(Old LP) Romance of Three Kingdom XI

This is another LP I did on Romance of Three Kingdom 11. It wasn't a great game to be honest, once you start cracking the AI habits and understand what makes your army invulnerable, the AI just falls apart. So I decided to notch up the challenge a bit. I did this LP on 2nd January 2009. So yeah, I was pretty happy about the whole game and felt a little sad there's very little challenge left after that, oh well, onward!

EDIT: This stuff took a little editing since I posted in on some personal blog that only my cousin read. So I edit out the html codes and did it on BB. Enjoy!



"Seven times captured, seven times freed! Such a thing has never happened! Though I stand beyond the range of imperial grace, I am not utterly ignorant of ritual, of what propriety and honor require. No, I am not so shameless!" - Meng Huo admits defeat

Off Wikipedia:
Meng Huo was aristocrat in the Nanzhong region, south of Shu Han, during the Three Kingdoms era of China. He was involved in several small skirmishes with Shu Han, and in retaliation Shu's strategist Zhuge Liang launched a full invasion on the Nanzhong region. After being captured by Zhuge Liang seven times, Meng Huo surrendered to him and swore his allegiance to Shu Han.

I like reading RTK, the book conjures up of heroic acts and villainy, sometimes bordering on 'superheroic' feats in battles, or sheer ingenuity in tactics. But the biggest loser that I always remembered was Meng Huo of Nan Man rebellion.

We're talking about a guy that was beaten SIX times and still had the cheek to try again the SEVENTH time. Only to fail and capitulate finally to the dude that whipped his arse. I couldn't help but think the writer is 'biased'. But such is the greatness of Sleeping Dragon that people still praised him for 'wasting time'. Seriously, he should've just finished these guys off in the first victory. Instead provisions and time was lost when he should've focused on the northern kingdom of Wei who's dominating so hard in the north. But what do I know, I'm not him.

I guess he wanted to beat them mentally and physically. Oh well, we're not talking about him anymore, we're talking about the bad boy of Nan Man. Meng Huo! I always like to twist history a bit, and what better way is there than to take the mantle of the King of Nan Man himself?

I've mastered Lu Bu's scenario after a week of play. But his Cavalry combo was very cheesy and made combat a joke. Especially when we're talking about a wife that has double chance to 'confuse' male generals and a daughter that disorganizes enemy on Cavalry charge. Mother-Father-Daughter combo was too good, by late game I was just steam rolling people left and right. So I wondered if I could take the Meng Huo challenge.

Covering the weakness of leaders is made easier now in RTK XI, deputies that are attached acts as the 'strongest unit statistic'. So people like Meng Huo & Lu Bu are no longer vulnerable to trickery tactics when they are attached to think tanks (e.g Zhang Fei + Zhuge Liang etc) . So I set myself up with Meng Huo and checked his roster for 'think tanks'.

Oh, he has King Dousi as his strategist, he should be quite smart, right? WRONG.



The Sleeping Goat of Nan Man

And that's the highest in the roster? Sigh. I could go on, but seeing a guy with 80 war and all single digits on politics, charisma and int is enough summary of the situation. We've no lack of fighters, but city development & tech upgrades will take twice as long.


Mang Yachang, a true patriot
I've got to get the production line started, but before that I need a steady income and food to hire and feed an army. I currently own two cities. Jian Ning being the front line city makes it a natural choice for a military district. I set up a random thug to transfer all the gold, food and arms as well as men they can spare from the capital city. As I hit the left mouse button, the right most window made my jaw drop.


So you want me to spend two and a half months shitting in the woods?

Seventy days for my supplies to reach the front lines? Holy shit. Now I realized how hard it must be for Zhuge Liang to win in this territory. And to think he did it seven times. What the hell. Experimenting with the march towards Cheng Du gave me an estimate at around 120 days of march. Considering default food loadouts for units are worth 200 days that left me with only 8 turns to settle things when I reach Cheng Du. I grimly set myself to the task, knowing full well a Shu invasion is bound to take place shortly.

For now, my capital city will focus on marketplaces, no additional foodstuff will be grown there. Gold will be delivered non stop in excess of 2000s to the Jian Ning periodically. Jian Ning will focus on food production and military stuff such as troops, arms and siege weaponry. It's ok for gold to be delayed by a month, but going without food for 10 days is disastrous.

I have to add that development speed is very very slow. Having 10-20 rating on politics creates a situation where adding them into a development team gives a FLAT ZERO benefit. I've had three single digit officers working together on a farm and they still finish it in 50 days, alone or not!

Repeated searchs for officers turn up nothing but spare change & some obscure items for duels. I kept them in case I need to bribe a bright officer.

End of Chapter 1

And so it begins:

The whole of the Riverlands once belonged to another. Your lord seized it by force and proclaimed himself emperor. My ancestors held these lands, which you have encroached upon so barbarically.

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Meng Huo's reason to rebel

Ah, I always wanted to try that game . Thanks for the LP.

It's huge over here in Asia....I guess. I keep seeing it all over the place, but never found one in English. Never tried that hard though.

rk47 did you ever play the earlier RoTKs? Were they better? I don't care about graphics. The gameplay is all that matters to me.

Some serious incline on this section (don't really like this smile btw, looks like the guy's scratching his head).

Btw, how would you compare this to the older RTKs? Never played any chapter of the series, but I've heard that RTKVIII and RTKX were more focused on the RPG-side of things rather than being pure strategy game - is that true?

skavenhorde said:

It's huge over here in Asia…

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Do you live in Asia? Japan, maybe? Do you happen to know some of the lesser-known-but-oh-so-awesome JRPG games (actually, they're more like WRPGs since they offer insane amounts of freedom, branching quests and choices and consequences) such as Lunatic Dawn, Weltorv Estleia, Zill Oll, Venus & Braves, Moon Remix RPG and so on?

Jesus, I wish at least some of those games were translated.

Skaven lives in Taiwan, unless he's lying! It says so in his Location, just as yours says Italy. Not quite Japan…

I live in Mousa, which is why Skaven likes me!

crpgnut said:

Skaven lives in Taiwan, unless he's lying! It says so in his Location, just as yours says Italy. Not quite Japan…

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Didn't see it, now I feel dumb.

Nevermind, then.

Well RTK 11 really felt goddamn tedious to me. Especially when I was a beginner, but once I understood how to quickly develop towns and raise an army, the AI just falls apart.

I played RTK 2 and 3 only. And they felt much, much simpler and direct. There's just too much micromanagement involved in RTK 11 and that causes the AI to fall apart against a 'micro' player who made sure EVERYTHING is perfect.

Let's see: if I want to recommend a good RTK - go for the 3rd It's abandonware. It's perfect. Simple, clean interface, crisp graphic and excellent, challenging AI too.

I felt the english version of RTK11 didn't get AI-patched like the Chinese version did cause theres something called the Power-Up-Kit Koei released for the CN version. Ah well.

RTK 11
Pros
+ Varied units with unique abilities, tied with their equipment
+ General selections and attached officers combo make for unique strike force & strat
+ A very, clear map of what is going on in the realm.
+ Decent graphic for TB.
+ Lots and lots of roster pick here.

Cons
- Despite the abundance of 'good choice & strats' it sucks if the AI can't exploit their advantage effectively.
- City management is goddamn tedious for the impatient. It wasn't hard, just EXTREMELY tedious.
- Managing a large empire is an exercise of frustration.
- This could be the second last RTK series ever made by KOEI , according to their news post, rtk 12 will be the last one. cause Dynasty Warriors sold more copies ...

Hey boss, where you want these shit put at?

Dong Tu Na cheerfully entered Yan Ning after nearly two months trekking from Yun Nan with 30,000 men and carrying the full load of gold and foodstuff. He sat down for a beer in the tavern and was about to take a sip when a courier hailed him.

"Orders from King Meng Huo!", the courier barked.

"What is it?" Tu Na growled, feeling his drink getting warm.

"You are to return to Yun Nan, retrieve stockpiled supplies as many as you can spare every three months back to Yan Ning!", declared the young courier.

"You've gotta be shitting me…" his arse was barely planted on the bench, and he already had to defecate in the woods again. But the word of the King is law. Meng Huo warned of carelessness and the urgency of building up the economy before the Shu can strike southwards. At least the lone trip by horse only took 10 days, he mumbled. He exited the tavern when he saw two officers greeting him with three horses in tow. "Yun Nan? Let's go together!"

A year passes quietly as the Nan Mans busy themselves with unfamiliar work of construction. Progress was slow, but steady. News from the three kingdoms mention of yet another self-declared emperor.



I've got to be patient. The Shu is our immediate obstacle, and I'm sure they'll be sending a force to deal with our uprising. But this time they're facing Meng Huo, with the brain of a game obsessed maniac. After development of Yan Ning farmlands are complete, I quickly commissioned a siege workshop to construct a flame archer towers. We won't need a bow unit, reviewing my generals, they heavily favor pikes over other weapons with a few adepts of Siege warfare. Two are 'Pike General' that gave bonus to Pike Tactics damage.


Dead tower operators are easier to replace than dead bowmen

The choice was easy. A backbone of Pikemens as 'damage soaker' while the Towers deal damage to both infantry and building. Mobility is an issue, but researching Wheel Axles will make Siege weapons mobility equal to pikemen making logistics a little bit easier. Since we're not that smart, gathering the Technique points for research will take time, I'll just have to focus on other things while the research is underway. Three months per Tower is a long time too. I'll have to wait at least another year before the invasion can be realized.


Shu's food donor attempt to the Nan Mans
Shu sent their first wave at us. This should be a good litmus test on what to expect at Cheng Du. They've sent their finest aging Tiger Zhao Yun, accompanied with Lu Kai and Wang Kang. A good deputy mix. Commanding 14,000 men, he marched alone towards Yan Ning to suppress our rebellion.

Below each general's portraits is his unique ability. Some may not have any, but these guys do. Zhao Yun's Insight makes him immune to ALL strategic tricks you can throw at him. This isn't so bad for us, we don't have anyone smarter than him anyway. Lu Kai's Antidote will render the unit immune to damage when treading 'poison water' tiles unique to our south western provinces, otherwise, he's a non factor. Wang Kang's Indestructible is harder to deal with. He has a chance of 'blocking' an attack completely when facing weaker units.

His unit carries no gold, but a hell lot of food for the long march and is equipped with Spears, the counter unit for Cavalry. But it is weak against our specialty: Pikes. This attack is no cause of concern for us. With his pace, he'll take roughly 4 months before reaching the outskirts of our border. I'm not worried. I'll be ready, hopefully I can capture a few officers and deprive Shu of their fine officers.


Behind every successful badass lies two more badasses (sometimes)

This is out main counter unit. Wu Tugu's Aegis is excellent, it automatically resists 50% of incoming damage, but takes TWICE the damage from fire. I call him, 'The Iceman'. King Dousi would handle the INT cover of 70 and provides Antidote. E Huan makes Pike tactics deal more damage so it's self-explanatory.


Zhao Yun gave away food to the poor

Drawing Zhao Yun into the city outskirts, Meng Huo called upon his tower to march out of town and rain fire arrows at the hapless Shu unit. Even the meager archers helped to soften up the Spearmen before Meng Huo went for the kill. Unfortunately, the Tiger General escaped with his deputies unscatched but at least we've recieved some Technique points (TP) and food for the effort. TP are needed to research the much needed Siege engines speed upgrade, so every little bit counts.

The second invasion of Shu doubled in troop count, but we dealt with it swiftly with our own tripled tower count and twenty thousands pikemen. Employing the pikemen soak and tower strike strategy, Zhao Yun's cavalry was cut to pieces but he evaded capture once again. But the consolation prize was much better. What's 31 years old and kicks ass?


Hot, and dangerous. I like it.

Bao Sanniang, is a good general to have, I was surprised she joined us willingly after 1 month in captivity. There was another capture named Ma Yunlu, a fine Cavalry general. Ma Chao's sister. But she passed away the day when we made our final preparations to attack Shu.


Farewell Ma Yunlu, we didn't have a horse unit for you anyway.


But let's get on with the good news, Sanniang's unique ability is priceless. She has Chain Attack. Sounds deceptively simple yet potent. Any normal attacks has a chance to trigger again, effectively doubling your damage.

Don't worry Zhao Yun, she'll be right back (heh heh)

End of Chapter 2

cacaro said:

Do you live in Asia? Japan, maybe? Do you happen to know some of the lesser-known-but-oh-so-awesome JRPG games (actually, they're more like WRPGs since they offer insane amounts of freedom, branching quests and choices and consequences) such as Lunatic Dawn, Weltorv Estleia, Zill Oll, Venus & Braves, Moon Remix RPG and so on?

Jesus, I wish at least some of those games were translated.

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They do have a lot of JRPGs straight from Japan here, but they're all in Japanese. Unlike most Taiwanese, I can't stand playing an rpg where I have no clue as to what's going on, what my equipment is or basically everything in the game not related to combat. How in the hell they play these games is beyond me because only a few of them actually understand Japanese.

I've played a few Chinese rpgs, but I can't really recommend any of them. They weren't that good. Maybe if they had been I would know Chinese now.

skavenhorde said:

Unlike most Taiwanese, I can't stand playing an rpg where I have no clue as to what's going on, what my equipment is or basically everything in the game not related to combat.

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Yeah, same problem with those games I mentioned. And that bothers me a lot, because for instance Lunatic Dawn features

Lunatic Dawn series - You can get married, have children, divorce, kill your wife, steal the kids and raise them to be the leaders of crime syndicates if you so wish. Your actions don't just affect characters, but the ecosystem of the game too, having an effect on the land and towns development around you, as well as the populations and kinds of monsters. You can be virtuous, or get involved in the shady underworld. Lunatic Dawn games almost have too much freedom.

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and

To give one example of an element, if you kill a lot of monsters in the region and do activities that generally kill monsters (you needn't ever fight in a Lunatic Dawn game if you don't want to, you can play for a long time just doing other stuff) then the surrounding towns will begin to prosper. You can help this even more by shopping there and bringing in more money to the town. The layout will change, the houses will become better, the people will increase. The religion you will believe in will especially prosper, with more believers. You can also affect the climate by fishing about with the elemental properties of things. Plants may not grow as well, or it might become tropical and humid eventually depending on what you do.

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Which means the game has features I've been looking for since I started playing RPGs, and there are DOZENS of similar non-linear jrpgs, 99% of them untranslated. Let's stop here, before I start salivating again.

RTK 10 was never translated for PC - and feature a different approach than the others - IIRC, it was a semi-RPG where you play an officer and rise through ranks like mount & blade. I really wanted that game.

rk47 said:

RTK 10 was never translated for PC - and feature a different approach than the others - IIRC, it was a semi-RPG where you play an officer and rise through ranks like mount & blade. I really wanted that game.

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Actually, it was. Looks like a fan translation - I've looked for some info about the game and it sounds very interesting, indeed.

They only translated the menu...but most of the ingame text remain in its native language. I don't understand what is going on half the time. I abandoned any hope of playing it anyway.

*sniff*

Chapter 3: Meng Huo marches to Cheng Du


It was worth a shot

One hundred twenty days of travel. Supply line is more crucial than ever. A standard food load out will provide for 200 days of travel. Barring any delays, we have 80 days to settle matters in Cheng Du with Zhao yun and his forces. Our supply of gold is moving slowly from Yun Nan, but the time is right to move. Two and a half years was the time it took to muster a force of 40,000 fully trained pikemen and three flame towers. A supply wagon followed it 10 days behind in case we run out of food.



Days after the march, the town of Jian Ning is unusually quiet and lacks a schedule for production since everything is diverted into logistics efforts. News of other battles reached the city. The Shu and Wu Alliance attempts to take Wei territories, with mixed successes.


Liu Chan tries to get comfortable, and fails


Shu made some gains towards Chang An, but it is doubtful he can hold it for long with only 15,000 troops. But the amount of officers he relocated there indicates he is really serious about developing the place (26!). A complete opposite to Cheng Du's state of having only 5 officers and 32000 troops to deal with me.

Which will prove to be a mistake if I can capture some of his generals. Zhao Yun led the charge with Ma Su on their cavalry. The perfect counter to Pikemen. But I'm not too worried. Casualty is expected, less troops means less food consumed too. The real damage comes from the three flame towers behind the pikemen formation. 80 days, I reminded myself on how much time I've got to settle this battle. A narrow pass to the north leads to Chang An with another 10,000 Shu reinforcement coming from the East, but they're on foot. We will deal with the Cavalry first.



A straight line eh? Meng Huo likes straight lines, because…



"Burn, Burn! BURN HIGHER!"



Straight stack lines are perfect for a fireball trap. RTK XI trap construction will occupy a tile . An ember trap will burn surrounding tiles, so you need flame arrows to set it off from range. A fireball trap will burn three tiles in the opposite direction where the unit set fire from. So in this case, I wanted it to burn three tiles to the north. I had one unit set up a the fireball trap and Meng Huo rushing from south to set it off. Leading to free damaging up to three units at once with no retaliation. In RTK XI, melee attacks will incur retaliation damage unless target unit is 'confused' or under similiar strategy effects, so it's best to use range weapons to soften up the targets first before taking them up close.

The Shu frontline was quickly overwhelmed by superior numbers and concentrated fire. Meng Huo and his army have to finish this fast before the fresh troops can cross the pass and spread out to inflict more damage and slowing us down.

The perfect moment would be catching them just as they cross the pass in a line. The timing would have to be perfect. Ma Su fell quickly but escaped capture. Next is Zhao Yun, who is severely isolated. He too, evaded capture.

A smaller force led by tiger cubs, Zhang Bao and Zhao Guang accompanied a main force of 9,000 led by Wang Ping. They look to cross the narrow passage and take us on the other side. They must've noticed our food supply is dwindling. We have to act quickly to avoid being held up on the narrow path.



Zhu Rong''s unit quickly rushed forward to setup a fireball trap in front of the hapless Shu forces. With Yong Kai's flame tower unit setting it on fire to trigger the explosion. Hundreds died in the burst of flames. Zhang Bao and Zhao Guang quickly put out the fire but could not advance. Wang Ping units sidesteps the flames and attacked Zhu Rong's unit and slain 2000 men, but it was a worthwhile trade, for he is isolated across the passage. Mulu Dousi gleefully set up another fireball trap in front of the narrow passage, still occupied by the tiger cubs.


Battle for Cheng Du's Pass: Shu-moking Hot!

While everyone focused fire on Wang Ping's unit, the supply caravan led by Jinhuan Sanjie made a move towards the fireball trap and instructed his men to set it alight to finish off the Shu forces on the narrow pass. The battle climaxed in a spectacular fashion as the second fireball rolled towards the Shu forces on the narrow pass. The Nan Man soldiers cheered at the carnage and mayhem as their opponents scattered to save themselves, leaving Wang Ping behind with 3,000 men against 28,000 Pikemen and 3 Flame Towers.


The Nan Man caravan dealt more damage than the two tiger cubs units combined


Wang Ping was quickly dealt with, but he evaded our capture. The way to Cheng Du is cleared but time is running out. Our supplies are starting to dwindle. Jinhuan Sanjie quickly distributed supplies to the nearly depleted forces. A few hundred cowards fled early before all units can be resupplied however, but they would miss out on the glory of Cheng Du.


Within a month, the Shu stronghold fell upon the march of the Nan Mans. The only downside was no generals of Shu were captured. We missed out on gaining new officers and fresh talents. Sigh.


I pondered my next move as I ordered another transport to deliver fresh supplies for the development of Cheng Du and wincing at the 120 days journey from Jian Ning . Cheng Du will take a few months to develop due to lack of good civic officials, and with the threat of Shu counter attack, I've got to prioritize barracks over farms. But Jian Ning can start converting itself into a pure economic district.


Yun Nan to Jian Ning = 80 day
Jian Ning to Cheng Du = 120 day
—————————————————
A Yun Nan caravan of gold will take approximately 200 days to get to Cheng Du. Ouch. That's more than half a year!

-End of Chapter 3-

rk47 said:

They only translated the menu…but most of the ingame text remain in its native language. I don't understand what is going on half the time. I abandoned any hope of playing it anyway.

*sniff*

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By the way, have you tried to use AGTH to hook the text? It worked for me with the PC version of Taikou Risshiden V.

If you manage to do that, you can use a program to translate the text (such as ATLAS) and read it (you can setup everything so that AGTH hooks the text, which is then copied to the clipboard and automatically pasted to ATLAS and translated).

I'm not saying that the game becomes fully playable, since generally the quality of machine-translated text sucks balls and ranges from mildly understandable to totally nonsensical, but *usually* you can at least get the general idea of what a sentence should mean - and it's pretty much the only way to play JAP games which will never get translated. IF it works with RTKX, obviously (and that's a pretty big if).

.....I kinda feel sad KOEI doesn't see the money in this...seriously Mount & Blade shits on Dynasty Warriors any day. Oh well, I'll update once I finish breakfast. BRB.

Wow, it's really rare to English version of Romance of Three Kingdoms. I did have really old version (I think it was RoTK2) in English and thought it's a bit silly because translation wasn't done well. I myself was a big fan of series, although I think KOEI is really over-doing it. I don't see much difference in each versions (whether it be strategy ones like RoTK series or Dynasty Warriors) so I got bored of it. Latest version I've played was 5. Brings back good memories though

Chapter 4: Wu Tugu's Glory

The occupation of Cheng Du gave the Nan Mans a solid foothold in the region, one that allows them to start affecting the outcome of three kingdoms in a more direct manner. I looked at my options and came upon the conclusion that Shu is the weakest among the three. Zhuge Liang did not deal with me directly, preferring to delegate it to Zhao Yun and that proved fatal as they lacked a skilled strategist to deal with my rampaging warband.

Wei is still the strongest at the moment. Wu is too far out of reach and is primarily busy fending off attacks on their border. So we must quickly seize the dying Shu resources and turn them into our own. Reports on the Shu vs Wei conflict indicates that Chang An has fallen and Shu looked extremely vulnerable. We need to act fast to capitalize on this opportunity. I was interrupted from my thoughts by a visit from a Shu Emissary.


We have prisoners?! Omg!

There's also some good news on the personnel side, contrary to my earlier statement of no prisoners were taken after the siege of Cheng Du, there were actually two officers of Shu we've captured in the city. They are Wang Ping and Li Feng. I was reminded by an emissary from Liu Chan who requested I release Wang Ping in exchange for 1120 gold.

What an insult!


Let me just be blunt, I won't release this man for even 10,000 gold. This man's too valuable. I quickly persuaded him to join our cause in the following month and he accepted the offer eagerly.

His stat is incredibly balanced. He's not 'super' but in terms of jack of all trades, he certainly holds the right numbers. Sad as it is, 76 INT is the highest rating for our officers right now, I immediately promoted him as my Strategist and awarded him the Sandalwood Bow as a sign of trust.



Digging deeper into his biodata, he's only 38 years old and has 'Indomitable' as his unique ability. This grants the unit he command total immunity to 'Perturb' strategy that can cause confusion. Impressive! Attaching him to a high WAR general with low INT is an excellent combo. I might even marry him into the family with my daughter, Hua Man to ensure his loyalty and as a candidate for my future successor. But I'll keep a lookout for other younger talents.

We have two towns directly to the north and east of Cheng Du. Both are owned by Shu, and are somewhat managable with our current forces. With a quick re-training, our soldiers can mount a small offensive and secure another town within two months. With high WAR rating of our officers, training should take no longer than that to hit an acceptable amount of Willpower to fight.


Willpower (Will) is the cost of every special tactics/strategy that a unit can use in battles. Examples are Cavalry's Charge or Spearmen's Thrust. Without sufficient Will, a unit can only attack normally. Flame towers uses 10 Will when they attack, so it's important to keep their Will rating high. If a general refuses to accept a Duel challenge, a small number of troops will desert him, and his unit will lose Willpower. The challenger will gain a small number of Willpower as the result.

To the north of Cheng Du lies the town of Zi Tong, with two gate fortifications defended by less than 2000 men each. Zi Tong itself is defended with only 15,000 troops. The only concern is Ma Chao but superior numbers will prevail. I elected to go with a force of 11,000 pikemen accompanied by two flame towers to quickly blitz past the two gate fortifications and seize Zi Tong. Jiang Zhou's force of 35,000 might react to this by assaulting Cheng du, but we have a sizeable garrison of 25,000 and more than capable officers to deal with them.


Guan Xing, the son of Guan Yu charged with Cavalry against Wu Tugu's 11,000 pikemen but could not inflict much damage. Wu Tugu's Aegis helps to reduce casualty as the twin flame towers focus fired Guan Xing's unit down before Wu Tugu finished him off. Zi Tong's capture is assured.


In order to cope with the low Willpower some of the units are having, I decided to construct a Band Platform just outside Zi Tong. This gives friendly unit within 2 tiles radius 10 Willpower per round and ensures that the Towers can keep firing without running out of Will power and eventually Zi Tong falls within a month of siege. No captures were made but more land is always good without the 120 days of transport from Jian Ning.


But a Shu counter attack is well underway a month later from Jiang Zhou. led by Ma Dai and Wei Yan. A combined force of 17,000 to challenge a garrison of 30,000? This is pathetic.


These two forces have Indomitable, but that's fine. That's because our forces are too stupid to use strategies anyway. We don't have any traditional battlefield wizards, if anything; we rely on raw power and hard hitting unit tactics (the Brawn to the Brain's Strategies) . I marched three units from Cheng Du to respond. A flame tower to soften them up, one spear division to deal with the Cavalry and a pike division to mop up the rest.


The Royal Family & Strategist of Nan Man Task Force

Both Zhu Rong and Meng Huo unique abilities are not that powerful. Sweep Asunder lowers enemy willpower when attacking while Meng Huo's Close Combat gives him additional attack power when attacking enemy in a forest tile. But the saving grace is that being a married couple gives them a chance to 'assist' when one of them is hitting a target next to each other.


Ma Dai lead his Cavalry in a silly blind charge ahead of Wei Yan's Spearmen. I let Meng Huo's pike unit to hang back since Spears are perfect counters to Cavalry while Cavalry deals more damage to Pikemen. Mulo Dousi incinerated Ma Dai's unit before Zhu Rong opened up with a special Spear tactic: Rush that gives her a chance to 'Confuse'.

'Confused' effect from Rush is not resisted by Indomitable. What's more using Spears against Cavalry increases the damage dealt, double bonus for us. A confused unit cannot retaliate nor move for a few turns. Meng Huo gleefully charged in with 14,000 pikemen. The Shu invasion collapsed almost immediately as Ma Dai was captured and his unit completely destroyed. Wei Yan took a beating but managed to escape capture much to my displeasure, at least I've got his deputy, Huo Yi captured.


Ma Dai's too old to be considered potential marry-in candidate, but his stats are excellent, slightly above Wang Ping. He is a Cavalry specialist, something we don't have yet in our army but his Indomitable Skill is perfect for Deputy slot on our low INT warlords. It'll take a few months of imprisonment before he joins us. But I'm a patient man.


Huo Yi on the other hand is still in his prime. 23 years old but his statistics screams of 'HI I AM AVERAGE'. 'A' rating on Pikes, Weaponry and Bows is very desirable and Indomitable Skill is icing on the cake, will work on getting him to work with us.


Shu's misfortunes continued to pile upon them. They've lost Chang An to Wei and now their northern stronghold of Han Zhong is completely isolated. Han Zhong is directly to the north of Zi Tong, our newly captured town.


The trek from Zi Tong to Han Zhong would require us to march past treacherous terrain that causes losses to our troops from 'accidents'.


To traverse such terrain tiles safely we need to research Adept March technology. It's a tier 2 command that will cost us 2000 Tech Points, something we don't have yet.


So I have to pass up on the opportunity to capture Han Zhong to the Wei Kingdom, who spared no effort by sending 2 battering rams and 1 flame tower from north west!

Shu's getting pummeled bad and I know i'm next on Cao Pi's hit list. I need to prepare Zi Tong's defenses.
But first, let's settle matters at Jiang Zhou.

Before that, we've added another ex-Shu officer into our personnel. Li Feng decided to join us after months in captivity. He's a simple average lad with no eye opener stat, but his skill caught my eye.


Transport, increase the movement speed of transported goods on land route. I gave him supply chain missions and was shocked to learn he could travel 30% faster than the others. I made him a permanent officer on the Jian Ning supply pipeline. No point sending a fed ex deliveryman to battle. We need people like these on infrastructures.

And we're back on the offensive once more towards Jiang Zhou. Their garrison forces are down to 18,000 and we certainly won't have any problems tackling it. The only priority is to minimize casualty with Wei Yan there, we could lose a few thousand men before he is dealt with. I pondered my options as Wu Tugu's pikeman and Zhu Bao's flame tower unit face off with 7,000 spearmen led by Wei Yan outside Jiang Zhou. Then Wu Tugu had an idea. It was a simple one.


The troops stood aside as their officer rode past each other. Trading the first blow, both seemed unhurt as they turned and rode side by side with their spears drawn. The gallops of both horses occasionally broken with the clash of two metals at each other.



Wu Tugu knew the Shu general had a slight advantage and assumed a defensive posture to buy time. Wei Yan wastes no time and landed the first hit, growling in delight.

'The Battle's just started', Tugu grunted as he clenched his spear, parrying a few more blows. He took quite a number of hits and Wei Yan seem to gain the upper hand.

Then out of the corner of his eyes he spotted his deputy Bao Sanniang rushing to his aid.



Sanniang's quick entry surprised Wei Yan and the deputy struck a few quick blows before assuming an attacking posture, intending to finish Wei Yan off quickly. She raised her spear intending to deliver a fierce series of blows but was surprised when she struck someone else instead!


Xiang Chong, Wei Yan's deputy jumped in the last minute and took the blows meant for Wei Yan. Just as Sanniang was gaining the upper hand, another twist came into the duel.


Hua Man couldn't wait for her turn and hopped into the fight, pressuring the already overwhelmed Xiang Chong. She too, was too skilled for Xiang Chong.


Being beaten not once but twice by women in a day is starting to make him crack.
The Nan Man princess grinned as her male opponent start to peel away from the fight, she lined up another thrust at his side before a thunderous shout made her head turn.


Wei Yan's deputy acknowledged his request and rode away. Wei Yan lined up next to her and delivered repeated thrusts that struck her left side.


'Princess, be careful!!', Wu Tugu shouted as he rode closer to the dueling pair, but Hua Man paid him no heed and twirled her spear with blinding speed before delivering a savage blow on Wei Yan's shoulder. Wei Yan grimaced and went into a blind rage.



It left him wide open, and Hua Man lines her spear for the finishing blow before Wei Yan's second deputy, Zhang Yi intervened.


"I am your opponent, woman!", Zhang Yi shouted. Hua Man does not have enough strength left and relented to Wu Tugu's repeated calls for her to withdraw.


"Curse you, Barbarian!" Zhang Yi shouted as Wu Tugu's defense proved to be superior. His attacks are easily parried, the gap between their skills is too large. But why is Tugu holding back? A familiar voice answered that question.


Wei Yan returned into the fray, still carrying heavy wounds. Tugu knew it's time to finish this. The opponent is on his last ounce of stamina, one good hit will settle this.


He raised his spear into the air, and spun it like cyclone, raising dust clouds as his steed gallops on the plains. His eyes scanned the faces of his soldiers that he and his opponents rode past, their fists clenched on their weapons, willing their leader to emerge victorious, shouting themselves hoarse. He thought of the villagers of Nan Man, the people of Shu who regarded them as nothing more than mindless Barbarians, and how Meng Huo promised greatness far beyond the cave villages he used to lead as a chieftain. Then he knew he is ready.


"Don't even dream you'll be able to withstand this!"
Tugu bellowed as he swung his spear, every muscle on his arm willing it to strike on one target. Wei Yan thought he saw an opening and raised his spear to swing it downwards only to feel a dulling pain on his right shoulder right before he fell off his horse.


There was a loud thud and a long pause of silence as Wu Tugu pointed the tip of his spear at Wei Yan's throat. The Nan Man army let off a cheer as the Shu officers had to control hundreds of their men who are fleeing in terror.


Jiang Zhou has lost its fiercest defender.

End of Chapter 4


Wei Yan is an extremely dangerous opponent to take on head on in battlefield. Having 50% chance to attack twice per round is ridiculous. Any units except Weaponry will benefit from his Chain Attack skill. Defeating an enemy officer in a duel will disband a unit if he is the only leader of the unit, but since this unit has two other deputy, they will take over their leader duties, but will not be as dangerous as before.