Liu Bei can't confederate?

[Dou B Jin]

The faction description says that Liu Bei can use confederate at the beginning of the game but I can't find it at all.

At turn from turn 15 to turn 109 I still cant figure out how to confederate with Liu Biao since the option was never given. I end up annexed Liu Biao's territory as a vassal and end up with rest of the freaking country and all my vassals declaring war on me.

I thought it was just me until I was playing Cao Cao and saw the AI Liu Bei confederating with so many other factions (including Liu Dai, Liu Zhang which were never an option for me).

I'm I missing something? It seems like literally everyone but Liu Bei has confederation despite it being a key part of his faction.

[bombed]

its called unify on liu bei, i have not been able to get it to work on any faction no matter how much they like me

[Dou B Jin]

That's the one? The darn thing never work.

[Donttouchmyhohos]

Liu Biao has to die, best way imo is to assassinate him after you get in good standings. You can confederated Tao at the start of the campaign.

[ii_Gizmo_ii]

If your talking about the Unify Mechanic, its not so much a free confed (which would take over the entire faction) but a free "give me your city"

I'm sure the Advisor would of explained it to you at some point and you just missed it but you use it to Annex Han cities, not any faction

Quick Google Search
"there are two major uses for Unity:

Annexing Han Empire cities without a fight; costs 50 Unity.
Sending an officer on an assignment to boost satisfaction/loyalty for five years; costs 5 Unity."

Edit: after further research it seems in order to annex you have to go up like you are attacking the Han city and if you have 50 unity an option should appear to annex it instead of fighting. I can't confirm this as I have yet to play Liu Bei but multiple people have stated this so afaik its right

Further Edit: Liu Bei also has the “Unification” diplomatic deal. If you’re stronger than another faction and you have good relations, you can ask them to unite/merge with yours. He can do this very early in the game as well, whereas other lords would need to vassalize first then annex, or confederate, requiring higher faction ranks.

so it seems the reason you can't confed with him would be because you aren't stronger and/or you don't have good relations with them

[Dou B Jin]

Originally posted by ii_Gizmo_ii:

If your talking about the Unify Mechanic, its not so much a free confed (which would take over the entire faction) but a free "give me your city"

I'm sure the Advisor would of explained it to you at some point and you just missed it but you use it to Annex Han cities, not any faction

Quick Google Search
"there are two major uses for Unity:

Annexing Han Empire cities without a fight; costs 50 Unity.
Sending an officer on an assignment to boost satisfaction/loyalty for five years; costs 5 Unity."

Edit: after further research it seems in order to annex you have to go up like you are attacking the Han city and if you have 50 unity an option should appear to annex it instead of fighting. I can't confirm this as I have yet to play Liu Bei but multiple people have stated this so afaik its right

Further Edit: Liu Bei also has the “Unification” diplomatic deal. If you’re stronger than another faction and you have good relations, you can ask them to unite/merge with yours. He can do this very early in the game as well, whereas other lords would need to vassalize first then annex, or confederate, requiring higher faction ranks.

so it seems the reason you can't confed with him would be because you aren't stronger and/or you don't have good relations with them

That's the problem though. Around turn 90 I was around 6 stacks in army size and 50k in wealth. Liu Biao lost most of his territory and had 1 city left and was close to losing it to Yuan Shu at that point. Even with all this and 150 points in diplomacy he refuse to accept unification. I was already steam rolling across most factions at that point with the only reason for not expanding was my corruption level was hitting nearly 60%

[&rew]

I'm on my second game as Liu Bei, and the mechanic is either bugged or not described well. It leads you to believe that if you keep good relations with a faction, you'll be able to unify with them, but the only unification I pulled off outside of a story mission was a faction that had no armies left and was at neutral standing with me. The only reason I knew to try unification was the "quick deal" menu option. I've been best buds with Kong Rong forever now, and he won't entertain the thought of unifying with me even though I've isolated him to the northeast corner, and he has nowhere to expand to; completely out of tactical options AND we're on good diplomatic terms. The only way to make that part of the map useful is to break our treaty and start taking his lands.

[eldiabs]

I think they have to absolutely love you in order to unify. AND you have to have a much stronger army. AND you have to have a good standing as a diplomat.

You can also try a unify or else we declare war mandate. But then they'll hate you. And so will everyone else. You'll be an evil tyrant to everyone then. Good stuff...

[&rew]

Originally posted by eldiabs:

I think they have to absolutely love you in order to unify. AND you have to have a much stronger army. AND you have to have a good standing as a diplomat.

You can also try a unify or else we declare war mandate. But then they'll hate you. And so will everyone else. You'll be an evil tyrant to everyone then. Good stuff...

Like I said, a unification worked for me with a faction that was totally neutral to me but just shared a border and was out of military. We weren't at war, I didn't threaten him, he didn't think highly of me...doesn't seem to make any sense. That's the only non-story-mission unification I've pulled off.

[Dou B Jin]

In my case Liu Biao was down to one town and was at siege during the time I offered unification. I had at close to 20 cities and 6 full army stacks which Liu Biao still refused.

I didn't I think its broken until during my campaign as Cao Cao I saw that Liu Bei unified with Kong Rong, Liu Biao Liu Zhang and Liu Dai within 80 turns. Meanwhile I can't unify with anyone except Tao Qian which is completely scripted.

[Reapo]

Liu Bei uses unify not confederate. And for it to be a success you have to have positive relations and be reasonably more powerful than the person your trying to unify with. If you try to unify with a faction that is close to or of equal power, it ain't gonna happen.

[Dou B Jin]

Originally posted by {BHC}Sgt.Reapo:

Liu Bei uses unify not confederate. And for it to be a success you have to have positive relations and be reasonably more powerful than the person your trying to unify with. If you try to unify with a faction that is close to or of equal power, it ain't gonna happen.

Unify is the Liu Bei's version of confederation. They literally call it confederation during the faction selection.

Also I do meet the requirements you're describing.

Me - 20 Cities, 6 full elite armies, steam rolling half of China

Liu Bao - 1 city and its currently undersiege, no armies left, wealth - poor, food - very poor, I'm 150 relation with on top of being close friend with him.

What happen when I try to unify? -34 never.

[Darth Alpharius]

Originally posted by bombed:

its called unify on liu bei, i have not been able to get it to work on any faction no matter how much they like me

No thats the unique currency to Annex Han Settlements.

[Reapo]

so you want to unify a faction that has one city that is currently under siege?

[BastardSword]

Does the unification thing on the map only work with Han Empire settlements? Kind of weird.

You can select "propose unification" in the diplomacy screen, but 99% of the time the AI will refuse to do so for obvious reasons. But a few times I got it to work, but it seemed really inconsistent. Like with one faction I'd just destroyed all their armies and it let me unify with them. But then some other faction said ok to unification even though they were plenty strong.

I think maybe it's meant to be like annexing your vassals but without the global diplomacy hit.

[Reapo]

I know for my Liu Bei campaign I unified with Gongsun Zan. I was in great standing with him, had a lot more power than him and I was also at war with the people he was at war with and friendly with the people he was friends with. So, I'm sure all those factors play a part. OH and diplomactically i am trustworthy.