Has anyone unified China?

[Achilex]

I'm coming close to turn 200 and about to go to war with Duke of Song and their many vassals (plan on supporting indepence of their largest one). Once this war is over quickly I'll hopefully have around 50% of China under direct control with no vassals. Due to trickery of Wu I'm seen as treachourous and am struggling to get allies but hopefully once I establish Kingdom soon my friendly neighbours will support my claim.

Anyway my question is how difficult is end game? All factions are either kingdoms or vassals now so wars will drag on, but I kinda want to just finish this play through now I have a better understanding of how campaign works, is it wise to rush and hope for military dominance or will I constantly be at war if I try and get support from a coalition to be emporer?

[Cha0s_lord]

Here's my endgame experience.

Playing as Cao Cao. I expanded mostly west (in retrospect, that was dumb), meaning that I have a strip of land stretching from the sea to the northwest corner of the map.
The other two Kingdoms are Song (north) and Wu (south), and as you can guess, I'm in between the two. Also the weakest of the three (based on the diplomatic penalties), but I made significant defensive improvements so that I can hold on with a minimal amount of armies.I managed to keep relatively good relations with Song, but I can see them going for blood (Kong Rong's blood for now, but mine pretty soon after that).
I start a proxy war between the Wu and Song, and give both military access. Now they start killing each other, passing through my lands. Wu gets beaten pretty hard, so I declare war on them and move for the kill. They quickly surrender to me.
Dealing with Song was a war of attrition. Sent spies early. My defense preparations were good but I couldn't make any significant push either. It changed when I managed to vassalize Gongsun Dan. Then, Song was surrounded (Kong Rong east, Gongsun Dan north, and me from south and west). Call on my embedded spies to disband Song's armies, and get the abdication.

Victory on turn 150-ish.

Hit fast, hit hard, and get the abdication quickly. You need to destroy armies to convince your enemies to abdicate (or vassalize them if you're fighting a minor faction). Once you're winning, you get a massive diplomatic penalty and only your vassals will stand by your side. Coalitions fall apart in the endgame (although in my case Kong Rong was so happy I saved him that he did stay until the end), but vassals are extremely useful to keep your enemies busy and let you strike where it hurts.

[The Mailman Thinks I Am Gay]

it is a meatgrinder. I had coalation for the entire northeast take on old man Cao Cao who took over the southeast and southwest of china all while my vassals (some who backstab me) and my armies cutting thur Cao Cao lands from the west.

I have the three seat to become emperor, now I just need 95 lands to beat the game as Gong Du

[Achilex]

The only faction stronger than me is Song and their vassals. I had a long war with Wu and it decimated them, they also hold the entire south and have only one vassal. However I used their peace offering to bolster my forces ready for Song war, between Song and Chu they hold 70% of the North and West.

Problem I have found myself in is that I can either run with my already treachourous status and war Wu and wipe them out and claim the South, or start the war with Song and hope I can convince Chu to join or that their war with them takes away some of the brunt. As Liu Bei I have a pretty well defended Kong Rong to to the east who has been building up. My main problem is I have seven armies, and that's all my territory allows for now until expansion. And with the treachourous state very few will deal with my requests without submitting them territory as well.

[Cha0s_lord]

Keep Song for last. You cannot afford to have another front opening (Wu) while you're dealing with Song. Also, Song seem to be busy with Chu, so they won't come for you anytime soon.

[Fang]

By unify you mean win the campaign, right? Not take every territory in person?

If so, sure did!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1751982867

A country conquest game would just be a massive grind.

[Achilex]

Just a follow up...

I waited a couple turns positioning my armies for a southern war. Wu then declared war with me, started slaughter them. Chu, who was friendly, randomly declared war with me (they're even unfriendly to wu so idk what bought this on). Literally sent stacks against me as I was moving most my armies deep south for swift victory. Had to send pretty much all my armies back to reclaim my land as they were steam rolling my territories.

Dealt with Chu, they paid me for peace. Rebuilt and prepared again my armies for Wu. Though they had a lot more armies by the time I got back to them... As I got near Wu capital Chu once again declared war. I had to trade five territory just to get peace with them.

Long story short Wu are no more wanting to become emporer. Song is very friendly to me, I'm just sending a few armies to surround the capital then will declare war, take the capital and hopefully win (Chu is now a kingdom so hoping they can't try and take wu emporer seat).

All in all will have taken around 275 turns, good call about leaving song for last. If I'd have attacked him first I'd be long gone.

[TDBD-SEBN]

My game at turn 195 and I am able to recruit 20 full armies but only 10 because there is no candidate in pool lmao.

[aNØØBis]

First win for Zheng Jiang 132 turn approximately
Sun Jian total conquest China 201 turn

[viranto]

Yes at round 121 with yuan shao on normal. Now i try it at hard.

[alex010300]

Did it will Liu Bei, I was surprised when the cut scene open saying that I unify China after I took a city,