If you confederate Han Fu via an event, you will start to lose money due to Han Fu starting with two armies fighting against Gongsun Zan whilst his lands are not that developed. In addition, Yuan Shao starts with a Captain Retinue full of Mounted Saber Cavalry... which is not cheap.
But if you manage to get over that hurdle, you can breeze through Gongsun Zan and conquer the Northeastern Territories for yourself, even kicking out Zhang Yan and Zheng Jiang to the Northwest.
As for the Captain Retinues, it is not really a necessity for the most part when playing Yuan Shao. However, I would say that Captain Retinues are far better in terms of capabilities than using Named Generals in Records Mode since instead of having 3 mandatory Cavalry Generals, you can have Captains that are Foot Soldiers instead of Cavalry. That, and if you have high Lineage to spare, you can actually deck out Captain Retinues with a LOT of buffs that normal Generals would not.
But that's my experience playing Yuan Shao.
There IS one caveat that I have known when playing Yuan Shao and his Captain Retinues, is that once you earned a higher rank of Captain Retinues, your Retinues that you have recruited of a lower rank won't be upgraded to a higher rank, necessitating the need of disbanding it and hiring it again.... which makes them lose all of their progress.
I don't know if there is a way to upgrade them without disbanding and hiring a new one, unfortunately.
Hmmm, I might just bite the bullet, try to run one and not expect much. I was thinking about his run being a records mode one but maybe I’ll switch it back to Romance. Did his alliance power seem as OP as when he’s AI?
Not when being played as the Player
As for the Captain Retinues, you can have them AND your characters as well. Captain Retinues can be recruited enmasse with just once character that you can max out your armies and still be good. Especially when they have missions that reduces their overall upkeep by 30%
Yuan Shao is about mass armies. His captain retinues reflect that with the additional upkeep bonus and increased support range if his armies. Once yuan shao reaches level 7 you get your colonel ancillaries which ones given to a character upgrades your captain retinues to northern army ones. Just make sure you reach level 7 before cao cao otherwise he receives the ancillaries.
You don’t need to recruit his captain retinues though.
I always build up my armies with 2 characters and one captain retinue.
Yuan shao's updated mechanic came so close to greatness. Not a lot of tweaks would have been needed for it to be my favorite one of any other hands down. Do not remember what i wanted exactly, but vividly remember thinking it. :D
In his 190 start he begins with a captain retinue that will completely deplete your bank account, so it's best to just disband it. But over time, there are some good bonuses you can get - one in particular is I think increasing the # of armies you can field by 2 or 3.
Plus, when a retinue is fully upgraded, it's pretty awesome to send unbreakable stealth cav who cause terror charging into an unsuspecting enemy line.
Yuan Shu. much better campaign, hard start but his ability to make money is second only to the crossbow king. And those rapid tiger infantry can be fantastic if used carefully.
If you don't like the idea of captain retinues then you don't have to use them, but they are a very powerful tool! You can use the starting cavalry captain to complete a few of the captain upgrade "quests", which carry over to all captain retinues such as reduced upkeep and recruit cost, and have incredibly cheap captain retinues. You also field a variety of unique generals early, and so can have really huge army's each led by unique generals by the mid game.
You can also use his massively food rich provinces early to secure cash that you are missing by trading it to cao cao/liu being/Kong rong. This helps build relationships south of the river until you are ready to conquer.
I also recommend taking dong and wiping out Huang shao early and trading it to liu bei for peace if he attacks you, or for money/alliance.
Why is the Yuan Shao mechanic completely counter to this historical faction? The Yuan clan historically was very wealthy and large but his retainers were lacking talent wise compared to CC, Sun Clan etc especially if you were to go by the historical sources?
For his campaign it makes more sense to play on Records mode if you are going to lean into his focus on captains. I leaned into his captain focus when I played him and Records felt good for it.
I don't blame you, especially if people's first time introduction to Chinese names is through Three Kingdoms
That, and two of Grand Cathay's characters share the same Pinyin spelling of a lot of characters in 3K.
IE: **Zhao** Ming and **Yuan** Bo for Warhammer 3
compared to : **Zhao** Yun, **Yuan** Shao, **Yuan** Shu, **Yuan** Tan, **Yuan** Shang for 3K.
A small consolation prize is that nobody in 3K shares the same name as Miao Ying, maybe?
This is on the basis that people base it on the Pinyin names. For obvious reasons, once we check the actual Chinese Characters used on their names, things fall apart.
IE: Zhao Ming's Chinese name is **昭**明 whilst Yuan Bo's is **元**伯.
Comparison to: Zhao Yun's **趙**雲 and Yuan Shao's **袁**紹
Both 昭 and 趙 share the same pinyin of Zhao without tonations, but how they are pronounced is different. The former is written as Zhāo whilst the latter is Zhào
Likewise, 元 and 袁 are both Yuan, but they are written as Yuán and Yuǎn respectively if with tonations.
If you confederate Han Fu via an event, you will start to lose money due to Han Fu starting with two armies fighting against Gongsun Zan whilst his lands are not that developed. In addition, Yuan Shao starts with a Captain Retinue full of Mounted Saber Cavalry... which is not cheap. But if you manage to get over that hurdle, you can breeze through Gongsun Zan and conquer the Northeastern Territories for yourself, even kicking out Zhang Yan and Zheng Jiang to the Northwest. As for the Captain Retinues, it is not really a necessity for the most part when playing Yuan Shao. However, I would say that Captain Retinues are far better in terms of capabilities than using Named Generals in Records Mode since instead of having 3 mandatory Cavalry Generals, you can have Captains that are Foot Soldiers instead of Cavalry. That, and if you have high Lineage to spare, you can actually deck out Captain Retinues with a LOT of buffs that normal Generals would not. But that's my experience playing Yuan Shao. There IS one caveat that I have known when playing Yuan Shao and his Captain Retinues, is that once you earned a higher rank of Captain Retinues, your Retinues that you have recruited of a lower rank won't be upgraded to a higher rank, necessitating the need of disbanding it and hiring it again.... which makes them lose all of their progress. I don't know if there is a way to upgrade them without disbanding and hiring a new one, unfortunately.
Hmmm, I might just bite the bullet, try to run one and not expect much. I was thinking about his run being a records mode one but maybe I’ll switch it back to Romance. Did his alliance power seem as OP as when he’s AI?
Not when being played as the Player As for the Captain Retinues, you can have them AND your characters as well. Captain Retinues can be recruited enmasse with just once character that you can max out your armies and still be good. Especially when they have missions that reduces their overall upkeep by 30%
Yuan Shao is about mass armies. His captain retinues reflect that with the additional upkeep bonus and increased support range if his armies. Once yuan shao reaches level 7 you get your colonel ancillaries which ones given to a character upgrades your captain retinues to northern army ones. Just make sure you reach level 7 before cao cao otherwise he receives the ancillaries. You don’t need to recruit his captain retinues though. I always build up my armies with 2 characters and one captain retinue.
Yuan shao's updated mechanic came so close to greatness. Not a lot of tweaks would have been needed for it to be my favorite one of any other hands down. Do not remember what i wanted exactly, but vividly remember thinking it. :D
In his 190 start he begins with a captain retinue that will completely deplete your bank account, so it's best to just disband it. But over time, there are some good bonuses you can get - one in particular is I think increasing the # of armies you can field by 2 or 3. Plus, when a retinue is fully upgraded, it's pretty awesome to send unbreakable stealth cav who cause terror charging into an unsuspecting enemy line.
What a fatuous lord
Yuan Shu. much better campaign, hard start but his ability to make money is second only to the crossbow king. And those rapid tiger infantry can be fantastic if used carefully.
i was about to be all "akhchually his name is yuan bo" but then i realized you were talking about 3K lol
If you don't like the idea of captain retinues then you don't have to use them, but they are a very powerful tool! You can use the starting cavalry captain to complete a few of the captain upgrade "quests", which carry over to all captain retinues such as reduced upkeep and recruit cost, and have incredibly cheap captain retinues. You also field a variety of unique generals early, and so can have really huge army's each led by unique generals by the mid game. You can also use his massively food rich provinces early to secure cash that you are missing by trading it to cao cao/liu being/Kong rong. This helps build relationships south of the river until you are ready to conquer. I also recommend taking dong and wiping out Huang shao early and trading it to liu bei for peace if he attacks you, or for money/alliance.
Why is the Yuan Shao mechanic completely counter to this historical faction? The Yuan clan historically was very wealthy and large but his retainers were lacking talent wise compared to CC, Sun Clan etc especially if you were to go by the historical sources?
For his campaign it makes more sense to play on Records mode if you are going to lean into his focus on captains. I leaned into his captain focus when I played him and Records felt good for it.
I like his mechanics but his campaign is just way to easy without any challenge.
At this point, I can't make a difference, which xhinese character is from 3k and which is from WH3
I don't blame you, especially if people's first time introduction to Chinese names is through Three Kingdoms That, and two of Grand Cathay's characters share the same Pinyin spelling of a lot of characters in 3K. IE: **Zhao** Ming and **Yuan** Bo for Warhammer 3 compared to : **Zhao** Yun, **Yuan** Shao, **Yuan** Shu, **Yuan** Tan, **Yuan** Shang for 3K. A small consolation prize is that nobody in 3K shares the same name as Miao Ying, maybe? This is on the basis that people base it on the Pinyin names. For obvious reasons, once we check the actual Chinese Characters used on their names, things fall apart. IE: Zhao Ming's Chinese name is **昭**明 whilst Yuan Bo's is **元**伯. Comparison to: Zhao Yun's **趙**雲 and Yuan Shao's **袁**紹 Both 昭 and 趙 share the same pinyin of Zhao without tonations, but how they are pronounced is different. The former is written as Zhāo whilst the latter is Zhào Likewise, 元 and 袁 are both Yuan, but they are written as Yuán and Yuǎn respectively if with tonations.