Wei Forces Scenario – ****** Difficulty
Target 1 – Defeat Guan Ping and Yue Ying within 10 minutes.
Target 2 – West River Camp, West River Fort, East River Camp and East River Fort do not fall for 15 minutes.
Target 3 – At least 7 of your units survive until victory.
Strategy – Managing the first 10 minutes of this stage is tough. You need to be efficient in defeat the attacking forces moving in on the four bases initially….and then you need to counterattack and kill Yue Ying and Guan Ping fast enough to be able to fight the next batch of enemy reinforcements attacking those bases. One really really dumb trick to Target 2 is you actually have to wait 15 minutes if you want to get this target. I went through this stage so many times achieving target 2 until I realized I was going through it too fast and not being credited with completing it, so make sure if you saved those northern bases to wait 15 minutes for your reward.
Start off by jumping off the cliff to the south and engaging Fei Yi, and then Gao Ding just to the east. Li Yan and Ma Dai attack from the east, so take them out and begin for Zhang Yi in the west, the last enemy attacking your bases. Keep heading this way until you get to Guan Ping’s base; he’s here with Yi Ji. Once he is done, Yue Ying’s base is but a stone’s throw away. Go east to get here and take out Shamoke while you’re here, but watch out for the flame breathing traps. And Yue Ying can carve you up with her bow attacks, so if you’re in close range make sure to take her out, or engage on horse.
Soon the enemy reinforcements will come (or they already will have come if you took a bit longer) but if you feel you were making good time you can go south and then east of Yue Ying’s base for Guan Xing, Wang Ping and Gao Xiang. If you want to get greedy you can go for Yin Shang (if he’s left) and Wei Yan in the southeast but Cao Pi can probably take care of that, plus the Shu reinforcements will arrive if you make a trip all the way there. So instead, jump down in the canyon by Guan Xing, and take out Wang Ping. Then race north to those four bases you have to protect as the reinforcements are bound to come.
Xiang Lang is in the east so he should be easy to engage if you’re around here with Wang Ping / Wei Yan. Then begin going east, taking out Zhang Bao, Guan Suo, Zhuo Ying and Liao Hua. Only a few enemy force should be left, like maybe Jiang Wan, Chen Shi, and then the group in the southwest main camp. Chen Zhen, Lu Yi, Deng Zhi, Wu Yi, Chen Dao, Zhao Tong, Zhao Guang, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei clutter this base up with Shu officers.
Shu Forces Scenario – ****** Difficulty
Target 2 – Wei Yan does not withdraw.
Target 3 – Secure 16 or more enemy bases in 10 minutes (actually just total bases).
Strategy – The third target is a little odd because they’re not really your enemies bases, you just need 16 total. And you start off with 11. More importantly you’ll want to keep an eye on Wei Yan, escorting him north.
As you begin take out Xiahou Hui just north of you (assuming you’re in the southeast). From here head west all the way until you reach Xiahou He and the allied base he is attacking. Take him out, and then north a bit for Guo Huai and Sun Li. By this time Wei Yan should be getting mauled by enemy forces. Lots of times you’ll be positioned in the center – if that is the case, just go towards Deng Ai in the northwest and start wiping out generals.
If you wait, Deng Ai, Zhong Hui, Zhang Qiu, and Zhang He will be putting the hurt on Wei Yan. Once he is saved here you can work on the bases just north and then east of here. You will run into Liu Shao and Wen Pin as you begin to go this way.
All of the enemies that were attacking the plateau will be coming back to the north now. Just to the east is Cao Pi and his forces; Zhen Ji, Zhu Ling, Xiahou Wei, Chen Jiao and Jiang Ji. Two more bases are east of here and once you get them you should have target 3. You will have to go through Xiahou Mao, Cao Yu and Tian Yu along the way. This should net you Target 3. If not you may wish to mop up some additional enemies around the map like Cao Xiu (reinforcements) or Xu Yi / Dai Ling.
Otherwise, just head northeast. Xin Pi is outside the base, and then Zhang Lu, Sima Zhao, Sima Shi, Shen Yi, Ying Dan, Cao Zhi, Dian Man, Sima Yi and Cao Cao all await you inside.
I like going to kill Guan Xing with the 30 boulder-throwing brutes he has with him