Yuan Shao's matter as Gongsun Zan

[Head]

Hey guys, I've been playing my first campaing in 3K as Gongsun Zan. I know that Bogui killed himself with his family in the Romance and that historically he was beheaded by Yuan Shao, but damn I thought I could do at least something about him. Unfortunately I was so stupid as to repeat history (meaning that I sided against Han Fu) and let Yuan Shao get some vassals and now he delcared war on me. I only got 4 settlements and a pretty low income since I'm just 13 turns in. Is there a feasible way to at least push Yuan Shao into a truce/non-aggression treaty?

[TDBD-SEBN]

If he just declares on you, it takes a lot of bribes for a truce (usually "never" in the first several turns considering at turn 13). otherwise you can hold off his attack and may take his lands. repeating victories will make an enemy willing to make a truce. or offer your service to a big lord (like Liu Bei or Cao Cao) to become their vassal. this will make them hate each other and you avoid the war. slowly build up and declare independence again.

[Shatti]

take my advice never make peace with him, he has a vassalisation bug
he would eat u after 15 turns after the peace with 8 factions with his side
my advice be aggresive attack him or game goodbye

[Head]

Originally posted by Finn:

If he just declares on you, it takes a lot of bribes for a truce (usually "never" in the first several turns considering at turn 13). otherwise you can hold off his attack and may take his lands. repeating victories will make an enemy willing to make a truce. or offer your service to a big lord (like Liu Bei or Cao Cao) to become their vassal. this will make them hate each other and you avoid the war. slowly build up and declare independence again.

Instead of conquering his lands, what about looting and sacking them? Would that hurt enough his economy to stop attacking me? If I had two armies I could've started by conquering/annexing Gongsun Du in the north, but that doesn't seem doable since I fear that with my only army busy up North, he can come westwards easily and set upon my undefended settlements.

Originally posted by shatti_11:

take my advice never make peace with him, he has a vassalisation bug
he would eat u after 15 turns after the peace with 8 factions with his side
my advice be aggresive attack him or game goodbye

So you advise to keep fighting until only one stands? Man that's gonna be hard, I only have 1 army fielded, I don't have enough money for another one.

[Yoshitsune]

On my playthrough as Gongsun Zan i quickly gobbled up Liu Yu left the other Gongsun chilling north of me and went for the Han areas instead (securing the Fish Port + Bohai town is crucial for Gongsun playthroughs).

Made me strong enough early on for Yuan Shao to offer me a coalition deal. Then i just used my votes to prevent him from getting more guys on his side and eventually broke the coalition and attacked him... he still tried to make a ton of vassals but it was too little too late.

[TDBD-SEBN]

Originally posted by Head:

Originally posted by Finn:

If he just declares on you, it takes a lot of bribes for a truce (usually "never" in the first several turns considering at turn 13). otherwise you can hold off his attack and may take his lands. repeating victories will make an enemy willing to make a truce. or offer your service to a big lord (like Liu Bei or Cao Cao) to become their vassal. this will make them hate each other and you avoid the war. slowly build up and declare independence again.

Instead of conquering his lands, what about looting and sacking them? Would that hurt enough his economy to stop attacking me? If I had two armies I could've started by conquering/annexing Gongsun Du in the north, but that doesn't seem doable since I fear that with my only army busy up North, he can come westwards easily and set upon my undefended settlements.

Originally posted by shatti_11:

take my advice never make peace with him, he has a vassalisation bug
he would eat u after 15 turns after the peace with 8 factions with his side
my advice be aggresive attack him or game goodbye

So you advise to keep fighting until only one stands? Man that's gonna be hard, I only have 1 army fielded, I don't have enough money for another one.

Sacking and looting counts too. you can fight him to death if you fight one front and the result is profitable. In my Zheng Jiang campaign, I fought him to around turn 70-75 with his spawning stacks and I still held like 2 provinces, my queen was lv 8 at the time. I didnt accept peace but only tribute. So I used money to build up, then attack him again to take land, then took tribute. basically I abused the AI money he got until I was godamn rich and took all the north lands. Unlike Zheng Jiang, Gongsun Zan faction has no point in fighting him if that takes much time unless you can end him as soon as possible.

[Metadragon]

Originally posted by Head:

Hey guys, I've been playing my first campaing in 3K as Gongsun Zan. I know that Bogui killed himself with his family in the Romance and that historically he was beheaded by Yuan Shao, but damn I thought I could do at least something about him. Unfortunately I was so stupid as to repeat history (meaning that I sided against Han Fu) and let Yuan Shao get some vassals and now he delcared war on me. I only got 4 settlements and a pretty low income since I'm just 13 turns in. Is there a feasible way to at least push Yuan Shao into a truce/non-aggression treaty?

yeah kill an army or two and he will be open to peace. how long it lasts is another matter. battles awarding money is basically how you pay for stuff the firs 50 turns

[Head]

Originally posted by Yoshitsune:

On my playthrough as Gongsun Zan i quickly gobbled up Liu Yu left the other Gongsun chilling north of me and went for the Han areas instead (securing the Fish Port + Bohai town is crucial for Gongsun playthroughs).

Made me strong enough early on for Yuan Shao to offer me a coalition deal. Then i just used my votes to prevent him from getting more guys on his side and eventually broke the coalition and attacked him... he still tried to make a ton of vassals but it was too little too late.

I had the same strategy in mind before Yuan Shao declared war on me outta nowhere (even though I knew he was a fishy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ after that Han Fu matter). Now I fear that by trying to take Yu with just one army I could risk to face Yuan Shao full stacked armies coming from the South.

Originally posted by Finn:

Originally posted by Head:

Instead of conquering his lands, what about looting and sacking them? Would that hurt enough his economy to stop attacking me? If I had two armies I could've started by conquering/annexing Gongsun Du in the north, but that doesn't seem doable since I fear that with my only army busy up North, he can come westwards easily and set upon my undefended settlements.



So you advise to keep fighting until only one stands? Man that's gonna be hard, I only have 1 army fielded, I don't have enough money for another one.

Sacking and looting counts too. you can fight him to death if you fight one front and the result is profitable. In my Zheng Jiang campaign, I fought him to around turn 70-75 with his spawning stacks and I still held like 2 provinces, my queen was lv 8 at the time. I didnt accept peace but only tribute. So I used money to build up, then attack him again to take land, then took tribute. basically I abused the AI money he got until I was godamn rich and took all the north lands. Unlike Zheng Jiang, Gongsun Zan faction has no point in fighting him if that takes much time unless you can end him as soon as possible.

Eh, I might also try this way. But to keep him at bay with just one army (three generals, but not fully stacked) I'll have to get a bit lucky!

Thanks anyway to everybody for the precious counsel!