Cao Cao’s Forces Scenario – ** Difficulty
Target 1 – Defeat Wen Chou or Yan Liang
Target 2 – Do not allow Guan Du West Gate or Guan Du East Gate to be breached.
Target 3 – Yan Jin Fort and Bai Ma Fort do not fall
Strategy – Unlocking Yuan Shao requires you to complete all three targets, but this is a tall task especially target 3. You will need a character built up a bit, especially on harder difficulties, and you’ll need to be able to quickly dispatch the rush of officers to Bai Ma and then Yan Jin. If you take too long one of the forts will fall and target 3 will be failed. Again, if you don’t have a built up character you’ll find this very hard, and probably impossible if you don’t have a fast horse.
Initially I like to take a big horse jump off the north cliff and go to Bai Ma (eastern fort of the two). Shen Pei and Xun Chen should just be breaking down the north base door, so take them out. Unless you can kill Xun Chen / Shen Pei really quick, you’re likely to see them burn the base and by the time you’re done with them, Yuan Tan runs in from the north. Like a lot of enemies in this level, Yuan Tan’s defense and attack is boosted. Thus, it’ll be hard to make short work of him, but try to get rid of him fast because Yuan Shang will be closing in on you, and then Yan Liang and his crew of Chen Zen and Yan Rou. Ideally you have Yuan Shang taken out before the latter group rides in, but it all depends on how built up your character is and how long it takes you to oust officers. Yan Liang is the once with the burning flame aura around his character – be wary of him because he’s powered up well.
Hopefully by the time you defeat him, Yan Jin to the west is still up. If you can manage to defeat the officers one by one in optimal time you should ride over to Yan Jin just a little before Yuan Xi / Wen Chou come in. Han Meng and Wang Xiu should be attacking the base – I generally have 50-100 soldiers left in Yan Jin depending on how long it took me to get there. Quickly clear these officers out, grab some health, and go NORTH of the base. The longer you can hold the enemy out of Yan Jin the more soldiers will build up there – if you end up fighting Yuan Xi and ultimately Wen Chou in there, you’ll lose soldiers quick and then the base will go. Worse yet, even if you’re outside Wen Chou often times just rides past you into the base. So, make sure you take out Yuan Xi before Wen Chou gets there because then you can focus on Wen Chou riding in with his horse to get him off of it. Wen Chou has two other brutes with him in Lu Xiang and Lu Kuang so it’s a great place to save if the situation gets bad.
With Wen Chou and Yan Liang dead, things definitely turn your way but you’re not out of the woods yet. Gao Lan generally attacks Yan Jin if the base doesn’t fall earlier (otherwise he’ll attack Bai Ma). He also is powered up defensively so it’ll require lots of hits, but make it quick. The other variable in this battle is Target 2, because I generally don’t have time to deal with the south officers so I ignore that issue and go towards Wu Chao in the northwest. Along the way you’ll see Cui Yan make his way south (with the intention of attacking Yan Jin’s south gate). You want to leave Yan Jin and Bai Ma untouched for as long as possible, so do so and make your way to the northwest.
At some point Yuan Shao will take his army out of Wu Chao with the intention of moving on Guan Du. This is when you get your horse and jump into Wu Chao, surprising Chunyu Qiong so he’s an easy kill. Then begin taking out corporals until Lu Wei Kuang comes, and soon enough you’ll have Wu Chao burnt. If you saved Yan Jin and Bai Ma, you’ll notice Zhen Ji appears east of Wu Chao. Likewise if you lost one of the two you’ll find Zhen Ji appear south of Wu Chao (near Cui Yan). Take her out either way.
After the Wu Chao fire attack, you’ll notice some generals like Xu You, Gao Lan (if alive) and Zhang He will join Cao Cao’s Forces. Some of them don’t if you take too long but if you have Yan Jin and Bai Ma saved, you definitely didn’t take too long. The last thing to do is take out Yuan Shao and his surrounding generals like Guo Tu, Ju Shou, Chen Lin, Liu Bao, Feng Ji and Tian Feng. Again, you absolutely do not want Guan Du West or Guan Du East Gate to fall so you must make haste in killing these generals, as the lower Guan Du gates surely have had enemies pounding on them for a while as is.
Lu Bu’s Forces Scenario – ** Difficulty
Target 1 – Take Yan Jin Fort and Bai Ma Fort in 15 minutes.
Target 2 – Take Wu Chao Camp and Guan Du Castle
Target 3 – Score 1,000 or more K.O.’s
Strategy – Okay, the only timed thing is taking Bai Ma and Yan Jin within 15 minutes. Not a difficult task.
The layout is different than with Cao Cao’s forces as Chunyu Qiong and Lu Wei Kuang start of just north of you. Xun Chen is around here for Yuan Shao, as is Jia Xu for Cao Cao. Once the area is cleared, you might as well head to the nearby Yan Jin base. Xiahou Yuan, Wen Chou, Yan Liang, Xu Huang, plus many other generals eventually congregate here. You can really slaughter a lot of enemies without having to go too far! Of course if your character is having problems you should probably back off a bit and let the enemies come to you in smaller packs outside the base. But if you can handle it, you’ll see a clear stage after the dust settles.
Plus, you have to seal Yan Jin fort anyway. After that, get Bai Ma and then head to Yuan Shao’s Main Camp. Along with Cao Cao’s Main Camp you’ll need to capture Yuan Shao’s, and then take his head. As usual his ballista bolt volley musou will bug you but if you let it run out, you should have no trouble taking him out afterwards. If you cleared out the west enemies and the ones at Yan Jin, you probably have some support with Lu Bu or some of his generals.
This leaves Cao Cao, who tends to take refuge in the southeast base. Don’t forget to take Cao Cao’s Main Camp to ensure Target 2. Target 3 is easy to get in this stage with all the enemy officers, especially once you get into Yan Jin base and fight 10+ officers in succession.