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

How to roleplay as Yuan Shu. 1.) Get everyone to hate you; 2.) Fight a war on several fronts; 3.) ????; 4.) Profit.

Serious Trivia is one of the few people that will make a fairly difficult Legendary campaign into almost easy mode with restrictions on exploits and presenting everything cleanly. I think we all enjoy that. I can only imagine the massive time in preparation work (even setting aside any script work, recording, and possible editing). If there ever is a Questions and Answers, I would ask how much time is put in for all the different types of videos from guides, walkthroughs, tier lists, lore, and let’s plays.

Won't lie, Yuan Shu is my favorite. I've almost completed the 182 campaign as him, the last piece in the Yuan Shu Triple Crown and will celebrate with honeyed water once it's done

I love that diplomacy is actually good.

Some big brain moves for Yuan Shu, he finally got a son like Sun Ce through this guide

One thing I'm looking forward is to see Serious Trivia's FINAL walkthroughs.

Yuan Shu is now business man instead of a warlord

Now that's a great early strategy,holy shit,got most of the level up perks in turn 7 and Sun Ce as heir to boot, fulfilling Yuan Shu's wish for a better son 😆

Ah, ST's favorite general. :3

The finale! Beautiful. thank you

This is a really great guide that sets up a really fun campaign. Thank you for putting in the effort to make this.

If you have Sun Ce you will always be in a happy place. Best 3K boi

I love you videos, they really make me think about the game in different ways without even resorting to much cheese. Thank you! 💜

Ah, perfect, I just finished my latest campaign and now I can start on one I've been wanting to for a year now.

Well Sun Jian Didnt have the Jade seal....That changed it up a bit....

hats off to you being able to still play this game with the recent event's, I really can't bare myself to play TW games after how CA treated us 😔 feelsadman

This is absolutely legendary. Probably my favorite guide - not because I like Yuan Shu or his faction, but because of how it feels like it's cheesing, but it is actually totally by the book.

great guides watched them all keep up the good work!

I really wish that the yuan shu unique units got the rapid advance ability yuan shao’s lIang daring infantry got. With that ability, a commander with nature’s ally and stone bulwark, they’d actually be quite deadly. Same for Sima Wei’s warriors of Chu.

Your videos are so interesting you definitely deserve more subscribers!

Feels like a liu yan campaign where you sacrifice stuff and then get them back and more after some time.

there’s a vid about crackling yuan shu 190, get the seal from Sun Jian from first turn trade, then get sun ce receive marriage from Sun Jian, then kill Dong Zhuo for his XiangYu sword at Luo Yang area, then Dong Min will be heir, then Lu Bu will become Dong Min’s Heir, you can receive marriage again to get Lu Bu. lol

I guess activating second marquis rank is a mistake as it kills the growing might mission which is essential for the first doom stack to deal with liu biao after the 10 turns. You can trigger it turn 9 so and instatly get second marq+marq ranks

I think this is one of your best guides

if you waited one extra turn to get sun ce, there would have been a good chance that the red Cinnabar bow would have been equipped on sun ce

Funny enough, I started playing Yuan Shu for the first time just yesterday. The first attempt didn't go well, because I rushed my legitimacy kinda hard (not nearly as much as you did here), and was just ruined by imperial sanctions. On their own it's not so much, but trying to fix my economy while in multiple wars and being hit with those same sanctions basically off cooldown hurt like hell - not totally unsalvageable, but enough to leave me frustrated. My second attempt is going better, though I'm also turtling a bit in regards to legitimacy. I'm at the point where Sun Jian will just give it to me for free, I've wiped out Liu Biao and Cai Mao, and now I'm working on Huang Zu. The idea this time was to just secure those lands to build up my capitol commandery, get plenty of food, and then march east against Cao Cao. So just to keep some imperial favor until I'm more ready for sanctions, I've been keeping myself in the second tier and recruiting characters when I can. This route cost me the chance to recruit Ji Ling, but I did grab a Guo Jia who hadn't been employed by anyone - and he's easier to keep happy for cheap. Funny side note - the event to either support Sun Jian or leave him to die pops when you have captured two settlements, I think. Because I had only taken the jade mine, built up my army, then attacked Liu Biao to take his capitol while he was away. And when I took it, the event popped asking me if I wanted to join Sun Jian in his war lmao. Thanks for another great guide, though! I've actually been having a lot of fun with Mister Honeyed Water, and seeing a more diplomatically aggressive style like this is actually super interesting. Looking forward to your next guide, master ST!

Important note, your son also has familial conflict skill when he comes of age

When I played as Yuan Shu, I discovered that after I granted independence to my vassals I continued to receive legitimacy from them. I don't know if this was a bug or if it was intentional but it was something interesting.

Talk about the art of deals. Bravo.

Oh I nearly used the same tactics with trivia, but I won't make any deal with Liu Biao as the later event will let you choose to declear war on him or not. And he is always my first target to destroy.

I think the reason Declawing the Tiger event doesn't trigger is because you have the Imperial Seal, so he can't demand it from Sun Jian anymore.

Yuan shu legendary was my go to campaign, loads of fun. Looking forward to seeing how you handled this!

Terrific guide for a really interesting playstyle, which I'm excited to try.

Fucking amazing how you come up with this lmao, you genius

Flippin' brilliant. 11/10.

I tried to recreate the guide with MTU activated. Unfortunately you can`t trade for the Imperial Jade Seal on turn 1. But I continued to play the strategy and actually finished the campaign as Emperor yesterday. Sun Ce is just too strong as heir :)

Yuanshu: Money is legitimacy!

Yuan shu ai always declares as emperor before anyone else in my campaigns and then subsequently gets wiped out by literally everyone before Dong can even get past the great wall of Yuan shou to come after him.

so in this timeline he managed to get sun ce as his son and imperial seal too huh, me looking at the 3 kingdom (2010) .

Love this series so much!

Bro....... you needa teach a Total War Master Class.............Ur a legend

So I've tried this a few times and I've come to the conclusion that the Sun Jian Liu Biao event is triggered by the player conquering their third territory, it has nothing to do with diplomatic standings with the factions. So taking the lumber yard will trigger the event ruining the whole strategy, or assuming you ditch Sun Jian it makes it almost impossible to marry Sun Ce because the attitude drops too much. One time Sun Jian survived long enough that the attitude recovered in time to grab Sun Ce, but still taking the lumber yard or any territory during those first turns is actually bad.

Yuan shu is not the only one who can get the council in first spring Cao cao as well can have it as well just after Pexian go to south to get Fuli then go to north to get Pengcheng and get mision done in first 3 turn 47/50 credit ( As well get the first two generals Xun You and Yaun Huan I always have them with a shaman in battle after killing all their troops and just Yaun Huan is hard one to get you need just hit him until 5/7k healt then he runs and for Xun You in turn 3 with 3 general or 2 kill all his man just let him remain and dont hit him just let him run as well he has good skills for exp and then in turn 2 before battle with 3 generals in Fuli send Cao ren in way to Guang ling but use him in batlle to get the city then after city u can send Xiahou Yaun with him or use him against Tao Qian ) Just in 4rd turn start a city and quick build in any of two you got or just go north for for grand temple and quick build it ;) 52/50 here u go

Me comparing rapid tiger infantry and sabre infantry, hmmmmmm so basically, the sabre infantry get a 60% block rate for archers but deal basically the same damage.... hmmmmmmmm well i wonder which one to get

I never realy played this dude cause obviously id start with full legitimacy XD

Wait you can choose multiple council options same time? I always thought you can only choose 1 out of several options.

Have you tried playing Yuan Shu's campaign in the 182 start date? Because while his 190 campaign is an uphill battle, playing his 182 game is more like scaling up a cliff in battle. In 182 Yuan Shu has no generals or family members in his court. For some reason even though his daughter Yuan Anyang is around and you can recruit her, even she isn't part of his faction. In fact if you look at his family tree it's just him by himself. With only Yuan Shu alone, it's hard to build up an army and so long as you a vassal to the Han Empire you cannot demand legitimacy from fellow Han factions and thus aren't able to recruit new generals until you save up enough, and you can't capture new officers to add to your faction because you will only be fighting Yellow Turbans when the Mandate War happens. Furthermore due to the starting situation and having no legitimacy, public order will become a big problem especially when the Mandate War kicks off. It took me three tries to successfully play through his 182 starting game. The first time around I got complacent. I filled up Yuan Shu's retinue, developed my lands of Runan and got a few trade agreements. Since he gets no missions and there were no enemies around, I just sat back and built up quite the treasury. But several turns down the Mandate War kicks off and Yellow Turbans began popping up everywhere around my territory. With only Yuan Shu and his retinue I couldn't fight off so many enemies and it was game over. For my second play through I did a little better. This time I also built up my infrastructure, recruited the best units available to him. When the Mandate War kicked off again, I was hold out much better defending my lands and even expanded east when the Yellow Turbans took my neighbor's province. However there were just too many enemies around, and with only one general's retinue I was severely overstretched and was fighting for diminishing returns, so eventually I gave up. The third time I learnt from my mistakes and managed to thrive. At the start of the game I married Yuan Shu to Lu Kang's daughter Lady Lu which also came with a trade agreement and a little bit of money. An additional general was a game changer as it allowed me to win battle battles without incurring too many casualties and even split my army when needed. I recruited the best and most expensive units available for both their retinues. The good thing about Yuan Shu is that although his starting position is very hard, he does not have to worry too much about money so spurge as much as you want for your retinue. His family estates gives him a huge allowance, Runan is a rich province and you can make a lot through industry. Plus being surrounded by friendly Han factions means you can secure a lot of trade agreements, which also means for your first few reforms you should unlock blue ones that comes with additional trade agreements. Once you get the ball rolling, you just have to tough it out, save up your legitimacy points until you can recruit another general, defend your lands, maintain good public order because with the starting situation and Yuan Shu's bad traits, it will be a big problem. However once Emperor Ling dies and his Han faction dissolves, it will be smooth sailing from then on. As you will no longer be a vassal of the Han, you are no longer restrained from demanding legitimacy from other factions. And since you already know every other Han faction on the map and have very positive relations with them, not only would they be happy to give you legitimacy but you can even charge them for it. Meaning you can easily fill up your legitimacy bar while making a tidy profit for yourself in the process. From that point on the campaign will become a cakewalk.

Is there a way to make this possible without the imperial seal ? IN the MTU Mod the Seal is not available and going back to the no uniqoue looking characters would hurt my eyes ;D. Ty for the great guide as usual.

I tried something similar for the 194 "A World Betrayed" Start. Of course Sun Ce is already the faction leader so I can't get him over and instead through marriage I got Yan Baihu's bro early and Sun Ren later using my son and daughter. First time I am playing Yuan Shu ever... I allied with Lu Bu to achieve a mission... He was about to die and I turned north to fight Liu Bei at great cost and eventually wiped him out... He subsequently got out of the alliance and then suddenly multiple people declared war on me on multiple fronts.... Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Gongsun Zan and many many others.... Alot of losing and winning back territory... Attrition trench warfare beating out superior forces... So lucky I chose to build in the military reform tree.... The fight continues as I have only 1 coalition member Liu Biao who seems to be quite useless haha... Is there anyway I can improve diplomatic relations.... There is no way to peace out with anyone or get others to join the coalition as Liu Biao keeps blocking it... Ive now start to win back some ground and gain momentum beating back most of the armies of the bigger factions but at great cost... There must be a better way? Please help

23:58 Galaxy brain moment

This video was great

Big thumbs up!

Hmm I think CA changed his ending text because I'm pretty sure it used to say be wary of Liu Biao and Sun Jian instead of Dong Zhou.

Great video, were the warriors of the left given no shields on purpose or did CA forget.I think there is a mod that will give them shields.Again thanks for your historical information on this time period.👍

What's the best way to manage corruption when playing as Yuan Shu? since his administration building doesn't provide corruption reduction. Which places would be good to have vassals?

Now this is epic 😎

NEVER BEEN SO EARLY!

If you want the seal and Sun Ce then 194 is much better for that. As a bonus a can also get Zhou Yu.

Question: Do you not worry about administrators with ambitious or brilliant declaring independence? It happened to me during my very first campaign, and as Cao Cao I assigned Sima Yi as an administrator. He asked for independence, I refused, and not long after he declared independence via war. Now this was when I didn't know anything about the game so there could be other factors at play that I'm not aware of, but I avoided using independence-prone traits ever since.

I couldn't really get this start working from this playbook. By the time the turns are up, Cao Cao has already expanded and sometimes Liu Chong even takes the Lumberyard and Liu Biao takes the iron mines. Meanwhile the moment the legitimacy deal runs out, everyone's back to hating you because of the diplo penalties =\.

Hey can i ask you a question? How to promote general or give him/her a title such as general of the left? Thanks

Getting started as Yuan Shu 1. Slam back some honey water 2. Declare yourself emperor 3. ???? 4. Profit

must collect brilliant officers at all cost i see

Idk if it’s a bug with yuan shu’s 182 start but for some reason I’m able to recruit yuan shao s units like the liyang inf and Ye Xbows and spears. I am running mods that allow me to recruit recruited generals units but only for that specific general. I had to steal Lu kangs daughter and use her as an empty fort to take out the 2 yellow turban stacks while I sat in a fort by the iron mine in runan to cheese he yi. I paused the campaign cause empress he is still alive and my buddy. As soon as the empire collapsed I used the legitimacy and now I’m duke. Big 3 zhang bros are still kicking. But I’m stoked to see if I can use yuan shaos units with him. I think it’s because he has familial conflict

Amazing strategy - does taking the seal early cause the Liu Biao on Sun Jian event causing his death to not trigger at all? Also doesn't dropping Yuan Anyang so low open her up to the vulnerability of turncoating to spy for Cao Cao?

just spent 3 hours trying to capture xu huang...

Today is Idiot day! I do like his starting challenge despite how bad Yuan shu is historically.

Tried this in a multiplayer game, me playing Yuan Shu, them playing as Gong Du, Sun Jian still died unfortunately

Can you elaborate on the ways to save Sun Jian? What kind of treaties would keep him alive?

Yes

does Sun Jian not have the Seal on turn 1 anymore? I re rolled twice and no dice.

The true Emperor's guide is finally here! But... who will be the next target for the guide? Mayhaps Cao Cao? 👀

Is that texture bug still a thing between nanyang city and lumber yard?

interesting guide, my only problem is... you cant married sun ren anymore. speaking of which, I got a glitch a while back in one of my game where I was able to married Sun ren to Sun ce. not something I'd do IRL, but ... hehe

I am currently workshopping a 182 Yuan Shu start. It involves marrying and divorcing many women to build up his roster without spending legitimacy. I call it the Yuan Shu harem strat. My goal is to declare myself an Emperor before He Jin is killed. Wish me luck.

In the beta game, the ai would become king with 3 or 5 commanderies a ruined the game Oh good old time

Would you say it is wise to support ai Yuan shu when the ai offers the support deal to you? I tend to use to milk a little extra cash from him.

Updated how to get started for Liu Chong please 🙏

ST, you sound like a generic late-medieval age gentry class father willing to do anything necessary for your daughter to get married to the ruling class - just so you can have a seat of power yourself. Love it Edit: "In Discord, chaos follows - its corrupting miasma infects the hearts of men" 45:42 - agreed. Really enjoying these guides!

I got plus when receiving marriage With sun ce, and i demand their payment muahahahahahahaha

Is it possible to play Yuan Shu with total war challange?

i want to try him out should i do it with mtu or without hadnt really done any campaign with mtu?

hmm if sun jian dies u can marry his wife when sun ce takes over and get the unbreakable sword and sometimes the horse.

Why does the starting position of yuan shu start in nanyang, when in the 182 and 194 start, he is in huainan?

Is it still 1.7.1 beta?

Any ideas why i cannot make sun ce mu heir? Two times did everything per this guide and still impossible to make him heir

first!! :D Finally!!!!!!!