Cao Cao’s Forces Scenario – ** Difficulty
Target 1 – Open Xia Pi south or west gate within 5 minutes.
Target 2 – Take all bases in Xia Pi Castle within 15 minutes.
Target 3 – Within 10 minutes defeat Diao Chan and Zhang Liao.
Strategy – Starting off, I tend to go north to take out Gao Shun quick, and then proceed east. Most of the enemy officers take this route, like Cao Xing, Song Xian, Zang Ba, and Hou Cheng a little more to the northeast. Hou Cheng is stationary though so it may take a bit to get to him, plus Zhang Liao and Zhang Hu pop up too and charge the center base.
Once the floodgates are lifted you can just go on in, but Yuan Shu will come to support Lu Bu now. He comes with a ton of officers – Liang Gang, Li Feng, Yue Jiu, Chen Lan, Lei Bo, Ji Ling, Qiao Rui, Yuan Yao, Yuan Yin, Zhang Xun, Chen Ji and of course himself. Liang Gang will go after your main base (sometimes more officers do too) and most of the others just attack the far south base. Go there and you can kill a ton of Yuan Shu’s officers right then and there.
Unfortunately about this time Lu Bu will rush your own main camp! He’ll bring along Yin Li, Wang Jie, Xu Si, Diao Chan and whoever else is around. Take out Diao Chan and rush to Lu Bu’s base to secure it. Unless you’re close to his camp – if so just go take it and the surrounding bases and then rush to Lu Bu before he takes your main camp over. Again, remember to take all the Xia Pi bases for Target 2 (within 15 mins) and defeat Zhang Liao and then Diao Chan within 10 minutes for Target 3.
After taking his base, Lu Bu‘s morale will go down and you’ll be able to actually harm him. But when you defeat Diao Chan his morale will go up for a bit as he goes crazy. You may wish to stay on your horse and trample him for a bit but to finish him off you might as well get on the ground, use your special and wail away.
Sun Jian’s Forces Scenario – *** Difficulty
Target 1 – Sun Ce, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu do not withdraw.
Target 2 – Enemy forces do not enter Sun Jian’s Main Camp.
Target 3 – Secure 6 or more enemy bases in 15 minutes.
Strategy – This is the hardest version of Xia Pi Castle and is exclusive to Sun Jian’s musou. There aren’t as many officers attacking initially but you’ll still want to take out Gao Shun and Wei Xu as you work on the nearby bases, and then Hou Cheng to the northeast.
After a short while you’ll hear about enemy reinforcements and it’s Yuan Shu again with his friends (Lei Bo, Li Feng, Liang Gang, Qiao Rui, Yuan Yao, Ji Ling, Zhang Xun, Yuan Yin). You’ll need to prevent them from entering your main camp if you want Target 2.
Once Yuan Shu’s forces are wiped out you can focus on the siege of Xia Pi Castle. Chen Gong and Wang Jie are on the west gate interior while Zhang Hu and Zhang Liao defend the south. Unfortunately at this point Lu Bu will just charge out after you and go even more insane once you kill Diao Chan. The idea is to coax Lu Bu from his main camp, then take the main camp to destroy his morale. At this point you can begin to do decent damage against Lu Bu especially with your charge attacks.
Lu Bu’s Forces Scenario – * Difficulty
Target 1 – Lead Diao Chan and Zhang Liao inside Xia Pi Castle within 10 minutes.
Target 2 – After defeating Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, take Liu Bei’s Main Camp.
Target 3 – Within 15 minutes, defeat 10 officers.
Strategy – Note that despite the * difficulty it’s more like a ** or *** because Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Bei are powered up, and all can make short work of a non leveled up character. A good steed trampling session goes a long way if you have good ones.
A good amount of Liu Bei’s officers are right on top of you, with Cao Bao to the north and Chen Dao, Liu Pi, Sun Qian, Mi Fang and Mi Zhu coming from the northeast / southeast. Once you have this initial wave cleared you’ll have to be careful in ousting Guan Yu to the north.
Now you can begin the siege on Xia Pi Castle. Clear the officers like Liu Feng, Chen Deng and Chen Gui around the castle but you’ll notice Hou Jin and Chen Shi jump from the top of the castle onto you as well. Try to get a gate open as fast as you can to make sure you get Zhang Liao and Diao Chan in the castle within 10 minutes.
Then you can focus on the rest of the officers but watch out as Zhang Fei will hunt you down soon enough. He’s a good officer to save before fighting with his powerful blows. Chen Qun, Jian Yong and Liao Hua are the last remnants of Liu Bei’s army. Just remember to take Liu Bei’s Main Camp for target number 2 before you take out Liu Bei.