Romance of the Three Kingdoms: First scenario won!

199AD

 

Dong Min, successor of the late master Dong Zhou, remains my most well-armed foe with 24 generals commanding 370,000 soldiers, and occupies both of China's capital cities Loyang and Ch'agan. I want them.

I have... quite a bit more than that, with 49 generals and 633,000 soldiers, but loyalties and arms levels are all over the place, and I do need to reserve much of my army to defend the regions I already have. By my estimation, I will need about 540,000 soldiers to take any of Dong Min's territory, hold it, and guard my own from retaliation, and the more equipped they are, the better.

Phase 1 of my attack plan. Spread out. Retake as much free territory as possible, and scour for weapons-grade metal and soldiers. A lot of it is territory I previously abandoned; it lies deteriorated, disloyal, and fallow, but meticulous redistribution of gold and rice and several months of maintenance gets it back into shape.

New generals are recruited too; Cao Cao has a field day charming Guan Yu's disgruntled servants in region 2 over to his side, and more free agents are found in the territories I've taken. With the playing field narrower, not to mention the inevitable victor of this conflict obvious, they're not in nearly as much of a hurry to leave my employ any more.

Phase 2 is ensuring that each general gets what they need from wherever it is available. The process is... not exciting.

It's three times longer than this and I have another one for provincial needs.

 

By spring of 200AD, I have 54 generals, mostly loyal, half of them fully armed, and more than enough metal to arm the rest albeit spread all over China. And almost 750,000 soldiers.

Phase 3 begins. I begin moving troops toward Dong Min's domain, picking up weapons along the way.

In January 201AD, I launch my first invasion, on state #18.

 

Even with all that fortification he can't hold out against my overwhelming forces, and I don't hesitate to use fire to keep him moving. It's a rout, and Dong Min's commanding officer withdraws before the end of the month.

Next, I invade #20.

This one's a bit disadvantageous for me, but liberal use of trick attacks followed by fire forces a lot of retreats and evens the odds.

It spills into the months to come, and Dong Min sends reinforcements, but this cannibalizes #21's defenses which I also invade with my spare generals.

I'm outnumbered, but now they truly have nowhere to run.

 

#21 runs out of rice and falls, and I immediately have the surviving generals, now in my employ, invade Yuan Shu.

I'm quickly reminded not to do that, as multiple generals defect during the fight, adding their ranks to Yuan Shu's and making the battle drag out far longer than it need be.

Before I'm done with Yuan Shu, #20 is taken by attrition.This triggers the victory conditions for scenario 1, and simultaneously, of 2, 3, and 4.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Yijing

197-198AD

A few events happened over the year 197.

• I spent the summer and fall depopulating the east coast in preparation for a massive invasion of Yuan Shao's (yellow) territory.
• Winter put a freeze to this.
• In the spring, Yuan Shao, Liu Bei (green), and Gongsun Zan (brown? formerly region #3) started fighting.
• Gongsun Zan died, and territory changed hands between Yuan Shao and Liu Bei, fracturing both empires.

Those last two points actually align somewhat with history, only a year ahead of schedule and with Liu Bei's involvement. Coincidence, or semi-scripted event?

By March 198, I have 20 generals commanding nearly 400,000 soldiers stationed in regions #6 and #7, neatly divided between the well-armed (in #6) and the poorly armed (in #7). Yuan Shao isn't getting through to me. The poorly armed spend their time searching for metal. The well-armed go in.

Once again, the enemy just doesn't have enough provisions to support a defense. All I have to do is turtle.

We push on through the territory, driving Liu Bei out of #16, and spilling into #17 and #15 beyond.

Liu Bei puts up a long, flame-intensive defense, in which some of his own generals defect to me, and at least one burns to death in his own fire trap, but he too eventually runs out of rice.

He started with 14 generals.

I have him executed, and while his rule is succeeded by his top general Guan Yu, multiple officers below him refuse to swear loyalty. Such is the price of soldierly humility, I suppose.

Winter comes, and I know to stop pushing my luck. Guan Yu is absolutely furious, but there's not a whole lot he can do about it now. Yuan Shao is a bit cross, and several of my own territories are within striking distance of his, so I pay off his animosity with a bit of wuzhu, and hunker down until spring. During this time, I finally complete arming the generals in state #6, and also steal one of Guan Yu's former generals.

In spring, disease claims the life of Dong Zhou - formerly my strongest rival - and of another general whose name was unremarkable.

Nine down. Six to go.