How to Get Started as Cao Cao | Early Game Legendary Difficulty Playbook Patch 1.7.1 

"Impossible! Even if it were 80,000 steamed buns, it'd take Liu Bei half a month just to chew through them!"

Cao Cao used a scheme on the player, to artificially reduce the "starting difficulty" to easy :)

Wasn't sure where to leave this, but since this is your latest Cao Cao content, I'll just leave it here. If you want to migrate south to settle the unsettled commanderies, instead of taking the river to the ocean, consider carving a path through Han land and other factions, selling every territory that you conquer to your nearest neighbor for gold/turn. You can do this until you reach the far south and accumulate quite a large sum of savings to settle down with (I was at around 44k). Once I took the provinces of Northern Jian'an and Linhai, I moved my capital to Linhai for more trade options. Hope this helps someone that wants to try a really different playstyle that's also quite fun. This could be done to migrate anywhere with any faction.

So they just left Cao Cao as the most powerful faction in the game and we have to cope with that. CA use When near, appear far to me with their announcement over the abruptly end of 3K´s development. I sincerely hope modder community can finish what CA left behind halfway. This game has so much potential still to be reveal...

Love the faction based scheme that allows you to get a bonus reform every 4 years. That can allow you to go for harder to reach techs a bit faster. In my recent campaign I went down red tree for -10% upkeep cost and instead of my normal path for faction unlocks, I went all the way down the army path for the additional army upkeep reduction. After that I went for the techs that decrease salary. This was surprisingly effective and I was able to sustain the upkeep of a couple extra armies above what I normally would.

Hey dude, just wanted to say that this guide (and the legendary let's play series) was really helpful for someone like me who only played Shogun II in the Total War series. Three Kingdoms is much more complex than what I have learned from the Shogun series. I started off with Cao Cao and did a lot of things (which I learned were not efficient btw). After discovering channel and the contents here, I was able to fix my mistakes and ultimately finish the game and proclaim as the emperor by 230ish😄. Now I am on my 2nd playthrough with the Sun faction.

Gonna confirm for you that credibility can't be used for confederation deals. Coerce on the other hand is worth like 20 pts so big Dong can easily confederate the whole map once he hits emperor.

Sad that these will be the last early play guides :'(

6:14 Just a little correction. You don't need Fates Divided to have access to the Qingzhou units and Tiger Cubs. They are added to the base game. Same with Yuan Shao's unique units. The only units locked behind the DLC are the Northern army ones and Liu Yan's uniques (for obvious reasons.)

Tried to sneak this in, nice. Quality information, sir.

One thing I noticed is that after agreeing to Trade with Liu Chong his attitude towards Regular Payment remains the same for that turn. Whether he has 2k/turn or 200/turn he would still value 50 copper per turn at 1.6 diplo value

I just wish CA would just add a concubine system for a harem setting. I mean its the harem plots that keep the story going strong, with Cao Cao taking a lead role most of the time. I mean this is ancient Chinese history we are talking about, harems were a big thing back then. Monogamy and singlehood was for peasants. I mean most of the powerful warlords fell to the charms of women and many lost their lives. Dong Zhou got done in by Diao Chan. Lady Zhou almost got Cao Cao killed. Liu Bei got held back by Lady Gan and Lady Mi and almost lost his life as well at the battle of Changban. The Qiao sisters both were fated to lead a widow's life and Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were taken off the board. So yeah, the warlords having harems seem to make life very interesting.

I use a similar strategy but with a twist. On turn 1 i don't use Rival Tigers and One Prey but i use the 50% bonus movement for army one. I insta change my commanding general to Xiahou Dun, capture Yuan Huan, get Chen, Peixian and then with the army inside Peixian, i use the scheme and that gives me enough movement to reach Pengcheng and get 3 settlements in one turn. But you probably already knew about this.

Never played 3K before but decided today to start playing. I mainly play TW Warhammer 2, Medieval 2, and a little bit of Warhammer 3 (waiting on IE). 3K seems so daunting with it's campaign mechanics but looks awesome to play.

That -100% charge bonus scheme is so busted it's not even funny. Cavalry relies on charge bonus, and you just take it away with a single left click

Oh yes! Been waiting for this!

They should have added the Three Kingdom DLC where Wei-Shu-Wu struggle instead of jumping straight to Eight Princes

Just watched the old version of this video and then saw an updated version 1 hour ago :O

I maybe try 5 Cao Cao campaigns and still don't complete, most time screw up in late game. I agree, Cao Cao more like medium to play, because his faction spy mechanic need to learn even early version. If someone ask what faction is easy to play, I say Sun Jian. Actually Cao Cao's replanishment potential you can use in MOH campaign.

Wouldn’t you want to take out Yuan Shu before he can assassinate Liu Chong? I’m not sure how you would be able to get him in your faction without developing a grudge against you or killed by one of your proxy wars, but the chance of having show of force and half the cool down could be worth it.

That was INSANE!

My favorite play as cao cao Marry off cao song to liu dai, got a trade agreement and a lot of money, Take pengcheng Cao song dies to his event but ignore it instead take huainam and cheese tao qian with money Take luijang Take the minor factoions out first Form a coalition with Liu Bei Marry Cao Ren and Lady Wu from Sun Ce, and keep them both (she brings her legendary weapon for Guo Jia who I hired and the imperial Seal) Unnecessarily be attacked by liu biao Take runan from him and sue for peace and gain money Use spies to infiltrate Dong Min's faction (Dong Zhuo died) Make Lü Bu mad and hire him on turn 34 Take out liu chong but keep him as a vassal with a pass Yuan Shu assassinates Liu Chong Fight my way to chang'an and win Vassalize basically everyone on the map Declare Yuan Shu an enemy of the Han and declare war Hire Zheng Jiang who got her faction destroyed Kill Yuan shu and sue for peace Ongoing

Another Brilliant updated guide! Missed this haha Watched lots of the other videos. Learning more everyday! Missed some great diplomacy tricks at the start of the game, oh well haha

Can not praise more for this excellent job

Did CA forget about 曹洪? He should be in Cao Cao’s faction since Guandong coalition.

I have captured Yuan Huan every game I have played with Cao Cao. As long as I manually fight the battle and let him run away I've always captured him. In fact normally for this first fight I only use the generals. Now That is on Normal difficulty so I guess take that with a grain of salt.

Nice Early Game Video Trivia!!

I mean I beat Cao Cao as Liu Bei on literally my first attempt, I think people overestimate his strength, he's challenging but not aggravating

Thanks for the guide

amazing ty! I learned a lot about this game !

A question: Is there a clever way for player Cao Cao faction to obtain Sun Ce via marriage in the 190 start? Also, can you list all the diplomatic opinion break point that the AI will have more positive reaction that you know of? Like that 15 and 60 you mentioned above.

this video is really useful. thx a lot sir!!

I just bought all the dlc during the steam sale, this is my first total war. I'm currently following your walkthrough and still in turn 1. Should I be able to use this in conjunction to understand what different choices I should make? Or should I just use this? Love the detail you go into!

"With just 4 copper coins, you'll end up liking me. Wanna bet?" - Cao Cao probably

Awesome video! I felt good about myself for having figured out all these diplomacy tricks by myself (and was made fun of by a friend who plays this who said it's too much work for minimal returns... I'd say the returns are pretty substantial). Your pronunciation of these Chinese names is on point! Are you a Chinaman??

we want to cao cao videos. continu this cao cao.

I never played a total war game but I love the 3 kingdom era having played Dynasty Warriors and watching the 2010 series. Even though they stopped on the game is it worth buying still and do you think 8 princes is a good dlc?

Cao Song’s death event will still trigger even if you marry him away😅

seeing you've done so many legendary playthroughs, what faction would be your recommendation for a legendary playthrough for the achievement/fun vs just being tedious like I imagine quite a few factions would be when playing on legendary? Part of what keeps me from wanting to play on legendary is that blasted battle realism option that they force being on, which is just incredibly obnoxious to me and very much not fun to play with

Are you going to do a TROM/TUP/WDG for Cao Cao? Love your videos, thank you! (TUP OP item remover mod essential!)

i like your video, and your pronunciation is perfect, are you chinese?

Do you think armorsmith and weaponsmiths are worth it? I myself love to play factions with a lot of unique characters and getting those smiths and fish for those epic weapons etc.

could you do tips and tricks video for three Kingdoms like dat 4 money trick?

I don't think the copper coin works anymore

Do they not let you capture Yuan Huan anymore because I did it a few times and it says he refuses to join my faction

I'm trying to follow this guide but the Diplomacy UI button and hotkey are greyed out and I can't even open the diplomacy menu on turn one. Restarted, Verified contents, currently in the process of reinstalling. Anyone have any ideas?

ahh my bedtime story is back.

can you link the migration strategy?

you can also grab liu dan hair she has the brillient trait. Edit : she no longer is brilliant in the game sorry 😢

I love playing and Cao Caos faction but I dont like doing it because he is the bad guy. So I play as Liu Bei, but I feel bad wiping out Cao Cao first thing. In fact I kind of like playing Cao Cao bc I can leave Liu Bei Alone and even vassalise him later. I will have to be Good Guy Cao Cao in my next Campaign with him.

this game seems so much more complicated compared to shogun 2

Can you still capture Yuan Huan at the start? 30 attempts in and I think I'm going to give it up haha

Married off my father and he still died in the event, just FYI

Wtf is this Faction. He is far too strong in my opinion

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