo - everyone is our enemy. Development of Xiang Ping will take a long time and be boring so I'll skip most of it.

Xiang Ping only has 12 plots on which to build land, a very small amount, but because the political abilities of our officers are so mediocre, it will take a very long time. Gongsun Kang starts out by building a barracks. Du and Gong build markets.

Gongsun Du attacks the dam outside of Xiang Ping. We don't have the manpower to fight Gongsun Zan right now so when he attacks, we'll need to unleash the dam on his men. The weaker it is, the easier it will be to break when he gets here.

A month later and he's already on his way with an army of 18,000 - the same amount of troops we have. The distance between Bei Ping and Xiang Ping is pretty great so he won't be here for a while.

Gongsun Zan's army gets to Xiang Ping just as the dam is ready to be destroyed...

Gong and Kang leave the city to protect as many men from the deluge as possible. This is going to hurt me just as much as it hurts him. It's the only way to protect myself though.

Gongsun Du breaks the dam and unleashes a torrent that completely washes away Gongsun Zan's 18,000 man army. The battle is not over yet though: an army of 7000 led by Shan Jing approaches from the north. Gong and Kang return to the city - Du will come back soon. They'll battle Shan Jing head on in hopes of capturing him.

Amazingly, Gong is able to confuse Shan Jing. This will allow Kang and Du to attack without any losses. We've already lost 5,000 men - far too many.

It takes almost two months but Gong, Du and Kang are able to whittle Shan Jing's confused army of 7,000 down to 0, capturing him. We lost a total of 5,000 men in the attack; Gongsun Zan lost 25,000.

For the past few months, Liu Yu has held off an attack from Yuan Shao. It seems his predicament is similar to our own.

It's time to rebuild. We only gain 1,700 soldiers with each round of conscription.

It's been a little over a year since we began playing and people are finally starting to fight all across the land. Dong Zhuo tries to expand into Ma Teng's Wu Wei but he seems unsuccessful so far. To the south, Liu Yan attacks Zhang Lu.

Yuan Shu desperately tries to hold onto Wu Gate. This scenario seems oddly familiar...

Cao Cao has expanded from Chen Liu southeast into Shou Chun. Liu Dai sends a unit to colonize even further south. Even further east, Tao Qian has captured the city of Wu.

Sun Jian has expanded southward into Gui Yang. Everyone seems to be growing except for us. His neighbor to the north, Liu Biao, has taken the city of Jiang Xia. Even further to the north, Kong Zhou attacks Dong Zhuo's newly taken city of Xu Chang. Good luck, pal.

Finally, it looks like Liu Yu has temporarily held off Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao has been greatly weakened by his attack on Ji, but he will likely rebuild quickly.

After recruiting about 10,000 soldiers, Gongsun Du heads out to attack the dam again just in case Gongsun Zan sets his eyes back on Xiang Ping.

It seems the time we spent rebuilding was for nothing. A plague breaks out in Xiang Ping, killing thousands of soldiers and causing chaos in the streets. The time I could spend recruiting more troops is instead trying to restore order because I don't have enough officers to do both. Eventually the plague abates, but the damage is done - it's killed 5,000 men.

Our prisoner Shan Jing manages to escape back to Gongsun Zan. I tried recruiting him several times but failed each time.

Yuan Shu's city of Wan falls to Dong Zhuo's onslaught and he becomes the first defeated warlord of this game.

It looks like Kong Zhou actually managed to take Dong Zhuo's Xu Chang, but it's under threat from being lost. I have no idea what's happening in the north, but it looks like Han Fu is attacking Cao Cao. This could be huge if he's successful. Right now it looks like there's a good chance of success.

Unbelievable. In the most absurd act of hubris ever, Liu Yu leads an attack south on Yuan Shao. There is no doubt he'll be crushed, but this is one of the craziest things I've ever seen. Liu Yu not only has survived the initial onslaught, but he's actually leading an attack. The AI is going nuts this game!

No way.

In the most desperate long shot ever, I sent Gongsun Kang to the south to recruit the free officer Li Tong. It took him 60 days to get there and it will still take them both 60 days to get back, but I sent Gongsun Kang out thinking that I had nothing to lose if he was gone for so long. He actually did it. This guy is a pretty good spear and cavalry general and by far the best guy we've got. Maybe I'll send him out to try to recruit more people.

Unbelievable! Han Fu has actually taken Cao Cao's city of Chen Liu. Cao Cao could still make a comeback from Shou Chun to the southeast and Han Fu will probably die in a year or so, but this is a total game changer. This whole game has been absolutely crazy so far!

Gongsun Kang and Li Tong make it back to Xiang Ping. After two whole years, Xiang Ping is finally fully developed. Now all that's left to do is build up troops and wait for Gongsun Zan to make a mistake.

Despite Liu Yu's valiant two year defense, he's eventually wiped out...

...by Zhang Yang, another guy who usually sits there the entire game until he's swallowed up by Yuan Shao. Instead of Yuan Shao or Gongsun Zan, the two most powerful people in the north are Zhang Yang and Han Fu. Unbelievable! It looks like the crazy train is here to stay.

Gongsun Zan's mistake comes sooner than I expect. He sends an army of 20,000 soldiers to Xiang Ping, a city that now has 35,000 soldiers. Still, I'd likely take less casualties by breaking the dam than by fighting them head on. I immediately send out Gongsun Kang with a supply convoy of 22,000 men to my port of An Ding to protect them from the deluge. Gongsun Du heads to the dam while Li Tong and Gongsun Gong wait for the enemies to come closer to the city.

They finally get in range of Xiang Ping. One of the men isn't close enough to Xiang Ping to be hit by the deluge so Li Tong uses a cavalry tactic to push him one square closer. Gongsun Du unleashes the dam and the water destroys all 20,000 of Gongsun Zan's soldiers. We lose 2,000 men in the dam burst. The battle is over.

Meanwhile, Dong Zhuo captures Zhang Lu's city of Han Zhong, destroying Zhang Lu's forces. Despite his losses, I think Dong Zhuo will likely remain the strongest force for quite a while. He'll continue to get stronger and wipe out many of the smaller lords. He now jeopardizes Liu Yan, the lord to his immediate south, who has a large border and not enough men to protect it.

Liu Bei captures Liu Dai's city of Pu Yang, destroying his force and solidifying his position. At the same time, Yuan Shao is attacking Liu Bei's main city of Ping Yuan. Even though his famous officers Zhang Fei and Guan Yu are defending Ping Yuan, it looks like there's a good chance it will fall.

I pull back some of my troops from my port of An Ping and bring them back to Xiang Ping. It's finally time to attack Gongsun Zan's Bei Ping. I march my army of 28,000 cavalrymen toward his city. This army isn't mean to capture it, but to greatly weaken him and make my next attack easier. Even though he has far less troops than I do, his officers are much better and he has a much higher level of cavalry technology than I do.

The armies of Gongsun Zan and Gongsun Du meet just north of Bei Ping. Realizing the risks, Gongsun Du challenges Gongsun Yue, a relative of Gongsun Zan's, to a duel. He accepts.

Yue has one higher war, so he has a slight statistical advantage. Du starts out defending and almost immediately goes into defense stance, which makes him temporarily invulnerable.

Gongsun Yue uses the mortal blow spirit attack but it doesn't deal much damage because Gongsun Du is still in defense mode. Recognizing the need to retaliate with a spirit attack of his own, Gongsun Du switches to spirit mode.

Gongsun Du switches back to defense mode when Yue triggers his attack stance and unleashes a quick flurry of attacks. Fortunately he's able to block or deflect each attack, which greatly increases his spirit energy.

It takes a while, but Gongsun Du finally has enough spirit energy to unleash three mortal blows in a row, an attack that will definitely knock out Yue.

It does, but just barely. Yue is captured but he's a relative of Gongsun Zan's so there's no way he'll defect. His 7,000 men are wiped off the map. The other units move closer and Gongsun Kang challenges Gongsun Fan to a duel but he refuses.

Gongsun Zan's troops are far superior to mine and kill about 2,200 of Gongsun Du's men on their turn. It seems the best way to get rid of them is to take them out in duels. Gongsun Kang challenges Gongsun Fan to a duel again, but this time he accepts.

The fight starts out with Gongsun Fan and Gongsun Kang trading blow for blow with Kang in attack mode. Despite Fan's 6 point advantage, Kang is holding his own. Fan then triggers an offensive stance so Kang switches to defense mode.

Fortunately, Kang dodges most of Fan's attacks and triggers defense mode. Immediately after this, Fan triggers another offensive flurry but because Kang is in defense mode, he blocks them all without taking damage. Gongsun Kang continues to build up spirit energy while dealing damage.

Ahhh!! I accidentally saved over my pictures of Gongsun Fan doing a mortal blow and Gongsun Kang doing a musou. The mortal blow deals heavy damage and so does the musou attack, although it doesn't lower Fan's war or finish him off.

With almost no health left, I give up hope and just throw Kang on attack mode. Unbelievably, he scores two hits in a row and takes out Fan. Like Yue, Gongsun Fan is also a relative of Gongsun Zan's so there's no way he'll switch sides. We still take him prisoner and scatter his 6,000 man troop.

Gongsun Gong confuses Liao Hua, Gongsun Zan's last unit on the field, allowing Li Tong and Gongsun Du to ride in and deal huge damage. This battle is going way better than I thought it would. There are only 11,000 soldiers left in Bei Ping. Gongsun Zan may send out another troop, but I think there's a good chance we could take the city from him.

Gongsun Gong manages to confuse Liao Hua again and Li Tong, Gongsun Du and Gongsun Kang swoop in to do even more damage. Gongsun Zan sends out Zou Jing with a tiny troop of spearmen that won't be much of a problem.

Gongsun Kang and Li Tong take out Liao Hua and Gongsun Gong confuses Zou Jing, whom Gongsun Du attacks.

Gongsun Kang finishes off Zou Jing's unit and they march closer to Bei Ping. Gongsun Gong starts a fire, which damages one of the walls.

Gongsun Zan himself rides out of the city and charges Gongsun Gong, automatically forcing him into a duel. This is really bad. Gongsun Zan is strong enough that he could kill Gongsun Gong in a single hit before the duel even starts.

He does. Gongsun Gong goes down without even putting up a fight. Gongsun Gong is captured, which wipes out 6,000 of my men.

Gongsun Zan's unit only had 1,700 men so Li Tong and Gongsun Du were able to wipe it out easily, freeing Gongsun Gong and returning him to Xiang Ping. Gongsun Kang attacks the wall. There are probably too many soldiers in Bei Ping to knock it down to 0, but as long as I destroy the wall, the town is mine.

Gongsun Zan sends out Zou Jing attack, whom Gongsun Du and Li Tong easily destroy. He keeps recruiting more soldiers to send out, which is frustrating and annoying. Now that Bei Ping only has 8,000 troops, maybe he'll stop.

It looks like he has. Gongsun Du leads a simultaneous attack and his leadership increases to 68. That's uh, almost decent? At this point, I don't think Gongsun Zan will send anyone else out. Bei Ping will be ours in a few turns.

Several turns later, Li Tong captures Gongsun Zan's city of Bei Ping. All of his men are taken prisoner and will hopefully be recruited soon. It took almost 4 years, but Gongsun Du has managed to conquer his first city. His new city of Bei Ping is adjacent to Yuan Shao and Zhang Yang, two men who are allied with each other and are much more powerful than I am currently.

This is China in October of 193. The north is divided among Yuan Shao, Zhang Yang, Han Fu and now Gongsun Du. Although Yuan Shao managed to push Liu Bei south of the Yellow River, Liu Bei is stronger than ever. Han Fu is also quite strong and is leading an attack on Dong Zhuo's Xu Chang. Although Tao Qian has a lot of territory, he doesn't have many troops. Cao Cao, who has taken Shou Chun, has rebuilt his army and seems ready for conquest. He's currently sending troops north, likely against Tao Qian. Liu Biao expanded too quickly and he will be fodder for Sun Jian. Liu Yan is actually fairly strong right now. He's fighting a losing battle for Dong Zhuo's Han Zhong, but this won't deter him. Dong Zhuo continues to grow and gain power, although I think he'll soon find a roadblock in Cao Cao.

This has been a crazy game so far and it just keeps getting crazier. I have no idea what will happen next! Neither Zhang Yang nor Yuan Shao are particularly strong, although they have much better personnel than I do. I'll likely go after Zhang Yang first, but who knows!