Fave Scenario and Officer combo?

[Chameleon_Silk]

Anti-dong zhou as Liu Bei or yellow scarves as He Jin or Zhang Jiao are my fave playthroughs although I find yellow scarves a bit to unchallenging.

I play only as a ruler thus far.

[Sanji Himura]

You should really consider officer play. In my YouTube series, that is about all I do and it is really fun.

[Vin362]

My favourite thing to do in these games is playing as Zhuge Liang in the Sleeping Dragon and deliver the land to master Liu Bei.

[Chameleon_Silk]

Tbh I would love to play as Liu Bei and work my way through to being a lord but at the same time i need a break from Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.... gotta get used to using the more realistic generals like the ones the yellow scarves start with... pretty poop in comparison :)

[Aqua]

(Assuming you've unlocked scenarios or purchased some of the DLC).

Easy mode: Zhou Yu in Huarong Road. Prestige is already set up. Liu Bei sits in Jiangling but Wu has a foothold in Xu province and both Shouchun and Guangling are secure. I usually see Lu Meng or somebody start marching towards Jiaozhi while I either secure Xuzhou, challenge Shu over Jiangling (which admittedly might be the least effective option), or move into South Jing (Jiangling still in foreign hands makes this plan more nervous). As the game proceeds the situation becomes more and more tense between former allies, but with Wei fractured as is the situation is more than salvageable.

Otherwise:

Huangfu Song in Three Emperors mode is the other easy-ish mode, despite Yuan Shu having good officers. The likes of Liu Biao get run over, and Cao Cao is still dwarfed by His Majesty Liu Yu.

For an amusing but not annoying mode try Liu Biao in that scenario. Poor Kuai Yue watches as his lord did nothing when other Lius and Yuan Shu seized their thrones.

I happen to also like playing as Yuan Xi when Yuan Shao is still alive. The weak but not-exactly-useless stats overall stats allow him to try showing his skill as a member of the Yuan family. You usually need to give your wife presents, though, or she may very well stab father in the back.

Lu Bu's Ordinance is just too depressing... Playing as Cai Yan in Yellow Turbans is fun, especially when you JOIN THEM. "Wretched of the Earth, stand tall! You have nothing to lose but the rags on your backs!" Etc. Etc. Young girl who wants to save the world by joining the mystical ruffians.

For any of the late game scenarios I like Deng Ai if I'm feeling lazy, Huang Hao if I don't mind epic failing, and Sun Deng if he's still alive. Sun Deng makes one of those decent non-dueling playthroughs.

[IlluminaZero]

Thats a pretty cool analysis Aqua. Despite preferring custom officer play I enjoy reading the analysis of officer play from someone who loves the game and history. Why do you say that Lu Bu's Ordinance is just too depressing? Lu Bu play seems like it would be fun due to having a competent force while being surrounded by extremely competent rivals - The only problem is that if you win the early game you will easily steamroll everything.

Do I also need to unlock "Three Emperor's Mode?" I tend to veer away from pre-195 scenarios since they just don't work well to my experience due to all the unclaimed territory and the faction balance being really off. Although it is pretty nice if you want to get creative with multiple custom factions.

Just for full disclosure I haven't gotten to playing ROTK13 just yet. I played most of the earlier ROTK and a few of the Nobunaga's Ambition games - I am partly reading this topic for interest and to get a feel for how the game plays. I find that there are some commonalities with all games though due to the historical setting.

Like Sanji I prefer to play created officers - I find it enjoyable to start as a vagrant and ending the game as a ruler. Whether that means starting my own band or rebelling from an established force all depends on the way the game is designed.

I think one question is whether you want a long format game with multiple large kingdoms or an immediate intense game that is basically over once you have defeated your immediate rivals. Playing as most of the famous figures in the early scenarios seems pretty bad if you want a long format game with multiple large kingdoms - But is a great way to start the game running. I think one of the strengths of the Nobunaga's Ambition games is that the balance of power is more evenly distributed overall.

Shu in general seems like it would be fun to play due to being a consistently smaller faction with strong officers. It helps that Shu is always in immediate proximity to strong rivals.

I wish I could recommend early game Wu but it is just too easy to consolidate the South uncontested in these games (great for creating new kingdoms though). If not for this Zhou Yu would always be awesome to play as. The lack of a (non-DLC) Chi Bi scenario kinda screws him over more too. Seems like it is better to try out Lu Meng or Lu Xun at 211 or 214 - Especially if you want Wei to be a strong contender.

[heinous won]

Lu Bu's unique ordinance lowers your domestics a bit every season. Otherwise I can't imagine what the issue is with it.

That Three Emperors scenario is early/mid-190s and has several large forces. I believe I played Zhou Yu in this and installed Sun Ce into power after plotting against Yuan Shu. So it isn't really early game Wu.

13 doesn't really lend itself to long and drawn out games, in my experience if you don't want to get stuck in an ugly stalemate, you have to play aggressive.

[IlluminaZero]

Originally posted by heinous won:

Lu Bu's unique ordinance lowers your domestics a bit every season. Otherwise I can't imagine what the issue is with it.

That Three Emperors scenario is early/mid-190s and has several large forces. I believe I played Zhou Yu in this and installed Sun Ce into power after plotting against Yuan Shu. So it isn't really early game Wu.

13 doesn't really lend itself to long and drawn out games, in my experience if you don't want to get stuck in an ugly stalemate, you have to play aggressive.

Having an early scenario with large forces sounds great. I want to like the later scenarios but part of the fun of these games is the historical figures and setting - Of which the vast majority have best representation earlier in the history. I take it I have to unlock though? Not seeing it via google searches surprisingly enough.

The "ugly stalemate" is exactly what I want. I find it is way too easy to streamroll these games - Especially as many ROTK make it very easy to recruit officers of defeated factions. So you tend grow ridiculously fast in the early scenarios when you wipe out your rivals. It would be great if some factions simply refused to ever give up - Liu Bei for example basically became a bandit for a while when he lost his territory. Lu Bu / Cao Cao being able to absorb the majority of Liu Bei's forces is completely game breaking early on.

With all of the unclaimed lands in the early scenario there is little reason for Liu Bei to not be a pest that refuses to ever give up until unification occurs really.

Part of the fun of starting as a vagrant is the fear of a faction getting too big while you are establishing yourself. It can be especially fun if the game allows you to mercenary around in an attempt to check particularly strong faction's momentum in check.

I find that without some meta-nerfs Empire Sims basically demand an "invasion by foreign super power" style mechanic for there to be any large faction endgame. Coalitions can be very hit or miss - Especially in ROTK where there tends to be a hyper focus on the north-east factions.

[Virsia]

I agree with comment above, for some reason if we start early it's very easy to steam roll everyone, the real game start after 195 or in the warlords scenario, I play from yellow turban just to build up prestige and level tactics, joining here and there basically living merc way of life, just join the weak help them grow for a while then leave after couple years and joining another weak faction.

the thing is AI controlled character didn't use full potential of their prestige, they also didn't actively build connection and relations, they didn't seek potential mate, didn't get marry, didn't have children like player, it will be awesome if they build their own family too, there is lacking sense of rivalry in the game, no one trying to slander you or assasinate you which somehow left huge blank of real RPG interaction I mean some people are virtuous but many are not, social interaction need to be fixed big time for this game to be proper sims game.

[Chameleon_Silk]

Originally posted by Virsia:

I agree with comment above, for some reason if we start early it's very easy to steam roll everyone, the real game start after 195 or in the warlords scenario, I play from yellow turban just to build up prestige and level tactics, joining here and there basically living merc way of life, just join the weak help them grow for a while then leave after couple years and joining another weak faction.

the thing is AI controlled character didn't use full potential of their prestige, they also didn't actively build connection and relations, they didn't seek potential mate, didn't get marry, didn't have children like player, it will be awesome if they build their own family too, there is lacking sense of rivalry in the game, no one trying to slander you or assasinate you which somehow left huge blank of real RPG interaction I mean some people are virtuous but many are not, social interaction need to be fixed big time for this game to be proper sims game.

good points! if/when we get a new game hopefully they take things like this into consideration as that would really spice it up.

[heinous won]

'The "ugly stalemate" is exactly what I want.'

Well, just start in Liang and be sure to let someone consolidate the northeast and central plains before you take out the people in Liang, and you will get your wish. ;)

[Aqua]

Originally posted by illuminazero:

Thats a pretty cool analysis Aqua. Despite preferring custom officer play I enjoy reading the analysis of officer play from someone who loves the game and history.

Why do you say that Lu Bu's Ordinance is just too depressing?

In this game, when you get the PUK (Fame and Strategy Expansion or something), each prestige mode you unlock has a corresponding Ruler trait (Ordinance). That is, as ruler of a faction your Prestige gives you certain bonuses to your nation. However, many of these bonuses also come with cons.

Lu Bu's main con is that city domestics go down every turn. No matter how hard Chen Gong or Diao Chan tries to set up Commerce, Agriculture, or Culture, Lu Bu's Ordinance causes all that hard work to gradually rot away.

Other commentators make great points. There really needs to be a more live and active universe in game. Other characters should try developing relationships and getting married. Sure, you get situations where the person who you wanted to claim as your spouse marries someone else, perhaps, but overall it really would make the world seem more alive.

Of course, I guess if you're playing as a female character you can try to set up a "Raise the Red Lantern" esque scenario...... But that would kind of distract from the main point of ROTK. Family intrigue rather than reuniting wartorn China.

[Chameleon_Silk]

I usually have female officers as event only.

then again I never married in the game and the option wasn't available pre-PUK.

[Chameleon_Silk]

I must say "Warlords" has now become my fave scenario, can't wait to do the gathering of heros eventually.

from my game as Lu Bu: https://ibb.co/dm4sU6

[IlluminaZero]

Just finished a game (my first game!) as a Viceroy under Lu Bu -> Lu Lingqi -> (our) son.

Lu Bu's ordinance is a huge con. While Lu Bu was alive most cities were perpetually at tier 1/2 economics. For quite a while there was even danger of wipe out due to lacking sufficient food for deployment and constant defections due to some of Lu Bu's cities have inadequate commerce for stipends.

However the Ordinance is not a huge hinderance if you have offense momentum on your side. You can basically utilize the AI's excessive stockpiles of gold and food to keep your war machine going. The domestic negative also does not affect your military stats, so you can maximize those stats rather quickly.

When things are deadlocked you can use Lu Bu's superior morale/mobiliity to quickly wipe out invading armies with with a small fraction of deployed forces. For quite a while I was deploying 3-5k Tiger Cavalry units that survived on basically pincers and judicious strategy use.

If you want to stop an enemies offensive momentum you do NOT want to take out their main camp. You want to utterly annihilate all of their troops so that they have to slowly accumulate troops.

Single use strategies are not a huge negative to the force as a whole when your superior mobility allows you to disengage once it deactiavtes after all. ;)

It was a really fun game to, very unexpected turn of events.

My intention was to actually serve Lu Bu temporarily while training under his militant officers. I figured that since he had weak domestics I could help Lu Bu out without giving him insane momentum for my eventual split... Lu Bu then proceeded to hand off two (!) "adopted" daughters and I was already married to Lu Lingqi. I even got Lu Bu's strategy in a debate with one of his 20 INT daughters. Despite having similar stats to Lu Bu she kept challenging me to debates to unlock abilities and strategies.

Best. Waifu. Ever. She was even in the ending slide. Likely since I constantly paired with her in combat?

This game really did seem helpless for quite a while too. At one point I believe Wu had 30 cities, over 150 officers, AND Lu Bu still had to contend with Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. This with Lu Bu's officer defections and food issues made it very tempting to defect to Cao Cao.

[forumcrybaby]

Originally posted by illuminazero:

Originally posted by heinous won:

Lu Bu's unique ordinance lowers your domestics a bit every season. Otherwise I can't imagine what the issue is with it.

That Three Emperors scenario is early/mid-190s and has several large forces. I believe I played Zhou Yu in this and installed Sun Ce into power after plotting against Yuan Shu. So it isn't really early game Wu.

13 doesn't really lend itself to long and drawn out games, in my experience if you don't want to get stuck in an ugly stalemate, you have to play aggressive.

Having an early scenario with large forces sounds great. I want to like the later scenarios but part of the fun of these games is the historical figures and setting - Of which the vast majority have best representation earlier in the history. I take it I have to unlock though? Not seeing it via google searches surprisingly enough.

The "ugly stalemate" is exactly what I want. I find it is way too easy to streamroll these games - Especially as many ROTK make it very easy to recruit officers of defeated factions. So you tend grow ridiculously fast in the early scenarios when you wipe out your rivals. It would be great if some factions simply refused to ever give up - Liu Bei for example basically became a bandit for a while when he lost his territory. Lu Bu / Cao Cao being able to absorb the majority of Liu Bei's forces is completely game breaking early on.

With all of the unclaimed lands in the early scenario there is little reason for Liu Bei to not be a pest that refuses to ever give up until unification occurs really.

Part of the fun of starting as a vagrant is the fear of a faction getting too big while you are establishing yourself. It can be especially fun if the game allows you to mercenary around in an attempt to check particularly strong faction's momentum in check.

I find that without some meta-nerfs Empire Sims basically demand an "invasion by foreign super power" style mechanic for there to be any large faction endgame. Coalitions can be very hit or miss - Especially in ROTK where there tends to be a hyper focus on the north-east factions.

If want a longer game with more RTS/RPG goodness then just edit all the cities troop counts. I highley doubt every city in China in 190 BC had 569000 soldiers in it. Lower troop counts also make the AI less aggressive.