Romance of the Three Kingdoms X

************************************************* Romance of the Three Kingdoms X A Guide by Greg Hartman Contact: good_catholic_boy /at/ yahoo /dot/ com aolim: goodcatholicboy9 Some caveats for contacting me: -Please do not contact me if you are lame. -If you are emailing me, please put something in the topic to indicate that you are asking about this faq. I am very wary of emails from people I don't know (you should be also). You may also feel free to contact me via my im name, but I have found that I don't use instant messanger nearly as much as I used to, so email is probably the surest way to reach me. -The only language I can speak with any degree of clarity is English. Please, if you are contacting me, do so in English (although if you require an answer that is only half-intelligible, German might work also). Definitely do not bother emailing me in any other language; I won't even respond. ************************************************* Version History Version .5 (8/11/2005) -first version - about halfway done with the 1st, unproofread version of the guide. -submitted to GameFAQs Version .55 (8/13/05) -finished the section on debates. Version .75 (8/16/05) -completed the section on the council -added several frequent questions Version .90 (8/25/05) -completed the section on battles -added an faq or two Version 1.00 (8/30/05) -completed the campaign section, only the appendices to go -added some details in the officer interaction section Version 1.01 (9/6/05) -mostly a proofreading update, some minor additions Version 1.02 (1/15/06) -added a famous wives section

Version 1.03 (7/26/06) -i reworked some writing at a critic's request. ************************************************* Table of Contents: I. An Introductory Word II. Starting a Game III. Your Character IV. The Town V. Interacting with Other Officers VI. The Council VII. Battles and Units VIII. Campaigns IX. FAQs X. Appendices XI. Credits XII. Legal ************************************************* I. Introduction Romance of the Three Kingdoms 10, like many of the games before it in the series, can be both frustrating and enjoyable to play. I say frustrating mainly because the Romance series has a tendency to throw so many things at a player at once, whether it be a huge amount of officer names, menus, or cities. I intend this guide to be used as a means of becoming better acquainted with the game without having to learn everything on the fly. Unlike the game immediately preceding it, Romance 10 allows the player to control a single officer throughout the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese History. There are many new additions since this style of gameplay was last attempted by KOEI (Romance 8), and many, although not all, of these aspects were done really well. I'd recommend the game to anyone who has really any interest at all in an rpg-styled strategy game. Finally, I'd like to say a word about this guide in general. Although the game is technically a strategy game, some of the information given here could be considered a spoiler, so be warned if you are reading this before even picking up the game. I don't plan on including any item, portrait, etc lists in this guide in the near future, as these have already been covered by other writers on this site. Any other suggestions for additions will be warmly received. This guide is based on the American PS2 version of Romance 10. ************************************************

II.

Starting the Game

There are 9 different scenarios that are available to play. The 9th, which is the usual "everybody is alive at the same time" fictional scenario is unlocked by completing a game as an officer serving the force that eventually unites China. Unlike previous games in the series, however, there are a large amount of historical events that take place throughout the game to make the scenarios flow together. The scenarios are, in order: 1. February 184: "Revolt Awakens Heroric Ambitions" - The game opens with the Yellow Turban rebellion breaking out and He Jin raising an army to defeat them. Liu Bei's force starts out as a rogue army in Ji, while Sun Jian, Dong Zhuo, Liu Yan, and Ma Teng all have their own cities. From the standpoint of troop strength, however, no one comes close to matching either the Yellow Turbans or He Jin. 2. September 189: "Dark Clouds over the Capital" - Here, Dong Zhuo has seized the capital and rival lords have sprung up throughout the rest of China in opposition. When playing on historical, this scenario is very event heavy, but there are many different forces to serve or command, so there can still be a lot of variety. This is generally my favorite to play, although I think it is at its best with events turned off. 3. March 194: "Thunder Rolls from the Central Plains" - Relatively similar to the prior scenario, the biggest single difference is that Dong Zhuo has been murdered prior to this scenario and that Lu Bu and Sun Ce are rogue armies. With events enabled and barring your own interference, both will quickly seize cities and establish their forces. Both Cao Cao and Yuan Shao are quite powerful, and Liu Bei is set to succeed Tao Quian. Again, like the scenario before it, this time period sees a great deal of parity between the rulers. 4. June 200: "Two Powers Collide at Guan Du" - This scenario really is the turning point in the game from relatively many weak rulers to relatively few powerfuls ones. Cao Cao and Yuan Shao both share a great deal of power and are posed to strike at one another (to Yuan Shao's great disadvantage, if you have events enabled), and Sun Ce has carved out a little empire in Yangzhou. Although Liu Bei has a couple cities under his control, they are both weak and won't last long against Cao Cao's powerful army, especially with events enabled. 5. May 207: "A Dragon Rises as Chi Bi Burns" - Probably one of the best scenarios if playing to see animated events, as several occur quite early

in the scenario. Cao Cao has conquered the entire north and has set his eyes on Jingzhou. Liu Bei meanwhile searches for an advisor that will be able to lead his army against such a force, while Sun Quan debates whether to oppose Cao Cao's army or submit to it. 6. July 217: "Tremors of War Shake Han Zhong" - This is really the first "Three Kingdoms" proper scenario. Liu Bei, having defeated Cao Cao at Chi Bi, has since conquered Liu Zhang's territory and set his sights on the north, while both Cao Cao and Sun Quan have their eye set on northern Jing, defended by Guan Yu. 7. April 227: "A Struggle between Old Enemies" - The now obligatory Zhuge Liang vs Sima Yi scenario. Having lost the Jing province to Wu, Shu's warlord now turns to the north in an attempt to capture the central plains. Sun Quan, although he has gained territory, is relatively equal in power with where he was last scenario. 8. August 253: "The Lonely Legacy of the Dead" - The final historical scenario sees Shu on the brink of disaster. Zhuge Liang's successor, Jiang Wei, makes his final attempts to push north to seize the central plains while Shu whithers from within due to Liu Shan's poor rule. Wei, although strong militarily, also suffers from internal strife and is not long for the world. 9. January 250: "Heroes Across Time" - The only fictional scenario in this installment places every officer from the entire period into a single game with unlimited lifespans. The only way an officer will die is if he is beheaded by another ruler. A fun scenario, but also one that sees many rulers unable to manage such large armies with little resources. Cao Cao is also difficult to defeat. There are several ways you can choose to select your character. The most straightforward is to simply select the scenario you wish to play and then pick an officer from that scenario. Alternatively, you can answer a series of questions and the game will suggest a character for you based on your own personality. Finally, the game has several important officers prepackaged with scenarios from which you can select. The final decisions to make are with regard to the games options. Almost all of these are self explanatory, so I'll only mention the really important ones: Difficulty (advanced or beginner) - On advanced, the AI controlled empires are more aggressive, build armies more quickly, and generally slaughter prefects you control. The manual mentions that playing on advanced also reduces revenue in your cities, but this is harder to notice. It also hides the loyalty ratings of enemy officers, which I think is a very

cool option. Mode (historic or fictional) - Historical allows officers to behave as they did in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, whereas fictional randomizes AI control. Playing with Historical mode on but events off maintains historial relations between rulers and officers, but disables events that would normally occur. Events (on or off) - With this turned on, important events from the novel that could not be duplicated with gameplay will occur if specific conditions are met (for example, Tao Qian falling ill and leaving his territory to Liu Bei). This cannot be set to "On" if the game mode is in fictional. Leaving this enabled will result in Cao Cao dominating many of the early scenarios (unless of course you interfere with the events yourself). ? (Lifespan extensions on or off) - Enabling this command will lengthen all the officers in the game's lifespans by a good amount. This can be unlocked by completing scenario 9 as an officer or ruler of the force that unites China. After confirming options, the game will begin. ************************************************** III.

Your character

Probably the most important part of the game is understanding your own officer's abilities. All of this information can be accessed any time during the game by pressing circle and picking "self." The information is broken up into several different subcategories. The following information, however, is always present: 1. Your officer's portrait 2. The force which you serve, and, below it, the district to which you report. Every force is organized first into districts, ruled by viceroys, and then into cities, ruled by prefects. The first district is always ruled by the sovereign of the force, and subsequent districts can have any officer of class 2 or higher appointed to govern as viceroy. An individual officer reports first to his prefect, who reports to the viceroy, who in turn reports to the ruler. Of course, every officer owes his allegiance first to the ruler. 3. Your officer's rank. As I mentioned above, the ranks go in order from vassal -> prefect -> viceroy -> ruler. If your officer is free, he will have no rank. 4. Your officer's class. This is on a scale of 1-9, with 9 being the lowest. Class affects seasonal salary, with class 1 officers obviously

earning the most.

in

It also determines how many troops you can command

the field, using the algorithm 11 - (class) = (number of units to command). Officers with rank 5 or higher can be promoted to prefect, and officers with rank 2 or higher can be promoted to viceroy. 5. Your officer's deeds. Deeds determine your class. Your officer gains deeds by satisfactorily performing duties, regardless of whether he is a vassal or a viceroy. The better you are at completing your duties, the more deeds you will gain when you report your successes. The max is 60000. The following is listed when you select the corresponding box from the top of the screen: 1. Abilities (all abilities are from 1-100, before the application of any special items.) A. LDR - How well an officer the most important of the how effective your troops are battle or a campaign. It in your city.

leads troops in the fields. Among stats, leadership primarily determines in the field, whether it be in a regular also affects the drill and order commands

B. WAR - How well an officer can fight/how strong he is. Helps the most in duels, but also effects how well you can repair the city gates. The manual claims this also affects how often you are injured in battle, but I haven't noticed a very strong correlation there. If you can avoid duels (which is actually pretty difficult), this stat is not as critical as you might expect. c. INT - Arguably the most important stat. The higher your INT, the more commands you get when debating, the less susceptible your character is to tactics in battle, and the more often your own tactics succeed. It also effects your action points in battle, as well as how well you can use the diplomacy commands and improve technology in your city. d. POL - Probably the least important stat. Political ability affects how well an officer develops the farmland or marketplace. e. CHR - How well an officer interacts with other officers. This ability affects many of the non-battle tactics, as well as the diplomacy commands. It also affects your ability to debate and improves your chances of building a friendship with another officer. f. LDR exp - Your experience in Leadership. Raises by training at a school or by being instructed by another officer. Gaining 100 experience causes your stat to raise by one point. g. WAR exp - Your experience in War. Raises by training at a school or by being instructed by another officer. Gaining 100

experience causes your stat to raise by one point. h. INT exp - Your experience in Intelligence. Raises by training at a school or by being instructed by another officer. Gaining 100 experience causes your stat to raise by one point. i. POL exp - Your experience in Politics. Raises by training at a school or by being instructed by another officer. Gaining 100 experience causes your stat to raise by one point. j. CHR exp - Your experience in Charisma. Raises by training at a school or by being instructed by another officer. Gaining 100 experience causes your stat to raise by one point. k. Health - Your officer's health. Decreases from Good -> Weakened -> Struggling -> Dying -> (officer dies). As your health decreases, your abilities lower. Unless your officer is very old, he will eventually recover from injuries; otherwise he will die. Your officer can treat injuries at a city with an Infirmary or with the doctor skill. 2. Skills - Skills are divided into 6 Categories: Domestics, Battle, Tactics, Duel, Debate, and Renown. A skill that is highlighted is a skill your officer currently has; a skill that has its name outlined in blue is a skill your officer has the ability to learn. Since there are so many skills, I'll use the following format to describe them: NAME: (Name of the skill) EFFECT: (What the skill allows you to do) LEARNED: (How you learned the skill) RATING: (is the skill worth learning) --------------Domestic Skills --------------NAME: Farm EFFECT: Allows your character to work at the farms for up to 50 days at a a time, theoretically increasing his ability to improve farmland. LEARNED: Acquire 200 farm experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Crap. There is never a reason to develop for more than 10 days at a time. Just do the task for ten days, report to your prefect, then get more money and repeat. NAME: Trade EFFECT: Allows your character to trade for up to 50 days at a time, theoretically increasing his ability to improve trade. LEARNED: Acquire 200 trade experience, befriend an officer who has the

skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Crap. There is never a reason to develop for more than 10 days at a time. Just do the task for ten days, report to your prefect, then get more money and repeat. NAME: Tech EFFECT: Allows your character to work at the blacksmith for up to 50 days at a time, theoretically increasing his ability to improve the city's tech rating. LEARNED: Acquire 200 tech experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Crap. There is never a reason to develop for more than 10 days at a time. Just do the task for ten days, report to your prefect, then get more money and repeat. NAME: Repair EFFECT: Allows your character to repair the gate for up to 50 days at a time, theoretically increasing his ability to improve the city's defense rating. LEARNED: Acquire 200 repair experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Crap. There is never a reason to develop for more than 10 days at a time. Just do the task for ten days, report to your prefect, then get more money and repeat. NAME: Order EFFECT: Allows your character to raise the city's order for up to 50 days at a time, theoretically increasing his ability to improve the city's order. LEARNED: Acquire 200 order experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Crap. There is never a reason to develop for more than 10 days at a time. Just do the task for ten days, report to your prefect, then get more money and repeat. *Note that although these skills are essentially worthless for your character, if you are a prefect they are quite useful for your subordinates. When the computer simulates how well an officer does a task, having the correct domestic ability greatly improves his success.

NAME: Hire EFFECT: Hired soldiers come with 50 experience and 50 morale, instead of 30. LEARNED: Acquire 100 each of Foot, Horse, and Bow units experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Pretty useful, especially if you need to supplement units with high experience ratings but maintain a high skill level. NAME: Drill EFFECT: Training units raises morale and experience above 100. LEARNED: Acquire 200 each of Foot, Horse, and Bow units experience, befriend an officer who has the skill, ask him to teach you about politics, and he may teach you the skill. Cai Yan, the poetess, also teaches the Domestic skills if you build up your relation with her and have the experience. RATING: Well, it's the only way to raise experience and morale above 100 besides fighting in a battle, so it's pretty valuable. ------------Battle Skills ------------NAME: Charge EFFECT: Allows your officer to use the charge tactic in battle. Charging the enemy will sometimes push them back a square (common), sometimes confuse them (rarely), and sometimes force a duel (almost never). It always raises your unit's morale and lowers the morale of the target. LEARNED: Acquire 500 Horse experience and ask a friend to teach you. Huang Cheng Yan also teaches these skills. RATING: Charge is somewhat useful, but really doesn't do much more damage than a regular attack and takes more action points to use. Still, this skill is worth learning. NAME: Missle EFFECT: Allows your unit to shoot fire arrows in battle. Fire arrows do more damage than regular arrows and have a reasonable chance of setting the target terrain on fire, causing additional damage. LEARNED: Acquire 500 bow experience and learn it from another officer. Huang Cheng Yan also teaches it. RATING: Among the best skills in the game. Fire arrows are very powerful, as are the flames they cause. NAME: Unison EFFECT: Allows your unit to bring other allied units when attacking an enemy unit. The assisting unit will take no damage. LEARNED: Acquire 500 foot experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Better than charge. Unison attacks are worth the action points they require. This is one of the better battle skills.

NAME: Settle EFFECT: Allows your unit to calm a unit that is confused or agitated. In a campaign, it allows you to use "calm," which does the same thing. LEARNED: Take part in 5 battles and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Useful in some situations, but hardly essential. Most units rally themselves fairly quickly without going out of your way to rescue them with this tactic. It's really easy to meet the learning requirements though, so it's one you're likely to get just by playing anyway. NAME: Surprise EFFECT: Allows your unit to attack a unit anywhere on the battlefield, but only during inclement weather. In a campaign, it allows you to use "raid," which does essentially the same thing. LEARNED: Win 20 battles and learn it from an officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Not really worth learning. In a regular battle, the tactic really only works on a unit that is confused or agitated; otherwise you will suffer some relatively high casualties. I've never seen it work in a campaign. NAME: Rally EFFECT: Allows your unit to rally an adjacent unit and raise their morale. In a campaign it allows you to use "encourage," which does essentially the same thing. LEARNED: Fight in 10 battles and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Effective and easy to learn. If you use it several times in a row you can really have a big effect on your unit's morale. NAME: Distract EFFECT: Allows your unit to use the 'sneak' command in battle and the 'distract' command in a campaign. I've not had much experience with the campaign tactic, as I've never seen it work. Sneak prevents your unit from being ambushed and ignores zone of control rules. LEARNED: 10 victories in battle. RATING: Sneaking is only worth the huge points cost if you absolutely need to be in a particular spot at a particular time. This situation rarely arises. You won't use this tactic very much. -----------Tactics -----------NAME: Blunder EFFECT: Use in battle to trick two adjacent enemy units to attack one another. LEARNED: Gain 200 tactics experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan.

RATING: Among the best skills in the game, especially when defending. Blunder does a huge amount of damage on both units and you can use it several times per turn. It really is a must have skill. NAME: Stun EFFECT: Allows you to use the scare tactic in battle, which delays an enemy unit's turn and lowers their morale. The "stun" battle skill does the same thing in a campaign. LEARNED: Gain 300 tactics experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Although the computer loves to use the scare tactic in battle, it is not terribly effective. It uses many action points, so you are essentially wasting half your turn for the chance to delay your opponents. There are some instances where it is useful, but not too many. NAME: Entice EFFECT: In battle, entice agitates an enemy unit so the commander disobeys all orders and beelines for the commander that taunted him. It also makes his unit very vulnerable to the confuse tactic. A taunted commander will usually accept an offer to duel. This skill also allows the lure tactic in campaigns, which does essentially the same thing, but works less often. LEARNED: Gain 400 tactics experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: If you happen to be playing as an officer that has high WAR and high INT, this skill is among the best. Entice, confuse, duel; or even entice, duel - both are very effective, assuming of course you win the duel. Even if you do not have a high war officer, it is useful to use this tactic often because it makes the enemy unit vulnerable to other tactics as well. This is one of the better skills. NAME: Confuse EFFECT: Allows you to confuse the enemy troop in battle, which prevents them from moving or acting. The unit will remain that way until it is either settled by another enemy unit or until the commander regains control, which usually takes a few days. During this time the commander will be very likely to accept a duel. It also lets you use 'discourage' in a campaign, which, like all campaign commands, almost never works. LEARNED: Gain 500 tactics experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: A pretty good tactic, but hardly an essential one. Unless you have very high INT and the enemy unit is has pretty low INT, this will rarely work unless his unit is already enticed. It also uses a lot of action points to use. When it works though you are likely to crush the enemy unit before he can pull it back together. NAME: Aero EFFECT: Allows your officer to control the weather and wind. LEARNED: Gain 600 tactics experience and 400 tech experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Fairly useful. If you don't mind exploiting the AI, change the

weather to fog and move a ram next to their gate and you can level it quickly. You can also use it to set fires when defending, then change the wind to point towards the enemy. This is also one of the few ways to gain wizadry experience without performing a request at the tavern. NAME: Geomancy EFFECT: Allows your officer to use the terrain to his advantage in battle (ie the "pit" and "boulder" commands). When carrying out search requests at the tavern, this command reveals the location of the treasure, bandit, etc for which you are searching when you move the cursor over it. LEARNED: Gain 600 tactics experience and 400 inspect experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Among the best tactics in the game. Pit and boulder are both excellent tactics to use against enemies, and the ability to quickly find your goal in searches will save you plenty of frustration and time. NAME: Maze EFFECT: Build mazes during campaigns or by marching to a base. Mazes confuse enemy units that approach them. LEARNED: Gain 700 tactics and 400 repair experience and learn it from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Not very good. I usually build camps, forts, etc instead of mazes. ------------Duel Commands ------------NAME: Recover EFFECT: Use 3 evades to gain health in a duel. LEARNED: Fight in 5 duels and learn from an officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Probably the worst duel skill. Evades are more useful for, well, evading powerful attacks. NAME: Shout EFFECT: Use 3 slices to gain musou in a duel. LEARNED: Fight in 15 duels and learn from an officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Pretty decent, but only because it trumps all other duel skills. NAME: Scare EFFECT: Use 3 slashes to gain musuo and deplete your opponent's in a duel. LEARNED: Fight in 30 duels and learn from an officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Slightly better than shout. NAME: Crush EFFECT: Use three stabs to hit your opponent pretty hard. LEARNED: Win 10 duels and learn from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Pretty good, but gets trumped by any other duel special besides the generic skills.

NAME: Maul EFFECT: Use 3 strikes to inflict a ton of damage on your opponent. LEARNED: Win 30 duels and learn from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: Better than Crush, but still trumped by almost anything. NAME: Parry EFFECT: Use 3 swings to counter your opponent's attacks for a round. LEARNED: Win 10 duels in a row and learn from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: The second best duel skill. Trumps everying besides the shout and scare tactics, and will destroy someone that uses maul or crush on you. NAME: Counter EFFECT: Use 3 swipes to strongly counter your opponent's attacks for a round. LEARNED: Win 30 duels in a row and learn from another officer or Huang Cheng Yan. RATING: The best duel skill, but a hard one to learn. Will mutilate anyone that thinks about using any attack special on you. ------------Debate Skills ------------NAME: Awe EFFECT: Damages the enemy in a debate every turn it is on the board. LEARNED: Take place in 15 debates and learn it from another officer. RATING: A pretty decent debate skill, especially if you know your opponent is likely to use incite, since even if he uses it and you won't be able to act, you will still be doing some damage while you wait. NAME: Plead EFFECT: Prevents the enemy from using an attack command in a debate when held in your hand. If you use it as a regular command it will disarm your opponent's plead/refute cards. LEARNED: Win 10 debates and learn it from another officer. RATING: Also good, especially if your opponent has a lot of attack commands. NAME: Fault EFFECT: An attack command that trumps all regular commands. LEARNED: Take place in 5 debates and learn it from another officer. RATING: Relatively useful, but hardly the best command in debates. NAME: Argue EFFECT: A stronger version of fault. LEARNED: Take place in 30 debates and learn it from another officer. RATING: Slightly better than fault. NAME: Refute EFFECT: Counters an enemy's attack command in a debate when held in your hand. Disarms the enemy's refute commands when used as a regular card. LEARNED: Win 30 debates and learn it from another officer.

RATING: If it isn't the best debate skill, it is pretty close. If your opponent uses a very strong attack skill and you're holding this card you will likely defeat him immediately. NAME: Incite EFFECT: Trumps argue/fault and makes your opponent inactive for 2 turns. LEARNED: Win 10 debates and learn it from another officer. RATING: Among the best debate skills, unless of course your opponent has a refute card. Generally with 2 free hits on your opponent you can do some serious damage. NAME: Taunt EFFECT: Trumps every other command, makes your opponent inactive for 2 turns, and inflicts strong damage in a debate. LEARNED: Win 30 straight debates (no easy task) and then defeat either Zuo Ci or Mi Heng in a debate (also not easy). Zuo Ci frequents the BaShu area, while Mi Heng tends to stick to the Qingzhou area. RATING: The only card that comes close to matching it is refute, and that's because refute could potentially turn an opponent's taunt right back on them. Generally, one use of this bad boy will mean disaster for your opponent, unless they refute it in your face. ------------Renown Skills ------------NAME: Warlord EFFECT: Allows your officer to use the agitate and destroy tactics against an enemy city, regardless of your rank and current orders. Allows you to use the direct command in battle, which allows you to control another unit out of turn. A subordinate who has this skill will offer you advice during the council if you are a prefect. LEARNED: Automatically learned if you have 70 Intelligence and 700 tactics experience. RATING: Well, most of the renown skills are good, and warlord is no exception. The direct command is very powerful, and it's always nice to be able to freely destroy a neighboring city. NAME: Hero EFFECT: Private units are free, since any peon would willingly die for such a charismatic leader. As a vassal, you can freely recruit any free officer you see, regardless of your orders. As a rogue army, you can simply persuade a vacant city rather than besiege it. When entering a hostile city, you can challenge the guard to a debate rather than dueling him. LEARNED: Earn 700 fame and then build up a relationship with Qiao Xuan or Xu Shao and they will teach you the skill. RATING: A must have skill, especially for an officer with very low war ability, since it will save you plenty of money bribing guards who would wipe the floor with you in a duel. It's also very useful not to have to be ordered to recruit someone as a vassal. One of the best skills.

NAME: Admiral EFFECT: Your officer is a better fighter on water, cannot be swept away by the current, and has double mobility when commanding any naval unit. LEARNED: Automatically learned when you achieve 500 naval experience. RATING: Hardly the best renown skill, but very useful if you are fighting in the south. NAME: Spy EFFECT: Your officer leaves a permanent spy in any city he surveys. Also allows your officer to attempt to sneak into an enemy city or escape capture from a bandit. LEARNED: Automatically learned when you achieve 700 inspect experience. RATING: Very good skill if you routinely are forced to investigate cities yourself. If you are playing as a prefect, however, it is much easier just to send a subordinate with the skill to do your surveying for you. Interestingly, if you have the SPY command and a friend gives you information about an enemy city the game assumes that you have planted a spy there and the information will be permanent. NAME: Host EFFECT: Allows the use of the banquet command in the tavern. Banquets raise friendship with all the officers who attend by a good deal, but cost money and take 10 days. LEARNED: Automatically learned when you achieve 200 drinking experience. RATING: Not bad, but hardly an essential skill. It's not that hard to build friendships just through talking, especially since officers don't hang out at the tavern too much. NAME: Doctor EFFECT: Lets you use the heal command in battle, which heals some wounded troops for a small use of action points. Allows you to heal injured officers, and makes your own officer recover more quickly from illnesses. LEARNED: Acquire 400 farm, trade, and order experience and talk to Hua Tuo. Yu Ji can also give you a book that teaches the skill, but you must meet the requirements first. RATING: Healing soldiers in battle is pretty useful, but the other abilities given by this skill rarely come in use. It's not essential, but nice to have if you have met the requirements anyway. NAME: Wizard EFFECT: Allows you to baffle the guards of amazing magical abilities, allowing you to battle, it allows you to use the lightning you have the Geo and Aero skills. LEARNED: Acquire 500 Wizard experience and Zuo Ci.

hostile cities with your enter the city freely. In command, presupposing that learn it from either Yu Ji or

RATING: Overrated, although not if you have no other way to enter cities. Lightning is good, but cheesy. 3. Individual A. Gender/Age - relatively self explanatory. B. Years served - the number of years you have served your ruler. This has really no effect on your character, but when viewing other officers, the longer they have served a ruler, the less likely they are to betray him. C. Loyalty - loyalty to current force. Obviously, this does not display for the controlled character, since you decide how loyal he is. advanced, this also does not appear for enemy officers.

On

D. Fame - how famous your officer is on a scale of 1-1000. The higher this is, the more likely an ruler is likely to employ you if you apply. If this is high, there is also a higher chance of the townspeople assisting you with any developmental task. It increases as you complete requests for the townspeople at the tavern, capture enemy cities, recruit officers for your lord, or go out of your way and use your own money to improve your city. E. Friendship - This also obviously only displays for other officers, and it shows your current friendship level with the displayed officer. Friendships go from nemesis -> stranger -> aware -> acquainted -> friend -> trusted -> close -> oath. See the section on interacting with other officers for more information. F. Orders - Displays if you currently have any active orders. much more efficiently displayed by pressing the L2 button.

This is

G. Progress - Again, this info is better displayed by pressing L2. If you are viewing another officer, it will say either "preparing" or "active," depending on his progress. H. Spouse - Lists the spouse of the officer. There is no way to marry during the game, but if you create a new female officer, you can set her as your wife and vice versa. If your wife is not an officer in the game, she will be located at your house. I. Oath - Lists the oath brothers of another officer or yourself. You can have up to 3. An oath brother will always join you if he is not currently employed and will declare anyone who kills you his nemesis. If your character is to die, you can continue the game as one of your oath brothers. Officers can ask to make an oath anytime you are drinking with them.

4. Biography - Displays your character's biography from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel. 5. Experience - Lists all your experience levels, which are used for learning skills. This does not display for other officers. 6. Private Unit - Displays info on your private unit. Note that you can only have a private unit as a free officer. A. Type - The type of unit.

See the section on battles for more info.

B. Exp. - The experience of your unit. Generally, the more the better. This can be raised by training your unit at the barracks. Recruiting will lower it. C. Morale - The morale of your private unit. D. Pay - An essentially boolean indicator that shows whether or not you have to pay your private unit. A private unit costs 30 gold per month unless you have the Hero skill. ------------------------------------------Some tips on having a succcessful character ------------------------------------------1. In most circumstances, stats are more important than skills. The most notable exception to this, however, is in debates, where you can and will get demolished even with 100 INT if you don't have any skills. This is somewhat less of a problem in duels, but skills are still important. 2. Focus on learning skills that are worth the time and gold investments. Most of the domestic skills, for example, are pretty much useless and not worth actively pursuing unless you are attempting to learn all the skills in one playthrough. 3. It is very, very time consuming to build stats in this game. If a major part of your game is going to be devoted to character development, I would recommend an officer with abilities relatively close to what you'd be satisfied with, but relatively few skills. 4. Generally, I find it more fulfilling to play through the game with a relatively balanced character and trying not to pick up too many skills throughout the game, but that is personal preference. 5. If your officer has a very poor war but many debate skills, the HERO skill is practically essential, because it will get you out of some sticky

situations when traveling through China. With the skill, you can debate ruffians who would otherwise rob you blind. There is nothing worse than losing 100,000 gold to a bandit because you were too cheap to offer him more than 100 gold not to hurt you (it has happened to me). 6. Choose oath brothers whom you wouldn't mind controlling. It's not unheard of for your officer to get beheaded by another ruler, especially if you switch rulers often. This is especially true if your officer has no relatives that are worth while. 7. Learning a debate or duel skill from another officer requires that you can beat them in either of these tests. It is best to learn from an officer you are fairly confident you can defeat, otherwise it will take a very long time. If you are trying to defeat Mi Heng or Zuo Ci for the taunt skill, there isn't much I can say but "good luck." REFUTE is completely essential. ********************************************************** IV.

The Town

Regardless of your character's rank, he will spend the majority of his time around his home city completing various tasks. The following are the facilities present in the various cities in Romance 10: (Facilities with a * before the name are present in every city. Those without the * are only available in certain cities. See the apendix section for a chart of facilities and in which cities they are present. When listing commands, those in parentheses are commands that can only be caried out by a vassal when he is ordered. Commands that are in brackets can only be carried out by the city's prefect. Certain commands can also only be used on an enemy city. In these circumstances, I will indicate as such). -------------------Military Facilities -------------------*Barracks - Present in every city, the barracks are where soldiers gather and train for combat. The following commands are selectable at the barracks: 1. (Establish) - Draft soldiers to form a new unit. The cost to form the unit is twice what it would be to supplement an existing unit with new troops. Unless there are special facilities present in the city, you will only be able create Foot, Horse, or Bow units. The higher the acting officer's charisma and fame, the more troops will gather at his command. A city of size S can hold 5 units, of size M can hold 10, of size L can hold 15, and of size XL can hold 20. (Takes 10 days) 2. (Drill) - Drill a unit at the barracks. Unless the acting officer has the DRILL skill, the max morale and experience through training is 100. If your officer has high fame, there is a chance that the

troops will be especially well motivated and the increase will be larger. The higher your officer's leadership, the better the results. (Takes 10 days). 3. (Recruit) - Supplement an existing unit's number of troops with new "volunteers." If your officer has the HIRE skill, he will manage to enlist better recruits. In any case, new soldiers require training before they are effective on the battlefield. The higher your officer's charisma, the more effective he will be at recruiting. (Takes 10 days). 4. [Edit] - Merge or disband current units. Merging units will average the morale and skill of the two units. Obviously, you can only merge units of the same type. Disbanded units return to the city's population. (Takes 1 day). 5. [Upgrade] - Upgrade a unit to the next higher type. Only certain units can be upgraded, and require a minimum experience level to do so. See the section on battles and units for more info. Upgrading costs nothing and takes place instantly. 6. Interact - Speak with another officer who is at the barracks. the section on interactions for more info.

See

7. Observe - Listen to rumors that are circulating the facility. You may learn about a city in the region's specialty, about the presence of a free but undiscovered officer, or you may get a hint about gameplay. If a hidden officer is present, you will uncover him and be given the chance to hire him. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Foot) - A facility relatively common throughout China, the Foot Garrison allows you to upgrade units from Foot to Infantry when they reach 300 experience. There are only two commands present here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Bow) - A facility relatively common throughout China, the Bow Garrison allows you to upgrade units from Bow to Crossbow when they reach 300 experience. There are only two commands present here: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Horse) - A facility relatively common throughout the land, the Horse Garrison allows you to upgrade units from Horse to Cavalry when

they reach 300 experience.

There are only two commands present here:

1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Horsebow) - A relatively rare facility, found only in the more northern regions of China, the Horsebow Garrison allows you to establish the powerful horsebow unit. Like all the Garrisons, your only options are: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Savage) - Another relatively rare facility found primarily in the southwestern provinces of China, the Savage Garrison allows you to establish Savage units. The two possible commands are: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Elephant) - A quite rare facility found only in the extreme southwestern cities of China, the Elephant Garrison allows you to establish the powerful but unpredictable Elephant units. The two possible commands here are: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Garrison (Armored) - Another rare facility found only in the southwestern regions of China, the Armored Garrison allows the establishment of Armored units (formerly called Nanman soldiers, or Rattan Armored soldiers). The only two commands are: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). Machine Yard - Allows the construction of various war machines depending on the cities tech level. There are quite a few cities that have this facility. The higher the technology level of the city, the more weapons that can be created. The following commands are present. 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered

officers. (takes 1 day) 3. (Weapon) - Outfit a unit with a specific unit. The cost varies depending on the weapon being build. (Takes 20 days). Shipyard - Allows the construction of either ramships or warships, which make units fight much more effectively on water. Relatively common in the southeast area of China near the Yangtze River, but only in a few cities elsewhere. The following commands are present there: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day) 3. (Ship) - Outfit a unit with either a ramship or a warship. (Takes 20 days). Foundry - Improves the ability of other facilities to improve units or build weapons. The following combinations exist: Foundry Foundry Foundry Foundry Foundry

+ + + + +

Foot Garrison = Sentinel upgrades at 500 unit experience. Horse Garrison = Tiger upgrades at 500 unit experience. Bow Garrison = Marksmen upgrades at 500 unit experience. Machine Yard = Juggernauts and wood oxen can be built. Shipyard = Warships can be built.

The following commands are available: 1. Interact - Speak with another officer present at the Garrison. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (Takes 1 day). -------------------Civilian Facilities -------------------Home - Your officer's home. This obviously only appears in the city in which your character lives. Visiting your home will occasionally cause your friends to drop by for some conversation, a debate, drink, or a duel. Also, forces hostile to your force will periodically send messengers to your house in an attempt to recruit you or arrange for your betrayal. The following commands are available in your house: 1. Wait - Stand by idle for anywhere between 1 and 90 days. 2. Resign - Abandon your current force and become a free officer. 3. Interact - Speak with your wife. Only characters set to have wives will have anyone present here. If your character is married to a fictional wife, she won't be at your home, as she is also an officer. 4. Organize - Form a rogue army in this city.

This option is only

available if you are a free officer with a personal unit. You will be given the option to invite any officers currently in the city to join your army. From here, you will move to the rogue army commands. 5. Relocate - This command is only available to free officers. moves your home city to any other city currently on the map.

It

*Tavern - The city's tavern, where the common people drink and the nobles look for talent to complete tasks. The following commands are available here: 1. Banquet - Hold a presently at the has the HOST skill. friendship level

banquet. You can invite any officers that are tavern. This command requires that your officer Officers who attend the banquet will have their rise dramatically. (takes 10 days)

2. Requests - Browse the current tasks for which the nobles are hiring. Completing a task usually requires visiting another city or searching an area on the map, possibly fighting a duel or winning an debate, and returning to the original tavern. Your reward will usually be gold and a fame bonus. After assuming a task, you can always view the current requirements by pressing the L2 button. 3. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Tavern. 4. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 5. (Agitate) (enemy cities only) - Attempt to spread rumors in order

to

lower the order rating of an enemy city. The higher your officer's intelligence, the more damage this command will do to order. If you have exceptional success, the townspeople may agree to revolt, and you will be able to use the revolt tactic in the next battle. (takes 10 days) 6. (Rumor) (enemy cities only) - Attempt to spread a malicious rumor about a rival lord's officer in order to lower his loyalty. The higher your officer's intelligence, the better success you will have in spreading the rumor. (takes 10 days) 7. (Disrupt) (enemy cities only) - Attempt to spread rumors in order to damage relations between two rival forces. The higher your officer's intelligence, the better success you will have in spreading the rumor. (takes 10 days) 8. Private Unit - These commands are available only to free officers; there are several subcommands here: A. Establish - Establish a private unit. You can only establish

B. C. D. E.

units that could be established within the limitations of the city's facilities. (takes 10 days) Recruit - Add soldiers to your private unit. (takes 10 days) Upgrade - Upgrade your private unit. You need the proper city facility to be present in order to do this. Drill - Drill your private unit. (takes 10 days) Disband - Disband your private unit.

Infirmary - A relatively rare and of little use facility, the Infirmary allows your officer to heal himself if he were to be wounded in battle. It also tempers the effects of the plague. The following commands are available here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Infirmary. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Heal - Heal any wounds your officer may have received. (takes 20 days). Flood Control - Another not too useful facility, the Flood Control upgrade tempers damage that might occur from a typhoon or flooding. There isn't much to do here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Flood Control improvement. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). Granary - Slightly more useful than the Flood Control improvement, the Granary reduces potential damage from locust swarms. Again, there isn't much to do here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Granary. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). Shelter - Perhaps the most useless reduces the order penalty that takes place disaster) occurs. The manual also growth, but I am unsure about this here:

of any improvement, the Shelter when an earthquake (the rarest indicates that it hastens population claim. There are only two commands

1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Shelter. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). School of POL, INT, WAR, LDR - These facilities allow your character to train a specific stat for a period of time, increasing its experience, and,

ultimately, his abilities. facilities:

The following commands are present at these

1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the School. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Train (stat) - Train the stat in which the school specializes. Training is more effective if the current city also has the Lecture Hall improvement. (takes 20 days) Lecture Hall - When coupled with a School of an ability, the Lecture Hall increases the effectiveness of training as well as the maximum stat that can be reach through training at the school. There are, however, only 2 commands present at the actual Lecture Hall facility: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Lecture Hall. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). Exchange - One of the best non-military improvements for a city, the Exchange allows an officer to wager 1000 gold in an attempt for greater gain. The following commands are present here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Exchange. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Deal - Wager 1000 gold in a deal at the Exchange. basic outcomes:

There are three

A. The deal goes very well, and you win an item. B. The deal goes well, and you return about 1.8 times your investment. C. The deal goes poorly, and you return about .3 times your investment. The Exchange is an important improvement for two basic reasons. First, it allows your character to win items relatively cheaply compared with the high prices at the Bazaar. Secondly, there are several items that can only be won at the Exchange and can not be found elsewhere. Bazaar - Another important facility, the Bazaar allows your character to buy a variety of items from the merchants of the town. The following commands are present here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Bazaar. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day).

3. Buy - Buy an item from the merchant. (takes 1 day per item). 4. Sell - Sell an item to the merchant. Items are sold for 2/3 of the price for which they are purchased. (takes 1 day per item). Observatory - Essentially a novelty improvement, the Observatory allows your character to gauge either his or another officer's lifespan, as well as predict natural disasters. The only real use for this facility is to earn wizardry experience, but, of course, there are better ways (specifically requests) to do so. Anyway, the following commands are present at the Observatory: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Observatory. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Fortune - Reveal how much time an officer has left to live. You can pick any officer with whom you are acquainted. This costs 100 gold and takes 1 day. 4. Forecast - Ask the observatory official the current forecast for disasters. Am I the only one who finds it funny that they consider the Han Emperor a disaster? Anyway, this almost useless command costs 500 gold. The only way I could even imagine this feature of the observatory being useful is if, for some reason, you wanted to fight a battle in extremely inclement weather. ---------------------Government Facilities ---------------------*Castle - The administrative center of the city, and generally where a prefect will spend the majority of his time (especially if he is controlled by the computer). Note that you cannot enter the castle if the city is controlled by a force but does not have a prefect currently assigned to govern it. The following commands are available here: 1. [Vault] - Two choices here: withdraw or deposit. In Romance 10, prefects have free reign with the city's money and can take as much as they see fit as their personal gold. Just make sure not to rob the city to the point it is no longer self-sufficient. 2. [Deliberate] - One of the most annoying parts about being a prefect is having to constantly deal with your complaining population. Every 30 days or so, a new "petition" will appear in your city's queue. Any time there are more than 10 petitions, the city will suffer a substantial order penalty, which means, as a prefect, you need to stay on top of your petitions. Any petition you agree to support takes 10 days and (usually) some gold from the city. Refusing a civilian's petition will cause your fame to decrease. 3. Council - Visit the Council Chamber.

Note that if you are a vassal

and currently have a task, you will automatically be taken to the Council if you enter the Castle. 4. Visit - Meet with an officer who is currently inside the castle. For the most part, officers will refuse to meet with you when they are in the castle unless any of the following apply: A. You need to meet them for some task (most likely a request). B. Your friendship with the officer is already "friend" or higher. C. Your fame is very high. I would say the 600+ range or so. If an officer agrees to meet you, you will interact with him as though you met him at any other facility. 5. (Diplomacy) (other ruler's capital only) - Act as an envoy between your force and the force that owns this city. All of the diplomatic council commands are executed in this way. There is a high chance that you will be offered a debate if the other ruler does not wholeheartedly agree with your proposal. *Farmland - The farms surrounding the city, and the area that produces the food used to feed your armies. The max development for the farms increases as the scale of the city grows. There are three commands here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Farms. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Farm - Work the farm land. 10 days.

This costs 100 gold and takes at least

*Marketplace - The city's marketplace, where people come to trade various goods. This area produces revenue for the city through taxes. The max trade value of a city raises as the scale of the city grows. The following commands are present here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Market. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Trade - Invest money to develop the commercial sector of the town. This costs 100 gold and takes at least 10 days. 4. [Buy Food] - Use the city's gold to purchase food for the army. (takes 1 day). 5. [Sell Food] - Sell some of the city's food in exchange for gold. (takes 1 day). *Blacksmith - The city's technological center, where artisans work to

develop new weapons for the city. Maxing out a city's technology level also allows the city to be expanded. The following commands are available at the Blacksmith: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Blacksmith. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Tech - Invest 100 gold to increase the town's technological development. This takes at least 10 days. *Walls - The walls of the city are used to keep undesirables (in this case, enemy armies) away from the population of the city and its council chamber. This facility also allows an officer to expand the city's scale. The following commands are present: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Walls. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Repair - Spend 100 gold and at least 10 days to repair the walls surrounding the city. 4. (Expand) - Expand the scale of the city. This costs anywhere between 5000 and 50000 gold, depending on the present size of the city. The city must have maxed out its technology rating in order for it to be eligible for expansion. (Takes 50 days). 5. (Destroy) (Rival cities only) - Attempt to damage the walls of a rival city. The higher your officer's intelligence stat, the greater your success will be. Each attempt costs 100 gold and takes 10 days. *Guardhouse - The guardhouse is where the sentries are stationed to keep bandits away from the city's population. The sentries are also in charge of keeping enemy spies away from the city. The following commands are here: 1. Interact - Speak with an officer currently present at the Guardhouse. 2. Observe - Listen to rumors and/or search the area for undiscovered officers. (takes 1 day). 3. Order - Increase the order of the city by patrolling. 100 gold and takes at least 10 days.

This costs

4. Survey/Spy (enemy cities only) - Attempt to uncover information about an enemy city. The higher your character's intelligence, the more likely you are to have greater success. A city investigated with the survey command will display city info for 6 months. A city investigated with the spy command will continue to report information until the spy is uncovered, which can be a very long time. An officer must have the SPY skill to plant a spy. City Information - Pressing circle and viewing will display the following information on your city. The information is broken down into several different categories, but the following will always be present: 1. The City's name. 2. The Area in which the city is located. be

Areas are reguibs that can

conquered using the campaign command, and are usually made up of quite a few cities. 3. The province in which the city is located. made up of a few cities.

Provinces are usually

4. The force that currently controls the city. 5. The viceroy to which the city's prefect reports. 6. The number of officers currently located in the city, excluding free officers. 7. The number of free officers currently located in the city. The following information is sorted into sections: --------Strength --------1. Unit - The number of units currently present in the city. This does not include units part of a troop that is currently marching. 2. Strength - the total number of soldiers in the city. Again, this does not include any soldiers that are currently marching in a troop. 3. Population - The current population of the city. Drafting, the plague, or other disasters will lower it. It increases over time based on the order rating in the city. If the population decreases to 20,000, no more soldiers will be available for drafting. The higher the population, the more revenue collected from taxes. 4. Policy - The orders given the the city's prefect by the district's viceroy.

5. Target - The target of the above policy. 6. Info - How much information your officer currently has with regard to this city. The information goes from None -> Part -> Most -> Full. 7. Months - How much longer you will have the current information available. If this box currently has "Spy" in it, your force has a spy in the city who will continue to report information until he is discovered. ---------Economics ---------1. Current Gold - The amount of gold currently in the city's coffers. 2. Earn/Season - How much the city collects per quarter in revenue. The higher the city's trade and population, the more money you will collect. 3. Spend/Season - How much money the city spends per season paying the salaries of the officers serving there. Higher rank officers cost more money per quarter. 4. Current Rice - The amount of rice currently in storage. 5. Harvest/Year - The amount of rice harvested every year. Higher Farm development and population will result in more food being harvested every July. 6. Consume/Month - How much food your soldiers consume every month. Obviously, larger armies require more food per month. Note that food is subtracted every day. Units that are out of food will lose morale every day until it hits 0, at which point the entire unit will disband if not actively in battle. If in battle, the unit will become routed and retreat. --------Domestics --------1. Farm - The current development rating of the city's farmland in relationship to its maximum. 2. Trade - The current economic development rating of the city in relationship to its maximum. 3. Tech - The current technological development of the city in relation to its maximum. Cities are only eligible for expansion when this number has reached its maximum. 4. Defense - The current strength of the city's walls in relation to their maximum.

5. Scale - The size of the city from S -> M -> L -> XL. The scale of a city determines the maximums of Farm, Trade, and Tech values, as well as the number of specialty facilities present and the number of units that can be stationed in the city at once. 6. Type - The type of the city. This determines the type of facilities and requests that the city has. There are the following types: Wild - The city has either a savage, elephant, or armored garrison. Basic - The city has a generic mix of facilities. Learn - The city has predominantly "school" facilities. Port - The city has a shipyard. Trade - The city has a bazaar and/or an exchange. Farm - The city can recruit and establish horse units at half cost. 7. Specialty - The specialty good produced at this city, if any. This only affects one or two requests at the tavern. You can learn of a city's specialty by observing at a city in its region. 8. Order - The order in the city. The higher the order, the more quickly the population will raise. Higher order also prevents enemy tactics from succeeding. Low order makes your city susceptible to bandit or foreign tribe attacks. Developing the city lowers order, while patroling the city increases it. 9. Facilities - The facilities available at the city. are currently unavailable due to the city's scale.

Those in grey

------------------------------------Some tips for maximizing your city ------------------------------------1. In most cases, it is best to expand a city to size M or L as soon as possible so as to raise the maximum amount of units past 5. This will also raise the maximum trade and farm amounts to a level that will produce a steady amount of income. 2. Unless you already have a very large army, it is better to prioritize the market's development to that of the farmland. It is always possible to purchase more food at the market relatively cheaply. 3. Do not overdraft the city! Once a city gets below 40,000 people, it becomes very difficult for it to recover. 4. When deciding cities to conquer, try to prioritize cities that will yield you useful facilities. Cities with a foundry are always useful, as are those with machineyard. If you are looking for items, it is a good idea to capture an exchange, since you can only use the deal command if your force controls the city. 5. When leaving cities to your prefects to defend, by far the most important stat to consider is defense. If a city's defense is maxed, your

prefects will have a relatively high chance of successfully defending the city. If it is low, however, they will almost always lose the city when attacked, even if they outnumber the enemy, due to the auto battle algorithm. 6. Remember that a city need not be on the front lines to attack the enemy. In fact, I have found that defending a border city yourself and assigning prefects just behind the front lines with powerful armies to be a very effective tactic, since computer prefects are much more aggressive when they do not control cities on your force's front. ***************************************************** V. Interacting with Other Officers. Probably one of the most improved areas between Romance 8 and Romance 10 are the different ways in which your officer will interact with NPCs throughout the course of the game. This section deals with the various options related to the relationships between your character and others. ---------------------Meeting other officers ---------------------When you meet another officer, there will be a bar underneath his portrait that displays your current relationship with the officer. The closer the meter is to the right, the closer you are with the officer. Remember that relationships range from the scale of: Nemesis -> Stranger -> Aware -> Acquainted -> Friend -> Trusted -> Close -> Oath. There are several different ways you can meet and officer and interact with him/her: 1. Meet the officer at a facility and choose the Interact command Probably the most common way to meet with another officer, especially if the two of you are stationed in the same city and serve the same lord. You have the following commands: A. Social 1. Talk - Ask the officer to chat with you in an attempt to build your relationship with him or her. The more compatible you are with the officer, the greater the increase in your relationship will be. Officers chat about different things based on their abilities and desires. 2. Gift - Give a gift to this officer. The higher the value of the gift, the greater the increase in your relationship. The increase is also based on the desires (if you give him an item he likes, the increase will be larger), the other officer's personality (greedy officers are more impressed by gifts), and your compatibility with the officer (your polar opposite will still be hard to win over). Officers who don't care for you or those who are particularly selfless might not accept your gift.

3. Drink - Share a drink with this officer. The better the wine you present to drink and the more this officer likes to drink, the greater the increase in your friendship. If you are already at the "Close" level of friendship, the other officer might offer to swear an oath with you. If you agree, you will become oath brothers with the officer, and he will treat you closer than he would his own family. B. Learn - Have this officer instruct you in either INT, LDR, POL,

WAR

or CHR. You must have a "Trusted" level of friendship with the officer to ask and the officer's respective ability must not be more

than 10 points higher than your own. You will gain some experience in the ability following the 20 days of training. If the officer can teach you a skill (i.e. you can learn a skill that he has) from that particular category, there is a chance that you will learn it from the training. If it is a duel or debate skill, however, you must first defeat the officer in the relevant contest. C. Instruct - Attempt to improve the other officer's skills by giving him instruction. You must have a relationship of close or oath with the officer. The training takes 20 days. D. Information - Display information on the other officer. E. Employ - Attempt to employ the officer to serve your lord. The closer you are personally to the officer, the more likely to accept the offer he will be. If the officer is not totally convinced, he might offer a debate challenge. If you win the debate, he will join your force, otherwise he will refuse. If the officer you are speaking with refuses your officer and serves another force, he may call the guards, whom you will be forced to duel. Obviously you cannot choose this option if the officer already serves your force. F. Conspire - Attempt to arrange a betrayal of this officer the next time you meet on the field of battle. This has a higher chance of succeeding if your relationship with the officer is stronger and the target officer's loyalty to his force is low. If the officer refuses your offer, your relationship with him will decline and he may call the guards to remove you from the city. 2. Meet the officer on the main map, while you both are moving between Cities - a relatively rare way of meeting officers, it adds a little variety to the regular commands: A. Social - All the commands are the same as above, besides the fact that you can't use the drink command.

B. Assault - Attack the other officer in an attempt to rob him of gold or his rare items. If the officer is a weakling, you will suffer a fame penalty. Assaulting the officer will cause you both to fall very much apart and bring you to the duel screen. If you win, you will seize a rare item from the officer (if he has one). Note that if this officer is your nemesis, your fame will actually increase. 3. Meet the officer on the field of battle - pretty much the only option you will have here is to move your unit next to his and challenge him to a duel. 4. Judge the officer as a prisoner after capturing him in battle again, this is only an interaction in the strictest sense, but nevertheless you will have the following options: A. Employ - attempt to convince the officer to betray his own force and join yours. You cannot offer a ruler this choice unless you have destroyed his force in the current battle. Again, if you are close to the officer or if the officer is particularly disloyal or opportunistic, you will have a greater chance of success. B. Release - release the officer to his force. If the force has been destroyed in the current battle, the officer will become a free officer. I have read elsewhere that continually releasing officers will make them more likely to join you in the future, but I am yet to see any reason to believe this. C. Execute - have the officer beheaded. This kills the officer immediately and makes any of his relations (be they familial or oath brothers) consider you to be their nemesis. 5. Meet the officer when he drops by your no interaction menu here, per se, but the drink, a duel, or a debate. If you win the duel will greatly increase. The officer might a rival force's city, or just stop by for a friendly officer might leave some money

house unexpectedly. There is officer might offer you a or debate, your relationship also share some information on a chat. In some rare cases, at your house as a gift.

-----Duels -----One of the most nicely done aspects of Romance 10, duels pit your officer against another in either a friendly sparring match or a heated fight where the loser becomes a prisoner of the enemy. In either case, however, the duel is handled the same way. See the section on character info for more detailed information on the specific duel tactics. In a duel, each officer has two meters: a health meter, which begins the duel at its maximum (unless the officer in question has fought several duels in the same battle), and musuo, which starts at 50%. The fighting

takes place in rounds, with each officer selecting 3 attacks to use per round. After each has made his selections, the choices go up against one another and the higher tactic inflicts damage upon the officer who used the lower tactic. Basic tactics are divided into three groups: St-, Sl-, and Sw-. Sttactics trump both Sl- and Sw- groups, but is defeated by the defensive tactic "evade" and all special tactics. Sl- group tactics defeat the Swgroup, but loses to St-, "evade," and all specials. Sw- group tactics defeat evade, but lose to all other tactics. When both officers use the same group of tactic for the same attack in the same round, the two attacks cancel, and the damage is carried over to the next attack. The winner of the next attack inflicts the total damage of both attacks. Tactics groups are further divided into "high" and "low" attacks. "High" attacks slightly diminish the attacker's musuo, but inflict more damage than "low" attacks. "Low" tactics require no musuo, but inflict less damage. When selecting a basic tactic, the number next to the tactic's name indicates how many of that particular attack are currently available for use. Every round, basic tactics replenish at random. Storing tactics allows the use of duel specials. Both officers recover musuo every round. All special attacks use up 50% of the acting officer's total musuo. You cannot use a special (besides SHOUT and SCARE) unless you have at least 50% of your total musuo. Using either of the SHOUT or SCARE special tactics with full musuo will cause your character to become excited, which gives him infinite musuo for three battle rounds. All other specials used at full musuo inflict critical hits, which do dramatic damage to the opposing officer. A critical MAUL can defeat an opponent in a single blow. Duels end when either officer loses all his health or escapes. If an officer called for the duel in battle, the victorious general captures the loser, removing his unit from the field. The following are the tactics that any officer can choose: 1. Basic Tactics A. Strike (St-, high); trumps all basic tactics, uses musuo for more damage B. Stab (St-, low); trumps all basic tactics, uses no musuo. C. Slash (Sl-, high); trumps Sw- attacks, uses musuo for more damage D. Slice (Sl-, low); trumps Sw- attacks, uses no musuo. E. Sweep (Sw-, high); trumps "Evade," uses musuo for more damage. F. Swing (Sw-, low); trumps "Evade," uses no musuo. 2. Defensive Tactics

A. Evade - Trumps St- and Sl- tactics, confusing the officer for the next attack, negating his action, and increasing the damage he receives. Beaten by Sw- attacks. Evade also trumps the attack round of Maul, Crush, Pound, and Rush.

in

B. Guard - Block an enemy's attack. Regardless of the attack your opponent uses, he will hit you (albeit for less damage). Useful a few limited situations. C. Flee - Attempt to flee from the duel, which makes you the loser as far as your dueling record is concerned. Of course, in some situations it is better to cut your losses than to risk capture or death by sticking around. If you fail to escape, however, your officer will become confused for a round and vulnerable to attack.

3. Generic (Speed) Specials A. Pound - use one Stab, Slice, and Swing attack to inflict one strong attack in attack turn 2. B. Rush - use one Strike, Slash, and Sweep attack to inflict one strong attack in attack turn 2 that also lowers the enemy's musuo. 4. Skill Specials (see the character info section for more detailed info). A. B. C. D. E. F. G.

Maul - uses 3 Strikes, attack turn 1 Crush - uses 3 Stabs, attack turn 1 Scare - uses 3 Slashes, attack turn 3 Shout - uses 3 Slices, attack turn 3 Counter - uses 3 Sweeps, attack turn 1 Parry - uses 3 Swings, attack turn 1 Recover - uses 3 Evades, attack turn 3

Just reading this might be confusing, so here are some sample duel rounds to better explain the system: Round 1 -------you Turn 1 the

Your Officer

Enemy Officer

Outcome Strike trumps slash and

Strike

Slash

inflict some damage on enemy.

Turn 2 the

Strike

Turn 3 as

(null)

Evade

Evade trumps Strike, and enemy evades your attack.

Swing

Your attack is cancelled, you are confused, so any

attack the enemy uses

works;

he hits you with a Swing.

Round 2 -------Turn 1

Wait

Strike

this

Wait, which is part of a special, trumps the basic attack. No one attacks turn.

Turn 2 attacks,

Pound

Slash

Pound trumps basic and you hit the enemy for big damage.

Turn 3 are

Wait

Evade

Neither Wait nor Evade attack commands, so

nothing

happens.

Round 3 -------Turn 1

Maul

Wait

trumped

Wait, when part of the speed specials, is by Maul.

Turn 2 speed

Wait

Pound

Since Maul trumps the

Turn 3

Wait

Wait

Nothing happens.

Turn 1

Maul

Evade

Evade trumps the attack turn of Maul. The attack misses.

Turn 2

Wait(Null)

Strike

Although technically you would be confused here,

specials, the pound is inactive.

Round 4 --------

the

wait portion of maul

still Turn 3

trumps basic attacks. Wait

--------------------

Swing

Wait trumps Swing.

Some Tips on Dueling -------------------1. Unless you have some to spare, save evades for times when your opponent's musuo gauge is greater than 50% full. Evades are very useful for dodging the damaging turn of the attack specials. 2. Know your opponent. If your opponent has no special moves, the only turn you need to fear any more than another is the second, where the attack portion of rush or pound would hit you. Use your evades here and you will be relatively safe throughout the duel. Likewise, if the officer has both MAUL and CRUSH you might want to use the evade in the first turn. 3. Generally, it's not prudent to duel anyone with a WAR stat that is more than 5 or so greater than yours. Unless you have good skills and a bit of luck, you'll be in a tough spot to win a duel giving up any more points than this. 4. Having a special horse guarantees your safe retreat from a duel. 5. It is certainly worthwhile to save your powerful attack commands for when your musuo gauge is completely full. If you are attempting to stockpile a specific command to use a special, consider using the guard command to avoid using the needed command. --------Debating --------In essence, a debate is a duel of wits between two officers, and in this sense it serves as a duel for officers with high intelligence and charisma. Your character can engage in a debate when acting as a diplomatic envoy, hiring an officer, or fufilling certain requests for the nobles at the tavern. Sometimes when interacting with a friendly officer of relatively equal ability and a propensity for debate, he will offer to engage you in a friendly sparring match. Debates are unlike duels, however, in that your number of debating skills plays a more significant role in your chance for success than your stats. Without any skills, you will likely have a hard time winning debates, even with high debating abilities (INT and CHR). The actual debate is represented by your character and the opposing debater standing on opposites side of a bridge. Below the bridge is a meter colored both red and blue. The blue portion of the meter represents the strength of your argument. Any growth of your portion reduces the portion of your opponent's. The debate ends when one side's meter has taken the entire bridge. At the start of the debate, each character begins with a set amount of

randomly selected commands based on the debating skills he has. The higher the officer's INT, the more commands he receives. When the officer uses a command, a new randomly selected command replaces it. The action takes place in turns. Each turn each debater selects a command and the two are compared. The winning command then takes effect, and the meter adjusts accordingly. The greater the CHR of the officer, the greater effect the command will have on the meter. There are three different types of commands: regular, attack, and plead/refute. A regular command, generally, is any command that places a marker down on the debate board in the lower right. All regular commands also come with a number that reflect their strength. At the start of the debate, the higher the number, the stronger the command. Attack commands do not put a marker down on the board, nor do they come with a number to describe their strength, but they always trump regular commands. Plead and refute are generally held in the officer's hand until the opposing debater uses an attack command, at which time they disable the command. Either debater can, however, also use either of these commands as any other, at which point they will deactivate any similar cards held by your opponent. Regular Commands ---------------There are seven different regular debate commands. Six of the seven can be used by any officer, regardless of his skills; the seventh, Awe, can only be used by an officer that has the AWE skill. The most basic of the regular commands are Logic, Profit, and Virtue. Each of these commands has a different color. When used, they beat any regular command that is of a lower VALUED number (not necessarily a lower number, however) and will then increase the meter of the officer who used the command. Whether or not the command won the round, it puts down a colored marker on the debate board on the space corresponding to the number on the command. If both debaters use the same numbered command, the two commands cancel, break, and no markers go on the board, nor does the meter move. Awe and Focus are also regular commands. Neither directly affect the meter. After being used, both commands place a colored marker on their corresponding number on the board. Until either officer removes the marker

from the board by using an identically numbered command, the Awe or Focus will continue to be in effect. Awe increases the meter to the favor of the officer who placed it a small amount every round. Focus increases the distance the meter moves when successfully winning a round. Both effects stack when several of the same command are present at the same time on the board. The final two regular commands are Mire and Think. Mire randomly mixes the markers on the board, whereas Think exchanges all your current commands for a new set of randomly selected ones. Neither put a marker on the board. The board itself is very important with regard to regular commands. As the board fills, various combinations of markers begin to form. Any debater who places the final piece to create a string of 3 identically colored markers will have the meter moved substantially to his favor. Similarly, if an officer places down the final piece to make a string of three markers of three different colors, the meter will move substantially to his detriment. In either case, after the meter moves, the value of all commands reverses, meaning that the strength of regular commands changes from 9 (most powerful) to 1 (most powerful). The arrow in the bottom right of the screen indicates the current strength paradigm. Attack Commands --------------Attack commands always trump regular commands, regardless of the number of the regular command. Depending on the attack command, the regular command may or may not put its marker on the board. All of these commands require the associated skill. The following is a list of attack commands and their effects: 1. Fault - Moves the bar in your favor; allows opponent's command to board. 2. Argue - Moves the bar in your favor; breaks opponent's regular command. 3. Incite - Prevents your opponent from acting for 2 turns; breaks opponent's regular command. 4. Taunt - Prevents your opponent from acting for 2 turns and moves the

bar in your favor; breaks opponent's regular command. In the event both sides use attack commands, the higher command always wins, breaking and disregarding the lower. The priority order is, from strongest to weakest Taunt -> Incite -> Argue -> Fault. Other Commands -------------The two remaining commands, Plead and Refute, counter attack commands while held in your hand. Plead simply disarms the attack, whereas Refute reverses it against your opponent. This makes refute a very powerful card. You can also use these commands as you would any other. When used this way, these cards disarm your opponent's Plead or Refute cards. You need to have the PLEAD or REFUTE skills in order to use these cards. Again, for the sake of clarity, below are some sample debate rounds: Round 1 ------You

Opponent

Outcome

Logic 9

Profit 8

You

Opponent

Outcome

Board

Fault

Profit 5

Fault trumps the Profit.

7 P L 1 2 3 4 P 6

You

Opponent

Outcome

Board

Argue

Argue

You

Opponent

Fault

Argue

Logic 9 wins, meter moves.

Board 7 P L 1 2 3 4 5 6

Round 2 -------

Round 3 -------

Both Break; no meter change

7 P L 1 2 3 4 P 6

Round 4 ------Outcome

Board

Argue breaks Fault

7 P L 1 2 3

4 P 6 Round 5 ------You

Opponent

Profit 2

Taunt

You

Opponent

(taunted)

Profit 2

Outcome

Board

Taunt breaks everything. You lose 2 turns.

7 P L 1 2 3 4 P 6

Outcome

Board

Round 6 -------

Since you have lost your turn the Profit takes effect.

7 P L 1 P 3 4 P 6

At this point, your opponent has made a string of three, and the number order would reverse. You would also watch the meter move a great deal to your detriment. In a real debate, you will probably lose the debate at this point.

---------------------Some Tips for Debates ---------------------1. Use regular commands to actively create helpful strings. If there is a square on the board that will obviously make a good combination, ALWAYS play the number if you have it, regardless of the color of your piece (as long as it wouldn't create a bad string). The reason you need to play the number even if it wouldn't complete the combination is that the computer will actively attempt to make strings as well and playing that number will at least prevent your opponent from completing the string. 2. You can see your opponent's cards underneath his name. If he has a lot of purple commands and the refute skill, definitely do not use any powerful attack commands, as refute will throw them back in your face. Instead, attempt to disarm his purple commands first by using some of your own. 3. I can't stress this enough: YOU NEED DEBATE SKILLS TO WIN DEBATES. Although it is possible to beat some people using just regular commands, without debate skills you are at a major disadvantage.

4. Unless the computer has an attack command, your opponent will always use his highest normal command unless he can complete an advantageous string. -------------------------------------------Some tips on officer interactions in general -------------------------------------------1. Officers' compatibilities are based on the force that they serve in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, unless you are playing on fictional, in which case they are random. If your officer is very compatible with another, your friendship will increase very quickly, sometimes a level (or even two) every time you speak with him. On the other hand, if you two don't naturally get along well, it can take several times speaking with the officer before his friendship level with you improves. 2. Given enough patience, you can become close with an officer of any compatibility. It might take a little longer, but if you really have your heart set on forging an oath with a particular officer, I wouldn't let the fact that the two of you might be incompatible deter you from befriending him. 3. Officers with whom you share some kind of familial relation begin with either "friend" or "trusted" relationships with your officer. 4. Know officers' personalities and use them to your advantage. Give greedy officers cheap treasures, or drink with lush officers. This will make it much easier to build your relationship with them and will thus save you a great deal of time. 5. Although I haven't specifically documented this, I have a feeling that officers, when not assigned to any task (or free), are more inclined to visit facilities that mesh with their personalities. Officers that like to drink will be at the Tavern, civil officers will be at the blacksmith, etc. This certainly does not hold true all the time, and it is possible that it is my imagination, but it is still worth considering if you are looking for a particular officer in a very crowded city. 6. Regardless of number 5 (above), free officers definitely tend to rotate between two or three facilities. Usually if you speak to an officer in an attempt to improve your friendship, he will move to another facility within the city. Many officers tend to alternate between the tavern and another facility in the city. When attempting to build my friendship with a free officer (in an attempt to recruit him), I'll usually find him at a government facility, talk to him, and then check back at the tavern. Many times, the officer will be there.

7. This might seem obvious, but officers are more likely to accept something you request of him if the two of you share a close relationship. This holds especially true for recruiting officers. Unless your target officer has some kind of grudge against your ruler (for example, if he considers your ruler his nemesis, or he has recently resigned), he will almost always (and I mean 99.9% of the time) at least challenge you to a debate if you try and recruit him with a friendship of "close." If you win the debate, he'll enlist. Other times, he'll simply accept your offer and enlist immediately. 8. The sages do not list their friendship level with you at the bottom of their portrait like other officers. This is because your friendship with a sage resets every time he does something for you (gives you an item, teaches you a skill, etc). The only exception I can think of this is Sima Hui, whose frienship does not go down if he gives you information on a city. 9. While I'm thinking about it, here is a list of what each sage can teach you. This is not a complete list, as it is only what I have personally learned from each while in a game. The sage faq lists some other facts about the sages, but I haven't been able to test them yet. I'm really hesistant to say the sages really frequent any particular areas, as I haven't really looked into it much. I do know, however, that they move around fairly frequently, so it sometimes works to find them by just leaving your city, selecting to move "free" and then looking around for them on the map. Just follow them to a city and you'll be fine. Sima Hui - Will tell you the location of any currently undiscovered officers. Teaches no skills. Mi Heng - Will insult you. If you can learn the TAUNT skill, he will teach you if you can best him in a debate. Cai Yan - Will teach you the debate and domestic skills, if you can learn them. Will also give you the item "Zither." I think this is the only way you can get the item? (It's the only way I've gotten it). Huang Cheng Yan - Will teach you the duel, battle, and tactic skills, if you can learn them. Qiao Xuan - Will teach you HERO. Xu Shao - Will teach you HERO. Zuo Ci - Will teach you WIZARD or TAUNT. Hua Tuo - Will teach you DOCTOR or give you an item that does the same thing.

Yu Ji - Will teach you WIZARD or give you an item that teaches DOCTOR. Guan Lu - Supposedly, will extend your lifespan. I've never had him do this for my character. He also teaches the domestic skills. ***************************************************** VI. The Council The council chamber is the administrative center of the city, from where the prefect assigns commands to his officers or prepares the soldiers for a march. Although all city decisions ultimately come from the prefect, as vassals, officers have the ability to make their own suggestions for policies they wish to enact to the city's benefit. The prefect is more likely to accept the advice of his subordinates if they have already established a strong personal relationship with him. Once a vassal has completed a task (or, alternatively, once he has decided he no longer wishes to fufill a task), he returns to the Council to report his success or failure to the prefect. Successes are rewarded with deeds, and failures are subject to deed penalties. If an officer has produced particularly impressive results, he might be given a reward of gold in addition to deeds. As a prefect, it is important to visit the Council quite frequently to verify the results of your subordinates and assign them new tasks. The following are the commands available at the Council; commands that are in parentheses are those commands a vassal can suggest, whereas commands that are in brackets are those that only a viceroy can request from the ruler: ---------Domestics ---------1. (Farm) - Order an officer/suggest to the prefect that you will improve the city's farmland. The officer carrying out the task receives 100 gold from the city's vaults and has 90 days to report his progress. As the farm value of the city increases, the order of the city will decrease. Computer controlled officers report their progress of this command on the 30th day, unless they have the FARM skill, in which case it usually takes a little longer. 2. (Trade) - Order an officer/suggest to the prefect that you will improve the city's trade rating. The officer carrying out the task receives 100

As

gold from the city's vaults and has 90 days to report his progress.

the trade value of the city increases, the order of the city will decrease. Computer controlled officers report their progress of this command on the 30th day, unless they have the TRADE skill, in which case it usually takes a little longer. 3. (Tech) - Order an officer/suggest to the prefect that you will improve the city's tech rating. The officer carrying out the task receives 100 gold from the city's vaults and has 90 days to report his progress. As the tech value of the city increases, the order of the city will decrease. Computer controlled officers report their progress of this command on the 30th day, unless they have the TECH skill, in which case it usually takes a little longer. 4. (Order) - Order an officer/suggest to the prefect that you will improve the city's order rating. The officer carrying out the task receives 100 gold from the city's vaults and has 90 days to report his progress. Computer controlled officers report their progress of this command on the 30th day, unless they have the ORDER skill, in which case it usually takes a little longer. 5. (Repair) - Order an officer/suggest to the prefect that you will improve the city's defense. The officer carrying out the task receives 100 gold from the city's vaults and has 90 days to report his progress. As the defense of the city increases, the order of the city will decrease. Computer controlled officers report their progress of this command on the 30th day, unless they have the REPAIR skill, in which case it usually takes a little longer. 6. (Expand) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you will expand the scale of the city. An officer can complete this task only if the current tech value of the city has reached the max for its current scale. The acting officer receives exactly as much money as it costs to expand the city: Size S -> Size M - 5,000 gold Size M -> Size L - 10,000 gold Size L -> Size XL - 50,000 gold The acting officer must report his progress within 120 days. I am pretty sure the computer officers report on the 50th. --------Military --------1. (Establish) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you

to

create a new unit. All cities can create the basic units (that is, foot, horse, and bow). Establishing other units requires the appropriate garrison. The officer assigned to the task has 90 days

complete it and receives the exact amount of gold necessary to gather the troops. Computer controlled officers report their results on the 30th day. Below is a list of the different unit costs: Foot - 1000 gold Horse - 1400 gold Bow - 700 gold Savage - 2000 gold Armored - 1200 gold Elephant - 3000 gold Horsebow - 2000 gold 2. (Recruit) - Order an officer to/suggest that to the prefect that you gather soldiers to supplement an existing unit. Adding draftees to an establish unit greatly reduces their skill and morale. The officer assigned to the task has 90 days to complete it and receives from the city's vault exactly as much gold as it costs to hire the soldiers. Computer controlled officers report their successes or failures on the 30th day. Below is a list of the different costs to supplement units: Foot - 500 gold Infantry - 900 gold Sentinel - 1050 gold Qing Elite - 1000 gold Horse - 700 gold Cavalry - 1200 gold Tiger - 1350 gold Horsebow - 1500 gold Bow - 600 gold Crossbow - 700 gold Marksmen - 1200 gold Armored - 900 gold Savage - 1000 gold Elephant - 2000 gold 3. (Drill) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you drill a unit to improve its performance in battle. You can only drill a unit if either its experience or morale is below 100. Units with higher experience inflict more damage and move more frequently when in battle. Officers have 90 days to report their progress when assigned to train the soldiers; computer controlled officers report their results on the 30th day. 4. (Weapon) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you build a

siege weapon for use by a particular unit. One unit can have any or all possible weapons at any given time. Officers are given the exact cost of the weapon when assigned a construction assignment. They must report to the prefect within 90 days; computer officers return on the 30th day. The following are the prices for weapons: Ram - 1000 gold Tower - 1000 gold Catapult - 3000 gold Wood Ox - 1000 gold Juggernaut - 5000 gold 5. (Ship) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you build a when

ship for use by a particular unit. One unit can have both warships and ramships, but will only use the most powerful available ship

in battle. Officers receive the exact cost of the ship when assigned a construction duty. They must report to the prefect within 90 days; computer controlled officers report on the 30th day. The following are costs for ships: Ramship - 1500 gold Warship - 3000 gold -----March -----1. (Battle) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you command a troop to attack an enemy facility or troop. If you are the prefect, you also have the option to control the force yourself. The amount of units any officer can command is relative to their rank. Any units that do not have a commander (ie a subunit of another commander) will be lead by a generic lieutenant with 70% of the orginal commander's abilities. Officers must be currently in the city and not presently assigned to any other task in order to march with the army. Gold is used to build structures at vacant bases on the map. Food (obviously) is used to feed the army in the field. Armies generally march with a 60 day supply of food, unless the units are equipped with wood oxen to store a larger supply. Running out of food, while not a disaster, can cause a problem if there is a probability of a prolonged return march.

2. (Build) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you lead

a at

troop with the express purpose of constructing a structure or maze a base. This follows the same rules as organizing a troop for a battle, except that the target will obviously a base and not an enemy troop or structure.

3. (Transport) - Order supplies and/or units to be transferred from one city to another, or request that your prefect either send units or request some from the district's viceroy. The goods/units transport from one city to another immediately. A viceroy can move supplies freely between cities in his district, whereas a ruler can freely move goods between any city in his force. 4. [(Campaign)] - As a ruler, this command declares a campaign; as any other officer, it puts the request into your ruler to declare such an offensive. Only forces ruled by sovereigns with an imperial rank above Grand General can call for a campaign, and the higher the ruler's rank, the more units he can deploy after calling for the invasion. A viceroy, prefect, or vassal can only recommend a campaign for the area in which their present city is located. See the campaign section for more info. 5. Rogue - Only the ruler of a force can use this command. It immediately disbands the majority of his army, abandons all cities under its control, and brings you to the rogue army commands. There are relatively few ways this command can be useful. Really the only suggestion I have for its use is when your force is about to be invaded and crushed by someone you are sure will execute your officer. It gives you a chance for a safe escape, but at a high fame penalty. -------Tactics -------1. (Inspect) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you inspect another city in an attempt to gain information on it. When accepting such a task, you will have 120 days to fulfill it and will receive 100 gold. Computer officers take more time based on how far away the target city is from their home city. For the most part, officers with the SPY command are superior to those without it, since planting a spy yields information indefinitely.

2. (Agitate) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you spread rumors at an enemy city in order to lower its order. This command is much more successful if your force has already inspected the city. When accepting this task, you receive 100 gold and 120 days to complete it. Computer officers take more time based on how far the city is from their home. Occasionally an officer will do so well at this task that the population of the city will agree to side with your force should you attack. In this case, your commander will be able to use the "riot" skill the next time you engage the city in battle. 3. (Destroy) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you lower an enemy city's defense by destroying the city walls. This command is more successful if your force has already inspected the target city and it has less than ideal order. When accepting this task, you receive 100 gold and 120 days to complete it. Computer officers take more time based on how far the city is from their home. A very useful tactic, especially when used repeatedly on an enemy city that would otherwise prove difficult to conquer. 4. (Rumor) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you spread a rumor intended to cause a rift between a sovereign and one of his subordinates. If successful, the target officer's loyalty will decrease. This command is more successful if your force has already inspected the target city and it has less than ideal order. When accepting this task, you receive 100 gold and 120 days to complete it. Computer officers take more time based on how far the city is from their home. This is a relatively useful tactic (again, used best by several officers en masse) and a good way to set up for ploting a betrayal. 5. (Conspire) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you convince another force's officer to switch to your side upon meeting your force in battle. Best used against officers of low loyalty or of low moral character, this command can really shift the tide of a battle if successful. As an officer, the prefect gives you 120 days to complete the task. The computer control characters take longer to report their progress if the city is farther from their home city. A betrayal plot lasts for 1 year. 6. (Disrupt) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you spread

I

rumors in an attempt to disrupt relations between two enemy forces.

personally haven't had too much success with this command, but imagine it being relatively useful if you send several officers simultaneously to attempt it. Officers receive 100 gold and must report their progress within 120 days to the prefect. Computer officers take longer to fufill the task if they have long distances to travel. --------Personnel --------1. (Search) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you search a specific city for free officers. If the vassal discovers a hidden officer, he will make an attempt to recruit him to your force. If he does not discover an officer, there is still a chance that he will find a small amount of gold. This command is obviously more useful if you know when and where to search for officers. This task has a time limit of 90 days. Computer officers take more time if they have a great distance to travel between the target city and their home city. 2. (Employ) - Order an officer to/suggest to the prefect that you will attempt to hire a free officer or an officer with whom you have in some way become acquainted (this includes those officers you have information on by virture of the "inspect" command). An officer must report his progress within 90 days. A computer controlled officer takes longer if he must travel a great distance to complete the task. 3. Return - Order an officer to stop any attempts to complete his current task and return to his home city. If you are a vassal, you can abandon your current duty by simply reporting to the council chamber, meeting with the prefect, and telling him such. You will, however, suffer a deeds penalty and have to return any money you received to perform the task. If, by some chance, you have lost the money, the prefect will seize your personal gold to make up for the failure. ---------Discipline ---------These commands can only be used by officers of rank Prefect and above. 1. Reward (gold) - reward an officer that currently serves below you with 100 gold. An officer can only use this command once per month. It

costs 100 gold per officer rewarded. will increase.

The target officer's loyalty

2. Award (Item) - reward an officer that currently serves below you with a unique item. Obviously, you must have an item to present to the officer. This will cause the officer's loyalty to your force to increase, and it will also improve your personal relationship with him. Giving an item that meshes well with the officer's interests will increase the effect. 3. Confiscate (Item) - seize an item from an underling. You will personally gain the item, but the officer will dislike you and his loyalty to your force will decrease. 4. Banish (only for use by a sovereign) - fire an officer from your force. He will depart immediately, but will be less likely to join you in the future. This is not a terribly useful command unless you have many high ranking officers of very low ability that are simply draining your force's resources. ------Appoint ------1. Appoint Prefect - appoint a prefect within the district you command. An officer must be of rank 5 or higher in order to be prefect. Generally, the higher the target officer's rank the better, although of course abilities are also important. The district's viceroy will command cities that currently have no prefect. This is generally inefficient, however, since the only officers able to work on the city will have to travel from the district capital to the city and back again for every task. 2. Order transfer - assign vassals from city to city. 3. [(Request transfer)] - Ask the officer to whom you report to be transferred to either another city or district. 4. (Transfer Gov't) - Ask the viceroy or ruler of your district to transfer your prefecture to another city, or, if you are acting as disctrict commander, order such a change. All officers (but, significantly, not units) will be swapped with the officers in the target city. 5. City Policy - Set the policy for an individual city. are the possible city policies:

The following

Domestics - Order the prefect to focus on domestics. You will set goals for individual city values, and the prefect will report upon his attaining of these goals.

Capture City - Order the prefect to capture another city from a

rival

force. Auto - Leave all decisions to the prefect. Wait - Order the prefect to stand by for further orders. honest, I'm not sure what this command does.

To be

-------District -------For the most part, these commands are only for the ruler of a force. 1. Establish - Create a new district to be ruled by a viceroy you appoint. An officer must be of rank 1 or 2 and hold the rank of prefect in order to qualify for the position of viceroy. 2. [Edit] - Change the cities currently in a district. A viceroy can only directly make changes to his own district. Of course, adding cities to your own district will remove them from others and vice versa. 3. Policy - Set or change the policy of a district. the possible policies for a district:

The following are

Conquer Area - Conquer the cities in one of the large areas of the map. Conquer Province - Focus on capturing the cities of a particular province. Territorial Defense - Defend a particular region from the enemy. Territorial Development - Focus on domestics within the region. Auto - Leave the decision up to the viceroy. -----------------------------Some Tips for Council Commands -----------------------------1. As a prefect, viceroy, or ruler, it is very important to periodically visit your council to collect the reports of your vassals and to assign them new tasks. Frequently, this will mean that your officer of rank prefect or higher will be essentially tied to the city in his command. Whenever possible, I have tried to indicate how long computer officers take to complete tasks so that it is possible to know how long you have to do other things around the city before you return to the council. 2. Assign officers to taks at which they are likely to excel. It is pointless to have Yan Jun, for example, attempt to repair the city walls,

as he takes the same amount of money as Guan Yu but returns 1/100th of the investment. Generally, if an officer has a particular domestic skill, it is better to assign him to that task than others. 3. When attempting tactics on an enemy city, it is a good idea to bum rush the city with plotting officers. For example, first send a spy to the target city. After that officer returns, send a bunch of officers to agitate the city and another bunch to destroy the city walls a day later. The first bunch of officers will greatly lower the city's order, and the second bunch will ruin the walls, as the city will be vulnerable due to its lower order rating. Repeat several times, and you can have the walls crumbling before you even lose a soldier. 4. A similar tactic works with betrayals. Just send the second group of officers to spread rumors about an officer, watch his loyalty plummet, and then send an officer to hire him. 5. Call campaigns only when you have a solid numerical advantage on the enemy in a region. Campaigns are generally just slugfests between soldiers, so if you have a strong advantage in numbers you can gain several cities in very little time. 6. Once a unit has high experience, only use officers with the HIRE skill to supplement their numbers. This will reduce the drop in experience and morale that is inevitable when drafting soldiers to veteran units. 7. Unless you are playing in scenario 9, hiring officers is generally the number one priority for your government. Always check to see if there are free officers for hire when you are in the council, and, if there are, send officers to hire them as soon as possible. Even officers of very little skill can serve as backwater prefects, building a powerful reserve army if you are to need it. 8. Don't be afraid to experiment a little with prefects. Some officers simply don't do very well in the position; if one guy can't get the job done, just replace him with someone else. The same goes with viceroys, but given the rather strict rank requirements, you're probably going to have less room with which to work here. 9. Build siege weapons for your units whenever possible. Catapults, towers, and rams all make it much, much easier to invade enemy cities than simply throwing lives away at the gates. 10. If you are fighting with an enemy force, send spies to every city he controls. This will give you permanent warnings every time he sends a

troop into the field. This works even better if you have complete information in the city, because you'll even know where the troops are headed. ***************************************************** VII. Battles and Units Depending on your style of play, your character's rank, and your abilities, the frequency of battles will vary greatly. Regardless of these factors, however, battles will be where you either prove great worth to your force or horribly embarrass both yourself and your leige. Battles commence when two troops of rival forces meet either in the field or at a city. There are three basic types of troop to troop fighting: castle siege, townsquare siege, and field. Before I move to these topics, however, a word or two about units is in order. ----------Unit Basics ----------Every army, be it in marching in the field, constructing an outpost, or fighting in a battle, is divisible into smaller groups called units. Any individual unit can have no more than 10,000 soliders and is led by a single commander. Of course, this commander ultimately responds to the overall commander of the troop, but his soldiers are immediately responsible for following the orders given on the unit level. If there are more units than commanders, individual commanders can lead several units in battle at once. Since the commander can only be in one place at one time, however, any further units under his command will directly respond to a lieutenant with abilities that are 70% of the main unit's commander. Such units are called "subunits" and are essentially a requirement in larger troops, given the low officer maximum. Subunit commanders cannot use any tactics besides extinguish. Below is a sample troop: Overall Officer Officer Officer Officer

Troop Commander: Cao Ren (Rank 1) 1: Man Chong (Rank 4) 2: Pang De (Rank 7) 3: Sima Yi (Rank 2) 4: Dian Man (Rank 9)

Unit Breakdown: Cao Ren Main Unit: Crossbow, 10,000 Troops

Sub 1: Foot, 10,000 Troops (70% of Cao Ren's abilities) Sub 2: Horse, 10,000 Troops (70% of Cao Ren's abilities) Sub 3: Bow, 10,000 Troops (70% of Cao Ren's abilities) Man Chong Main Unit: Infantry, 10,000 Troops Pang De Main Unit: Cavalry, 10,000 Troops Sima Yi Main Unit: Crossbow, 10,000 Troops Sub 1: Foot, 10,000 Troops (70% of Sima Yi's abilities) Sub 2: Horse, 10,000 Troops (70% of Sima Yi's abilities) Dian Man Main Unit: Infantry, 10,000 Troops Note that the entire troop's combined strength is 100,000 soldiers, which is the largest possible total for a single group. Had Cao Ren been of a lower rank, fewer units would be able to be under his command, and therefore fewer could march at once. If either Sima Yi or Cao Ren were to have their entire main unit defeated, there is a decent chance they would escape to one of their subunits. In this case, the lieutenant would no longer command the unit. There are three general types of units: horse, foot, and bow. Each unit variety is strong against one type but weak against the other: Foot soldiers are strong against bow, but weak against Horse. Horse soldiers are strong aginst foot, but weak against Bow. Bow soldiers are strong against horse, but weak against Foot. If fighting in melee with horse, the two are roughly equal. Although it depends on the situation, it is generally better to have a mix of all three types of units in any troop. It is almost never a good idea to march with a single type of soldier as it makes your army very one dimensional. -----Units -----The following are the units and weapons available for use in battle, along with my commentary on their usefulness. For the attack and defense ratings, I used the values given in the manual. These ratings are not perfect. Keep in mind that your officer's abilities and the unit's experience rating generally have more of an effect on overall performance than these values.

Basic Units ----------NAME: Foot REQUIREMENTS: Essentially none ATTACK: C DEFENSE: C RATING: Of the generic units, foot are probably the most useful, especially if they are armed with a tower. Excellent in castle sieges for their ability to climb walls, foot soldiers generally form the backbone of any army. NAME: Infantry REQUIREMENTS: A foot unit with 300 or more experience and a Foot Garrison ATTACK: B DEFENSE: C RATING: A stronger and better version of foot soldiers. Again, a good unit. NAME: Sentinel REQUIREMENTS: An infantry unit with 500 or more experience, a Foot Garrison, and a Foundry. ATTACK: B DEFENSE: B RATING: A very powerful cousin of the foot unit, Sentinels can do some real damage to the enemy. A very good unit, but it can be tricky to raise a unit's experience to this level and then find the correct facilities. NAME: Horse REQUIREMENTS: Essentially none ATTACK: B DEFENSE: C RATING: Of the three basic troops, these are probably the least useful. Most battles are fought as sieges, and horses really excel at field battles. They can't scale walls either, which make them easy targets for bow soldiers stationed atop the city's walls. NAME: Cavalry REQUIREMENTS: A horse unit with 300 experience and a Horse Garrison ATTACK: A DEFENSE: C RATING: Stronger than a regular horse unit, but still quite vulnerable to archers. NAME: Tiger REQUIREMENTS: A cavalry unit with 500 or more experience, a Horse Garrison, and a Foundry. ATTACK: A DEFENSE: B

RATING: Very powerful in the field, but, again, not as useful in a siege. NAME: Bow REQUIREMENTS: Essentially none. ATTACK: C DEFENSE: C RATING: Great for siege defenses and still reasonably useful in the field, bow units make mincemeat out of horse units and, unlike foot units, don't need a tower to reach their maximum effectiveness. When coupled with a commander with the MISSLE skill, bow units are very effective units. NAME: Crossbow REQUIREMENTS: A bow unit with 300 or more experience and a Bow Garrison. ATTACK: B DEFENSE: C RATING: These units pack a little more punch than a regular bow group. It is also slightly easier to upgrade bow unit types, since their long distance attacks make them less vulnerable to enemy attacks. NAME: Marksmen REQUIREMENTS: A crossbow unit with 500 or more experience, a Bow Garrison, and a Foundry. ATTACK: B DEFENSE: C RATING: Definitely, without a doubt, the best unit in the game. Marksmen units have a huge range and, when attacking a distant unit, will also hit every enemy unit in between themselves and their target. This applies even if the unit is assembled into a tower. If there are three units between you and your target and you have 10 arrow attacks, you will therefore have 40 attacks for the price of 10. When attacking, marksmen can also damage a unit that is hiding behind a gate. An amazing unit. Special Units ------------NAME: Savage REQUIREMENTS: A Savage Garrison ATTACK: B DEFENSE: C RATING: For the most part, savages are better versions of infantry. They have roughly the same strength and can move quickly through swamps and forests. The only potential problem is that they cannot be upgraded. Still, these are good units, and they don't require any experience to make. NAME: Armored REQUIREMENTS: An Armored Garrison ATTACK: C DEFENSE: A

RATING: Ehhh....I don't really like these guys too much. On the plus side, they are ridiculously strong against arrow attacks, which makes them good for sieges. On the other hand, they are laughably weak against fire attacks, and the computer knows it. A single fire attack can do more than 1500 damage, and the computer will attempt to torch an armored unit 2 or 3 times a turn. In most cases, I feel more secure with savages. NAME: Qing Elite REQUIREMENTS: Play as Cao Cao. You will either start with some or you can get some from the event where he defeats the yellow turban rebels in Pu Yang. ATTACK: A DEFENSE: B RATING: Very powerful, but very hard to get. In rare circumstances, you can capture them from the enemy, but, for the most part, you won't be using these guys very much unless you like playing as part of Cao Cao's force. NAME: Horsebow REQUIREMENTS: A Horsebow Garrison. ATTACK: A DEFENSE: C RATING: A very good combination of both horse and bow units, although they are still weak against arrows. That aside, these units can be amongst the most powerful and useful. NAME: Elephants REQUIREMENTS: An Elephant Garrison ATTACK: S (A+) DEFENSE: C RATING: Elephants really aren't that good. Like the horse units, elephants are very weak against arrows. They are also weak against fire, and any elephant unit that ends a day on fire will go crazy and attack at random (even its allies). On top of this, the unit will be very vulnerable to confusion tactics or duel requests. They are powerful against walls and the council chamber, but so are siege weapons. Siege Weapons ------------Assembling a weapon costs 10 mobility points. NAME: Ram REQUIREMENTS: A machine yard, and, of course, equipping RATING: Nothing destroys a gate faster than a ram. The however, is that they are completely defenseless against units. if a unit is stationed in the gate, it will do a good deal against

a unit with it. problem, This means that of damage

you if you are assembled in this formation. weapons, I use rams the least.

Of the three basic siege

NAME: Tower REQUIREMENTS: A machine yard and a unit equipped with the tower. RATING: Very useful, whether for attack or defense. Although towers are relatively useful against gates, their forte really is attacking units. When assembled in tower formation, any unit can launch bow attacks for a meager 3 action points per attack. When coupled with marksmen units, towers are extremely powerful. They are also very useful for defense, as you can assemble them on the walls and rain arrows down on the attackers. NAME: Catapult REQUIREMENTS: A machine yard and a unit eqipped with the weapon. RATING: Incredibly useful when attacking a city, catapults are much less useful when defending or fighting in the field. These weapons allow you to launch rocks from long distances to destroy enemy structures or units. They allow many units to attack the same structure at once and are perhaps most useful when attacking the enemy council chamber, as the defenders will be hard pressed to keep your army out of catapult range. NAME: Juggernaut REQUIREMENTS: A machine yard, a foundry, and equipping a unit with the weapon. RATING: Not terribly useful for siege battles, but a viable option in the field. Juggernauts shoot a straight line of fire that can pass through several units at a time, but suffers from the fact that they can only be constructed in Jiang Zhou. Obviously, these units are better against units that are weak against flames (armored and elephant units). Ships ----NAME: Ship REQUIREMENTS: None. Every unit is automatically equipped with ships. RATING: With low defense and low attack, you are much better off landing before engaging the enemy. These generic ships don't hold up very well against either ramships or warships. NAME: Ramship REQUIREMENTS: A shipyard and a properly equipped unit. RATING: A stronger version of ship, ramships are still not terribly powerful. Has a marginally lower chance of being swept away in the current. NAME: Warship REQUIREMENTS: A shipyard, a foundry, and a properly equipped unit. RATING: A stronger version of a ramship that also allows any unit to fire arrows while on the water. Warships are also noticeably less likely to be taken away by the current.

------------------Your Unit in Battle ------------------When fighting in a battle, your rank determines how many units over which you will have direct command. Regardless of this, however, you will always control your own main unit, as well as any subunits that are under your immediate command. If you are a prefect, you will command any vassals that report directly to you as well. When a viceroy, you will command your direct report vassals as well as any reinforcements sent to you from a city within your own district. A ruler can command any unit in his force. Generally, your officer's abilities and skills determine which actions he can use at any given time in battle. Progression moves by day, with every unit involved in the battle gaining a certain amount of attack points per day. When these points reach 1000, that unit will be able to act. The amount of attack points a unit receives per day is an amalgamation of its commander's INT and LDR, its experience, and its morale. Units lose attack points when victim of the scare tactic. On screen, the next five units to act are numbered 1-5. A unit that has its morale fall to 0 will not issue any more commands until another unit uses the rally command on it to raise its morale. Until this happens, the unit will beeline for the battlefield's edge, ignoring orders until it retreats. When it is a unit's turn to act, a list of commands will be displayed. Any command given to the unit costs action points, of which the commanding officer's INT and LDR also determine. The maximum action points any unit can have at any given time is 40, a total that the commander can reach by banking unused points from prior turns with the wait command. Any attack commands that the commander has available (ie charge, unison, etc) are immediately available from the main battle commands. Any multipliers indicate how many times the unit can afford to carry out that attack based on the number of action points it currently has. Although many of the attack commands are self explanatory, some of the tactics are not. Below I list the tactics that are available from the

tactics menu (listed alphabetically): Bear in mind also that subunits can only use the extinguish command. 1. Ambush (6 points) - Hide your unit in a forest. You will automatically attack any enemy unit that crosses your path, uncovering your unit and dealing heavy damage. While hidden, you can move normally and even taunt the enemy with the entice tactic, but if you leave the woods or the enemy attacks you with arrow you will have to abandon the ambush. Elephants cannot lay an ambush for obvious reasons. 2. Blunder (8 points, BLUNDER skill) - Trick an adjacent enemy unit to attack an enemy unit adjacent to it. Best used when protected by the castle, this tactic allows you to deal great damage on two enemy units without taking any damage yourself. The higher your officer's INT is in comparison to the target, the greater your chances of success. If the target unit is either enticed or confused, you are almost guaranteed success. 3. Boulder - (8 points, GEOMANCY skill) - Roll boulders towards an enemy unit, in an attempt to crush their soldiers. A VERY risky command, as it is very hard to tell which way the boulder will travel once released. The farther the stones roll before they hit the target, the more damage they will do (I've seen it kill or wound 5000 men in a single hit...of course this was when I accidentally hit one of my own units). You cannot use this tactic if adjacent to an enemy unit. It also requires that you are on "rocky" terrain. Generally, boulders roll downhill, but it is still hard to gauge where they will ultimately come to rest. Be careful with this one. 4. Collude (12 points, commander only, requires an officer to trick the population to have arranged for a citizen's revolt prior to the invasion with the agitate ploy) - Ask the local people to uphold their promise to support your invasion of the city. They will set fire to all the gates and lower their defense. This can only be used once per battle. 5. Confuse (12 points, CONFUSE skill) - Throw an enemy unit into confusion, which prevents it from acting for several days. The higher the acting officer's INT compared to the target, the greater the

fall

chance for success.

Units that have been enticed almost always

into confusion when targets of this command. 6. Defect (6 points, commander only) - Ask an officer with whom you previously established a pact to betray his ruler to fufill his promise and switch sides. This, of course, requires that you create such a pact prior to the battle. Enemy commanders cannot switch sides in this manner. 7. Entice (10 points, ENTICE skill) - Taunt an enemy officer to the point where he loses control of his unit out of fury. The higher the acting officer's INT in comparison to the target unit's commander, the greater the chance this tactic has of meeting success. Commanders that are also notoriously temperamental will be more likely to fall victim to such a plot. A good command to use to set up either the surprise or confuse tactics. 8. Fire (6 points) - Set a fire on an adjacent square. in the direction of the wind.

Fires spread

9. Lightning (18 points, AEROMANCY and WIZARD skills) - Command lightning bolts to fall from the sky. The only catch is that you can't command where they strike, and there is a chance they will hit your own units. This command requires the weather to be "rain." 9. Pit (6 points, GEOMANCY skill, 200 gold) - Dig a pit on your current position. Pits do not hurt friendly units. You will know where the pit is by a yellow exclamation mark that denotes its location. Enemy units that fall into the pit will suffer heavy casualties (about 15% of their soldiers). There is also a chance that the unit will become confused or that the commander will suffer an injury, lowering his abilities. 10. Rally (6 points, RALLY skill) - Raise your the morale of your unit as well as any adjacent friendly units. 11. Revive (6 points, DOCTOR skill) - Heal about 600 wounded soldiers from either your unit or a friendly unit adjacent to yours. Obviously, the target unit must have some injured men. 12. Scare (10 points, STUN skill) - Attempt to scare the commander of an adjacent enemy unit. If successful, the target unit's attack points will decline dramatically, delaying its turn. Officers who are notoriously cowardly are more likely to be scared by your

threats.

effect

The acting officer's WAR ability likely also has an

upon the results, but I am less sure about this. Unless you are reasonably confident in your success, this command is only useful in a select few situations. 13. Settle (4 points, SETTLE skill) - Attempt to calm an adjacent friendly unit that is either confused or enticed. The higher the acting officer's INT the higher the chance of success. 14. Sneak (doubles points required for movement, DISTRACT skill) - To

be

honest, I've never seen this skill used effectively. I am reasonably certain, however, that it makes the acting unit immune to

ambushes. It is difficult to test this because the computer very, very rarely uses the ambush tactic. Don't use this command.

15. Surprise (12 points, SURPRISE skill) - Detach a small unit to launch a surprise raid on an enemy unit. The target can be pretty much anywhere on the battlefield. The weather conditions must be either rain, fog, or snow. It is generally only a good idea to use this on units that are enticed or confused, because a failed raid will mean heavy casualties for the acting unit. 16. Weather (10 points, AEROMANCY skill) - Attempt to change the weather. Higher INT means a higher chance for success. 17. Wind (8 points, AEROMANCY skill) - Attempt to change the direction of when

the wind.

Higher INT means a higher chance for success.

Useful

using fire to attack the enemy.

Finally, and of particular note, the retreat command is only available when a unit is stationed on the edge of the battlefield. The manual makes the claim that if a commander's main unit retreats from the battle, his sub unit is also routed. This isn't accurate. If a commander's main unit retreats, he will be given the option to switch his command to one of his subunits or to also have it retreat. -------------Battle Basics -------------As I mentioned earlier, there are three different types of battles in Romance 10. I will outline the three types below and offer some general commentary. Field Battle

-----------In some ways, field battles are the most basic engagements in which you can engage your officer. There are no structures that the attackers are obligated to destroy, and really the only goal is to destroy the other commander's troop. For the sake of technicality, however, there is still an "attacker" and a "defender." In cases where the battle is fought at a base, the defending army belongs to the force that owns the structure; otherwise, the force that marched first is the attacker. Because there is no obligation to destroy a particular structure to bind the attacker, there is little use for rams or catapults in these types of battles. Also, because there are no walls to check their advance, horse type units are generally more valuable in the field, as are units equipped with ram- or warships. There really are only two ways to achieve victory in the field. The first, and most common way, is to either rout or force into withdrawal every enemy unit. The second, somewhat more difficult way, is to capture the enemy commander, which will immediately rout the remaining soldiers. These victory conditions apply to both the attacker and the defender. The defender will also win if the 30 day limit expires. This seems stupid to me, since in a field battle this is really an artificial distinction. Castle Sieges ------------I would estimate that about 80% of all battles are castle sieges. This type of engagement puts pressure on the attackers, because they have to actively destroy the defense of the city. The single biggest difference between a castle siege is (not surprisingly) the large castle walls that prevent the attackers from reaching the main gate of the city. Generally, cities have several other gates that prevent movement towards the main gate of the city. The attacking army will have to either destroy these subgates on their way to the main gate or attempt to have their infantry and bow units scale the walls of the castle. Horse units are at a substantial disadvantage in a siege battle, especially for the attackers. As these units lack the ability to climb walls, horse troops have a tendency to get bottlenecked in front of gates, where they are easy pickings for the defending archers. Conversely, the value of infantry and archer unit types is greater in a siege, as they have the

ability to scale walls and rush the main gate. Note that the attacking army has a substantial chance of failing when attempting to climb walls, whereas the defending army will always succeed. Obviously, siege weapons are also valuable when attacking a castle. If used correctly, rams can destroy gates within several turns. Catapults, when used in tandem, can also quickly reduce the walls to rubble. Towers are usually best used focusing on the defending archers in an attempt to reduce casualties, but can also do some damage to gates. When defending, archers or foot units equipped with towers are generally the best defense. Powerful, high experienced horse units can also defend a gate quite well, especially if the opposing army is using foot units to attack the gate. The attackers win the battle outright and gain control of the city if they capture the city's prefect. If they breach the main gate or destroy all of the prefect's directly commanded units, the battle proceeds to a townsquare siege, unless the defending prefect desides to abandon the city. The defenders win if the attackers cannot meet any of these conditions within 30 days, if they capture the enemy's troop commander, or if they destroy all of the attacker's troop commander's directly controlled units. -----------------------Battle in the Townsquare -----------------------Fighting inside the town is the last chance for the defending army to make a stand against the attacking army. Unlike a castle siege, there are no walls to impede the progress of the attacking army, only houses and other civilian structures. For this reason, horse units once again become valuable, to the detriment of any foot units. The attacking army's main goal is to destroy the enemy council chamber. There are no gates to protect it, so it is possible to simply bum rush it with several units. The defenders must prevent this for 30 days or destroy the opposing army. When fighting in a town, nothing is more useful than a catapult. Capable of destroying the council from a great distance, even a numerically disadvantaged attacking force can win the day with relative ease if equipped with these weapons. Rams are not terribly effective, since the defenders will more than likely attempt to surround the council in an attempt to prevent a bum rush. Towers are relatively effective against the council,

especially if the unit's commander has the MISSLE skill. The attackers seize the city if they manage to destroy the council chamber, capture the enemy prefect, or destroy all his directly commanded units. The defenders will win if they capture the attacker's troop commander or destroy all his units. -------------------Some tips on battles -------------------1. Be careful when moving on water near the edges of the map. If a unit whose commander does not have the ADMIRAL skill moves while in a ship, there is a reasonably high chance that the current will whisk his unit away out of his control. If this happens in such a way that it removes him from the battlefield, his unit will no longer be able to participate in the engagement. 2. When attacking, it is often a good idea to soften the target city's defenses by sending several officers to destroy the gates. Without siege weapons it is difficult to destroy all the gates of a city in one shot. 3. Always, always, always bring a variety of units into battle. army is at a severe disadvantage if they are one dimensional.

Any

4. Abuse of the direct command can lead to easy victories. Bring several officers with the WARLORD skill and have them all direct a unit that is adjacent to the gate. This will quickly allow you to breach the city. 5. The computer AI does not function very well in fog. To take advantage of this in a siege battle, use the AERO skill to change the weather to fog, then have a foot unit climb the city's walls and move towards the main gate. Assemble a ram, and go to town. The defending army will not notice their gate being destroyed until the fog lifts. This is especially effective (or lame, depending on your opinion) if you use number 4 above. 6. Whether you are attacking or defending, marksmen units equipped with towers are your friend. The splash damage will literally rip the opposing army to shreds. 7. Make good use of the entice command. It may use a lot of action points, but it is very effective to disrupt an enemy unit and then confuse them. 8. Remember that when judging prisoners executing officers will make all

of his relations declare you a nemesis. If you are a powerful officer, this is hardly a problem, but it could make your life very difficult as a civil officer if enemy officers continue to try to duel you to death. ***************************************************** VIII. Campaigns My one significant gripe with Romance 10 is the campaign system. Simply put, there really isn't that much to them. Gameplay in campaigns seems to me to essentially mimic that of Romance 2, just on a larger scale and without terrain effects. Personal thoughts aside, campaigns are huge battles that are fought for an entire region, rather than a single city. A campaign comes about when one force declares their intention to seize an entire area. At this point, every other force either agrees to support the declaring force or to oppose it. Obviously, forces with whom the declaring force enjoys good relations are more likely to support it. The forces who side with the declaring force and the original army are together called the "proponent" (a poor translation) forces, and those opposed are called the "opposition." A campaign ends when either the proponent forces conquer the region, retreat, loses its commander's unit, or loses a city it orginally held at the start of the campaign (which makes no sense). The only way the proponent side wins is if they conquer all the cities in the region; otherwise, they lose. While in a campaign, non-city facilities become extremely important, because they allow a unit to resupply. As units run out of food, their morale begins to dramatically decrease, so it is important to keep an eye on each troop's supply. If you have many different troops, it is a reality that some will not always be supplied, as there are rarely enough bases or cities to meet the demand. When opposing troops meet in the field, they clash and both sides lose some soldiers. When a troop runs out of soldiers, it is removed from the battlefield. -------Tactics -------Each unit also has a set number of tactic points, which are used to attempt different ploys against the enemy force. Every turn a unit spends

resting in a non-maze facility, it regains one point towards its maximum. The following are the available tactics and their costs; if a skill is also listed, one officer in the troop must have the skill for it to be available: 1. Ambush (2 points) - Very similar to the ambush command in regular battles, except that if your unit moves it will abandon the ambush. Any unit that stumbles into the ambush will suffer heavy casualties and has a chance of being confused. This command is infinitely more useful if you are part of the opposition, since computer opposition forces tend to remain in cities, where they can't use the command. 2. Calm (2 points, SETTLE skill) - Takes a unit out of confused status. 3. Discourage (3 points, CONFUSE skill) - Attempt to lower the morale of

an enemy unit. This is essentially useless; I don't notice much of a difference between a troop fighting with 150 morale and one fighting with 0. Also, morale increases every turn the unit is supplied anyway. 4. Distract (4 points, DISTRACT skill) - Attempt to change the status of

the unit to "distract," which I can only assume is another mistranslation. It prevents your unit from attacking or being attacked. The only conceiveable way I can imagine this being useful is if you need to sneak past an enemy troop to reach an undefended city. 5. Encourage (2 points, RALLY skill) - Attempt to raise the morale of

an

allied unit. a

Again, this is essentially useless.

6. Lure (5 points, ENTICE skill) - Attempt to lure an enemy troop into

the

nearby unit or base.

Again, not very useful, especially because

effect wears off if the lured unit runs into an opposing army. 7. Maze (1 point, MAZE skill) - Build a maze on a base. confuses any enemy unit that moves through it.

A maze

8. Mislead (4 points) - Attempt to lower an enemy unit's attack power. This is somewhat useful, in that you might actually notice a difference when using it. 9. Raid (4 points, SURPRISE skill) - Essentially the same as the surprise tactic in battle; I've never seen it work. It might be practical against a confused unit. 10. Rouse (3 points) - The opposite of the mislead tactic, this raises the attack ability of the acting unit. The effect is relatively

powerful, and this is probably one of the better campaign tactics. 11. Sabotage (3 points) - Attempt to lower a non adjacent enemy city's defense. This seriously almost never works. I could only conceive of it being useful if you are part of the opposition and really need to seize a city to end the campaign. 12. Stun (4 points, STUN skill) - Attempt to reduce the movement of an enemy troop. Not useful. You might notice that many of these tactics are not very useful. Most simply aren't. In every campaign I've seen, the side with the most soldiers has won. ----------------------------Some Tips Regarding Campaigns ----------------------------1. Really, the only time I use a campaign is when I have a substantial numerical advantage over my opponent and I need to quickly take an entire region. Campaigns are not terribly useful if there are many forces in an area, because it is sometimes difficult to judge with which side a third party will fight. 2. It is a good idea to put officers with familial relations into the same troops during campaigns. If two officers within the troop are related, there is a reasonably high chance that the unit will score a critical hit when it attacks. Sometimes, these critical hits will confuse the target unit. ***************************************************** IX. FAQs Q: How do I unlock multiplayer? A: There is no multiplayer. KOEI accidentally advertised the game as being 1-8 players, but this is a mistake. They have since issued an apology. I do not know if the second wave of games still has the mistake on box, but I bought the game the day it came out and my box has the 1-8 player claim on it. Q: I've heard you can select skills for your created characters, but how do you unlock it? A: You need to play end a game where your character has learned 30 skills.

Note that I say "learn" not "has." You need to actively learn the 30 skills in one playthrough then either die or unify China. Q: What's a good way to learn the 30 skills? A: Create a character with abilities all at 100 and 500 fame. Domestic skills and tactics are ridiculously easy to learn. Attain the rank of prefect, then withdraw a ton of money from your vault, continually work at facilities with 500 gold for 10 days and you'll be able to learn the skills within a few months. This works even better if you then resign as prefect and get hired by another force as an officer, because you will gain fame at the same time. Remember to get 400 experience in everything, as other skills require higher amounts of experience. For the tactic skills, repeatedly use the agitate command at an enemy city until you have 700 tactics experience. You will auto learn WARLORD. You will need to be assigned the task first. For the duel skils, repeatedly duel the guards of enemy cities until you win 30 in a row. At this point, you should have more than 700 fame. If not, do requests (preferably drinking contests) until you do. You will auto learn HOST. Learn the HERO skill from either Qiao Xuan or Xu Shao. Repeatedly debate enemy guards until you win 30 debates in a row. This is a little trickier. I'd recommend you learn one tactic at a time so that you have a higher chance of not breaking your streak. It is not essential to learn TAUNT but every skill helps. At this point, you will have whether or not you got every battles and learn the attack game normally, or try to get by a nemesis.

learned about 26 tactics, depending on skill above. Simply fight in some skills. You could then just finish the your officer executed by getting captured

Q: How can I get my character married? A: The short answer is, you can't. If you create a female character, you can set her as your wife, but she won't stick around your house as she will be another officer. Some chracters have NPC wives. These characters are: Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Yuan Xi, Cao Pi and Sun Jian. There may be more, but these are the only ones that I know off the top of my head. Q: Why are my computer controlled prefects so bad? when

They always lose

they get attacked! A: Prefect AI in this game generally leaves something to be desired. Part of the problem is that when simulating a battle, the computer puts a heavy emphasis on the defense of the defending city. As the simulation progresses, both troop numbers and the city's defense will decrease. Nine times out of ten, however, the city's defense hits 0 well before either side is out of troops. It's possible to lose cities with 200,000 troops this way. There's no perfect solution. Whenever I take a city, I make sure to max out its defense first. A city with max defense and an army relatively equal to that of the attackers will usually sustain at least one attack before you'd absolutely need to rescue it personally. If I can't be at the city myself to improve its defense, I'll usually set the prefect's orders to "Auto," as this seems to force him to improve the city's defense the most quickly. I have also experimented with setting the city policy to domestics and only selecting defense, but this really doesn't work at all. Once the city's defense is maxed, then I'll switch the policy to conquer another city. Also, make sure that you have prefects of relatively high rank. Mediocre officers like Yuan Xi can be better prefects than Guan Yu if their rank is substantially higher. I try to keep officers I want to be prefects close to my ruler or viceroy until they are to class 3, so that I can force them to do tasks that reward a lot of deeds. Class 5 prefects are usually at a disadvantage as they can only march with 6 units at a time. Q: I just won 5 battles in a row! Why is the morale of my soldiers so low? A: Every time your troop enters a battle, the troops become a little fatigued. At first, there is no effect, but as subsequent battles come and go, your men will become increasingly tired. The only solution to this is to return to your base and give your men a rest. If their morale dropped substantially, you will likely need to run some drills to restore it. Q: I captured the Han Emperor.

What should I do with him?

A: Generally, it is better to protect the emperor than to depose him. Supporting the emperor increases the loyalty of your followers and makes the other forces more willing to support you through diplomacy. Dethroning the emperor makes the loyalty of your officers go down and also

makes the forces more hostile towards you. For the most part, you should only do this if you have some kind of grudge against the emperor or for one reason or another you want the other rulers to attack you. Q: How do I get X event? A: Email me and I will try to help you. I have not gotten some of the events. You could also try the Romance 10 gamefaqs message board. Q: Which officers have wives? A: See the Appendix below. ***************************************************** X. Appendices A. Famous Wife List 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Liu Bei - Mistress Mi/Sun Shang Xiang Cao Cao - Mistress Zhen Zhang Fei - Mistress Xiahou Zhuge Liang - Yue Ying Zhang Ji - Mistress Zuo Lu Bu - Diao Chan (with Dong Zhuo in some scenarios) Sun Ce - Da Qiao Zhou Yu - Xiao Qiao Sun Jian - Wu Guo Tai Meng Huo - Zhu Rong

*Note that the only playable famous wife is Zhu Rong. **Also note that I looked these up in the "Heroes Across Time" scenario, and that some of these are time sensitive. ***************************************************** XI. Credits Thanks to the following people: KOEI, for releasing the game in the US. Nicole Xhilone (pronounced X-Ill-On) for reading this guide throughout its various permutations and being generally supportive (she's cute too). Flamingllama32 for his guides on units/weapons and the sages. I consulted both while writing this guide. They are also posted on GameFAQs. Wendy "action" Jackson for reading this guide and reminding me how wishy washy my writing (only my writing?) can be. Thank you for taking the time to read this guide.

***************************************************** XII. Legal This guide is copyright 2005,2006 by Greg Hartman. As of 7/26/06, the following sites may post this guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com http://www.cheatcc.com http://www.supercheats.com http://www.gameplayworld.com If you are interested in posting this guide on your website, contact me and I will entertain your request. It is illegal to post this guide without the permission of the author, and only a jerk would do so.