1. January. We start out with 3 light cavalry, 1 anti-cavalry battalion (abbreviated as ACB from now on), a professional archer and 5 cities. Note that our civics are:
-corvee (units can be built with food) which is essential since we don't have nearly enough production early on
-hereditary (units have 2+ XP)
-power (more XP with wins in our territory but no trade routes and some unhealthiness--something to change when we have more territory)
-indifference (i.e. cannot switch to a state belief) which is OK for now, since we need the happiness with each different belief in our cities. We do need to switch to either normal or strong belief to switch to Unification, which most of our cities have. So as soon as we conquer a city, to save some moves we will switch to Normal (which allows 25% quicker unit production)
-Despotism (1+ happiness in each city but with some unhappiness built in)
-Private school (allows 15% more great people generation, which we don't really need right now with small cities). Noble school (100% more culture) is way more useful, and doesn't cost more.
1st tech is High-Rise Structures--most factions already have this, but it's essential to get levy crossbows. Now, crossbows for this mod is both weaker and stronger. They are only 4 strength, but they can deal collateral damage! We do not have catapults until Ancient Dictionary, which is a rather expensive tech. So for right now, to knock down cities like Xu Chang which are heavily walled, we need some crossbows first, then for our expert units to mop up the weakened units.
Note I have started ACBs in most cities. What we need is more troops right away, except for Dong Ping which is inaccessible to Cao, so we start a Training Ground there. Once Lu Xian is secured, we can build TGs everywhere.
The first target should be not what's visible in this pic, but Xu Chang, its capital. It is the most productive of Cao's cities, plus it's the holy city for Unification, our future state belief. Usually at this time, Cao is so busy sending troops across into our territory that he neglects to fortify it with troops.
Note also that our legions have overwhelming odds most of the time outside cities.
We open borders with Yuan Shao, the tech and land leader up north, and make sure we don't annoy him too much until we're ready to take him on. Other people mostly hate us, but Liu Bei is neutral (for now), so we OB too. Liu Chong (the Prince of Chen) happens to have no troops in his city, so we capture it soon by leaving Qiao empty. Yuan Shu (Yuan Shao's half-brother) happens to be at war with Liu Chong too, so we OB with him too.
Xiahou Yuan's 2 light cavalry are easily destroyed, and I send Lu Bu down to board a galley (quickest way to get to Xu Chang).
2. February. Lu Bu boards the galley and heads for Qiao, while we close in on Chen. Cao's troops approach our cities, which is exactly what we want--outside of his cities.
3. March. We kill more troops. Some troops are approaching Guan Du which is vulnerable, so we send a cavalry over there.
4. April. The "better AI" leaves Xu Chang with just 1 archer (before it had 3 Qingzhou Rebels)! We easily capture it. While we wait for the city to come out of rebellion, we switch to Strong belief (more XP) and noble school.
5. May. Switch to Unification for 25% more troop building and some happiness (some of our cities are empty of troops now). Also, troops are healing right now.
6. June. More healing while training grounds are being built.
7. July. Our troops approach Lu Xian.
8. August. Xu Chang comes out of rebellion.
9. September. High rise structures learned. Switch to fishing (due to lack of money and need more food--some fishes already have work boats but we can't use them right now). Start crossbows in Xu Chan and Pu Yang. Kill 4 troops in Lu Xian after sacrificing our starting crossbow.
10. October. Waiting for troops to heal.
11. November. Fishing learned. Switch to state monopoly (with goal of getting iron near Xu Chang) (I would have usually gone for Military Advisor, but since Lu Bu's UU is so strong it's not really necessary for now, and we can't build swords anyway until we have iron). Lu Xian is captured. All troops converge on Chen Liu
12. December. Some crossbows come online. We start some workers since we need growth.
Next target should be Luoyang (Yang Feng), Bei Hai (Kong Rong) and Wan (Yuan Shu is still at war with Liu Bei). Just bear in mind that Yuan Shao should be always at the back of our minds since he cannot be allowed to grow too much, and Ye is best taken by surprise.
After State Monopoly, I would go for Military Advisor and Reformed Poetry. One of our cities should build a school, so that we can build the Tianlu Library (i.e. Oracle) and choose Jianan Literature for the 2 wonders (Chancellor Mansion and Royal Hunting Field). Using these techs we can trade for a lot of other techs.
on top of his steed Red Hare was later popularized by the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In the story, he is the single most powerful warrior in all of China, comparable to the Greek hero Achilles in prowess.
in this mod, useful for early game, not as great later). Chen also gets cottages.
