Let's Romance the Three Kingdoms!

Chapter 9 : Snakes in the plains.

Music: Shattered Bamboo

Another minor warlord falls to Cao Cao.

We resume our naval harassment as a preventative measures against Cao Cao.


We also fortify our defenses in preparation for any attack from the western front.


Even Cao Cao had the same idea...


A new officer joins us automatically, courtesy of Liu Biao's heir.


He's pretty average for civic official. Sad history though.


The drama came when I decided to try my luck in assassinating Cao Cao with 24,000 cavalry.


Motherfucker rushes into it with 8,000 spearmen and hid in the forest where we cannot use our cavalry tactics while he employs his own think-tank strategies. To beat this intellectual unit, we need to drain him of willpower slowly. How to do this?

Duel Challenges can be made at any time. Refusal will result in loss of willpower and transferred to the challenger.

Cao Cao with his Bold personality knows he can't match Huang Zhong in combat, so he declines. A few hundred of his men ran in terror.


At the same time the southern naval forces led by Xu Sheng execute target practices against Sun Ce's coastal city.


They respond by sending a 10,000 strong force from the south.

Gan Ning will respond to that threat.

After we blow up the city, of course.


We try our luck again with Cao Cao's duel, this time with a slightly weaker Lei Bo. To my astonishment, he accepted it!



Damn straight.


Ha ha ha, can we stop laughing now?

Both combatants clashed as they passed each other.

None fell, so they rode side by side and traded spear blows.

GO GET HIM LEI BO!

JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE AND WE CAN CUT THAT SNAKE'S HEAD OFF! But then....


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I deputized Kuai Yue with Lei Bo.....26 war rating. He can't deal any damage to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao retreated from the duel successfully. Fucking close call.


STFU.

Oh God.

Still, Cao Cao is down to 105 men. We might be able to kill him if we roast him alive!


Nope. He escaped successfully even after his unit was destroyed. So far, I've not upgraded Cao Cao's city much. I only built a barracks and stables to reinforce my strength there....I'm waiting for an opportunity...and here it comes!


Yuan Shao finally got serious and charged Luo Yang with a force of 50,000 men. Cao Cao responds by drawing strength from the city of Xu Chang. That city is the Emperor's throne....left protected by 11,000 men.
Sounds like an invitation.


Finally we get to link up with Yuan Shao. But Yuan Shao's arrival signaled the end of Liu Bei.

Yuan Shao committed less men to assist his ally. It looks like Sun Ce will finish off Liu Bei once and for all.

So much for my predictions...

Yeah, mine too. What the fuck? He's a slippery snake, that one.

Chapter 10 : Tragedy at Xu Chang

Music : Tragedy

The bloody battle between Yuan & Cao's forces reaches boiling point with both sides resorting to fire strategies.

Isolated from his men, Yuan Shao, in his rush to rescue Emperor Xian was surrounded, confused, and set on fire repeatedly.

He didn't make it through the battle.





Normally, handing over of power to the eldest heir should be a smooth affair. Not according to history, however.



I'm not sure whether to cheer or be sad at the news. Our goal is within sight, though. We broke past the guard tower network and being siege on the city of Xu Chang.


I have plans of my own.


If everyone's fighting for the Emperor....then I'll make everyone more honest...



DOWN TO THE LATE HAN! Our forces shall stand under Han no more! Let the final victor determine the next dynasty!




Times change, old man.


You got more things to worry about, Imperial Uncle.

Because war. War never changes.



Objective accomplished. We're pulling out of Xu Chang. Yuan forces suffered a massive loss today. They accomplished nothing and lost their leader. Yuan Shang's establishment of a break-away force will not last long. Contrary to my expectations, he only secured ONE town, and ONE officer aside from himself.

The one who benefits most from this chaos? Cao Cao.

Looks like I guessed right...

Cao Cao holds some kind of mythical status in my playthroughs (not particularly in this version, however), who simply refuses to stay down. Aside from having historically (inflated) fielding a huge army of talented officers, he has a special horse that allows him 100% safe retreat from battle defeat. Once after I defeated him, he ran away and became a high ranking officer/advisor in the south, only to promoted as the warlord of a new faction after his ruler died!



Doesn't protecting the emperor give your special perks or something aside from the increased speed that you gain ranks? I guess you wanted a harder game by proclaiming yourself the emperor.

I don't wanna let Cao Cao whore the Emperor too long. It's not that I don't want the influence, I just can't hold on to that city. If I can't have it, then no one can!

Chapter 11 : Across the rivers

Song : Battle







As planned, we left Xu Chang vacant for Yuan army to claim.


We know we can't hold it. And they also can't. Cao Cao is just too strong in that area.


We strengthened our base of operations in Xin Ye. Naval harassment is constantly being done against Cao Cao and Sun Ce. We're planning to strike northwards, actually. But Cao Cao took the initiative and came to us first.

I don't mind.

We build a war drum to double our attack power and parade our 15,000 strong sovereign cavalry army.


Cao Cao also sent a small force to link up with the attack from the east. A small detachment of pikemen and think tank unit is enough to stop it, while our main force deals with the northern threat.


As expected, the Yuan brothers quarrel did not last long. Let's hope there's no lasting damage done. We need Yuan Tan to keep Cao Cao occupied.


And Ma Chao joins Sun Ce while his father serves Cao Cao. What. The. Fuck?


Yuan forces attempts to retake Xu Chang from Cao Cao.


That's our cue to move out against the weakened north after wiping out their attack force.


As a token of appreciation, I begin taking steps in mending our ties with Yuan's forces. We're sending tributes from our bountiful colonies down south. It'll take some time to mend, but it's a small step. By securing alliance, we can stop the unprovoked attacks and work better together.




It was 'Hostile' before.



With Wan captured, we quickly reinforce our position to discourage any counter-attacks from Cao Cao from the Northwest. They have a garrison of 50,000 there, with another 23,500 incoming.

I've tried baiting them to a naval engagement to no avail. We just have to be prepared for a land attack.

We escalated our southern naval harassment into a full blown invasion against Sun Ce's coastal city.


Lu Meng, one of Sun Ce's faithful, dies in a fire.


Sun Ce thought of retakiing Jiang Xia, but our naval forces are always ready blow it up and support our invasion at the same time. We're pretty much forcing them to push NORTH instead of West.



Further research : Stone Construction. I want to get Catapults & Warships development underway to further increase my naval power.


With Chai Sang secured, we now have a complete river blockade on any Sun forces attempting to enter our domain. We'll sink anything that comes in!

There's nothing worse than failing an attack and get counter-attacked from both sides.

Yuan's forces is assaulted by Cao Cao from the west and Sun Ce from the south. I wish we're in a position to help. But I'm afraid entering his territory at the moment is considered as an act of war, further ruining our fragile relations.

Worrying signs of Cao Cao's rising power...

Everyone's too busy killing each other, they forgot about Cao Cao. But I suppose it falls to me to deal with him since I shared the most borders.

What concerns me most is Cao Cao's 80,000-strong garrison to the west. We need to take it out if we want to put a dent into his manpower pool.


We will divert most of our resources into tackling Cao Cao next update, while maintaining a strong naval presence to keep Sun Ce focused on the northern front only.

Well, I didn't expect Cao Cao's current position, but I did expect him to get this strong. Maybe its just because he has no lack of talented officers, but damn, every single game I play, he always ends up being the biggest thorn in Unification's side.

Also, I don't really think Lu Meng is a prized officer at this point. AFAIK doesn't he get his high intelligence score only much later in the game period?

Chapter 12 : Here to stay

Music : Dominance


Cao Cao's force refuse to take the bait and continues to reinforce.

Our diplomatic relations improve with Yuan Tan.


If I recall correctly, the city of Wan is where we started. This is where we escaped a horrible fate of being assaulted from 3 directions by Cao Cao. We only had 22,500 in the beginning against 60,000.

This time, we're here to stay.

At the same time, Sun Ce attempts to break our naval blockade. Stubborn bastards.


Cao Cao pours more forces from other nearby cities.


I instructed our think tanks to construct additional defenses to buy more time. Archer Towers, War Drums etc.


Our depleted naval blockade is also bolstered with a war band to restore their lost willpower.


The northern attackers get a taste of think-tank strategies.


Aside from Perturb, which confuses, I decided to employ Blunder.

Yue Jin attacked his adjacent ally.

His deputy triggered a Chain Attack skill, which gives another free attack.


They just damaged their own ally. Twice.


But we're not done yet. See that round circular haystack next to them? It's ember, when hit by fire arrows or effect, everything in its radius catches fire.



This is the chinese character for 'fire'. OK, it's actually a chinese letter for 'dude running while in flames'




Burned, confused, and blundered into attacking his own ally. They'll cry in shame when they get home.

We deploy a Cavalry and Spear unit to deal with the western attack force. Their battering ram flattened two archer towers already.


Huang Zhong's Divine Archery finishes the job in the north.


I diverted Zhang Xiu's massive cavalry unit to the west and routed Cao Cao's cavalry attack unit.


Liu Biao arrives with reinforcements and additional equipment. 20,000 men joins our garrison. We're at even strength now.


A battering ram from the east manage to get close enough to assault the city walls.

We need to force it to move...observe the bundle of haystacks again. This time it's a fire ball. Instead of a radius explosion...it burns three squares in front.


Zhang Xiu got caught in it. Ouch. But we bear with it and send another unit to blockade the battering ram movements.

As a result, the enemy will not attack the city wall and instead focus on extinguishing the flames on themselves.


Cao Cao's forces is getting desperate, the Commander in charge of the battering ram to the west challenged us to a duel.

We decline. Why settle it one on one when we can have a 100,000 vs 100,000?

Huang Zhong arrives to BBQ arrow the offending ram near the city wall.


The arrival of our second reinforcement convoy sealed our victory. There's no fucking way they can take on 80,000 strong garrison now.


Lord Zhang Xiu slays Dian Man of Cao Cao's forces in one charge.


It's over.

We're back home and here to stay.

We inflicted 50,000 upwards of casualty in that fight. Cutting their troop count by nearly 20%



Yuan Tan held on to Chen Liu, after all. Impressive. I'll be moving to secure an alliance with him soon. With my east flank secured, perhaps I can focus everything against the west.

Holy fuck! Pang Tong!

Tried playing this a bit yesterday. The way walls work is pissing me off. The enemy just kept throwing fucking small 5000 man troops at it till it lost all hp. This apparently destroys all troops inside automatically (Wtf?) And I can't leave the wall to just rape them with my vastly superior forces because their tiny shit army blocks the exit (Wtf?^2) AND if I exit the wall just before it breaks, they can capture it and it magically gets restored to 50% health instantly, but I can't repair it myself at all.

Plug the tiles behind the wall with ranged units. That way, they are holding on to their gravestone instead of a gateway. You shouldn't rely on walls for defense, treat it as a choke point with a few drums / towers behind it as a support. You'll learn pretty quick that those are death traps if you can keep halting enemy attacks at that point.

Also, walls are sorta source of income. It generates tax and food. You gotta transport it manually, but if you really need the cash to reward your officers, it's instant ATM.

Man I'm finally starting to remember all these names and you start killing them off. Jeeeeeesh.

Chapter 13 : The elusive one

Song : Courage


Cao Cao's garrison remain strong at 60,000. But closer examination on his arsenal of weapons reveals his weakness.

They do not have enough equipment to supply their army.

Troops without equipment are designated swordsmen, they have lowest attack and defense, and incapable of performing any special unit tactics. We assemble a strike squad comprised on Zhang Yang's Cavalry, He Qi's Spear and Lei Bo's flame tower to cull their numbers.


As expected, Cao Cao's defensive response was found lacking. Troops in yellow clad uniforms are swordsmen and easy kills.

We will slaughter them.

I wanted to commit a full-scale assault, but Cao Cao decides to march from Luo Yang to assault us from the north.


It's alright, we can manage.


Meanwhile, Gan Ning's pirates are still busy fending off Sun Ce's forces, who had given up on the North.


Good news. We recruited a new officer.

She's a wife of a famous strategist.




Cao Cao arrives at Wan. This will be his grave, hopefully.


We'll face him with all we've got.


Huang Zhong will demonstrate his godly archery!


Penetrate Tactics strikes at two targets in a straight line.

3,000 dead in one move. Magnificent!

Niu Jin who isn't so intelligent falls prey to think-tanks combined trickery.


We surrounded Cao Cao and set up an ember trap. Detonating it will also damage Zhang Xiu's unit, but we really, really want to kill Cao Cao.


Fire!


More Fire!


Is this guy the Terminator?


We charge at his 900 men and failed to capture him! What the fuck?

Buit we captured his deputy.

Oh god, his special ability.... All strategy costs 1 willpower?! Holy fuck. Maximum Willpower cap is 120!

We successfully repulsed Cao Cao's attack and resumed our research on Catapults development.


More good news.




The tide is turning.

Yuan's forces continues to lay stagnant. There has been no major offensive on their side against Cao Cao's forces. Perhaps an alliance is not even necessary, after all.



Turns out Liu Bei broke his alliance and took one of Yuan's city. Sun Ce cannot break the naval blockade and remains shut inside his own territory. Our next move would be to finish off Cao Cao's 50,000 garrison to the west, smashing his power completely before his best men completes their campaign against Liu Zhang.

Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang =

Chapter 14 : The lonely dragon

Song : Eternity
The news hit us like a lighting strike.

We did not garrison any troops in Jiang Xia. Upon returning from recruiting her husband, Huang Ying and Zhuge Liang returns to an empty city, besieged by Sun Ce's forces. They were both taken prisoner. What happened next is an outrage.



The whole southern navy, drained of any willpower was mobilized to take vengeance and free the chief strategist from his imprisonment.


Zhang Yan's task force cut through the poorly armed defense of Shang Yong and arrives outside the city gates.


Only to get swarmed by a 25,000 swordsmen.


Zhuge Liang is freed.


We mourned at the senseless loss of his lover. And sought vengeance.

An eye for an eye...



Swarmed by the massive army of swordsmen and slowly equipped defenses, Zhang Yang retreats, He Qi's spear unit was destroyed and he gets himself captured in the process. Our lord volunteered the rescue mission himself.


Good news from the east, Yuan Tan finally staged an offensive against Cao Cao's Xu Chang.


Zhang Yan returns to the battlefield after resupplying at Wan to support his liege in the rescue attempt.


Our relations with Yuan Tan's army improve.


An unexpected development takes place!



Two women died meaningless deaths. I suppose we should back off for a bit and let our southern navy recover.




Cao Cao sends more troops towards Wan.


Although ill-trained, our archers and think tanks combined well to repel the assault.


He Qi's rescue was a success and we captured Xu Huang!


At the same time Sun Ce stages an attack on Cao Cao's isolated city of Ru Nan!


For the first time ever, Cao Cao is attacked from three direction!

Turning point.


We're right on track.

Soon, we'll be the strongest!


Yuan Tan's assault failed to capture Xu Chang, but Sun Ce secures Ru Nan. I predict they'll clash with Yuan Tan once more and extends the ceasefire agreement with me. Liu Bei managed to eke out a small nation to the east, the dreams of resurrecting the Late Han still burning deep in his heart.

Also, Huang Ying was our first casualty of war.




Cause of Death: Executed by Sun Ce's army, November 209.

A popular story depicts that Yueying challenged her suitors to personally visit her by claiming that she was ugly. In the possibility that a suitor would visit, she would hide herself under viels as a quiet dare to test their resolve. When Zhuge Liang came to her, her figure was silouetted by the yellow full moon and her head was covered with two red veils. Unlike other men, he entered alone and didn't hesitate to remove her disguises. As he removed the first cloth from her face, he calmly stated that her ugliness was a misunderstanding by her father. He was rewarded by Yueying's joyful visage and gratification.

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If you can "deal" with Sun Ce ... please do so.

... Fucking bastard executed the only tits you got so far ...

Officer highlight: Gan Ning



Early life as a pirate

Gan Ning was a government official when he was rather young, but he left his post, and gathered a gang of fellow idle youths to become pirates. They carried bells as a mark, causing commoners to either run or hide whenever they heard the ring of bells. He kept looting, robbing and killing until he decided to start a scholarship. After reading some literature from different philosophers, Gan Ning sought out Liu Biao's patronage, who rejected him for his background.

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Commander Shepard would be proud.

He's our best general at the moment, with 98 WAR and no real weakness in his stat. Politics and Charisma can be safely ignored for a military officer. His 76 Intelligence will keep him safe from most think-tanks.

His unit aptitude has no weakness, S ratings for Spears, Weaponry, Navy and A for the rest. The only thing that he lacks is an awesome unique ability. Majesty, despite lowering 20 points of unit willpower when he attacks, is not really that useful. Still, his stat-build and supreme aptitude makes him the Number 1 General of Zhang Xiu's army.

Drakron said:

If you can "deal" with Sun Ce ... please do so.

... Fucking bastard executed the only tits you got so far ...

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THIS!

Sorry guys, Sun Ce will have to wait.

Chapter 15 : All is forgotten

Music : Spring Buds
Cao Cao continues to pour forth from the north, smashing his force against our stronghold of Wan. As we captured more officers, we begin the recruiting process.


To the west, our lord Zhang Xiu successfully gained a foothold to launch an assault against Han Zhong. It will take some time, but it's a good start.


We also captured more followers in the process.


And beat back his invasion force many times.


Undaunted, he launches an attack from the western region. Through a river from Yong An, Liu Zhang's ex-territory.

I immediately dispatched the lesser officers to deal with the naval threat. They haven't had much chance to prove themselves lately.

Later...




This kid's an epic failure in history, but the game is so generous with his stat. I'm quite confused. I'll put him on the next character highlight. He has the same special skill as Xun You!

Cao Cao escapes. Again.


We begin upgrading our crossbows counter fire. This allows archers to fire back when receiving ranged fire.


Our quickly formed naval officers perform admirably in their western defense. The northerners still can't swim.


We captured Xiahou Shang and executed him on the spot, he is a nephew of Xiahou Dun, related to Cao Cao. We cannot recruit them.




Ha ha ha. As you can see, Cao Cao's getting old. Not much time in that old man. It's a pity I can't execute him on the spot like previous RTK series. We declined and prioritize in recruiting the captive he named.



His reply was to send more men to smash Wan.

I'm not making much progress here. We've been stuck in Wan for so long, recruiting, drilling the troops, equipping them that our advance to the west has totally halted due to lack of manpower. But we're slowly chipping at his talent pool.

Sun Ce makes his move. Confident that his borders are safe due to the cease-fire, he attacks Xu Chang.


Then I start to realize, why bother covering the east, if Sun Ce is going to do it for me? I reviewed Yuan Tan's forces activity, they're too goddamn busy fighting their ex-ally Liu Bei and defending against Sun Ce to make any move against Cao Cao. Perhaps it'll be a good idea to extend the ceasefire with Sun Ce, freeing our top naval officers to handle matters to the west.


Troop count parity achieved.

We're slowly matching Cao Cao in terms of city controlled and troops.


As you can see, Sun Ce's central plains expansion will clash with Yuan Tan soon. If they can keep each other busy, and the ceasefire between us is perpetually renewed, I think I can divert 100,000 troops from eastern front to crush Cao Cao completely.

Officer highlight: Ma Su

Ma Su (190–228) was a military strategist for the Kingdom of Shu during the Three Kingdoms era of China. He was the younger brother of Shu advisor, Ma Liang. Ma Su had extraordinary talents in military stratagems and was admired by the Prime Minister of Shu, Zhuge Liang. However, a tactical blunder by Ma Su at the Battle of Jieting resulted in Shu being dealt a huge defeat by Zhang He, a general of the Kingdom of Wei.

Relying purely on books of military tactics, he chose to 'take the high ground' and set his base on the mountains instead of in a city, ignoring Wang Ping and his advice to set up base in a valley well supplied with water. Due to this tactical mistake, the Wei troops led by Zhang He encircled the hill and cut off the water supply to the Shu troops and attacked; later, Sima Yi's forces set fire to the hill.

Ma Su was beheaded by a tearful Zhuge Liang, whose continued high appraisal for Ma Su's intelligence made that a very reluctant decision. The scene is considered among the most famous in the novel, and is reenacted in Chinese opera frequently.

A Japanese proverb, "executing Ma Su with tears" (泣いて馬謖を斬る, naite Bashoku wo kiru) refers specifically to this incident, meaning "punishing a person for his wrongdoings regardless of relations or his abilities."

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He sounded like pure fail, but for some reason the game puts him as a very formidable think-tank. Nobody gives a damn about his unit aptitude. With Focus skill, this little kid can start throwing strategies at every turn without stopping to recover willpower. Quite a broken ability if you ask me, if his INT is not high enough, deputize him with Zhuge Liang or Pang Tong for more ridiculous spamming.

Synergistic deputy:
Zhuge Liang: Strategies last longer / more powerful.
Pang Tong: Chain reaction. Chance to affect adjacent enemy units with the same strategy. Absolute madness with Perturb > Fire combo. Confused and set ablaze!

Maybe the stats reflect his supposed aptitude for military stratagems and not his career?

I dunno, it seems a little overrated. Focus is a high-tier unique skill. Too high for an epic fail like him. I didn't mind the stat, I'm not using him to attack normally, watch this update for how overpowered Focus is.

Chapter 16 : Brutality

Music : The Ultimate
With our eastern borders secured from any hostiles. We are ready to strike westwards, holding nothing back.


Our defensive successes has captured several key officers from Cao Cao.



Our objective - Han Zhong is heavily fortified that requires speed to overcome.


Shang Yong build up is complete.


Assemble the dick formation!

A force of 60,000 cavalry led by Gan Ning will charge to victory!

Xiahou Dun marshall the defensive blockade at the narrow pass. This is our first challenge!


Our think tanks get to work - Misinforming the two front units, confusing them to retreat and break the blockade.


With the pass slightly opened, we charge in and destroyed the guard tower to open up another path.


The defense respond by deploying a fireball attack.

No one was injured except for a few hundred deaths.

We broke out and are in position to siege the city walls directly.


Meanwhile, the city of Wan will deploy northwards! Brotherhood Cavalry will deploy!


Rapid Strategy Wizard Squad deployed.


Pang Tong teams up with Xun You for our second mass crowd control unit.

Han Zhong's defenders are completely paralyzed by Zhuge Liang. His divine strategy is harder to break free against.


Wan's forces met their first resistance and Pang Tong got to work. Confusing both of them at the same time. Sima Yi starts the BBQ.




Just in case the fire extinguishes, we prepare another fireball trap to detonate.


Next turn, the fire died out. So we detonate it again.



We have two options, to the west lies Chang An. To the east is Luo Yang. Seeing that Cao Cao is personally stationed at Luo Yang, we break that gate first.


Our western blitz succeeded in securing Han Zhong.


One of Cao Cao officer finally burned to death.


Make that two.


Looks like there's no escape for you this time, Cao Cao...


We've got the upper hand!


We've split Cao Cao forces into two. He will have trouble connecting his supply chains now.

Yuan Tan loses most of his territory to Sun Ce. We've successfully pitted them against each other. The victor will have to deal with my whole united western front.

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong AND Sima Yi ?

OLOLO wapanese bullshit gaem, animu art and trial and erorr gameplay, you suck, weaboofags!

It was not developd in Americwa so it's shit shit shit!

I think I saw someone, a guy in a coat...

Must have been a skyway rat.