What happens if I am the only Emperor?

[Numenor]

In my current game everyone is weak except for me. I am a Duke and I am about to get the rank of King while everyone else is still only a Second Marquis essentially except the Sun faction which is only a Marquis. I plan to weaken the Sun faction in just a bit.

If I become Emperor and capture Emperor Xian can I force him to abdicate without having to deal with the "Prime Minister of Han" malus. Cause I read the wiki and it says he only abdicates when 3 other people declare themselves emperor. So if I am Emperor do I still need to play hot potato with Xian and hopes someone else takes him off my hands so all my vassals don't hate me?

[Valnak]

What happens is that the 3 top factions, one of which is almost always Sun Jian, becomes emperor instantly. So they skip all the other ranks.

[Virthuss (法國人在台灣)]

When you become Emperor first, the two strongest faction after you will automatically reach the king rank, hence running for the empror title with you. Then everybody controlling one of their emperor seat or yours can become emperor too, including governors and yellow turbans.

Becoming King will force Han emperor retirement.

[Numenor]

Originally posted by Virthuss:

Becoming King will force Han emperor retirement.

Cause if I am king then capture the emperor he instantly retires? Or did you mean emperor?

Okay so if I want to keep my vassals on my side I need make sure they are weaker than any 2 enemy factions to make sure they stay happy till I can capture the 2 enemy emperor's capitals?

If I capture the enemy emperors' capitals or wipe them out completely other factions don't just magically become again right? Or is it a reoccurring event that eventually forces you to kill everyone?

Nothing special happens when I become King right? Just Emperor?

[Virthuss (法國人在台灣)]

If you become king and trigger the three kingdoms event ( the three first and most powerful kings becoming emperor ), the emperor is removed from the game.
I'm not sure being the first and only king trigger the 3 emperor seats event as others may be still duke or whatever rank.

To win, you need to have the three emperor seats, which means having to wait for the AI to get emperor seats too so you can invade it, OR destroying everyone before they become king, but it's unlikely.
So beside destroying anybody else before they become King, the Han emperor will never reach the end game, and controlling the emperor force you to have Han empire as a vassal (which is why Dong Zhuo campaign is so difficult... )

[Romain]

Originally posted by Numenor:

Okay so if I want to keep my vassals on my side I need make sure they are weaker than any 2 enemy factions to make sure they stay happy till I can capture the 2 enemy emperor's capitals?

Yes, worse with alliance because the kingdom faction leave and your commons allies stay often with the other guy....

Originally posted by Numenor:

If I capture the enemy emperors' capitals or wipe them out completely other factions don't just magically become again right?

Or is it a reoccurring event that eventually forces you to kill everyone?

Nope.
And don't need to wipe them entierly, just enough for their surrender

Originally posted by Numenor:

Nothing special happens when I become King right? Just Emperor?

Nope
Only a prime minister slot where you put a yellow general because they are the best for this position (chief, heir and prime minister > 3 Yellow generals is the best)

Originally posted by Virthuss:

I'm not sure being the first and only king trigger the 3 emperor seats event as others may be still duke or whatever rank.

If you are the first king, 2 kingdoms will appear instantly. I only discover far later that when others reach the rank before you, nothing like this happen, because I was always the first emperor. It could be one, two or three kingdom before you. But As soon as your are king, there will be 3 kingdom on the map. That's why expansion is the best strat, and rush prestige the worst IMO.

[BastardSword]

I was doing a Liu Biao campaign and when I hit the 3 kingdoms period, two coalition factions became two of the kingdoms, and Lu Bu became the 3rd even though he's not a coalition faction. I had to take over the capitals of the two coalition factions in order to win the game, and could ignore Lu Bu. (I didn't)

[Ashantai]

So if someone else reaches King rank and declares themselves Emperor and I am a Bandit or Warlord, do I skip ranks to become Emperor too?

In my case, playing tall with Zheng Jiang and raiding and looting for income and getting tributaries but not going too wide. I suspect Sun Ce will get to King rank before me because I have no yellow prestige building.

[Romain]

Originally posted by Ashantai:

So if someone else reaches King rank and declares themselves Emperor and I am a Bandit or Warlord, do I skip ranks to become Emperor too?

I didn't play all faction but no, the game will never do that in this way. You can for example, as bast_ardSword said, have 3 kindgoms but your not one of them... yet...

[Ashantai]

What about if I am actually number one power ranking but don't have the prestige yet?

[Numenor]

So after playing the game and becoming King. The game makes whoever has the strongest armies the first three Emperors right away, regardless of wealth and territory. The AI does not auto declare on you depending on their personality traits. If they are your vassal then they will 100% declare war on you for independence. If you have military access or non-aggression pact with them, they wait to break the treaties as I found out with the Wu faction. I had placed my armies strategically ready for a preemptive strike against their capital that was in the same commandry as a settlement I control. They got basically a free instant capital relocation, and if you have any troops in the same commandry as their capital when the event happens, they will instantly relocate their capital. Beyond that nothing really changes other than the 2 factions that are Emperors now just get a massive like -300 opinion of you. Once you take their seat of power, they just behave normally again.

When I became King, Liu Bei my vassal became one of the emperors and I basically spent 5-10 turns making him my ♥♥♥♥♥ again. Took all of his lands except for 1 mine settlement, and took his capital 2 turns after the event. Then offered him peace, vassilization, autonomy and the city in his commandry. Wu has yet to declare war on me, because I sent Cao Ren and his wife to march on their capital when I had military access and parked them right on their capital. So even with 2 full stacks defending their capital Wu is scared to declare war on me. Which is good cause now I can deal with the bandit factions up North, finish of the Lu Bu / Dong faction, along with the annoying Northern Tribes people like Han Sui and Ma Teng. Since I am waiting for Wu to declare on me I sent Cao Ren to go take on of the uncolonized settlements near their capital so I can recall my rentinues and raise them up their instantly when war is declared.

[BastardSword]

Before the current patch, you could kill off a few armies of a rival kingdom and they would abdicate and let themselves get annexed by you. This no longer happens with the current patch, you have to take their capital to make them no longer a kingdom. I really like the current patch, even on normal it is pretty satisfying from start to finish. It used to feel a bit too easy towards the end.

Originally posted by Ashantai:

So if someone else reaches King rank and declares themselves Emperor and I am a Bandit or Warlord, do I skip ranks to become Emperor too?

In my case, playing tall with Zheng Jiang and raiding and looting for income and getting tributaries but not going too wide. I suspect Sun Ce will get to King rank before me because I have no yellow prestige building.

Only coalition factions will become a "true" kingdom. If you or another kingdom is a non-coalition faction, you will be a kingdom but not a proper one. You have to take over the capitals of the coalition kingdoms to win....non-coalition faction capitals don't count.

I wonder what would happen if you managed to destroy all the coalition factions on the map before hitting the 3 kingdoms event...would you instantly win? Probably if you tried to do that you'd max out prestige and trigger 3 kingdoms anyway...

[Romain]

Originally posted by BastardSword:

Before the current patch, you could kill off a few armies of a rival kingdom and they would abdicate and let themselves get annexed by you. This no longer happens with the current patch, you have to take their capital to make them no longer a kingdom. I really like the current patch, even on normal it is pretty satisfying from start to finish. It used to feel a bit too easy towards the end.

Originally posted by Ashantai:

So if someone else reaches King rank and declares themselves Emperor and I am a Bandit or Warlord, do I skip ranks to become Emperor too?

In my case, playing tall with Zheng Jiang and raiding and looting for income and getting tributaries but not going too wide. I suspect Sun Ce will get to King rank before me because I have no yellow prestige building.

Only coalition factions will become a "true" kingdom. If you or another kingdom is a non-coalition faction, you will be a kingdom but not a proper one. You have to take over the capitals of the coalition kingdoms to win....non-coalition faction capitals don't count.

I wonder what would happen if you managed to destroy all the coalition factions on the map before hitting the 3 kingdoms event...would you instantly win? Probably if you tried to do that you'd max out prestige and trigger 3 kingdoms anyway...

I once played Caocao, wiped out very soon Yuan shao, When I first reach emperor rank, the two other kingdom was Lu Bu and Sun ce and in this case the mission was to kill them both too. Liu Bei, gondsun zan and other non-coalition faction was still on the map.