How to Get Started as Gongsun Zan | Early Game Legendary Difficulty Playbook Patch 1.7.0

[@eVeNmOrEiNsAnItY]

"Hello everyone, this is Serious Trivia, and welcome back to another early game playbook video featuring Gongsun Zan in the 190 start. And for our opening move we'll be liquidating our entire army and fleeing down south to Taiwan, or Yizhou is it is known as." :P

[@Jovenfeliz]

Gongsun Du's background trait: "The Warlike" Gongsun Du's diplomacy personality: "Peaceful"

[@Eskeletor_210]

“On the way south, we declare war on every faction” just like the simulations

[@jessewilliams1422]

So besides throwing thumbs and generalized compliments, I'd like to say these starting videos are the best I've come across. Commentation and information are just what we need to start a successful campaign without coming across obnoxious and you get to learn a little extra along the way. Top notch.

[@YummyPie532]

More playbooks please I watch this as a bedtime story.

[@gr8oone007]

When they're all done we just need a single 10hr video compilation to ensure a full night's peaceful rest.

[@bw1678]

White Horse units are just obscenely strong. Doesn't sacrifice speed or charge, has range on par with Onyx Dragons but with many potential upkeep discounts.

[@BarriecudaVids]

This video (and related series) are so so good. Pure lean quality tips without any unnecessary fluff, with thorough but not superfluous explanations. And proper pronunciation of the names too (as far as I can tell anyway). Smashing the like button

[@mdtexeira]

I just found this channel yesterday and I'm thankful for it. Such well described rationale behind every action taken. I feel like every single thing you do further informs me about the deeper strategy of the faction. Also, as someone who has very much enjoyed watching the RoTK miniseries, and enjoyed a good amount of Chinese cinema, it's so nice to hear the names pronounced well.

[@Eskeletor_210]

Here’s Lu Zhi and here is the ghetto Lu Zhi

[@Hotcucumber]

Hey I just started this game for the first time! Love the book and I like how you incorporate historical elements and some insight of the characters and what will be good for who and whom to hire.

[@butter_nation]

My campaign on legendary battle very hard of Gongsun Zan 1.7 was like this video since I was follow your older vision lol. However every bad things that you mentioned was happened to me. Taishi Ci came with his army to retake the port. I beat him thank to last saber militia able to lure him to tower. His arrow skill almost killed all my troop. when I attack liu yu. it was raining which make me waste a lot of ammo to take the towers. after that I went to destroy those bandit on the mountain like the simulation. until the buffer was taken out by, guess who. it was Liu bei. that when my campaign was about to getting hot.(real hot) at first Liu bei seem a nice guy. he seem to trade and friendly then my army was push future to the west secure territory along the river and finish the bandit. Liu bei decided to declare war on me with friend lot of friend. first it was Han Fu was then Tao Quin was join in and then kong rong . they had like what full 3 stack army on my door. and I had one full strength (main army) and another 2 army with makeshift half army militia (but all hero assign to). well at the moment I was thinking "my time has come" until enemy decided to attack horse pastures that was big mistake. so i cheese the game to make the time ran out till my army in position to counter attack. which my main army was a Mongol horde 7 horse follower, 1 saber mil cav , 2 trebuchet, 2 crossbow and 1 sword guard ,1 axe ,1 big sword (to protect the range which they didnt need) with night attack order. this army are scourge god for every enemy they encounter. ( just thrown the fire ball with old man yelling follow my cav charge so effective) , the funny thing was when i beat han fu and sign peace with liu bei (i destroy those 3 brother with night attack) other two were like "chill it just a prank bro". Then i met Yuan Shao later on, he decided to vassal all 4 of them but didn't go to war with me until I became king and attacked him because his kingdom fail apart. ( they were weird thing when Yuan Shao became king. he give emperor the throne . then somewhere down the line emperor decided to liberate all their vassal. which i found the opportunity to vassal line and confederate those vassal , strength my power.) Ps Cao Cao is naughty. I mean when he saw me .A couple turn he decide " I am going to kill you" and march army pass 2 neutral faction's province to come to me which is fine. however his scheme is the real pain. like 210 change go down to 40 like dude wtf.

[@lesdeuxanes6203]

*Calm Instructor Voice* "Hello Everyone, this is serious Trivia and today we are going over an early game tutorial. Now the first thing we need to do is set all of the buildings in the town on fire.

[@sebastian7781]

finally, I love these playbooks

[@kapanee]

Great video as always, always love to try these out. I've been playing Tao Qian (190 start) recently, and had an interesting strategy of adopting Lady Mi and making her my heir, as she has a very nice +10 satisfaction factionwide for being heir. It's a hefty price, but Tao Qian starts out with a very high base income (2k income on turn 1 before disbanding units). You can usually afford the 4k after fighting the initial battles. It does however make your son very angry, but I found him to be mostly useless anyway. After taking the temple on turn 1, thats another +10 satisfaction across the board, letting you take pretty much any general on and not have to worry about handing out court positions or titles. On turn 2, after you take the town in Pengcheng, you meet Cao Cao, and you can marry Lady Mi to Cao Ren very easily, only -8ish cost. You start out with a bunch of items, including some silver armour on one of your generals you can take. Cao Cao also values food very highly on turn 2 as he is unlikely to of taken any of his surrounding food settlements by that point, and you have a slight abundance due to having Xiapi. Trading food does mean you will likely have to break the deal in order to go to war with him however. You do have to watch out for Huang Shao as he will send an army after the Pengcheng temple, but you can stay on friendly terms with Liu Bei/Kong Rong and they will usually clean him up for you whilst you take advantage of Cao Caos weak early game and wipe him out. The territories to the south of you are also fairly profitable, and very weakly defended, so after taking out Cao Cao, you're able to grab those for pretty much free. A note about Cao Cao, i've not actually tested this, but what has happened in both campaigns i've tried of this strategy, the Cao Cao AI doesn't really do much if you take Pengcheng, as that is the first settlement he is "programmed" to take. It could of just been lucky on my part, but I found he only had his capital, even 5-6 turns into the game.

[@SeriousTrivia]

Why not marry her to your son (it’s cheaper than adoption)

[@kapanee]

@@SeriousTrivia If you divorce Lady Mi, she is no longer in the ruling family and loses her heir position, this means you can't marry her off to Cao Ren and have two great commanders in faction leader and heir position, as Tao Qian dies very quickly in the campaign. I believe its only generals that are married before the game begins that can be divorced but kept in the ruling family. Also, its turn 2 you take either the temple or the town, and turn 3 you can snag the other, and you make up the extra income on turn 1 to afford the adoption by getting a trade agreement with Liu Bei, which also keeps him friendly so you can use him to shield you from Yuan Shao when he inevitable expands south. Just a couple details I forget to mention. I'm sure you can polish this strategy even further however!

[@kapanee]

"extra income on turn 1 to afford the adoption" turn 2 i meant, it's also made up by battles anyway haha

[@SeriousTrivia]

she only loses the family status if they don't have a kid (just hope for a baby) and then you can keep her as part of the family even with a divorce. But if you are hoping to use her as heir and steal character then adoption is the way to go

[@kapanee]

@@SeriousTrivia Ah I didn't know that! I can't wait for the Tao Qian playbook to see how your strategy differs :) I know in your old strategy you married Lady Mi to one of Tao Qians sons, but i think using her to steal Cao Ren very early is great.

[@shunyuanliang4397]

Also Gongsun Zan's location in the north has 1 horse pasture county in range. So more benefits for his Calvary archers.

[@lesdeuxanes6203]

Edited bc I think I lied. The raiders have 95 speed I believe. I need to look it up, but I believe the fellows are still 75. What makes them 8insane is that they have very high range. So if the raiders are 95 speed, then what I said below about them is true for them. One thing about the Horse Fellows is that it's sort of underplayed just how epic they are. One thing I have found is that horse archers, while useful and powerful, are very slow. They have a speed of 75 which makes them faster than all infantry, but slower than most cavalry. Which means they are very vulnerable to enemy cav. The Horse fellows have a speed of 95, which is the base speed of most cavalry. This combined with their amazing range makes them a God send. If you can boost their speed, then they can easily outrun almost every unit in the game. That only makes them vulnerable to archers, which is a really good kiting move.

[@KittenCritters]

Instructions unclear, sailed to Taiwan instead.

[@solidmore5098]

lets goooooo

[@victorhino26]

Ah yes,Gongsun Zan,the faction that allows you to conquer the land as horse-archer hordes in the mid to late game 😆 add Sun Ce as heir if possible for more charge bonus shenanigans

[@lesdeuxanes6203]

Also Ngl, fighting battles with Soaring Dragons playing really hits differently.

[@AzoiatheCobra]

funny how i am watching this video on loop. not because im playing 3K, but because Im playing M&B bannerlord as Gongsun Zan (khuzait only army as one of my favorite factions in 3K, the other being Ma Teng). I was uncertain if i wanted to play as Ma Cao or Gongsun Zan, but the limit of "names must contain at least 3 characthers" decided for me

[@ouziqi198]

37:11 Some barbarian in the South: 25 percent more melee evasion in 1 minute? what about I kill 50 percent with just one hit (Though I don't think Dailai can win the duel against Zhao Yun lol.)

[@joshuachapman247]

We head south right?

[@SeriousTrivia]

I mean it’s kind of hard to go north before the expansion pack

[@joshuachapman247]

@@SeriousTrivia meant to say "we sail south, right?"

[@EnduringPhoen1x]

This is an older video but I disagree that the Military Government and Infrastructure buildings are wasteful or less useful. That may be due to me playing on Normal v. Legendary. I've finally actually played through a campaign to the finish - I have a hard time staying motivated despite my love for this game and series. Back to topic, I found that the corruption reduction bonus from the government building is very necessary when expanding without many administrators for the income commanderies. This may also have been from me trying to protect my southern border from Cao Cao along the Yellow River. Every campaign has always had an early war with Yuan Shao and Cao Cao - minus this recent one for some reason. So for me I used the administrators and the infrastructure as my buffer from the south and to also provide some protection for the salt mine commandery - for a higher income - and Bohai for the food and as a buffer for my capital city. Yuan Shao is just so aggressive to not have a buffer while I'm fighting back and forth with him. I also held onto Liu Yu for the longest time until Kong Rong decided to come up and take his last city after I took the horse pasture. This then made me force Kong Rong, who was my trade and non-aggression partner alongside Liu Bei, to the bottom of the map - he seems to like taking territories down south by sailing down. Gongsun Du definitely takes a good bit of time sadly with the extra space that takes a while to navigate. I went to war with him three times because of wars with Liu Yu and Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao always requires 100% of my attention. But again I suppose this is from playing on a lower difficulty I guess. I really enjoy your videos and have appreciated the tips! I feel that has helped motivate me to finally finish a campaign that I won. Now I'm enjoying the post-game cleaning up and defending King Meng Huo from Queen Zhurong and King Mulu who is vassalized by the Queen. I really wanted to have a peaceful relationship with Queen Zhurong so we could pacify the other tribes but she gets upset very easily it seems.

[@SeriousTrivia]

I mean you can get enough corruption reduction just by using the state workshop building

[@EnduringPhoen1x]

@SeriousTrivia Maybe I'm not being efficient with where I am placing my workshops. I think my max corruption at the moment is just above 40% in non-adminstrator and non-workshop or government building. Also, I really appreciate the reply even on a video this old! That's pretty awesome!

[@hengdegietttre]

You mentioned getting Guo Jia early. If he does not show up the first spring, does save scumming last auto save help or do you have to restart the campaign if you really want him?

[@SeriousTrivia]

it is really quite random but the chance is always on the start of turn (no necessarily the first spring). I don't think save scumming will help you here since the list of candidate shouldn't change unless you saved manually before the end turn the turn before assuming you are not playing on legendary difficulty that autosaves at start of turn

[@hengdegietttre]

@@SeriousTrivia Alright, I will try see if manual save helps then, playing on very hard and would really like to get him super early. Thanks, you're the best !

[@brainwasher9876]

This is an insightful guide, but not a very beginner-friendly one. The first battle with Liu Yiu looks very micro intensive and many things seemed to go wrong even with a veteran of the series playing it. Is there a noob-friendly version of this strategy out there?

[@SeriousTrivia]

not sure what to say about this since I don't really consider that battle that micro intensive as you are only really micro-ing one thing at a time (trebuchets first to burn the towers and most of the town). Then its just generals going in to smash troops with flame of the phoenix. I mean alternatively, you can wait a few turns and get a bigger army if you want to feel a bit more secure (like save up enough money to bleed through with negative income for a few turns).

[@tric5122]

I don't play on the highest difficulty, normally just base, but I've never seen looters up there, it's normally just the YT's that have the last city. On lower difficulties does the AI just throw all the looters at Dong?

[@SeriousTrivia]

Probably just luck. It’s hard to say. I mean looters come from the council events so if you don’t have that many enemies their council wouldn’t suggest it to begin with

[@EricChien95]

Was the Armor Bonus for Shock Cavalry for Gongsun Zan removed? When I looked up something about him a lot of people mentioned his Shock Cavalry have more armor but I see no mention of it in game.

[@SeriousTrivia]

There was a background bonus change for all faction leaders in one of the patches so that might be why

[@zemheri7468]

I tried what you did but its kinda impossible when yuan shao attacks you with 5 vassals at turn 50

[@NapoleonTotal]

hey serious i have a big problem, I just downloaded three k again, and everything is new. My unit colors (uniforms) are white, do you know to change that to the faction color?

[@NapoleonTotal]

ops nevermind i just solved it with alliance coloring. (Sorry to bother you dud)

[@Macestrom]

You able to set up the video with the different cuts to break it down? trying to jump back and forth as I relearn the game is difficult as 1 solid video

[@SeriousTrivia]

hmm what parts are making you go back and forth in a early game guide?

[@Macestrom]

Had jumped back a few times, such as for the building types, the assignments, dealing with the ambushes west, what candidates were needed for the inspectors. Looking at a legendary early game guide is probably not ideal for learning the game, but there aren't many guides out there.

[@SeriousTrivia]

@@Macestrom I mean the point of the guide isn’t for you to follow it step by step though…

[@tric5122]

Started a new campaign using this strategy, 1.7.1 patch, no dlc/no mod. Did you experience an issue, or have you, once you are emperor not being able to target the agriculture or econ inspectors? I could target all the other inspectors and the administrators, but I couldn't do anything w/those. And once they died/or were granted independence from an event I couldn't add new ones. Any other inspector that died or were manually granted independence I could add a new general.

[@SeriousTrivia]

I believe the inspectors goes away to a certain extend after you hit emperor and get the imperial court, but I am not sure actually as I have not played a Gongsun Zan campaign to that extend after the last patch

[@tric5122]

@@SeriousTrivia I read some comments on some other sites that seemed to mention that, but it only seems to be that way w/those 2 inspectors. I'll just assume thats that issue.

[@bentosarca8216]

How about giving your unique spear to zhao yun? He has more potential with it.

[@SeriousTrivia]

He already has enough potential once he gets elemental vigor ;)

[@renemuller7383]

Speaking of Gongsun Zan, i read somewhere that his "Total War"-Achievement is bugged. Seeing how you yourself are attempting exactly this, do you know if they have fixed the bug?

[@SeriousTrivia]

No idea? I don’t think I have heard that but I will not be able to test it since I already have the achievement. It is a really easy achievement to miss so the person who you heard it from probably missed a war declaration

[@renemuller7383]

@@SeriousTrivia : Well actually i attempted it twice myself as gongsun zan with the second run even taking extra care. Since i never had any problems with that achievement in other TW-Games i tried to get more information and somewhere ( i think reddit ) i read that its bugged for that specific faction. Well, thanks for answering. What faction have you done the achievement with if i may ask?

[@SeriousTrivia]

Sun Jian (you can even watch it here on KZbin)

[@KwintenVDE]

On what would you spend your points when ranking up? (Since you have the special administrators)

[@SeriousTrivia]

More administrators never hurt

[@KwintenVDE]

Not suprised by your answer :) But thank you. Not only for the answer but for all your great content aswell. Cheers and happy late bday!

[@Emutus33]

If you dont find Lu Zhi, do you just recruit Guan Jing into the army ? On summer 191

[@SeriousTrivia]

Yea just take the best strategist you can get

[@Emutus33]

@@SeriousTrivia By the way, should mention to you and anyone reading the comments, on the first set of characters (that you said none are any good), Lou Jouanshu strategist has Abundance! Picked her up just for that. Sadly no commerce bonuses, but abundance is even more valuable imo.

[@yngvebalmsteen9174]

What do you do if playing on easier difficulty? Same stuff?

[@SeriousTrivia]

I think you can do whatever you want on easy =P

[@luangu]

I have a question. Someplace around the 10 or 11 minute mark I hear you use the term "loop" the enemy. Is it "loop" or "loot" (YT CC is notoriously unreliable for us near deaf folks). WTF does this term mean in the way your using it here in TW:ROT3K? Thanks in advance.

[@SeriousTrivia]

loop. It means literally circling them around a town because of poor AI pathing and decision making to let your towers wipe them out.

[@luangu]

@@SeriousTrivia THANKS! I literally just found your video on "looping". I Googled it and you came up! kzbin.info/www/bejne/opvQq5SsoZpojLs

[@donguyen6606]

I was going to make a a joke about his this is total war series and Taiwan but I think i am not the only one who thinks this is funny

[@gggmmm7204]

Is Tian Kai and Tian Yu related?

[@SeriousTrivia]

Nope

[@9Ovidiu9]

My northern neighbour breaks the non-aggression pact and attacks me anyway by the time I go to war with Yuan Shao :’( yeah different version but eh

[@MazeOfMind]

Will Zhao Yun leave Gongsun Zan for Liu Bei in 190 campaign? Would not like to lose him...

[@SeriousTrivia]

No he will not when you play as Gongsun Zan

[@martinchow5925]

Gongsun Zan's background bonus says a +3 rank for all cavalry units faction-wide, but how come when I recruit my mounted lancer militias they are still rank 1?

[@SeriousTrivia]

ranged cavalry not all cavalry

[@martinchow5925]

@@SeriousTrivia oh so the in-game text was a typo?

[@SeriousTrivia]

@@martinchow5925 I think you misread it?

[@martinchow5925]

@@SeriousTrivia Hmm I don't think so ... maybe you can take a look at say 4:42 of your video ... It says: -25% recruitment cost for *ranged cavalry* +3 starting rank for *all cavalry units* ...

[@SeriousTrivia]

@@martinchow5925 hmm interesting. Maybe it’s a typo. I don’t have a computer to test it out right now so I am not entirely sure either

[@rod.lunx0]

Is the Blue Blade still in the game? Also, how to get it for Zhao Yun?

[@SeriousTrivia]

you have to either craft it or find it on a rebel army

[@rod.lunx0]

@@SeriousTrivia oh okay, thanks. another question if you don't mind. is it possible to craft unique itens on the military forge building? or would it be best to capture those smiths commanderies?

[@SeriousTrivia]

no the max quality of forge building is silver tier items. You have to get the weaponsmith county to have a chance at gold

[@rod.lunx0]

@@SeriousTrivia ok, thanks for clearing that up

[@ouziqi198]

Am I the only one who went straight down to kill Yuan Shao? XD He didn't even got any chance to touch my cities

[@SeriousTrivia]

Not exactly the most beginner friendly advice but yes that is also a valid strategy

[@ouziqi198]

@@SeriousTrivia Yea I know, that is pretty risky lol

[@tonys9397]

I didn’t get Lu Zhi I weep

[@zee-ws8px]

Clearly I'm missing something here. By the time I manage to take Linyu, I start to run out of supplies and go on a deficit. Then the Han empire sends a giant fleet to Linyu in just two turns and destroys my already starving army. This seems to happen every single time.

[@SeriousTrivia]

you are running out of military supplies marching to the county that you start next to?

[@CptSlow89]

Some say go NE expansion first... cuz that guy will betray you.

[@brainwasher9876]

So how does the looter mechanic work? If I kill Gongsun Du will the mechanic like, cripple my economy or something?

[@rustydust8648]

Yuan shao time travelled to dislike this video Lol

[@raymodg.8039]

I call him gongsun Xanax. I makes it easier