Cao Cao on 68x64 at Noble level

[Agent327]

I've made some progress, scouting, trading maps and researching; considering Liu Biao starts with no army to speak of and weak city defenses, just with 2 heroes, here's the situation at turn 175 (notice how Yuan Shao failed to eliminate Gongsun Zan, who's down to 2 cities):

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Unless I'm Cao Cao, I never build aqueducts (and I trade for drainage cellar). Just switch to Daoism and be done with unhealthiness. You're much better off using Mohism or Confucianism early on though (after Icy Fort empowering my workers I switch straight to Daoism).
How come you haven't chopped all the trees in sight for your buildings?

 

[Shiggs713]

I agree. Health is not very important. The only thing it really affects is city growth, and its quite minimal compared to happiness. I only build aqueducts (unless its a UB) if the city is really really unhealthy and I've already built all the better stuff like harbors or graneries.

 

[Agent327]

How come you haven't chopped all the trees in sight for your buildings?

I never do that. For some cities that's the only extra hammers available, as I start with building lots of hamlets and irrigation. Plus I save 'em for forestage and (wind) mills, which I can now build. (Right on time, BTW, as I'd already started chopping down forests outside city range...)

I just got DOWed by Sun Ce, right after he signed a defense pact, open borders and a trade agreement with me, while Yuan Shao finally goes in to finish off Gongsun Zan, together with Gongsun Du (as if he needs him to do so...):

 

[AnotherPacifist]

That is why you should get declare war on Liu Yao from the start and get Yue Yang and the city south of it before Sun Ce does (just try to send all your initial units there--you got boats)--you get some early bonus points with Sun Ce with the war and open borders. Let him DOW on Yuan Shu, Wang Lang or Liu Bei instead.

 

[Agent327]

That may be a good suggestion, but it kind of goes against my instincts - which entails building up cities, then an army. Also, I'm unfamilar with Monarch difficulty and I start out with 2 heroes and maybe 4 surplus units (plus a number of cities with 1 defender). so for now, I'm playing it safe to see how the game develops.

 

[Shiggs713]

you can leave 1 defender in every city, except maybe some choke point border cities. Heck I even left zero in both cities with Lu Bu for awhile, since I needed every last troop to kill Cao Cao off early. I usually leave only 1 defender unless its to keep the citizens content, the AI is not that great at war, you can generally win battles even outnumbered 3 to 1 if you do it right.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Initially, your cities are all without workers anyway and being so small, nobody is going to be unhappy. And who's going to attack your cities anyway? (Liu Yao is busy fending off Sun Ce) If I remember right, I left about 3 central cities empty while I built workers and sent my troops towards Liu Yao, sacrificed some archers to capture his cities. Yue Yang is a great city for Ancient Compass and has iron. The other 2 are located around rivers and can be very productive.

Now you have to fend off Sun Ce yourself.

 

[Agent327]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll try and remember it for the next time. As is, the very next turn the Emperor proposed peace with Sun Ce (after we both sank a War Galley). Next Yuan Shao decided to expand and Cao Cao followed suit, eliminating 2 more civs and Yuan Shao also gained 2 vassals:

 

[Agent327]

Well, since my previous game obviously had a flawd strategy, I started a new game, this time as Cao Cao. I've quickly eliminated Lu Bu (August, 196 AD) and Bai Bo (December, 197 AD), by detaching one catapult from the Lu Bu army and by upgrading the force going after Bai Bo's last city with the Great General I gained through combat.

At turn 60 I haven't built the Imperial Palace yet, but now have 2 defenders in each city and have started mapping with 2 scouts to check out the competetion.

 

[Agent327]

Well, I've finished the Palace and an 11 Stables quest, for which I picked the 11 Horse Archers reward, giving me now a standing army. I forget which turn I'm at here: