Total War: Three Kingdoms – Mandate of Heaven: Zhang Jue and the Yellow Turbans guide

I. Mandate of Heaven: Yellow Turbans faction mechanics overview

Zhang Jue’s victory conditions

The Zhang brothers all have shared victory conditions. They are:

• capture the Han capital Luoyang
• capture 50 counties/settlements

You’ll lose Mandate of Heaven‘s campaign if all three Zhang brothers’ factions are obliterated. Although lords such as He Yi, Gong Du, and Huang Shao appear to help your forces, it won’t count against you if their factions are defeated. The good news is that the counties that they capture will still count towards your progress.

Note: The Mandate War/Yellow Turban Rebellion starts on turn 8, so you’ve only got a few turns to prepare.

The Zhang brothers’ unique units and perks

The three Zhang Brothers have a few similar perks such as +20 Fervor from characters (local county) and the “Scare” trait during battles. They also have some unique ones:

Zhang Jue:

• +8 morale (faction-wide)
• Messengers of Heaven cavalry and Chosen of the Eight Immortals melee infantry
• “Teachings of Heaven” assignment – increases replenishment in commandery and all adjacent ones; reduces population growth (local commandery)

Zhang Liang:

• +8% attrition to all hostile forces (faction-wide)
• Tyrant Slayers shock cavalry and Gallants of the People spear infantry
• “Incite the People” assignment – increases attrition and lowers movement range and supplies for enemy armies (local commandery); reduces population growth (local commandery)

Zhang Bao:

• +6 public order (faction-wide)
• Zealots of the Way polearm infantry and Yaoguai Hunters archer infantry
• “Discipline of the Land” assignment – increases Fervor and lowers enemy army morale (adjacent commanderies); reduces population growth (local commandery)

Note: The Yellow Turban leaders do not have a family or espionage system.

The Zeal of the Zhang Gang

Zeal is a unique resource for the Yellow Turbans and, like your victory conditions, is shared among your fellow Zhang brothers. You lose 7 points of Zeal each turn multiplied by the number of Zhang brothers that remain active (aka. -21 Zeal each turn).

The Zhang brothers obtain Zeal by winning battles and capturing settlements. Each has his own additional means of gaining an extra bit of Zeal while campaigning:

• Zhang Jue – battle casualties
• Zhang Liang – defending against attacks
• Zhang Bao – attacking enemies

Zeal has five different levels and it also provides Fervor (more on this later). Each Zhang brother also gains bonuses depending on these levels:

• Zhang Jue – increased commerce income and replenishment
• Zhang Liang – increased peasant income and damage for units during defensive battles
• Zhang Bao – increased industry income and melee damage for units when you’re attacking

At lower levels (below 300 Zeal), you’ll start experiencing some nasty penalties such as drops in public order, food production, and population growth. Obviously, you’ll want to avoid going below that threshold. Anyway, at the maximum Zeal level or “Explosive Fanaticism,” Zhang Jue gets the following faction-wide bonuses:

• +4 Fervor
• +25% commerce income
• +25% replenishment

Note: Zhang Jue’s replenishment bonus from Zeal is ridiculously good. It ensures that units are always in tip-top condition even after close or pyrrhic victories.

The Fervor of the Yellow Turban Rebellion

Fervor is a mechanic that increases due to the presence of Yellow Turban armies, characters, or buildings. Fervor slightly impacts public order for the Han Empire which causes additional Yellow Turban armies to spawn, generating Fervor in adjacent commanderies (a cascading effect, if you will).

Fervor is generated via the following:

• certain building chains (Grain Storage, Communal Inn, Temple, Headquarters, and Healing)
• Zeal levels
• presence of Yellow Turban armies

Fervor is lost due to:

• Han Empire factions constructing their own building chains to mitigate its effects
• the defeat of Yellow Turban armies

Note: Fervor also creates another side-effect that’s extremely useful. It also buffs your own public order. As you construct certain buildings that provide Fervor — and, heck, as you simply roam around with your armies and keep Zeal high — Fervor will keep your populace happy. You can say that Fervor works in your… favor. Zing!

Annexation with your Yellow Turban spawns

There seems to be a bug with the Fervor and public order mechanics. Yellow Turban armies that are mustering due to low public order are at war with you once they spawn. You can’t interact with them diplomatically, so you’ll have to smash the peasants who are supposed to be on your side.

Still, they can be quite helpful. When a Han settlement has a (hostile) rebel army that’s mustering nearby, it will still capture that settlement. The good thing is that it will flip back to the friendly/allied Yellow Turban faction after the turn is over. You can then walk up to the settlement to annex it. This is completely free of cost save for a small diplomatic hit against the allied Yellow Turban faction (war atrocities).

Then again, if in case a settlement that you own has a hostile Yellow Turban force mustering nearby, they will capture that settlement and then flip back into the “friendly/allied” version. Again, you can annex the settlement, but that could mean wasting turns since you need to march back to it.

Note: As for the other Yellow Turban lords, you won’t be able to annex them yet while the Mandate War is ongoing. Heck, you won’t be able to annex them until you’re well past Mandate of Heaven‘s ending. This is further explained in our post-campaign experience section.

Yellow Turbans officer recruitment

The Yellow Turbans can’t recruit characters normally, but there’s the “Attract Talent” assignment that you can do (lasts 5 turns) which gives you a chance of finding a talented officer. Any character can do this and it’s similar to Huang Shao’s quirk.

Talented officers may also start out as legendary or have ancillaries equipped already. Their class/perks will depend on your selection and these will determine which higher-tier unit types they can recruit:

• Frugality = Veteran (high-tier archers, siege weapons, spearmen)
• Humility = Scholar (sword infantry, melee cavalry)
• Compassion = Healer (shock cavalry, spearmen)

Alternatively, you can also recruit Yellow Turban captain retinues. Captain retinues come with a full stack (6 units), so they can be quite costly. Once these captains have participated in several battles, you can get an event that nets you a new officer. This happens very rarely though.

Yellow Turbans officer skills

Yellow Turban officers have certain perks that have commandery-wide or faction-wide effects. These include corruption reduction, higher research rate, officer satisfaction, increased income, and more. Many skills will also add points towards Enlightenment, your means of increasing your faction’s rank as a Yellow Turban leader (explained below).

Here are some important skills:

• Integrity – +5 expertise, +3 authority; +2 enlightenment; +20 satisfaction; -20% corruption (local commandery)
• Focus – +5 resolve, +3 cunning; +2 enlightenment; +10% ranged damage and 10% ranged armor-piercing damage; +3% income from industry
• Opportunism – +5 resolve, +3 cunning; +2 enlightenment; enables fire arrows; +50% post-battle loot income; +5% ranged and melee armor-piercing damage; officers with both Opportunism and Focus are extremely deadly when you recruit archers
• Insight – +5 expertise, +3 authority; +2 enlightenment; +10% research rate; +8% ranged block chance
• Knowledge of the Body – This healer-only skill (bottom-left corner) is currently one of the strongest in Total War: Three Kingdoms – Mandate of Heaven as it allows your officers to regen 21,000 HP in a short period of time. Having multiple healers in an army would make them almost invincible.

Ranking up Zhang Jue’s Enlightenment

Lastly, the Yellow Turban factions rank up by way of Enlightenment (their own “Prestige” mechanic). Each rank-up confers bonuses such as additional armies, assignment slots, and more. Enlightenment is increased via the following:

• the Temple, Healing, and Esotericism building chains
• perks obtained via the character level-up panel
• reforms/research

Building towards a better future under the Yellow Sky

The Yellow Turbans’ unique building chains tend to be some of the best around, and many of these also generate additional Fervor:

• Temples – Enlightenment, public order, and income from all sources; basically, the works.
• Esotericism buildings – Enlightenment and increased research rate.
• Communal Inns – Public order, commerce income, and, most importantly, faction-wide satisfaction. Yellow Turban officers don’t have salaries or a promotion mechanic, so this is one way of increasing their loyalty.
• Schools – Your main source of additional experience points. You need a few of these in order to ensure that characters will be leveling up to get skills more often.
• Healing buildings – Similar to He Yi’s unique building (increased population growth and public order). In fact, He Yi’s occupation option to “Aid the Wounded” is also possible for Zhang Jue.

Note: Unfortunately, what the Yellow Turbans lack is a means of combatting corruption.  You have two assignments — “Counteract Corruption” and “Encourage Humility.” The former can be unlocked as a perk depending on an officer’s class. The latter, however, is better as all your Scholar-type officers have this assignment available.

With the above mechanics in mind, how will you succeed in Zhang Jue’s Mandate of Heaven campaign in Total War: Three Kingdoms? Well, read more about his opening moves and the Mandate War event.

Total War: Three Kingdoms – Mandate of Heaven is available now on Steam.