Liu Bei recruiting Lady Mi on 190 start- how does it work?

[Etchings]

I have tried a dozen times now without any luck.

She supposedly starts in Tao Qian's faction. When I confed with him, she's no longer there.

I've installed a mod that shows where every character is on the map. I've chased her all across China wiping out the factions to which she nominally belongs, but she shows up neither in the pool of officers to be recruited nor the option to recruit, rather she goes onto another faction the next turn. I've tried to use a trainer to unify with factions, but again, she is not there.

I've also tried at least 5 vanilla starts. Upon Tao Qian's death and Liu Bei's inheritance, she is gone. Typically, Mi Fang is also gone and sometimes Mi Zhu, too.

I just simply do not understand aspects of this game. I understand there is supposed to be a sand box aspect to Total War, but this is less sand box and more incomprehensible, impossible to interact with major pieces of the game. It's like someone let you drive their sports car and insisted you'll have the best driving experience wearing a blindfold.

What I really don't understand is the games insistence on putting certain things on blind rails. The most interesting part of this period are the characters, the relationships, and the ability to influence this part of the game is absolute garbage. If you're going to make it event driven and stick to the historical script, do that. If you're going to allow players to sandbox, then give the player options to influence that system in intelligible ways. Right now, we are getting the worst of both of those worlds.

At this point, I would prefer a system of drafting characters from a common pool in which a character can decline based on who is offering what they are offering.

This game is in a terrible state.

[Fried Noodles]

Confederation/Annexation follows some pretty simple rules.
When you absorb another faction into your own, you take the faction leader and anyone that's directly related to them on their family tree.

Any other generals that are currently deployed in an army will also join you, but only if your faction has enough empty army slots to accommodate the other faction's armies.
So if Tao Qian has three characters you really want, but they happen to all be in different armies, then you're going to want to make sure you have at least three empty army slots available when the confederation takes place... assuming Tao Qian doesn't actually have more active armies than that.

[Etchings]

Has it always worked this way?

How would I go about recruiting Lady Mi?

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by Etchings:

Has it always worked this way?

How would I go about recruiting Lady Mi?

There's really no guaranteed way in the 190 start.
You could attempt to manipulate his faction with spies. Attack the satisfaction of generals that are currently deployed in an army. Tao Qian will be forced to replace deserting generals. Lady Mi might end up taking a spot.

Sometimes Tao Qian just deploys Lady Mi. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Liu Bei has a bit of a problem in the early game. He only gets one army slot.
You want to rush your Unity gain (Liu Bei gains additional administrator slots as his Unity goes up -- Administrators give army slots).
Take the +1 Administrator reform.

If you see Lady Mi deployed in an army, maybe trail that army and make sure it doesn't get wiped.

[Etchings]

I've not had any issues with absorbing Tao Qian's standing armies upon confederation. He simply doesn't deploy Lady Mi into an army.

Good suggestion regarding spying, but that early I can't imagine how I'd gain access to a spy.

Any idea how a character cycles through the various cities and how I might be able to engage in that process to recruit her?

Thank you for all the suggestions.

[Fried Noodles]

Mm. I'm not sure I understand your question.
Cycling through cities?

It's been a good long while since I've played as Liu Bei in 190. I don't remember how early the confederation happens. Or what Liu Bei's starting reforms are.

My solution would be.... Cheese diplomacy. Unify Cao Cao. Adopt Cao Cao and make him your heir. Enjoy the free +2 Spy Slots he brings to your faction.


But that's why I don't play Liu Bei.

[Etchings]

I'm wondering once a character loses it's faction, how it moves into a factions recruitment pool.

[Fried Noodles]

It feels random to me.
They're more likely to go towards factions that they have a fondness for and will never be employed by a faction they have a grudge against.
I believe Prestige might also be a factor, but this is just an observation/assumption I'm making based on what I've seen personally, like in co-op campaigns.
I played a game as Liu Chong with someone playing as Lu Zhi. And at all times, I dwarfed his Prestige and it seemed that all the unique characters came to me, and almost none went to him. But it could be something else, I dunno.

[Etchings]

Thanks!

Just in case any developers are reading, character recruitment and interaction generally is a very weak aspect of this game.

[Vin362]

Assuming she isn't married off to someone else if you follow Liu Bei's story Tao Qian will eventually die and Liu Bei will inherit his faction and obtain most of his officers Lady Mi will be one of them if she is still in Tao Qian's court.

[Etchings]

Have you had that work? For me, it hasn't.

Fried noodles explained the mechanics for why it doesn't work:

Confederation/Annexation follows some pretty simple rules.
When you absorb another faction into your own, you take the faction leader and anyone that's directly related to them on their family tree.

Any other generals that are currently deployed in an army will also join you, but only if your faction has enough empty army slots to accommodate the other faction's armies.
So if Tao Qian has three characters you really want, but they happen to all be in different armies, then you're going to want to make sure you have at least three empty army slots available when the confederation takes place... assuming Tao Qian doesn't actually have more active armies than that.

[g0kur]

Lady Mi is usually doing assignments instead of being deployed in my experience (Tao Qian really likes her, even gives her +400 salary title). Confederate Tao Qian will most likely send her away. Instead of helping Tao Qian, maybe go to war with him so you can capture her.

In my game, Tao Qian's wife got killed by Cao Cao and he married Lady Mi (that pervert he is 40 years older lol). Now that she is a family member, all I have to do is wait for that old pervert to die and I received marriage to get her.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by g0kur:

Lady Mi is usually doing assignments instead of being deployed in my experience (Tao Qian really likes her, even gives her +400 salary title). Confederate Tao Qian will most likely send her away. Instead of helping Tao Qian, maybe go to war with him so you can capture her.

In my game, Tao Qian's wife got killed by Cao Cao and he married Lady Mi (that pervert he is 40 years older lol). Now that she is a family member, all I have to do is wait for that old pervert to die and I received marriage to get her.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2378278344
Nothing to see here.
Just a 72 year old Shi Xie and his 38 year old wife.

[g0kur]

Originally posted by Fried Noodles:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2378278344
Nothing to see here.
Just a 72 year old Shi Xie and his 38 year old wife.

Still better than the 40 year old gap lol. The different thing is that you are the player to do it, while in my game it is the AI doing it, which makes it more funny (and creepy).

[Fried Noodles]

Dang. I knew I should've married Sun Ren instead. :(

Edit:
I was curious, so I loaded up a quick new game as Tao Qian.
At the start of the game in the Harvest of 190, Tao Qian is 58 years old and Lady Mi is 23 years old.
So they have a 35 year age gap.

In my game, Shi Xie is 72 and Lady Zhurong is 38.

That's only a 34 year age gap.
Boo.
Tao Qian wins.

[g0kur]

I thought its somewhere near 40 lol, didn't even bother to do the math. But still he is old enough to be his father. Maybe even grandpa since it's ancient China.