Wei Forces Scenario – **** Difficulty
Target 1 – Chao Hu West Fort and lower the east Drawbridge in 10 minutes.
Target 2 – Defeat Lu Meng and Sun Quan in 20 minutes.
Target 3 – Achieve Target 1 and Target 2 and win in 20 minutes or less.
Strategy – Target 1 is tricky to achieve because the enemy will go ahead and lower the drawbridge and ruin everything for you. Thus you’ll need to take time out to lower the Drawbridge early on to achieve Target 1.
Starting off I like to go south and take on Pan Zhang, Ding Feng and Ling Tong. If you can manage to take them out fast enough you may as well take the Drawbridge to the east. Return west to your allied base that Dong Xi is attacking. Then look for the massive group of Wu enemies to the west attacking Xiahou Dun. Sun Shao, Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, Zhu Zhi, Sun Huan, and Zhou Tai are all here to destroy you. Of course only Zhou Tai is a unique character among them so you may wish to take him out and watch the others crumble before you.
Now that you have a minute, take Chao Hu West Fort for Target 1. Chen Wu and Han Dang are now attacking Chao Hu East Fort likely, with Lu Meng, Lu Dai, Zhou Fang and Zhu Huan. Not much longer and Gan Ning comes out in the southeast but Zhang Liao comes as reinforcements for you as well.
By this time your army should be assaulting the Wu Main Camp. Quan Zong, Zhuge Jin, Sun Quan and any other Wu survivor would be here. Strangely enough you need to defeat all Wu Generals in this stage but at the same time Sun Quan is very easy to defeat.
Wu Forces Scenario – *** Difficulty
Target 1 – Defeat Cao Ren and Xu Zhu in 10 minutes.
Target 2 – Take Chao Hu West Fort and lower the Drawbridge in 10 minutes.
Target 3 – Defeat Zhang Liao within 2 minutes of his appearance.
Strategy – Interesting targets for this stage. Of course you’ll need to be paying attention for Zhang Liao’s appearance if you want Target 3 completed. Cao Ren is in the northwest base and Xu Zhu is roaming about in the center, and you’ll need to take a detour east early on for the Drawbridge as well.
Take out Hua Xin just to the north, and then you’re probably best off racing to the east where Cao Xiu, Liu Ye and Yue Jin are trying to protect the nearby base. Time to take Chao Hu West Fort and then you’ll see Xu Zhu nearby. He needs to be taken out for Target 2, and once you do start heading east for the Drawbridge. Take out Cao Zhen along the way if you’re making good time. Once the Drawbridge is lowered, you have Target 2 completed. But you still have to go to West He Fei Castle to defeat Cao Ren within 10 minutes. While you’re making your way back you will probably see Zhang Liao’s ambush (remember, you have two minutes to kill him for Target 3) and hopefully you still have time for that and Cao Ren’s defeat. If not, Zhang Liao will make his way to your camp and take it. The thing about his ambush is he tends to appear at random spots, often times away from where you are.
Thus you’ll need to rush towards him even faster since you only have 2 minutes to defeat him. He’ll also be loaded with subgenerals like Zhu Ling, Wen Pin, Cao Chun, Zhang Hu, Xiahou Mao, etc.
Also about this time, Yu Jin, Man Chong, Jia Xu, Wang Shuang, Chen Jiao, Li Dian and Xiahou Dun appear in the far northwest. Sometimes this group appears before Zhang Liao’s, sometimes after.
At this point you should just have the northeast forces (and all of your targets done). Zhu Guang and Xu Huang should be up here, along with any other enemy survivors. Also remember you just have to take the bases so you don’t necessarily need to defeat Xu Huang straight up.
Sun Jian’s Forces Scenario – ****** Difficulty
Target 1 – Defeat Cao Pi in 5 minutes.
Target 2 – Take He Fei West Castle and Chao Wu West Fort in 20 minutes.
Target 3 – Defeat all enemy units in 30 minutes.
Strategy – The targets for this stage are kind of silly especially considering it is a max ****** difficulty. Defeating Cao Pi in 5 minutes basically involves you rushing to the He Fei West Castle which you have to capture anyway, and taking out Cao Pi immediately.
You may wish to veer off east to take out Man Chong quick, and then Yue Jin along the way north (via the west route). Take out Li Dian and go through the door – Yu Jin is inside but so is Cao Pi, your target. Yang Xiu is inside with some subgenerals like Wang Shuang but they are in the southeast part of the base – deal with them after Cao Pi’s death.
Begin to help your allies to the south if it’s not too late already. Take out Niu Jin and then Wen Pin in Chao hu West Fort for Target 2’s completion. Before you know it a large group of Wei officers come to the north part of this base, in Cao Chun, Jiang Gan, Chen Qun, Cao Zhi and Cao Ren. Of course Cao Ren is the one to watch out for but the group as a whole needs to be scattered. Shen Yi will probably be just to the right of this group if not with it.
You are probably going to have to abandon your attack to go save your allied camp from Zhang Liao (and Cao Xiu if he made it through). Meanwhile your attack forces will probably die off fighting Jia Xu and Ying Dan, but hurry to them and take that base once Zhang Liao is finished. Xiahou Dun in the northwest likely appears though and he’ll require a bit of your time, as he’s powered up too.
By this time, a mass of Wei forces should be coming to attack your crew via the northeast. Jia Xu, Ying Dan, Cao Hong, Chen Jiao, Cao Zhang, Cheng Yu, Zhu Ling and Cao Rui all should be pressing. A couple of enemy units take the back route (Xu Shu, Cao Zhen and Hua Xin). Cao Cao is very dangerous in this stage so despite him being all that’s left, use extreme caution.
Lu Bu’s Forces Scenario – ** Difficulty
Target 1 – Defeat Sun Quan and Sun Ce within 15 minutes.
Target 2 – At least 6 of your units survive until victory.
Target 3 – Take He Fei West Castle and He Fei East Castle within 20 minutes.
Strategy – Another Diao Chan musou mode only stage. This one is much different than the other three stages as Lu Bu’s Forces begin in the southeast.
Immediately to your west is Sun Huan and Zhou Yu, along with Chen Wu nearby. From this point you may as well focus on He Fei Castle East Side and hurry along north (via the east route). Xu Sheng and Dong Xi should be the first two that you come to, with Ding Feng and Sun Quan being inside the base. You’ll accomplish half of Target 3 and Target 1 here.
It’ll be time to maneuver west after this, with Jiang Qin guarding the center, and then you can take the southwest route to Sun Ce’s base where he’s waiting with Ding Feng and Zhu Ran. About this time, Huang Gai and Lu Dai appear as reinforcements in the southwest (Zhou Tai in the northeast also).
North of here your army is fighting against the likes of Han Dang, Pan Zhang, Sun Jing and Zhu Zhi. Before laying siege on Sun Jian, take care of Zhou Tai and Xue Zong to the east. Or don’t both and just take out Zhuge Jin and any of Sun Jian’s other subgenerals laying by his camp, and then take out the Tiger of Jiang Dong himself. Watch out for when he uses his Special, you’re best running away and waiting or using triangle – charge attacks if you wish to attack.