Dong Zhuo’s Rivals Unite – 189 A.D.
Kong Zhou – 20. Qiao Strategy:
Ah, Kong Zhou, yet another tricky 189 ruler. He starts off by himself (like literally he has no other officers) and right next to Cao Cao, Qiao Mao, and Tao Qian. Pretty bad but not in the middle of the storm like Han Fu. It is highly advised that you ally with Cao Cao as soon as possible, as the only officer you can find in Qiao is Li Gui (in the first year, by the way). When you get Li Gui, I’d spy on Cao Cao and try to get Liu Yan (a poor but disloyal civil officer of Cao Cao’s) and Chen Gong (a solid war-savvy advisor, who is around 90 in loyalty I believe). Chen Gong is a must to get, as there are no other capable officers that are disloyal in the area; yet anyway.
Xu Chang is the other issue, as it is often a hotbed for retreating warlords or huge armies, like Cao Cao, Dong Zhuo, or Yuan Shu, looking to expand. Chances are someone will move in there soon, so you’ll probably want to ally with them since you’re still weak and you’ll be weak for quite a while still. That’s the issue with Kong Zhou; you have to buy yourself some time to build the economy with Chen Gong, Li Gui, Liu Yan and whomever. In the meantime, train however many soldiers you have and also keep an eye on Qiao Mao or any free officers that might come your way via Pu Yang. With all the turnover at a place like Pu Yang you might find a quality Cao Cao or Liu Bei general who was recently captured and has low loyalty. Man Chong is a name you’ll hopefully see, and his 94 charm is very good in case you need a successor (in case Kong Zhou dies in battle; he lasts pretty long otherwise).
The hardest part (and also what makes his one of the most fun, IMO) is that the central area has so much turnaround from one game to another that you really can’t calculate what’s going to happen. I’ve had a few times where I was conquered immediately by Cao Cao, who ignored my alliance and trounced me anyway. Sure, his generals were disloyal, but I was in exile! Other times I’ve had random generals come my way (Lu Bu via rebellion vs. Dong Zhuo, Guan Yu/Zhang Fei after being captured by Cao Cao at Pu Yang, etc). Chances are though you’ll have to stick it out and just watch things, building your economy but spying opportunistically. Fortunately, you’re a bit more safe than Qiao Mao, Han Fu, and Kong Rong. Still though you must be careful, just one invasion from Cao Cao could be the end.
53 Ding Yao is vital to your quest. This will act as a buffer between you and Cao Cao, so try to secure it against Han Fu or something, so the land is still yours yet you don’t have to deal with Cao Cao. In this way, you’ll have some protection (assuming he doesn’t move into Xu Chang). Hell, I’ve even had him move to Xu Chang, and then into Ru Nan not much later! I was surrounded completely, but fortunately I broke east.
Do keep in mind that just east of you is a relatively weak area, one that you could probably penetrate much earlier than going west (through Dong Zhuo/Yuan Shu) or north (Cao Cao/Yuan Shao). That said, if Tao Qian makes any sort of move (and this is assuming Cao Cao doesn’t take him over), then feel free to head east. Xu Zhou is a prime area of economic success, and Tao Qian is pretty weak militarily with the goomba Zhang Kai as his only warrior. Xia Pi isn’t much different, but Tao Qian is littered with solid Civil Officers. Liu Yong is not really a threat either, so again, if the situation presents itself, move eastward.
Another idea to increase capital fast is to ally with rulers that live in wealthy cities (Liu Yan, Liu Biao, and Tao Qian come to mind) and then ask for money in January. Also, ignorant rulers (Qiao Mao, Han Fu, etc) or rulers without an advisor (varies) can be had as well, as they’ll compromise with you generally.
As time goes on, we get impatient and threaten Sun Qian. Xia Pi is well guarded with about 50,000, but Xu Zhou has only 20,000 and a very nice city.
We send a massive amount of troops, spread out equally. Unfortunately Liu Yong sends a decent amount and most of those 50,000 in Xia Pi come as well. We get the jump on Mi Zhu however and he’s pummeled before the reinforcements get there. The reinforcements then panic and accept duels that they shouldn’t be accepting. Xu Zhou is ours and we GAIN soldiers. Qiao is weak, so expanding further would be stretching yourselves a bit too thin.
Instead, we ally with Sun Qian (who despite the threat and takeover of Xu Zhou, we were still something in decent standing ) and take the weaker Liu Yong, who had lost his two best generals to us last time. Shou Chun is an easy take, and we advance quickly on He Fei and then Jian Ye. Yan Baihu and Yan Yu had already died, so Liu Yong fled to an empty Wu. He gave in, and then we sent the bulk of our soldiers to attack Kuai Ji quick. Unfortunately, only Qiao had a decent amount of soldiers (33,000) while Shou Chun and Xu Zhou and Jian Ye were very thin. Thankfully, Cao Cao or Sun Qian didn’t betray us, we decided to take over Xia Pi to secure the southeast. Poor Sun Qian; nice fellow, but his kindness made him too easy to manipulate.
With this section of the map secure, we ally with Kong Rong for the time being, as he has a built up Bei Hai. Liu Biao of Lu Jiang is our next target, but we make sure to leave Qiao heavily guarded, and Shou Chun and Xia Pi at least with 15-20,000. For some reason, Liu Biao’s generals seem to be relatively loyal when joining us (70’s generally). Systematically move your way into the southern region, taking Lu Jiang, Xi Sai Shan, Chai Sang, and then Chi Bi. This way you can control that entire area from Chai Sang. You may wish to rest here, but we took Jiang Xia before we took a rest (they had a lot of reinforcements at Jiang Xia and wore us down finally).
Careful down here as the Sun family and Liu Biao probably have some decent support for themselves both in terms of military and city development. Same for Yuan Shao in the north. Our best bet is to Ally with a few of them and hope one betrays us while we work on the other. That way, we can acquire the soldiers / officers from the ruler that betrayed us to give us a boost for that final push.
Of course, Yuan Shao takes the bait and he gets chased to Xiang Ping. This makes going through the Dong’s realm much easier.
Just keep in mind that since you’re Kong Zhou and it’s taken you a while to build up your army, there will be other formidable armies, slowing your progress even further. Also keep in mind that with Cao Cao out of the picture and no true power left, you have a bunch of average armies that you have to deal with. Some of them may have some staying power but they probably won’t be pushing you back assuming you have all your exterior cities garrisoned nicely.
Sure thing Kong Zhou.
20. Qiao Recruits:
Li Gui (189)