How to conquer the whole map ?

[Le Soleil et l'Acier]

Hi,
I'm a total noob at this game and I'm wondering what's the plan to conquer the whole map.
I've played Shogun 2 and it's quite easy taking a corner and steamrolling the rest of Japan.
However, China is a bit bigger and I'm always surrounded by two or three big boys in the late game who inevitably gang up on me and eat through my land.

[Tattoos on my Ribs!]

play sun jian

[Vormina]

Take a few enemy lands around your starting location, get money rolling in from trade agreements, get public order up enough to raise taxes, then send an army to the bottom of the map and buy all the abandoned settlements down there, good place to get a foothold and hardly any enemies go there, try to stay on good terms with Sun Jian till you have enough armies, then take all his land.

[Valnak]

Build up, vassalize/conquer everyone then liberate one by one and declare war.

[Romain]

Originally posted by kidcudi:

play sun jian

Yep it's a good choice I did it with him but it's a bit dissapointing, you only have some noble who kindly ask for independance not even a congratulation....

Any faction in a corner is a good choice anyway. It seems easier when late game the 2 enemy emperors are in the same front.

Some advice (universal TW advice that works every time):

Build up the best economy possible and simple. Here is a guide and it works well.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1762205509

until you reach the max of armies (around 17) you only use something like

5 tier 1 archer (fire arrow/night battle)
1 treb (-1 turn for siege)
6 tier 2 spearmens (turtle formation)
4 tier 1 cav (shock or melee dont care) (back charge and chase/disturb)
2 tier 1 swordmen.

When you reach the max you began to replace by tier 2 and tier 3 units

you should have the half of the map at this point.

My personnal advice : what is different compared to other TW? You have to delay as long as possible your emperor rank. It means you have to expand/conquer quickly but avoid administration building upgrades (all those that provides prestige) if you dont need it (ofc you absolutly need colony upgrade because of money and garrisons). You can still have a good economy with 50% corruption.

I personnaly don't vassalize. I kill everyone.

Diplomaticaly speaking, you sell food to everyone on the map.

Technologie speaking I focus on 3 blue first (2 trade road + 25% influence trade >>> best revenu early game ever, and diplomatic advantage too)
then purple and yellow tech.
One green green from time to time because of food

At last the complete useless red branch (my opinion) and blue branch.


Money is the sinews of war. As usual

[Okita Asada]

Vassalize everyone and annex. It's what I did.

[shiggies713]

Try to work yourself into a corner so you cannot be backstabbed.

Keep a nice war chest (money) saved up for disaster. Keep your armies fresh and preferably close enough to relieve each other in case emergency. Healthy strong army is the war, keep it strong and you will win.

Get as much food as possible. Sell it to your neighbors. Not only will it help prevent attack, it is extremely lucrative in some cases if the AI is negative food.

Have a keen eye for good talent. Always try to make room in your court for new good generals, especially early on the unique legendary ones. Sometimes i hire guys just to take their ancillaries and weapons. One time for 1000 gold i got a unique weapon, refined armor, and 2 ancillaries... a lot better deal than buying them off Cao Cao.

Get in a coalition with one strong ally and refuse to let anyone else in, they will screw it up once you get 4-5 members. I've even been kicked out of a coalition I started like this.

There is no need to delay emperor rank if you started as a governor or lower cause you cannot form an emperor seat anyways.

[shiggies713]

This game can be broken with several characters. My very hard Ma Teng game i have those elite Qiang Raiders that normally cost like 3500 to recruit and 180 per turn down to roughly 350 recruit cost and 62 gold per turn to maintain because i own every horse resource and other bonuses. Vast swarms of elite cavalry armies... AI can't handle it

[Le Soleil et l'Acier]

Well i managed to get 57 provinces before my game decided to crash every turn.
Was fun

[Imnuktam]

The real test is how many of you can do it and never gain any treachery along the way.

[Romain]

Originally posted by Imnuktam:

The real test is how many of you can do it and never gain any treachery along the way.

not that hard... I have to admitt in the end I didn't care at all. But in anycase it will change nothing. It was just a matter of time because all the main faction are at war against you. I never use vassals, I only have ONE ally at a time (to keep control on admissions) so if you're a bit careful there is no reason to break treaties. ofc if you use vassals and huge alliance... there will be a mess at some point (for me at least, that's why I don't use them)

To do so with vassals you have to understand the not always logical mechanic behind it (I recently discover that when you vassalize a faction who's at war with another, if you have treaties with this other faction and ask for peace. If it refuses.... you are the traitor... don't seems fair to me, I'm pretty sure you are the traitor in the other way, when an enemy is vassalizde by another faction and you don't comply to their new master... These case should be neutral because both part are responsible.)