The Chaotic Era – 194 A.D.
Yan Baihu 34. Wu Strategy
34. Wu is controlled by Yan Baihu and Yan Yu. Both of them die around 200, Yan Baihu generally first. So this is interesting because things have to be done relatively soon or you may not even have a successor for the throne with this desolate land.
However, we can get Yu Fan from Wang Lang pretty easily. Even with Yan Baihu and Yan Yu, you could probably take down Wang Lang straight up. But once you take Yu Fan’s soldiers, Wang Lang should be easy. If you really want to pull a coup though, Spy on 33. Jian Ye and try to recruit Taishi Ci. It is not easy but his loyalty starts at 85. If you can get at him before he gets rewarded and up to the mid 90’s, you have a good shot. I would advise doing this, because it’s the only way to break through fast with Yan Baihu. Taishi has a ton of soldiers, even if displaced as the Governor, and if you can recruit him as the Governor you get Jian Ye just like that and the other officers. Wu Jing would join you anyway, if you need someone else to try to recruit Taishi Ci.
So with Taishi Ci, I would then go slaughter Wang Lang so you don’t have to worry about your back. One of the few good things about this starting position is once you get Jian Ye and Kuai Ji, you can concentrate your forces in Jian Ye.
At this point, just watch the cities around you and look for disloyal characters. Chen Wu in Shou Chun is one, but Liu Bei and Sun Ce won’t have much. Keep an eye on this cities though because when they switch hands, the incumbent officers that were captured will be disloyal. This allowed me to get most of Liu Yong’s forces in Shou Chun after they were taken over by Liu Bei.
It’s amazing how terrible Sun Ce generally is in this scenario. He’ll have the Hereditary Seal and a fair amount of soldiers, but little food and probably no money. If Liu Biao softens up Sun Ce, then that should be a good time to take him out. Or you can send Taishi Ci with like 6000-8000 soldiers on horses and run around and waste Sun Ce’s food. This will cause him to flee and then on a mad run through lower Jing Zhou with Liu Biao. Or maybe more smart would be to send any 36. Lu Jiang captured officers back to Jian Ye, and then invade Sun Ce at Chai Sang. When he flees, he’ll flee back to open Lu Jiang and then you can finish him off with your Jian Ye unit. But this is assuming Liu Biao does nothing, which he very well may not. He could take out Sun Ce in Lu Jiang and leave you stranded in Chai Sang, or he could attack you in Chai Sang with 30,000 soldiers. So it’s a risk, and Sun Ce’s officers will have a 0-20 loyalty with you anyway.
With brings me to a point I want to make that again has to do with the Jian Ye – Wu – Kuai Ji set-up. For disloyal characters you can send them over to Wu or Kuai Ji, fire them, then re-hire them. Sounds un-orthodox but you’ll likely get them at a higher loyalty so they are actually trustworthy enough to be usable.
While I was doing this, my forces were still relatively weak, and I was betrayed on two ends (by Yuan Shao and Liu Biao). Yuan Shao had taken over the northeast and center and was going after Jian Ye. Meanwhile Liu Biao was attack the .49 territory between 26. Jiang Xia and Lu Jiang. I fought off Yuan Shao but lost the land to Liu Biao as my forces were spent. But this allowed me to re-group and steal some of Yuan Shao’s Governor’s, and then was able to steal Pang Tong the Governor of Jiang Xia, where the majority of Liu Biao’s forces were. Liu Biao is dangerous in this scenario but if you can manage to Ally with him, you force him into either waiting until you are strong enough to deal with him or have him betray you. Jiang Ling and Xiang Yang should be relatively weak, but if you move that way be sure to Ally with Liu Zhang so he doesn’t bother you from 42. Yong An.
Clearing out Liu Biao will send him to Xin Ye / Shang Yong. If he is at Shang Yong, threaten him or just capture the city, and then return back to Xiang Yang. No sense taking on more enemies right now so leave Shang Yong open. You’ll probably be dealing with Yuan Shu on this end either way, but if you can leave Xin Ye open too do that while you work on the northeast. After all, you probably haven’t had time to flesh out the economy for several cities along the way (though Liu Biao’s region should be good in that already).
When Yuan Shao conquers the central and northeast in this scenario (which he often does), he won’t have deep forces. Meaning once you get through the main cogs on the front line you should be able to make some progress fast, pushing him back. I was able to do this and pincer him at Xia Pi to kill Yuan Shao. Then Yuan Tan took over in Qiao and we got him too. Eventually the Yuan clan got pushed back to the far north, with Yuan Shang the new leader.
Taking over the center means you are now by Cao Cao (it’s very possible he’ll take over the center by this time too, as Cao Cao is more likely to expand east than west). Regardless of how many cities Cao Cao has, Luo Yang and Hong Nong will be monsters to overcome. Hong Nong in particular always has a ton of soldiers in this scenario, though most of the time Cao Cao doesn’t have the economy to support all of them and the officers there. Bring the majority of your forces to Xu Chang / Ye to border Cao Cao, and then send everyone. Or just garrison them there and wait until Cao Cao is weakened by Yuan Shu or if Cao Cao invades Wan (which means he’ll lose some soldiers even if he takes the castle).
With Cao Cao gone, there is not much left. Liu Zhang will have a formidable force in a city or two, but Li Ju, Zhang Lu and Ma Teng should be easy to roll over. Li Ju may be a little harder, depending on where / how many troops were sent to An Ding or Xia Bian. Sometimes Li Ju will send all of his soldiers to An Ding and leave Chang An prone to attack (he’s an idiot ruler).
Even having taken this long to get here, you can probably recruit Gao Pei and more importantly Li Hui of Zi Tong. This should give you max soldiers for him and net you Zi Tong. If Liu Zhang is all that’s left and you are still allies, just wait until your force is outside his land and then threaten him + revoke the alliance. Many times I find Liu Zhang’s forces will be positioned in 43. Jiang Zhou, making it easy to circle around via Zi Tong and take Cheng Du, Jian Ning and Yun Nan. Thus a pincer attack on Jiang Zhou would make things easier, from this end and then by Shang Yong / Jiang Ling.
This play through I was fortunate enough to complete the game before Yan Baihu naturally dies, not an easy thing. But it never hurts to be a little lucky too.
Wow good job. Yan Baihu is a terrible ruler to have to use, he dies early and is stupid. Pretty strong though but wish he had a Simul attack. If you don’t get Taishi Ci early on, you’re screwed.