I thought Cao Cao's starting position was supposed to be easy

[vortex]

I'm 15 turns in now. I've barely got any money because the Han empire has been sending its generals back and forth through my lands non-stop, so I have to keep taxes low, and everybody declared war on me all at once.

How is this easy? Why is it recommended? This is the toughest faction I've played so far!

[The Gunslinger]

Yeah it's not easy. Just beat it Legendary after a long time.

[Too Much Salt]

Practice makes perfect. When I first started off as Cao Cao, I also had the same feeling as others. However, once you scratch the surface, Cao Cao is indeed the easiest faction.

Reason being, his manipulation mechanic and instigate proxy war are by far the best feature in the game. It enables players to rule & divide opponents (which was what cao cao did historically).

I literally made peace with strong factions before becoming king and drag powerful factions to go to war against each other, via manipulation and use of coalition (get strong allies to attack vassal of an overlord).

Btw, Cao Cao's starting commandery chen is one of best defensive city in the central plain. It connects the central plain to the north, west, east and south. In addition, you get this special tuntian building (farmland) which increases replenishment + Xiahou Yuan's 15% replenishment assignment. You can turn Chen Commandery into a farming XP, Gold and Forward base. Normally, in the early game, replenishment is a slow thing. So, I mentioned Cao Cao's unique building as well as Xiahou Yuan's assignment is to show that you can literally crush Liu Biao, Yuan Shu & He Yi without ever to worry about replenishment.

[Harukage]

Cao Cao also starts with a heavy tiger&leopard cav unit. There is basicaly very little that can stop them in early to mid game.

[WildArmsFx]

Originally posted by Harukage:

Cao Cao also starts with a heavy tiger&leopard cav unit. There is basicaly very little that can stop them in early to mid game.

They are a very good unit, even late game. I think shock cav + shield is my favorite specific unit.

[WildArmsFx]

Originally posted by Too Much Salt:

Practice makes perfect. When I first started off as Cao Cao, I also had the same feeling as others. However, once you scratch the surface, Cao Cao is indeed the easiest faction.

Reason being, his manipulation mechanic and instigate proxy war are by far the best feature in the game. It enables players to rule & divide opponents (which was what cao cao did historically).

I literally made peace with strong factions before becoming king and drag powerful factions to go to war against each other, via manipulation and use of coalition (get strong allies to attack vassal of an overlord).

Btw, Cao Cao's starting commandery chen is one of best defensive city in the central plain. It connects the central plain to the north, west, east and south. In addition, you get this special tuntian building (farmland) which increases replenishment + Xiahou Yuan's 15% replenishment assignment. You can turn Chen Commandery into a farming XP, Gold and Forward base. Normally, in the early game, replenishment is a slow thing. So, I mentioned Cao Cao's unique building as well as Xiahou Yuan's assignment is to show that you can literally crush Liu Biao, Yuan Shu & He Yi without ever to worry about replenishment.

Cao Cao also has a food surplus to start which is really good to manipulate faction or generate revenue, especially combinded with his ability. A large chunk of my eco was selling food.

[RustyRed]

As someone who plays on Legendary difficulty, I'd say Cao Cao is not the easiest. I swear it's an inside joke with CA to label him as the easiest faction.

Liu Bei is the easiest I've played. You have 3 super generals in the early game, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun (who you recruit after a few turns) dominate in duels. Get a strategist with cooldown debuffs and you can destroy any enemy general with plenty of HP to spare for the next. If you can manage to marry in Sun Ren, even better. Liu Bei also gets 50% discount for the basic infantry, which is really all you need until you reach kingdom rank.

I'd say Ma Teng (despite being labelled hard) is easier than Cao Cao.

[Metadragon]

As always the reason Cao Cao's starting position is hard is not because he is surrounded its because the AI is still not tuned and even on normal difficulty the enemy get such campaign bonuses that they can and will always field more armies than you possibly could.

If you dont game the system to beat them its tough. But even facing 3 armies at once is not hard but they can replenish those in one turn. But EVEN that isnt that bad its also the fact the AI know exactly you marching range and exactly where you are even when thats impossible. BUT EVEN THAT isnt that hard its also the fact that when you move your army THROUGH YOUR OWN LANDS to go deal with that overpowered army the person facing you in that city will immediately sense weakness and attack. BUT EVEN THAT is managable but you also have to deal with the fact that while skirting you they ruin your pop happiness.


etc etc. Everything in the AI script is there to exploit and cheat because typically in battle the AI isnt too hard so it had to artificially extend itself to harass and annoy you. You will rarely lose a battle what you will lose to is the fact that rebellions and random out of nowhere invasions will keep you so busy policing your own country that you never have a chance to expand.

On harder difficulties the only way to play Cao Cao and not lose is to make a second army as soon as humanly possible and secure the territories east and south or as many as possible before Sun Jian owns half the south of the map and you cant keep up with him. Cause Sun Jian with one province can field 2-3 armies., Sun Jian and Yuan Shao with 4-5 provinces can spam out 10-15 of them while you will barely be able to afford 3-4 with the same amount of upgraded provinces.

Combine with the shenanigans and cheating above and its just frustrating. Luckily for us high experience trebuchets wreck everything. 500-1000 casualties on each on is downright broken. I wonder how bad the uproar would be if you couldnt cheese the game so hard.

Has anyone actually done a Legendary campaign using "standard" tactics that didnt involve half an army of trebuchets and shock cavalry? Or exploited no fatigue generals?