When playing Yuan Bo, do you keep Shang Wu or not?

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What are the pros and cons?

[Shield]

Well, for a flat list of pros and cons, short term its better to sell to get an influx of cash for another army, and thereby more effective expansion in Lustria. Longterm, however, it pays to have a presence in Cathay for both expanding into the VC region and diplomatic reasons to, say, open up with Western Provinces early. I'm sure other people have plenty of other arguments.

Though, when I'm personally deciding whether to keep Shang Wu or not, it's usually a more personally motivated decision whether I want to play Yuan Bo in Lustra or YB in Cathay, without much regard to the practical part. It's TW; you're gonna end up winning either way.

[FizzMan]

You get massive growth and some free cash, I would give it up as I do with Eltharion, can always confed it back later.

[Darklordnj]

Cash is nice, but long term, it's far better to keep the city, imo. The foothold in Cathay can easily help you steamroll, as it makes it easier to confederate the other main Cathayan factions. Worst part is the additional micro in managing multiple areas of the map so early on.

[Autoro]

I usually bail on the Lustria expedition, and focus on my Cathayan expansion.

Much better to come to Lustria prepared later on, imo.

[Father Ribs]

If I was looking for a change of pace (and enemies), I'd focus on the west.

In all other considerations, I'd go back to Cathay.

[SomeGuy1]

Shang Wu makes a fantastic first Commercial District.

[Lampros]

Originally posted by owlBear:

Well, for a flat list of pros and cons, short term its better to sell to get an influx of cash for another army, and thereby more effective expansion in Lustria. Longterm, however, it pays to have a presence in Cathay for both expanding into the VC region and diplomatic reasons to, say, open up with Western Provinces early. I'm sure other people have plenty of other arguments.

Though, when I'm personally deciding whether to keep Shang Wu or not, it's usually a more personally motivated decision whether I want to play Yuan Bo in Lustra or YB in Cathay, without much regard to the practical part. It's TW; you're gonna end up winning either way.

Is abandoning Lustria an option?

[FizzMan]

Originally posted by Darklordnj:

Cash is nice, but long term, it's far better to keep the city, imo. The foothold in Cathay can easily help you steamroll, as it makes it easier to confederate the other main Cathayan factions. Worst part is the additional micro in managing multiple areas of the map so early on.

You can just take a minor settlement and keep your foothold in Cathay, worked just fine in my last campaign.

[Klutch]

His short campaign is all that stuff in Lustria, so coming back to Cathay after finishing Lustria is probably the best. I tried to do both, but collapsed in Lustria and it became a real pain going back after finally taking Cathay.

[Mr_Puddins]

I keep. It's a tougher start but the Bo campaign I was playing there was treasure in the water right next to my starting city I got and it gave me like 10k gold so I didn't need to sell the mainland settlement.

[Supay]

I keep it as its more fun to try and hold up both fronts and expanding. You do have options to whatever is going to suit your enjoyment and play style. Keeping both is bit rough at first as you defend both.

[Father Ribs]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Is abandoning Lustria an option?

Sure, just like Angry Spear Elf in the badlands; all you have to do is "retrain" your generals and heros, and then sell/raze your Lustrian holdings.

[fmalfeas]

I like to keep it, entirely because I try to confed the minor faction that owns the gates. Because using the stones to turn the gates into Fortresses gives a bunch of kinda silly factionwide buffs.

[Prof W]

The alternate starting locations that both Eltharion and Yuan Bo get is fantastic, ie, do you want to start in the default location or do you want to start somewhere different for a different experience. I would love them to go through and do this for all Legendary Lords (choose between a canon starting position or a secondary starting position in a part of the map that you would not normally visit in a standard playthrough)

[Eldrin]

on VH/VH i keep it literally to make the campaign more fun. Having to keep two armies already from the start diving my gold between them makes it more fun instead of the usual doomstack steamrolling.