Opening moves: Domestics
Let’s talk about Sun Ce’s early moves in the 200 CE campaign for Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided.
Officer Court, Ministerial Positions, and Faction Rank
Before you increase your Faction Rank, look at your officer court first. Remember how Sun Ce’s ministerial positions gain bonuses from officers at levels 3, 5, and 7? As such, prioritize the following:
- Chancellor (i.e., Zhou Tai) – 2x extra assignments; reduced character salary.
- Grand Tutor (i.e., Zhou Yu) – 3x extra trade agreements; increased trade influence.
- Director of Records (i.e., Taishi Ci) – 2x extra administrators.
- Danyang (Jianye) administrator – Lu Fan
- Poyang administrator – Zhang Hong
Next, level-up to Second Marquis rank and get 1x assignment and 2x administrators. Fill-up your officer court with people who are at least level 3. You might want to use some peeps as administrators or ministers in case they’re a bit unruly and peeved. For instance, Sun Ce’s mother, Lady Wu, is pissed off because she was “divorced from the ruling family” (even though her husband, Sun Jian, died in battle).
Assignments and Shared Expertise
You need 50 Shared Expertise to give a character a chunk of XP (likely leveling them up in one usage). Ideally, you’ll want to use this on those who are close to hitting levels 3/5/7 (for ministerial position bonuses). Likewise, don’t forget the extra Shared Expertise point you get for each character at levels 5/8/10. You may also activate this if a character needs a quick level-up to obtain a perk (i.e., +industry/commerce boosters or assignment unlocks).
Speaking of assignments, my suggestion would be to select the following:
- Danyang – “Industrial Exploitation” (Lady Wu), “Surplus Markets” (Zhu Zhi), and “Stimulate Markets” (Xiao Qiao or some other Strategist).
- Poyang – “Industrial Exploitation” (Da Qiao).
Note: Yes, I left one assignment slot vacant. I’ll get to that in a while.
Faction Council
It looks like you won’t get the “Propaganda” option to increase faction-wide public order. That’s fine. For now, choose “Seek Skilled Characters.”
On your next turn, pick a Strategist and make sure she’s level 4. If RNG is on your side, you can let her take the perk for the “Reward the Filial & Incorrupt” assignment. Go ahead and do that for Danyang so you can remove corruption while increasing officer satisfaction.
Note: Alternatively, you can get a Sentinel (make sure she’s level 4) since that’s part of the “Lady Sun’s Guards” objective. You can just use Shared Expertise on Xiao Qiao until she obtains “Reward the Filial & Incorrupt.”
Diplomacy
The reason we didn’t put a single prestige point in another trade agreement is because Sun Ce already has five trade slots (with Zhou Yu as the Grand Tutor). We can only trade with a few peeps like your two vassals (Li Shu and Wu Jing), as well as Cao Cao. You could try to get the Imperial Seal from Mr. Mengde, or have Cao Ren married to Lady Wu, but I didn’t really bother doing these things. Personally, I suggest keeping Lady Wu single for now.
After discovering more of the map, you should be able to buddy up with Liu Bei and Yuan Tan for the remaining two trade agreements.
Anyway, you start Sun Ce’s 200 CE campaign in Total War: Three Kingdoms – Fates Divided already at war with Liu Biao/Huang Zu, Hua Xin, Xu Zhao, and Chen Deng.
Imperial Intrigue
You’ll only take a look at this panel every five turns. That’s when you’ll use a few points to increase Imperial Favor. You’re going to need it because of all the deductions you’ll get from fighting various Han factions.
Let’s go ahead and discuss Sun Ce’s armies, Legacy of Wu, and Reckless Luck mechanic in the next section of our guide.
