Romance of the Three Kingdoms 3 189 AD Yan Baihu
Dong Zhuo’s Rivals Unite – 189 A.D. Yan Baihu – 34. Wu Strategy: Yan Baihu presents another relatively tough challenge for any RTK vet. If you’re starting off, you’re probably going to want to avoid him. First of all, Yan Baihu starts in Wu with Yan Yu (brother?) being his lone officer. Wang Lang is to the south (you can recruit Yu Fan probably) and Liu Yong is to the northwest (you can recruit Taishi Ci). There will be no significant officers in Wu (I think Xu Gong in 200 is the first one) so you won’t be able to rely on that, and Yan Baihu and Yan Yu are not adept at building up a castle unfortunately.
So your best bet is to spy on Jian Ye and hope to God that you can recruit Taishi Ci. Really. If he’s the governor still (the AI often puts Chen Heng in instead due to the low loyalty of Taishi, and it happens within the first turn or two so you gotta be quick) then even better, but either way if you get him soon you’ll get a good amount of soldiers with him. The AI might change governors but it takes them a bit longer to take the soldiers off of Taishi Ci (just like Che Zhou when he is quickly demoted as Governor of Xia Pi). With this amount, it’s time to get rid of Wang Lang and give yourself some breathing room. Again, before you attack him you can recruit Yu Fan first if you wish. Wang Lang only has Zhou Xin besides that, and Wang Lang is a poor fighter, so with Taishi Ci at the helm you should be able to get the job done. Immediately afterwards, work towards Liu Yong’s remnants at Jian Ye. If nothing else, taking Taishi from Liu Yong weakens him so badly that you won’t be bothered from Jian Ye while you’re busy with Wang Lang, and when it’s time to lower the boom on Liu Yong, it shouldn’t be too tough. Once you take Jian Ye, be careful, as Sun Qian/Tao Qian are probably pretty well built up and will take you out if you spread yourself too thin. It really depends on how your game is going; for me, Han Fu had taken over the central, with Cao Cao being reduced to only a measly stronghold in Pu Yang. Once Sun Qian was bulldozed, this left the center for the taking, as Cao Cao was weak and the other competitors (Han Fu and Kong Zhou) are pushovers generally. Better yet, Yuan Shao and Liu Bei were fuddling around in the north, with Kong Rong eliminating both of them. Lots of upsets, which makes the game fun when it’s not Cao Cao all the time. This made the north easier to swallow, while sending half the forces to Ye and Xu Chang to hold off Dong Huang and Yuan Shu. Be sure to leave Jian Ye (or Lu Jiang) occupied with a decent amount of troops, in case Liu Biao or Sun Jian make their way over there. Sun Jian will probably be one of the toughest foes on the map, so it might be wise to ally with them to buy some time as you wrap up the unsettled north/central areas. How tough it is depends on how long it took for you to build up a sufficient army and start moving it around. If it took long, you can expect the enemies to have built up cities and armies. If you wrapped up the southeast fast however, you should be in good position. Yan Baihu died around the year 201, and Yan Yu died a few years later. I had Yan Yu succeed the first time, and then Taishi Ci the next time. I usually try to keep it within the area (hence Yan Yu, and then Taishi of Jian Ye) so the loyalties don’t get too out of whack but ultimately we’re dealing with Wu characters (but with the move to the center, it may be more beneficial to use a Wei / Dong Zhuo type as the ruler if you have one). When Taishi took over, I was really able to assert my control as Dong Huang and Yuan Shu were wiped out once the forces gathered west. Further west was a visit to the modest Ma’s at Xi Liang. Liu Yan didn’t like me going over there though and started invading, so I allied with him quickly and baited him into betraying me. I then depleted his forces by recruiting all the now-disloyal officers and soon Cheng Dou belonged to Taishi Ci. Lu Jiang was still the stronghold which held off Sun Jian (now Sun Ce) as his forces battled with the remnants of Yuan Shu’s forces (Ji Ling/Zhang Xun).
Soon we had Liu Biao’s head at Xiang Yang, and the Sun family was surrounded, as our forces were heavily garrisoned at Lu Jiang, Xiang Yang, Jiang Xia and Yong An. Defeating Sun Ce was relatively hard, but his forces were fatigued from fighting Ji Ling. In the year 205, we had Nan Hai to ourselves and the war was over. The hardest part about Yan Baihu’s 189 quest is that his talent is so bare at the beginning. Acquiring Taishi Ci at the beginning is really difficult, as only Yan Baihu can try to recruit him once a turn (while his other officer Yan Yu spies). One can recruit Yu Fan at Kuai Ji first for help in recruiting Taishi Ci, but it is imperative that you start off quick otherwise this scenario will go into the 210-215’s and you may never really get a shot. Taking Kuai Ji nets you some decent characters like Zhu Ran but by that time some enemy forces will be formidable on Advanced. Taishi Ci though lets you start off quick, both in terms of talent and soldiers in the southeast area (one of the weakest areas in the game until Sun Quan takes it over). It is then advised that you put the journey to the south on hold and take over the central and north, then work your way west. From that point, it’s nothing more than a Wu romp, as Yan Baihu will pass eventually and you should probably pick a Wu officer with good charm (Taishi was my choice). 34. Wu Recruits: Xu Gong (200)