Yuan Shao 5. Nan Pi Strategy:
Probably the most fun scenario for Yuan Shao because he’s up versus Cao Cao in an epic battle for the heart of China. Yuan Shao’s army is aging at this point. No Zhang He (Cao Cao’s forces), and Wen Chou and Yan Liang have since passed. 7. Ye is extremely vulnerable, with just Feng Ji guarding it and with little in-city help going forward (Xin Ping). You can concede it to Cao Cao or send troops immediately to build the place up. AI Yuan Shao loses Ye within half a year and it’s usually the start of Yuan Shao’s demise at the hands of Cao Cao.
So regardless of what you intend to do with Ye, send your best officers from Bei Ping, Xiang Ping, and Dai Xian to the front lines (along with the majority of their soldiers of course). This should help Ping Yuan and Bei Hai ward off Cao Cao’s army (mostly coming from Xu Chang, or Luo Yang).
However, Yuan Shao does not last long in this Scenario, so building up his forces means that he’ll probably pass away. Even if you hurry and get lucky going through China, Yuan Shao probably won’t see it until the end in this scenario. When this inevitable time comes, I like to keep it in the Yuan Family. Yuan Shang is by far the best choice of the remaining Yuan members, because he’ll stay alive for a while but more importantly because he has a 70+ army so he can do Simul attacks (and in general is the strongest). The remnants of Yuan Shao’s forces should stay loyal to you for this reason as well. The whole Yuan family could be deceased by 210 AD though.
I tend to ally with Sun Quan and work on taking down Cao Cao. There will be a lot of activity between those two rulers around 17. Xia Pi, so help Sun Quan there while concentrating your main forces in Ping Yuan to launch an attack on Pu Yang and Ye (if you ended up losing that, which is likely). The good thing is, your main enemy in this scenario is Cao Cao and since you are taking him on early, he won’t have as much time to build up his forces. His cities are spread thin in terms of soldiers, so if you can muscle your way through the center (Chen Liu, Pu Yang, Xu Chang, etc) that will be a big help. Again though, you will have your work cut out for you as Yuan Shao’s army pales in comparison to the officers Cao Cao has at his disposal.
This drives a wedge through Cao Cao’s cities and forces him to fight on numerous battle-fronts. Most of his army was probably concentrated in Xu Chang and then around Shou Chun / Xia Pi, matching up with Sun Quan. Converge on Cao Cao’s forces with Sun Quan. Capturing Cao Cao nets you his valuable items and forces a lesser officer to take his role as leader of Wei (usually Luo Yang, Hong Nong and Chang An are all that’s left of Wei so the new ruler is someone from those cities).
Now you can focus on Sun Quan’s army, before he gets a chance to get powerful. The war with Wei generally depletes his forces too, though there are sometimes when Sun Quan has 100,000+ soldiers at Jian Ye. In that event, the economy likely can’t support it, so I would suggest fighting him and wasting his food in Jian Ye. More likely is that Sun Quan isn’t that powerful in Jian Ye what-with his war with Wei near Xia Pi / Shou Chun, and your army should be able to consume his forces in due time.
That takes the two biggest threats off the board for Yuan Shao (although Shao himself probably has kicked the bucket, maybe even Shang too depending on how long you take). The far south is weak; just Liu Biao and his rich yet feeble cities. Liu Bei may have started to take some of Biao’s cities, but most of the time Liu Bei doesn’t have much more to his name other than 23. Xin Ye and a bunch of high-end warriors.
Liu Zhang is like he usually is; extremely wealthy with a decent supporting cast, and good terrain / city spacing to make your job take longer. Since he usually does not see too much activity his economy is usually very high in a few cities (though he’ll spend more time warring in 201 AD since he starts off in Yong An with enemies near him). Fortunately by the time you reach him, there will not be many other rulers to clash with so you can bring all of your best loyal officers towards Shang Yong / Jiang Ling and prepare for siege. There should be at least one Liu Zhang city that is a beast to conquer (~800,000+ troops), usually Cheng Du.
This doesn’t leave much else for the Yuan family to occupy. Zhang Lu and Ma Teng should provide little resistance. Zhang Lu may not even be around, and Ma Teng is usually so poor that his soldier count deteriorates after time and he never has enough food to support his army for very long.
Thanks for answer my request Lord Yuan Shu. I see that the emperor send his wishes of good luck to you in the beginning :)
It is really a pity that Yuan Shao couldn’t live enough to see the whole country under the Yuan family rule. It looks like any force who are at war with Cao Cao are destined to ally with Sun Quan (like Zhuge Liang said to Guan Yu: To the west, ally with Sun Quan, to the north, fight Cao Cao )to survive, so, I see that you follow Kongming counsel:)
Well, now I know that it isn’t impossible to win this scenario, thanks for your help.
Yea I was lucky to see the Emperor :) That was a nice boost to start off.
I agree I wish Yuan Shao would have lasted longer. Some times I’ve seen him live longer but he died early for me here. But that’s how it is fun, it is random. Yuan Shang isn’t too bad, he can still do Simul attacks with his 71 Army skill (but Yuan Shang died pretty early for me too so I was forced to use Yuan Xi, who is basically a Civil Officer).
Funny thing you say about having to ally with Sun Quan, you’re right, it is just like Kongming’s advice in real RTK history. Cao Cao is just too powerful to be fighting anyone else at the same time, have to hope that someone like Sun Quan can fight Cao Cao at one spot and then that enabled me to push through to Xu Chang.
Your all awesome…