Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided — Yuan Shao campaign guide

Opening moves: Domestics

Let’s talk about Yuan Shao’s domestic policies in Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided.

Officer Court and Family

Unlike Cao Cao, Yuan Shao only has a motley crew of officers. They definitely aren’t as good, but they serve a function. Since you’re just a Second Marquis, you lack a lot of ministerial positions. As for your administrator, just pick Tian Feng to handle Bohai (he should level-up soon to get the +industry income bonus).

As for Yuan Shao’s family, he’s got three sons:

• Yuan Tan, the eldest, leads his own faction to the east (close to where Liu Bei is). He’s your vassal.
• Yuan Xi, your second son, also leads his own faction to the north. He’s also a vassal.
• Yuan Shang, your youngest son, is part of your faction because he’s your heir. Yes, Yuan Shao might be a dumbass for making this decision, but, at the very least, Yuan Shang provides decent faction-wide bonuses.

Officers to watch out for

On your next few turns, watch out for officers like Liang Xing, Yan Yuangchang, and Lu Fu since they can be very helpful for domestic planning. Also, you might see a female Strategist named Yuan Xiumin. It looks like she’s Yuan Tan’s daughter, and she somehow ends up in your court (maybe she’s spying). You can recruit her since she counts as a relative, and she’ll be useful for marriages later on.

Note: Yuan Shao uses 10 Lineage points when recruiting officers. He doesn’t spend gold.

Assignments

• Anping – “Tax Collection” (Wang Xiu) and “Reward the Filial & Incorrupt” (Pang Ji).
• Bohai – “Stimulate Markets” (Tian Feng). Once Tian Feng levels up, get the +industry income perk so you can make him an administrator later.
• Henei – “Oversee Mustering” (Chunyu Qiong). You don’t have control of the commandery’s capital yet, but you will soon enough.

Buildings

Demolish all military buildings except for the forge in Zhongshan. Replace all of these with Yuan Administration Offices (+prestige, public order, and income from all sources). Construct/upgrade buildings only when you have extra gold after you’ve recruited troops.

Faction Council

Use “Circulate Propaganda,” then increase taxation by one level.

Diplomacy and trade

As mentioned earlier, Yuan Shao has two of his sons as vassals. There’s also Gao Gan (another vassal), as well as Liu Bei and Gong Du (allies). You’re locked in an alliance war against Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu.

Enact trade agreements with Liu Bei and Sun Ce, and try to milk them for extra gold. You can choose the “Receive Marriage” option to get Yuan Shang a wife, but I’d hold off on that for now. Just get non-aggression pacts with other warlords who are “in the green” as well.

Note: The live/release build gives Cao Cao the Imperial Seal. Yuan Shao won’t be able to grab it.

Imperial Intrigue

This is going to be hard since you’re up against Cao Cao, the guy who controls the Han Emperor. You can’t make him an “Enemy of the Han” yet (though he usually tends to target Sun Ce and Ma Teng). For now, just increase Yuan Shao’s favor and decrease Cao Cao’s.

Later, assuming you’re experiencing a lot of Imperial Favor drops due to trouncing Cao Cao too much, just increase your favor. Don’t bother decreasing Cao Cao’s unless you can still remain above 40 points.

All right, let’s discuss how Yuan Shao will manage his armies in the 200 CE campaign.