Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided — Liu Yan and Liu Zhang guide

The 190 CE campaign – Unlocking more Aspirations and obtaining more heirs as Dong Zhuo’s vassal

I actually had a different Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided guide in mind when I originally picked Liu Yan for the 190 CE start date. It involved getting Ma Chao and making him my heir, all while amassing Aspiration Points. I still had 23 turns until “Timely Inheritance” (195 CE) becomes null and void anyway. However, after a few discussions, Redditor u/mydarkesthorse suggested that I should try making Liu Yan one of Dong Zhuo’s vassals.

The first couple of turns

You’ll probably ignore your court for now. If you do unlock an administrator slot later, make sure you pick an officer with +industry/commerce for Shu. As for assignments, choose “Reward the Filial & Incorrupt”

Regarding your military, make Liu Zhang the army leader and pounce on Jia Long. Try to capture a strategist named Zhao Wei since he has fire arrows and is close to unlocking +commerce/industry perks. Go conquer Jia Long’s city to complete a mission (+5,000 gold).

Note: Try to amass a lot of Aspiration Points by enabling several Tradeoffs. Still, do beware of negative effects to your income and officer loyalty.

Becoming Dong Zhuo’s vassal and earning some gold

Okay, so, because of Liu Yan’s location in the 190 CE start date, there are only a few factions you can interact with. However, you can go ahead and tell Dong Zhuo that you’d like to be his vassal (ask for some GPT too). Doing so will reveal most of the campaign map in Total War: Three Kingdoms, allowing you to complete “Worldwide Contacts.”

Since you’re a vassal, you can’t easily declare war on the Nanman (even Dong Zhuo will be against this). But, you can ask to aid him in his wars. You can gain some extra gold/GPT as well.

For your targets, pick the Yellow Turban factions (i.e., Yellow Turban Rebellion, Huang Shao, He Yi, Liu Yu, and your neighbor Gong Du). Although a majority of the Han factions are at war with the Big Dong, they still hate the Yellow Turbans anyway. Plus, since most of the rebels, barring Gong Du, are further away, it’s unlikely that they’ll march to Chengdu.

The crux of the plan: Marriage-divorce strategy

• Court: There should be an officer named Miao Wanwan. Go recruit her.
• Han Sui: Use the “Receive Marriage” option to get Liu Zhang and Han Anyue married.

These two seem to be related and, by virtue of that marriage, Miao Wanwan is now considered a distant relative. You should be able to propose marriages to other lords for unique characters and those with the “Brilliant” trait. These officers are eligible as heirs due to their marriage to Miao Wanwan (or any relative).

• Cao Cao – Cao Ren
• Yuan Shao – Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang (additional notes below)
• Sun Jian – Sun Ce (additional notes below)
• Ma Teng – Ma Chao (turn 10-12)
• Yan Baihu – Yan Yu

Update: In the live/release build, it seems Miao Wanwan no longer appears in your court. If that’s the case, you can divorce Liu Yan’s wife and she’ll still count as a relative.

Divorcing an officer costs 1,000 gold, so make sure you still have that amount when you start your turn. Likewise, an officer can be married, divorced, and remarried all on the same turn (but you can’t divorce twice on the same turn). Likewise, you can’t remarry an ex-husband or ex-wife.

Moreover, remember that divorcing someone will take a toll on your diplomatic relations with that officer’s family/faction. There’s also an opinion modifier if you have diplomatic marriages with a faction that someone’s at war with (it persists even after divorcing that officer).

Note 1: Sun Jian can die starting on turn 7 (making Sun Ce the new faction leader). You can reload your saves from turn 7 onwards to ensure that he’s kept alive as long as possible.

Note 2: Your male heir can also be married to Yuan Anyang (Yuan Shu’s daughter). This will make Yuan Shao and co. distant relatives which, in turn, make his sons viable marriage prospects once they’re part of your roster.

Wang Yun’s Chain Plot: Diaochan, Lu Bu, and confederation with Dong Peishan

This is one of the pivotal moments in Total War: Three Kingdoms, and it involves an event chain that leads to Dong Zhuo’s death.

• Turn 9 – Diaochan should be mentioned in a notification. If you don’t get this, you’ll want to reload a save.
• Turn 10 – This, too, is an important turn. You’ll want to have Miao Wanwan marry Dong Min (Dong Zhuo’s heir). You may also divorce Liu Yan’s wife (who, coincidentally, remains a relative).
• Turn 11 – Dong Zhuo’s death cinematic should fire, and you’ll see the “Tyrant has Fallen” notification.

Dong Peishan (Dong Zhuo’s wife) will be the new faction leader. In that same turn, you’ll give her multiple gold-per-turn deals (at least 1 point in the diplomatic panel) to get the “favorable deals with us” relationship modifier. Continue doing this until relations are high enough, then give lump sums of gold (just 1 gold would do) several times until the relations “catch up.”

You should see that smiley face icon turn blue (160+ relations) indicating that she’s very happy with Liu Yan. Once that’s done, you can propose to join your factions together. Doing this successfully makes you control all of Dong Zhuo’s lands (and even Lu Bu if he’s on the field). This should spike your Faction Rank to Marquis and help you complete Aspiration tasks.

Note 1: The problem, however, is that Dong Peishan might still view the marriage confederation negatively (around -9 points). As a vassal, you can’t give her an ultimatum, and you can only request to start/aid her in a war. In my experience, I was sitting at 200+ relations, but I ran out of options to make her accept.

Note 2: You may also experience the bugged version of the event chain on turn 11 where you only get the “Tyrant has Fallen” notification, but the cinematic won’t play. If this occurs, the “dead” Dong Zhuo will still lead the faction on turn 11, and, by the time you reach turn 12, Dong Peishan will already be married to someone else.

Well, even without doing all of that, Liu Yan will still have until turn 23 for the “Timeless Inheritance” bonuses. As such, it’s up to you if you want to collect as many officers, all while finishing Aspiration tasks. Anyway, we can discuss what it’s like if we pick Liu Yan for the 194 CE campaign.