Thought I might play a campaign before the DLC drops so I started a game as Yan Baihu in the 194 start since I haven't tried out the revamped bandit factions yet. The "tech tree" is a bit of a pain to navigate; I wish it was easier to find out which node gives what. The loot distribution stance is gives pretty good replenishment. Public order is kind of a problem, since there's only 2 tiers of the granary and the food camp to help mitigate it, and upgrading to the small regional city for higher tiers of granary gives a penalty.
Anyway, right off a bat I signed a merc contract with Wang Lang against the YTs in his commandery. I took control of my initial commandery and some territory in Poyang then went after the YTs. I handed all the territory to Lang but got some nice weapons in exchange. Also got friendly enough with him to form a coalition. Zhou Tai showed up in my recruitment pool so I grabbed him.
Afterwards I went to take full control of Poyang but Sun Ce already took the town while I was preoccupied, so I signed a merc deal with Liu Biao against him. I took Poyang and Changsha and gave some territories in Yuzhang to Biao. When the contract expired I made peace with Ce, marrying Lady Wu to Yan Yu and taking a bunch of gold. Liu Biao was willing to join my coalition, and after a few trade deals so was Sun Ce.
After building up my cities a bit, Liu Bei proposed a merc contract against Cao Cao because he was down to his last territory surrounded. I figured I could use a foothold in central China so I went up there. I took Yangzhou (? The commandery south of Chen) and Nanyang while Biao had Runan, protecting my westernn flank. I gave Chen and Yingchuan to Bei. After Cao Cao was annihilated Liu Bei and some minor lords joined the coalition. Zhang Yan and Zheng Jiang were already destroyed, but I managed to recruit them.
After building up a bit more I went after Chang'an to get that last bit of prestige I was missing. The three kingdoms ended up being me, Gongsun Zan, and freaking Liu Bei. He left the coalition and everyone else followed him, leaving me all alone. Sun Ce and Liu Bei immediately declared war on me. Liu Biao and Wang Lang are leaving me alone for now, which is a relief since I'm already being attacked from the north and the south. So that's what I have to deal with right now. I'll put up a defensive force to the north to hold back Liu Bei while I mop up Sun Ce who's expanded to the south. Then I'll push all my forces north to deal with Bei and Gongsun Zan.
