Total War: Three Kingdoms Guide: Getting Started as the Hero of Chaos in 200 CE

This guide aims at getting you past the initial hurdle of Cao Cao's new 200 CE start in Fates Divided and sail smoothly into the late game. With a start as big as Cao Cao, the initial turns are crucial to maintaining momentum in the campaign and ensure you don't get stuck or bogged down in numerous wars.

The latest DLC for Total War: Three Kingdoms (3K), Fates Divided, introduced a myriad of new changes to both Han factions and the Hero of Chaos himself, Cao Cao. It also reveals a new starting date in 200 CE that harkens back to older titles like Total War: Attila, with the player starting big but needing to resolve problems on every one of their borders. From Yuan Shao’s offensive front to the north of the Yellow River, Liu Bei and Zheng Jiang threatening the province of Pengcheng, Gong Du representing the last of the Yellow Turban Rebellion to your south, and the looming threat of Sun Ce and the Kingdom of Wu in the southlands, Cao Cao has his work cut out for him.

Luckily, Cao Cao is well equipped to deal with many of these problems, and utilizing his new ‘Schemes’ mechanic, which got reworked in patch 1.7.0, along with Emperor Liu Xie and the new ‘Imperial Intrigue’ mechanic, you can avail yourself of all of these setbacks and work towards a quick campaign victory.

Note that this guide won’t be a rundown of exactly what you should do each turn, but a quick rundown of the new mechanics introduced in 1.7.0, along with a general guideline as to what your first moves should look like.

This guide was performed on Hard/Hard with another test run on Normal/Normal.

A Rundown of Schemes and Intrigue

Prior to patch 1.7.0, Cao Cao’s mechanic was a simple ‘Credibility’ system, where he would gain credibility over time, allowing him to instigate proxy wars between two factions, or improve or decrease relations between factions. This enabled Cao Cao to potentially destroy coalitions and military alliances from within, all the while not lifting a single finger. While powerful, the mechanic was a bit simple and didn’t enable as much player agency as one might think.

The Hero of Chaos

The Hero of Chaos

As of patch 1.7.0, he still has ‘Credibility’ but his new main mechanic is ‘Schemes’, which are powerful buffs and debuffs that you can periodically use and serve a wide purpose. Some schemes actually give you credibility, while others decrease it. However, Cao Cao is limited by his faction prestige as to how many schemes he can use. In the 200 CE start for example, when Cao Cao has already formed the Duchy of Wei, he starts with four pawns which allow him to carry out up to four schemes at one time. Once Cao Cao hits King, he has five pawns which allow for five schemes at one time. 

The ‘Schemes’ range from refreshing an army’s campaign movement by 50%, unlocking a reform instantly, or inflicting a crippling -20 morale to an enemy army. All of the schemes have a fairly high cooldown, so make sure you use them at the right time.

Spam this one whenever possible

Spam this one whenever possible

Early on, I like to use ‘Dominion Over the Realm’ to instantly unlock a reform of your choice along with the ‘Rival Tigers and One Prey’ scheme as both give you a decent chunk of credibility. I then save the other two schemes for when a time arises where I might need them, such as if I’m going to be fighting a particularly tough battle. I would use the ‘When Near, Appear Far’ scheme, or if I need an army to blitz through a region, I enable the ‘Hawk and Tiger Maneuvers’ scheme.

Don’t be afraid to use Cao Cao’s schemes; while many of them do have long cooldowns, nearly all of them are well worth it.

You can even enact schemes from the campaign map

You can even enact schemes from the campaign map

As for ‘Imperial Intrigue’, the new mechanic makes Han factions a little trickier to play but also provides powerful buffs. The gist of the mechanic is that once Emperor Liu Xie comes of age in 197 CE, the ‘Imperial Court’ mechanic will come into play. Factions will have differing favor with the Emperor, and you can increase it for yourself by ruling your lands justly; high public order, food surplus, high satisfaction for your generals.

On the other side, you can lose favor with the Emperor by actively waging war against other Han factions, razing or sacking Han settlements, or killing Han generals and faction leaders. If your favor with the Emperor goes low enough, someone who controls the Emperor can declare you as an ‘Enemy of the Han’, which leads to Han factions ganging up on you.

As Cao Cao starts off with the Emperor in his possession, he can declare anyone with favor lower than 50 to be an ‘Enemy of the Han’. He also gets increased intrigue gain per turn which offsets the warmongering you have to do against Yuan Shao. In general, intrigue most likely won’t cripple you unless you choose to sack or raze Yuan Shao or Liu Bei’s settlements, which you shouldn’t do. You might lose some here and there, but for Cao Cao’s 200 CE start, intrigue isn’t that difficult to manage.

Imperial intrigue gives powerful buffs

Imperial intrigue gives powerful buffs

You can utilize Cao Cao’s high intrigue to decrease other factions like Yuan Shao to the point where you can even declare them to be an ‘Enemy of the Han’, which can be helpful if you get overwhelmed and need to bail out. Declaring people as an ‘Enemy of the Han’ requires 25 intrigue and has a 10 turn cooldown, so use it sparingly. In other campaigns, intrigue is a bit harder to manage, but for Cao Cao in Fates Divided, you should have no real problem maintaining high favor with the Emperor.

The First Moves

As you start up your campaign, you’ll realize that you have problems on all sides. The first thing to do is not to panic; a lot of these problems can be easily solved and fairly quickly.

First things first, equip the Imperial Jade Seal onto Cao Cao and make sure you utilize assignments, Cao Cao starts with an unbelievable amount of generals who are just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Reducing enemy commandery public order, increasing your income, reducing corruption; these are all valuable assignments that you should send your many generals on.

After that, have Cao Cao’s army fight Guan Yu and recruit him to your army on the following turn. You can delegate the battle or fight it manually, but either way, you’ll capture Guan Yu at the end and be able to employ him.

Consider making Lady Bian your heir for the time being as well, as Cao Pi only comes of age on turn 17. The extra authority boost from her should ensure that no one’s satisfaction falls too low. 

Defeating the sandal merchant

Defeating the sandal merchant

Once that’s out of the way, try to make peace with Zheng Jiang hiding in the Pengcheng Temple so you don’t have to force Cao Cao to deal with two problems at once; you can deal with the Bandit Queen later, but the bigger threat for now is Liu Bei. Have Cao Cao retreat back to Pengcheng and recruit Guan Yu to your army on the next turn, then go after Liu Bei. He’ll likely force march into Xiapi and stay there. While Liu Bei has Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun in his army, Cao Cao and Guan Yu should be more than enough to deal with his army and the garrison. You can even try to pay Zheng Jiang for a mercenary contract against Liu Bei, but I didn’t find it necessary.

Try to strike up a non-aggression pact with Liu Biao and a trade agreement as well. Due to his nature as a pacifist he likely won’t betray you and due to his role as a Governor, he won’t be one of the Three Kingdoms you have to defeat, which means you can pretty easily confederate him or have him join your Empire later on, especially if you opt to restore the Han. This also gives you one less front to worry about, so a win-win overall.

Liu Biao was more than happy to cooperate later on

Liu Biao was more than happy to cooperate later on

Up north, you’ll see that Yuan Shao is coming down to Yu Jin, and Cao Ren is coming up to Yuan Shao’s territory with Zhang He guarding Gongcheng. While Yu Jin’s army is small, you can simply just recruit another general with a simple retinue and put him in ‘Encampment’ stance by the river; Yuan Shao is unlikely to attack him and will retreat back. For the following turns, you can have Yu Jin play a game of cat and mouse with whichever army Yuan Shao sends after you. Send Yu Jin across the bridge to threaten the settlement of Zhaoge and then retreat back to safety and go into encampment stance.

For Cao Ren, his job’s a little tougher as the army he has isn’t very good. Luckily, the AI’s armies are never very good either. Cao Ren and his army can take over Gongcheng of the Wei province pretty easily. Have Cao Ren move to the forest near Zhang He and go into ‘Ambush’ stance; chances are that Zhang He will see the seemingly undefended settlement of Zhixian and move towards it, walking into your ambush. Even with the ambush, however, the battle is still rough due to Cao Ren’s army lacking any spears or lances, so be prepared.

This army really isn't good

This army really isn’t good

Further north in Taiyuan, you’ll see Xiahou Dun alone with a small retinue; thankfully he’s powerful enough to be able to secure a foothold in the mountains. Have Xiahou Dun take over the city of Jinyang, then recruit two extra generals with preferably a small retinue to keep costs down, and finish off Gao Gan. He usually retreats out of Jinyang on turn one and runs to Gu Pass.

Xiahou Dun makes quick work

Xiahou Dun makes quick work

Down south, you’ll notice Gong Du in Runan and Xiahou Yuan at Gushi; Xiahou Yuan needs help to deal with Gong Du as Gong Du has a decent army. Move Xiahou Yuan into Gushi and recruit extra generals and units. Gong Du will likely go after Ruyang while you’re recruiting, so chase after him. He usually takes over Ruyang, then retreats back to his territory. You can give chase to him if you’re confident in beating him without a full army or wait for replenishment at Ruyang. Be warned that waiting too long might result in Gong Du going after Gushi, making you play an annoying game of cat and mouse.

I hate Gong Du

I hate Gong Du

These are all of the pressing matters that need to be dealt with; you can safely ignore everything west of Chang’an, as you have buffer factions between you and your enemies to the west like Ma Teng. The immediate threats are Yuan Shao, Gong Du, and Liu Bei. 

Another threat to watch out for is Yuan Tan, Yuan Shao’s son and vassal. He’s to your northeast, past Liu Bei and comes with a small army in a few turns that’s usually capable of taking over your settlements, so be prepared for that. It’s fine to lose a bit of territory here and there. Rarely, he won’t recruit enough men to actually beat your garrisons and will take attrition from force marching, so if you get lucky, Yuan Tan might suicide into your garrisons. 

Further south is the ever-present threat of Sun Ce and the Duchy of Wu. For the first few turns, he’ll likely be too busy in the southlands to deal with you, so you can simply strike up a trade agreement with him and ignore him until you have the north squared away. Maintain good relations with Sun Ce until Autumn of 205 (turn 27), as that’s Sun Ren’s new coming-of-age date. 

And that’s the first few turns! While the beginning of this campaign is particularly rough, you should now have an answer to whatever the AI chooses to do. Note that AI movements and patterns differ with difficulty or just by RNG, so what happened for me, such as Gong Du taking over Ruyang and retreating back to Runan may not happen for you, so don’t take this guide as gospel. In two test runs, one on hard and one on normal, Gong Du did as described, but your mileage may vary. 

Don’t forget about the new ‘Faction Council’ too, which was reworked in 1.7.0. Combined with Cao Cao’s schemes, you can inflict crippling debuffs on your enemies, such as potentially dropping Yuan Shang, Yuan Shao’s son and heir’s satisfaction by a staggering -60 and having him be your turncoat spy, a devious plan worthy of Cao Mengde.

Faction Councils are very powerful

Faction Councils are very powerful

The AI can utilize the faction council as well, so be prepared for trouble every Summer. A particularly annoying one is the AI spawning looters in certain commanderies, so you might do well to always have a standing army near home to deal with any trouble. 

Important Things to Remember 

While most of your armies are on the north, make sure you don’t neglect your south. While Yuan Shao and Liu Bei are problems, Gong Du will often serve as your biggest headache. If Gong Du manages to take your capital, you can kiss Emperor Liu Xie goodbye for good.

Don’t forget about Zheng Jiang in Pengcheng as well; while you should make peace with her at the start, she’ll sooner or later declare war on you and attack you. Take her down as soon as you defeat or vassalize Liu Bei, lest she grows to be a huge threat.

Vassals

Don’t forget that vassals can be extremely useful in 3K. Liu Bei, for example, is likely to never betray you if you vassalize him, and after you defeat him and his army at Xiapi, he’ll likely be more than willing to submit to you. This has Liu Bei serve as a buffer between you and Yuan Tan, who’s east of Liu Bei. While you will probably lose some territory to Yuan Tan, you can rest easy that Yuan Tan will likely not make it past Liu Bei, keeping your eastern front safe.

Utilizing vassals can save you from headaches

Utilizing vassals can save you from headaches

Likewise, if you find the northern front against Yuan Shao to be taking too long, you can opt to vassalize him after a decisive victory and have him wage war against his son, Yuan Tan. This frees up your entire northern and eastern front and allows you to completely focus on the south.

“Late” Game

Cao Cao’s 200 CE start is potentially one of the shortest, if not the shortest campaign in Total War if played correctly. As Cao Cao already starts as Duke and isn’t far away from King, in addition to equipping the Imperial Jade Seal, you can usually hit the Three Kingdoms stage within 20 turns. As a result, the other two kingdoms likely won’t have consolidated their forces enough to prove to be a real threat due to the fast nature of this campaign. I finished my Cao Cao campaign in 34 turns, by far the shortest campaign I’ve ever had in the series.

My court at around turn 25

My court at around turn 25

While this may serve as a negative for some, I find that the 200 CE start is actually very nice for those looking to play shorter campaigns akin to a Nanman victory from the Furious Wilds DLC. Plus, this allows you to quickly experience one of the most exciting new features from the 1.7.0 patch, restoring Emperor Liu Xie to the throne.

The final nail in the coffin

The final nail in the coffin

Restoring the Han 

If you’re in possession of the Emperor and you hit King rank first, you have the ability to abdicate to Emperor Liu Xie, the last Emperor of the Han. In doing so, your faction leader steps down and Liu Xie becomes your leader, and while he’s undeployable, he comes with a unique skill tree that provides extremely strong faction-wide buffs, ranging from massive public order increases to gigantically reducing corruption. 

There are practically no downsides to restoring Emperor Liu Xie to the throne, so roleplaying aside, you should opt to restore the Han Empire every time. The buffs Liu Xie provides are simply too strong to give up.

Emperor Liu Xie is too powerful to give up

Emperor Liu Xie is too powerful to give up

Remember that you have to be the first one to reach King rank to restore Liu Xie, and you have to be a Han faction. Sun Ce often hits King rank within 30 turns as well, so you’ll have to race against him if you want to restore the Han. In addition, if you want to restore the Han in an earlier date such as 190 or 194 CE, you have to make sure no bandit, Nanman, or Yellow Turban factions capture the city where the Emperor stands, as they will force Liu Xie to abdicate, ending the Han Dynasty once and for all. 

This should be all you need to unite China under the banner of Wei (or Han!) Have fun playing as the Hero of Chaos and taking down the sandal merchant Liu Bei and the fatuous lord Yuan Shao! After the initial first five or so turns, it’s mostly smooth sailing for Cao Cao right into a quick and easy campaign victory, but the first few turns are a real hurdle. 

Cao Cao still appears despite abdicating to Liu Xie

Cao Cao still appears despite abdicating to Liu Xie

For a full breakdown of patch 1.7.0 and further information on Cao Cao’s schemes and imperial intrigue, the official Total War YouTube Channel released a breakdown of the patch narrated by SeriousTrivia.

1 Comment

  1. Avatar photo

    yooo been looking for a guide like this

    Reply

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