Sun Ce’s Forces Scenario – ** Difficulty
Target 1 – < Open Xu Chang Main Gate within 5 minutes.
Target 2 – Take West Fort and Palace West Post within 5 minutes.
Target 3 – Take all watchposts in 10 minutes
Strategy – The timed targets can be very difficult to reach. It’s generally one or the other, because to aid the Main Gate siege you have to stick around and clear the area, while the West Fort and Palace West Post bases are in the northwest and require some time to get to.
You may wish to decide your route based on where you character starts off. Using someone like Sun Quan puts you to the left by Chen Qun and the West Fort. The West Fort looks like slim pickings but Cao Zhen appears to slow you down. From here you can go ahead and head east, north a little, then east again. You’re trying to get further in the castle so you can take the Palace West Post within 5 minutes for Target 2.
Once you quickly take this (it’ll probably get taken back at some point since it’s so deep into enemy territory), hurry back to the Xu Chang Main Gate to clear up the enemy officers and aid the siege. If you have a fast horse, you should be able to rush back there and defeat against Defense Captains messing with your siege weapons.
Before taking out the Watchposts for Target 3, dispatch the center officers like Song Xian, Cao Xiu, Chen Jiao, Yang Xiu, Bian Xi and Cao Hong. If a decent horse is at your disposal, riding around and up the stairs to get the Watchposts for Target 3.
Not much else at this point besides Cao Chun / Chen Deng. Though if you can’t get to Xun Yu fast enough, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Dian Man, Yu Jin, Yue Jin, Han Hao and some subgenerals come as reinforcements to the south. It’s your choice to go down there and take care of them or not.
Chen Gui and Dong Zhao are at the Xu Chang Main Camp with Xun Yu. Xun Yu can use the rockfalls but doesn’t provide much else for resistance.
Lu Bu’s Forces Scenario – ****** Difficulty
Target 1 – Xu Zhu, Cao Pi, Zhen Ji, Cao Ren must be defeated in 15 minutes.
Target 2 – Enemy forces do not enter Lu Bu’s Main Camp.
Target 3 – Player maintains 50% of life meter.
Strategy – This battle is really no different than the last one under Sun Ce’s Forces, except it’s a ****** difficulty instead of ** stars. Also, instead of fighting a bunch of generic generals you are stuck with many of Wei’s best ones.
Cao Ren begins just north of you with Cao Chun. I tend to kill those two quick and then focus on the west route (or you can stay and espediate the siege process). Han Hao and Cao Zhen slow you a bit if you go west, but then you can go to the base just north of there and then east to enter Xu Chang.
Guo Jia and Cao Xiu ambush you along the west path (Kong Rong and Cao Hong are up there in the base too). As you head east into Xu Chang, you’ll meet Jia Xu, and then Man Chong, Bian Xi, Zhu Ling, Chen Qun and Xiahou Yuan. Chances are you’ll get the Xu Chang on fire scene coming up soon, or maybe earlier if you took the gate down earlier.
Through the second gate is where some of the tougher officers like Zhen Ji, Cao Pi and Xu Zhu are. Again, you can enter from the sides instead of waiting for the siege of the front gates. These generals are clumped together so it may be difficult to beat them all (or you may save time by defeating them all at once). Just north of here is Xun Yu, and then Yue Jin in the base east of here.
Around this time, the reinforcements for Cao Cao will come in Jiang Gan and Cheng Yu in the southeast. You’ll want to get after them so they don’t get into your base and ruin Target 2. Sometimes though they’ll head into Xu Chang to encounter you there. Still, you’ll have to watch for the northern forces you haven’t messed with yet, as Dian Man and Liu Ye make an assault on the west fort and eventually head south. Meanwhile Yu Jin should still be around protecting a base – other than that it should just be Cao Cao. As you get near his throne room, Xiahou Dun appears. He is on fire and is dangerous both with his attacks and his defense prolongs the battle. Fighting Cao Cao (or anyone at Xu Chang) is annoying in those closed quarters, plus you’ll probably have 1000 allies fighting him too at the same time to help clutter things.
Sima Yi’s Forces Scenario – ****** Difficulty
Target 1 – Open Xu Chang Inner Gate in 10 minutes.
Target 2 – Enemy forces do not enter Sima Yi’s Main Camp.
Target 3 – None of your units withdraw
Strategy – As you will be able to see, this is not all that different from Lu Bu’s battle against Cao Cao. Begin siege on Xu Chang but watch out for Li Dian, Yue Jin and Dong Zhao ambushing you from above. Take off to the west for the base with Yu Jin.
Begin heading east to mop up the enemies in the first area of Xu Chang. Xin Pi, Xu Yi, Cao Ren, Xiahou Mao and Xiahou Dun greet you. Wen Pin, Xu Shu and Cao Zhen come later from above. The only way to achieve Target 1 is to defeat all of these officers first to clear the area for the siege weapons.
Through the gate you’ll find Cheng Yu, Cao Hong, Xiahou He, Xiahou Yuan and a few reinforcements come in the west and then east in Jiang Gan and Wen Qin.More tough officers to go through as Cao Pi emerges in the north with Zhen Ji, Dian Man, Lu Qian, and then Man Chong just west in the base. Might want to take the base first and Man Chong, but the other generals will trickle down to that area quick. Fortunately this is one of the last waves of enemies.
To the east is a Cao Rui led base and to the north is Cao Zhang. You probably won’t have to worry about him. After going up the stairs you’ll come across Liu Ye around the corner. All let’s that for Sima Yi is to conquer Xu Zhu and Cao Cao.