Zheng Jiang

[Ryouko]

Any tips for Zheng Jiang campaign on Legendary. Being Sandwich by Yuan Shao and Lu Bu when capturing surrounding settlements

[Metadragon]

beat a few armies of theirs and then demand tribute and expand west or east.

[Salty Nobody]

I posted this on another thread awhile back and tbh I don't feel like writing all that out again. Hope it helps.

Rember to make use of tributaries and their extra income and remember that with enough infamy you can get unbreakable garrisons to hold off all but the most overwhelming attacks with.

Originally posted by Tactician:

I'm surprised people have done so many campaigns already. I have one Zheng Jiang Legendary Records campaign completed and that is it. It took me 70+ hours, not including the two short false starts where I tried to figure out how the game worked. My memory might be off a little but the following is fairly accurate as to what happened...

I started out by taking the Bandit King's commandry. It was right next to me and the most easily accessed target, and the ******* would just attack me anyway if I left him alone.

Next I took the nearby fishing port to the west and colonized the abandoned city there, before crossing the yellow river to take two settlements from the Tyrant's son. By this time my other border and the garrisons and partial stack there were barely holding off the Yaun guy and his vassals, and I was badly overextended. I made peace with Dong Min in exchange for the other two settlements in the commandry, and on that same turn I became a vassal of the other Yaun guy in exchange for a large sum of money.

I was not at war with anyone after that, so I sold food for more money than I was paying out as a vassal and spent some turns building up. I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around me, but the Yaun guy that was at war with me before declared on me again and my vassal master either broke my vassalage or was no longer in existence at that point.

I was ready for this. My garrisons and my defending stack wiped out the first wave of enemies and made peace with the Yaun guy and his vassal swarm before the second wave could overwhelm my weakened forces.

Meanwhile my main stack across the Yellow River set about taking the entire region from the Yellow Turban faction that had overtaken Dong Min. They had many armies and while my main stack could keep them out of my commandry well enough I couldn't make headway, so I raised a third stack and started taking the edge of the map while my first army wiped out stack after stack with ambushes and open battle. Soon I had more than doubled my territory, and the Yaun guy had lost a third war in the meantime. At some point I got invited to a coalition for fighting the Yellow Turbans and making nice and trading with people.

I continued to expand to the west and south west, securing the entire corner of the map and many horse farms and the silk road, before stopping in the mountains. I really wanted to go pound the Yaun guy turned Dutchy of Song to the east but they always attacked me when I was busy to the West. The Kingdom of Shu Han arose but luckily Liu Bei was an honorable man and already my friend and coalition partner, so I was reasonably confident that the strongest faction on the map would be the only one who did not want my head. Even my valued business partner Kong Rong picked a fight, and lost his undefended holdings in the west for his trouble.

Then I ran against the Dutchy of Wu. They had once been in my coalition but before they left they had tried to vote me out of it three separate times. I was well aware that they did not like me. I was less aware of the many armies they could bring to bear. I was able to hold them off well enough to make peace but, since my territory on the border with them was new and not built up yet I lost two settlements. I got ambushed twice trying to take the copper mine back, but since that was essential to keeping corruption at bay Zheng Jiang herself reclaimed it before making peace. From then on two full stacks guarded those mountains at all times and those settlements had priority on upgrades.

Several more inconclusive wars with the Dutchy of Song and one more war with the Dutchy of Wu occurred while I took stock of my growing empire and built up.

It was time to put an end to the Song. On my sixth war with them I managed to capture a farm, and got my lumber yard back for peace. On the seventh war the enemy, short on food, threw everything they had to take it back. My stack defending it reisted valiantly with ambushes and counter pushes, but I was eventually forced back to territory with towers. However, I was the one who had initiated this war and my invading stacks overpowered several vassals as they advanced up the Yellow River. I retook the farm and pushed in to the lands of Song. And then for the first time I discovered tributaries. I was going to end them, but having them pay me a bunch of money to help prepare for being a Kingdom seemed like a better plan.

The peace could not last. Though neither could their remaining vassals respect their greatly weakened master. In the middle of my 8th war with Song, I attained Kingdomhood. Shu Han, strongest faction on the map, still wanted to be my friend.

The newly minted Kingdom of Wu attacked me. This short war went disasterously for them, and they ended up paying me a massive amount of tribute. To add insult to injury, Shu Han declared war and annexed the weakened and out of position Wu within a handful of turns. This left Shu Han with a super kingdom and a huge food shortage. I helped them with that in exchange for tribute.

By the time the food treaty expired Song was faltering badly and Kong Rong and the other minor factions in the area could not save them. They begged their ally Shu Han to intervene. On the same turn Zheng Jiang died of old age, I suddenly found myself at war with 60% of the map.

Or more accurately, a battle line stretching literally the length of China suddenly found itself invaded by me. For I was prepared. The AI factions resisted fiercely, sending stack after stack up the center of the map. The three farmlands there changed hands almost every turn, and the two nearby cities fell more than once to my armies and theirs. But to the far western and far eastern edges of the map, my armies had almost free reign to run amok. And so they did. Song finally fell. The militia rabble of the minor factions could not stand against me and most ended up as unwilling tributaries. After eight years of near constant defeat and many lost commandries, Shu Han abdicated even though they still held two seats.

And that was the end of that.

Currently early on in a Legendary Huang Shao Yellow Turban run.

Originally posted by Three-Headed-Monkey:

while i havent completed a legendary campaign yet, i really cant recommend doing a run with zheng jiang or turbans ... simply because of diplomacy

Ah ok. I will keep that in mind. :p

[The Mailman Thinks I Am Gay]

Abuse the tribute, for starters. Do it to Yuan shao or some other big faction and throw money at everything.

[VoiD]

I couldn't get tribute early in the game, and it was such a shame, after I discovered how OP that feature is I never had issues with money, I'd just skip turns lazily in the end and make 100% elite armies wherever needed, whenever needed.

That being said the very early game is quite hard, remember you get a positive chance of getting a peace deal out of the enemy if you beat them in combat repeatedly, try to get allies as well, in my case I joined Yuan Shao's coalition, so I didn't have to worry about the east, just the bandit king to the north and one army dong zhuo sent towards me, also, if the situation is dire do not hesitate to give away territory, signing a peace treaty by offering land in a province you don't or can't control completely is fine, try to get non aggression pacts and the such too, if nothing works gift them 1 food per turn every 10 turns to make them less likely to attack you if you really don't want them to trouble you for a long time, then focus your efforts eslewhere.

Things to remember:
1- Tributaries are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ OP, specially at higher difficulties and/or at high infamy levels
2 - The +replenishment unique building she gets is really, really good, but it reduces income, build it on a farming region where income isn't important and you'll be in a much better shape to fight wars.
3- Allies and coalitions are worth it, worry about it as early as you can, also, if you don't want Yuan Shao to become a problem with his vassals the best thing you could possibly do is to join his coalition, people don't like the bandit queen, and people hate the player at higher difficulties, if you hold hands with him people won't be very likely to deal with him either, so he won't be getting any vassals or allies that easily, though be prepared for another lord to take the mantle of vassal-lord later on, in my game it was Liu Biao.

[jazzstart]

Ya, lets skip all the noise. Her specialty is +50% on tributes and mercenary contracts. Uh, I didn't really notice being on mercenary contract the whole time, but I had 2 Million funds halfway in. She doesn't even need territory, financially its plus around 15% in the Accounting when she doesn't have territory. Get Coalition members (somebody doesn't war you) , they're holding companies, hand them territory. 35% income +50% = 50%, + tribute halls 75% is 99%?! It literally was more money with 8 tributaries having my lands. Then, I stormed in at the end and became Emperor, 3 million funds.