Huang Shao Not Too Bad

[yuzhonglu]

Just don't bother holding your starting territories.

You're near He Yi, your best buddy, so get a full stack of units and move south, killing Cao Cao and plundering your way through Chen. Set up your power base in Yangzhou (next to Runnan and He Yi), and then take Jian Ye and battle for the South with Sun Ce (who is still weak).

He Yi, as long as he stays alive, draws most of the AI's ire, which means you can expand.

[Kitten Food]

It is easier to just move south, I agree; however, when I play Huang Shao I prefer to stay put and turtle the penninsula. If you take Pencheng temple, you get +20% research as well. You can easily defend the area once you take out Kong Rong and Liu Bei.

Usually I just turtle there, and build both research buildings in every commandery. Lets me fill the tech tree almost within Huang Shao's lifetime and become ascended early. Usually Huang dies before I start expanding hardcore and by then I have almost all regional cities in the penninsula generating close to 20k a turn.

Surviving early can be a struggle sometimes, but once you get your defensive line up and turtle/research it is very easy.