I think the fastest I've beat this game was in year 1115 scenario 5 welcome rain.
Being that you get the mountain lair automatically, I just waited until that happened then I fled to pref 13 and started building there.
Another way to get off to a fast start in Scenario 1 is ...
Make it a 5 player game, and have all of the bandits mass in pref 13 (or whatever state you wish). Follow these Steps (Note, the names are from the Nintendo Version)
1. Chose Hairy Priest, Tattooed Priest, Leopard Headed, Blue Face Beast, Nine Dragons. When selecting stats, always try to aim for the highest stats possible.
2. Take everybody and flee to Pref. 13 recruting all who will join you on the way. First person who gets there is usually Hairy Priest, and the last one is usually Blue Faced Beast.
NOTE: Red Eyed Lion, Hued Leopard, and Faceless will be obtained this way easily. Those bandits are usually key for setting up your 10 Bandit Prefecture for expansion.
3. Settle with Hairy Priest (after recruting Red Eyed Lion in Pref. 17) and begin hunting for food.
4. Settle with Tattooed Priest and achieve victory by duel. If Hairy Priest has higher strength than Tattooed Priest, then Tattooed Priest's abilities are all raised by 1.
5. Keep hunting for food and settle with your next Good Fellow. As he will usually have higher body than the guy who owns the Pref and will achieve victory easily.
6. Keep in mind, you won't be able to recruit any of the captured Good Fellows after victory, just imprision them. Once you get usually a popularity of 41, all but Leopard Headed will join you.
7. Keep doing this until the man you're ready to achieve victory with remains and all other players you used are imprisioned. Usually by the end of the first year or a few months into the second, this is complete and you can begin your expansion with your lower bandits like Faceless, Rabbit Spearer, Hued Leopard etc. I always move to 14 first to get Unstrung Bow and leave him in 14.
8. Expansion is pretty simple. Just leave Faceless in 13 and move around as you wish giving food until the popularity reaches 55 and then move to the next state. I usually leave those who arne't archerers, or who don't have a str of at least 70 or above.
9. By year 1106 or so, Chief Advisor makes his way to your country, you should have more than enough popularity to obtain him. He joins around 80 popularity.
10. Battle Axe comes in 1108 January. Same with him, 80 to recruit.
11. I was able to recruit Immortal Luo with a popularity of 350. I owned just about 30 of the states. He's not worth it, Wily Warrior is to me, the best Wizard in the game. He can expend 10 points of body during a battle and still be able to cast magic two times. Cloud Dragon can only expend 4, Great Intellect can not move without only casting magic once. War Scholar is good to recruit just to make sure that Evil Gao Qiu doesn't get him, but I usually leave him in a state by himself.
12. The best general in the game is Little Li Guang, and I usually work on getting him capable of using magic (intel 80). He's a one man force. Thunder Spark is good also.
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