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

[ℬℓα⊂₭ ℙℜ¡ℵ₠]

What are the pros and cons?

[Bakayaro]

I was looking for an answer, so I tried the general consensus and kept Shang Wu.

Confederated 2 Cathayan factions, have 5 full stacks (Luckily I still manage to have a positive income.), I`m at war with Hexaotl, Chaos Dwarves, Norscans and Vilitch north of the Dragon Gate and Snikch is heading my way.

It`s harder playing this way because there is a lot going on, really fast. If you want a more chill experience, I suggest taking the 20k.

[feillyne]

Depends. At a higher difficulty level? Can be better to sell it off. Usually keeping it and rushing vamps.

And i once did not bother to keep either, just used the Change Starting Settlement mod to start in Tilea. A much interesting campaign that was, especially with a perma armour bonus to troops.

[FizzMan]

Originally posted by Bakayaro:

I was looking for an answer, so I tried the general consensus and kept Shang Wu.

Confederated 2 Cathayan factions, have 5 full stacks (Luckily I still manage to have a positive income.), I`m at war with Hexaotl, Chaos Dwarves, Norscans and Vilitch north of the Dragon Gate and Snikch is heading my way.

It`s harder playing this way because there is a lot going on, really fast. If you want a more chill experience, I suggest taking the 20k.

You can just take the vamp minor settlement turn 2 and continue your advance in Cathay, the 20k for one tier 1 settelment I believe is worth it.

Very easy to confederate them later also.

[huey30]

Split empire campaigns are more challenging/fun plus Yuan Bo doesnt actually need any units in his army so you can afford to keep Cathay

[Darklordnj]

Originally posted by huey30:

Split empire campaigns are more challenging/fun plus Yuan Bo doesnt actually need any units in his army so you can afford to keep Cathay

Yeah, I like to change him out for one of the generic generals and then send him home to speed up the consolidation of Cathay.

[parent child bowl]

I sell it, but still expand in Cathay. I get Shag Wu back with my first confederation.

[Nikloss]

I've ended up selling it to get a head start in Lustria, confed one of the weaker factions to get foothold back in Cathay early. Mr Bo really ramps up the economy fast so having Lustria going enables more money towards Cathay and confed.

[Big Moustache]

Originally posted by 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.

This. Coastal region + spawning treasures is biggest economy boost the game have to offer. Early game and midgame become super easy with tons of cash, items and experience

[Klutch]

I did, but I think it would have been easier to focus in the west

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by ℬℓα⊂₭ ℙℜ¡ℵ₠:

What are the pros and cons?

I don't just keep it, I take the whole province immediately with a cheap peasant stack led by a Dragon blood. The necro rebels are very easy to run down and the province has huge economic long term benefits, without impacting Yuan Bos expansion in Lustria in the slightest, since he is capable of expanding with minimal support by the virtue of being a huge, powerful dragon. Once done with the province, I simply disband the stack in Cathay and focus my expansion completely on Lustria.

[Doctor]

I've played the Jade court multiple times in multi-player campaign and the option to sell shang-wu has not been given? does anyone know why this is happening?

[CrUsHeR]

Originally posted by Lampros:

Is abandoning Lustria an option?

Well. If you play Eltharion, you want to abandon Badlands you actually have to disband your army. Or pay the upkeep when sailing back for like... 10 turns? Either way is a huge loss. Yet still the better and easier campaign.

But for Yuan Bo, the blue sea lane is right outside his capital. It leads to the region south of Lokhir's start location. So you could reclaim Cathay from two sides and defeat two of the most dangerous targets (Eshin being the second) immediately.



I absolutely wouldn't abandon Lustria, though. Your direct goals are there and - unlike killing Greenskins which can be done later much easier, and most of the targets sort themselves out anyways - they have an immediate impact on the Compass function.

And your starting province in Cathay is only held by lowtier vampire counts which can be defeated with peasant levies. Very different situation from holding Ulthuan which is getting ravaged by Slaanesh, two Vampire Coast LLs, and - if you defeat N'Kari - also Belakor with his Norsca vassal.

Yuan Bo's economy buffs also make him more than capable of playing two campaigns; Eltharion has the opposite situation. His Ulthuan provinces are bad and very hard to defend, and the Badlands provinces are horrible to conquer.

Several turns of march through the wasteland between towns, and literally everyone there is hostile and hyper aggressive. In particular those races with Underway teleport have a huge edge on you. Even if you defeat all the factions you need to defeat, there's just Clan Mors, Rictus and others waiting beyond the Badlands.

[dolby]

with the upkeep as is you can easy have both ... at least on VH/VH

[StarofTanuki]

right now you should keep because Skulltaker is op and range unit is bug. if you can't hold Lustria then just go back.

[ChaosKhan]

Skulltaker does make Lustria harder, but it's still manageable if you play your diplomacy options well and upgrade your unit roster quickly. Key is to transition as quickly as possible to Jade Halberds + Jade Crossbows, because peasants alone have difficulties dealing with Khorne. Also, getting a settlement and then gift it to Mazda early for an alliance is almost a must. Unless you do that, Lustria quickly becomes an impossible to contain moshpit, where you ent up quickly in a multiple front war with 4 factions at once.

You could, in theory, try to get an alliance with Markus instead, but it's only a short term solution. Long term, Mazda will go for you unless you are allied, Skulltaker won't be contained by the weak imperials and even if you by some lucky grace take out Mazda, Morathi will collapse on you, while you are still fighting Luthor, Rekarth and Skulltaker in the south. A "human alliance" bloc in Lustria is a deathtrap, because neither Markus nor Alberic make good allies by the virtue of having bad auto resolve and trash ally recruits.

Therefore, abandoning Lustria isn't necessary, but Yuan Bo is out of options as far as alliances go. Mazda alliance, or total war. There were definitely more options, before Skulltaker plunged the whole area into chaos (pun intended).