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You receive the Imperial Edict with 255 popularity. If you play a western leader, then take over the west of the continent, you'll probably have the edict by the time you take over Prefecture 19. If you play a Eastern leader, you MUST have pref. 10/20 in order to make this work, as with most of the warring happens on the Eastern side of the map.

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.

Anyone know if map is available anywhere?? including attributes of each area (armury, boatyard, castles, etc) ??

Thanks.

[RDX]

This game is great, I've beaten it hundreds (if not thousands) of times and it never gets old. Here is some input:

Character stats:

Body: Affects how rested a hero is. Almost every performed by a hero takes body (some take a lot –such as invite to lair), and some restore body (such as feasting a resting). It should be noted that bandits recover 5 body per month if no action is performed (up to the maximum amount). When a bandit’s body gets too low he will refuse to do any commands that consume body. When a person’s body in battle drops below 10, he is basically comatose and cannot function until his body reaches 10 (it will increase by 2 each day).

Hint number 1: In battle, take advantage of bandits with low body. Put a fireball on a bandit if he has body that is below 10 or is dazzled from magic. Not only will his men die off, but the fireball will take away his regenerating body, making him absolutely helpless.

Strength: Primarily used for melee/charge command in battle; it is a significant factor in determining how many men you lose and how many men are lost from the opposing side. It is also the only stat that determines how effective a person is at the working flood/land/wealth. It is a secondary factor is the hunting command as well as going on an expedition.

Dexterity: Is the single stat that influences archery. A dexterity of a least 40 is required to extinguish fireballs. A dexterity of at least 60 is required for the archery command. A dexterity of 85 is required to have a chance to injure the bandit controlling an army in battle (reduce his body). This stat is also the primary stat in hunting and training. There is also a dexterity requirement for making ships/arms (don’t remember the numbers off hand). Dexterity along with wisdom is also used for the solicitation command.

Hint number 2: Take full advantage of bandits with 85+ dexterity. Even if the bandit does not have any men, still bring him if you have room. Although the amount of men that you kill with archery is dependent upon the number of men firing arrows, the chance to critically hit a bandit is not. A high dexterity bandit should shoot at people with 80+ wisdom first. It takes a minimum of 50 body to cast magic. If you can critically hit him a couple of times his body will probably drop below 50, effectively making the mage worthless. You can also target a very tough bandit. If you are lucky and critically hit him 3 or 4 times, he will be very low on body. The use of a fireball is then awesome.

Wisdom: This stat influences a number of things. First of all, a wisdom of 60 is required to make a fireball. A wisdom of 80 is required for magic (double range) and 90 for triple range magic. Wisdom also determines how a person is affected by magic. A higher wisdom rating will reduce the changes of being hit by magic, the amount of men lost in a successful magic attack, and the number of days that a bandit is dazzled by a successful magic attack. Wisdom also determines the percentage of provisions that are successfully delivered from a remote prefecture. As mentioned earlier, wisdom also helpful when using the solicitation command. There is also a minimum wisdom requirement for making weapons (again, I don’t remember the values off hand).

Personality traits:

There are 3 personality stats. They are important for several reasons. First of all, they determine attitudes of bandits toward you. The highest personality trait of a bandit is the most important one. If you are trying to recruit a bandit and his highest personality trait is lower than your personality trait, no penalty is imposed on recruiting him. If his highest personality trait is higher than your value, you receive a penalty for recruiting him.
This is hard to explain, so here is an example: You are Lu Zhi Shen, and you have sworn brotherhood with a bandit that has a personality of 88 courage, 72 mercy, and 63 intelligence. You are trying to recruit a person downtown who has stats of 60 courage, 51 mercy, and 69 mercy. The person’s highest stat is mercy which is 69; since this is his highest stat, he will value that above the other two (and value it solely as far as the game is concerned). Your mercy is only 63. Thus he will be slightly more reserved to be recruited by you. A person with a mercy of over 69 might be able to recruit this person downtown with a popularity of 30, but your brother who has a mercy of only 63 will might need for you to have a popularity of 45 before he can successfully recruit the person downtown. This effect dramatically increases as the difficulty lvl increases.

This personally effect is also seen with bandits loyalty. This time however, a bandit’s loyalty is affect by your stats and not your sworn brother’s stats. If your main characters mercy stat is above 69, your bandits loyalty will not decrease as fast.

Personality traits along with popularity affect the probability of inviting another bandit to your lair. If the hero being invited has a main personality stat that is lower than your personality value, he is more likely to accept your invitation. Note: this is only dependent on your main character’s personality, not the person that you send as the negotiator. Who you send makes no difference whatsoever.

Personality affects the ability to recruit a captured hero after a battle. If the captured bandit has a main personality value that is higher than the leader of your prefecture that was victorious in the battle, he will not accept your offer to recruit him
(no matter how popular you are). Once you imprison the bandit, normal recruitment procedures take effect.)

Finally, the personality of your main character as long as the personality of the personality of the leader that you are inviting to your lair is important. If his highest personally trait is higher than your trait, it can be very difficult to invite him to your lair. This is why it can be so difficult to invite Ling Chong or Li Kui to your lair.

This should explain why it is important for you and your sworn brothers should have high personality traits.

Here is a little information about each personality trait:

Courage: As far as I can tell there is no downside to having courage in the game (other than reducing the chance to decline duals in battle). Courage doesn’t really help in any meaningful way either.

Mercy: This personality trait does a few things. First of all it affects solicitation. Lower mercy values result in higher yields for Solicitation (Note: This is determined by the mercy of the commander of the prefecture, not the actual bandit doing the solicitation). A second nice factor of mercy is that gaining support in a prefecture is much easier. The downside of mercy is that it reduces the amount of gold/food a prefecture receives in January. A merciful leader will not take as many funds.

Hint number 3: Make use of the promote command, especially early on when resources are tight. Here is how it works: When one of your prefectures is not directly controlled by you or one of your sworn brothers, it is assigned a leader. If there is more than 1 bandit in the prefecture you can instantly change the leader of that prefecture with the promote command. In January, promote the bandit in that prefecture who has the highest mercy attribute. In December, promote a bandit who has a very low mercy attribute. This way, you will gain much support over the course of the year with a high mercy leader; at the same time you will get tons of gold and food in January by having a low mercy bandit in change when you get taxes from the people.

Integrity: This personality trait helps out training. The integrity of the leader of the prefecture is important, not the actual person doing the training. Integrities downside is that it decreases the effectiveness of feasting.

Ok, I realize that this is getting really long so I'll quit before I go through all the commands and then on to battle strategies.

If you are new to the game, you can try Scenerio 1, which can be terribly easy no matter which bandit you chose. If you are a vetran, you can make this scenio tough by settling on prefecture 29 or 30.

Scenerio 2 is significantly more interesting, but still quite easy. Song Yiang is good for a decent challenge. Again, if the game is too easy for you, avoid settling in easy areas (such as prefecture 2, 7, 13, etc) and try prefecture 4, 29, 30, 44 etc. Shi Jin and Chao Gai are good for beginners.

Scenerio 3 is a fun one indeed. Li Jun and Li Kui can be extremely fun because of their weak personalities and their poor starting position. Li Kui can settle at a whole host of cool places. Try prefectures 7, 33, 32, 36, 46 for a fun but not insanely difficult time. Playing Li Jun can be quite difficult until you've beaten the game a few times with him. Shi Jin and Chao Gai are again good for beginners.

Scenerio 4 This is a great scenerio in my opinion. Song Yiang is so powerful, it's impossible to lose with him. Li Ying is the real gem of this scenerio. He's surrounded and heavilly outgunned. This can be a fun challenge for a bandit kings vetran.

A few personal records:

The fastest that I've ever done in the game (without using any sort of cheats, ie. market exchange glitch, playing multiple players) is to beat Gao Qui in the year 1108. That was with Lin Chong, difficulty lvl 1 (obviously), and scenerio 1.

I have spent several of games focusing on developing specific characters. I have gotten Hua Rong's stats to:
100 dexterity
100 strength
92 wisdom

I have gotten Yang Zhi to:
100 dexterity
100 strength
81 wisdom

Originally posted by RDX@Apr 11 2006, 06:14 AM
This game is great, I've beaten it hundreds (if not thousands) of times and it never gets old. Here is some input:

wow this is a class post. I was wondering if you knew what difference the difficulty level makes? (other than affecting the number of sworn brothers one could have)

[RDX]

The difficulty setting seems to do a number of things. First of all, you don't receive as much food/gold from your prefecture in January. The citizens roit more on more difficult settings and hereos with low loyalty are more likely to leave you. Another big thing is that often oppenents that you will face will more often maintain their armies with higher skill/arms values. It is also more difficult to recruit hereos that have a personality that is incompatible with yours. It aslo seems like floods/epidemics are more prevalent, but I'm not sure if those two things are all in my head, as I haven't recorded the frequency of these events to evaluate them for stastistical significance.

Hi all, this is also one of my all time favorite strategy game. First played it at around 1992 - 1994 when i was 11, i think. Sorry if I speak horrible engrish, since its a second lang to me. Some alternatives to you guys who cant get the game runs with DosBOX on winxp/2000 is to get a software that can install/set up a virtual machine in your winxp/2000 that loads win98, and runs the game with the virtual win98. OR, just set up a virtual x3/486 machine with old dos version like DOS 4.0 if you are critical on your harddrive's space.

The other way is to set up dual-boot on your machine, and install win98 as alternative to your main xp system. This is because win98 has DOS pre-installed, which required by KOEI's oldschool games to run. I did this several years ago, coz there were no dosBOX available around that era, so to speak. And, the win98 in my machine was loaded only to play the KOEI games, and other DOS base games.

Desperate way is to get a DOS installed in a 1.44" disk and boot your pc with it to play the game. YOu'll get the oldschool feel!
A:\KOEI.EXE [enter]

Last thing is, props to abandonia.com for hosting an awesome oldschool-classic-dosgame dl/forum/comunity/etc!! Back to the root of pc game! k:

hi the fastest i killed gao qiu was 1109, my brother beat this game in 1108.

here are two tricks for a fast game.

1. start in 1103 and take shi jin. you will start in 25. attack 24 in your first round. it is very easy to take 25. make chen da your brother. stay there with chen da and raise the support not higher than 50. take shi jin, recruit heros and send them to other prefectures. in just 3 years you will have the complete west under your control.

2. start in 1103 and take chao gai.
settle in 9.
first round: hunt for food
second round: attack pref. 6.
battle: flee with your heros to 4, 7 and 8 (not with you wizards). Now, there is no escape for yan shun, make magics with wu yong and gon sun sheng and after this make fireballs to burn down his army. you will win with just the wizards against yan shun (ca. 120 men). you will have pref. 4,6,7,8, and 9 after two months and with 6 a good pref + new heros after the fight.
let the wizards rest a lot and attack pref. 5 (anyone will settle there). attack this prefecture not the same year. wait to jan 1104, because of the gold and food in this prefecture. you will need it to build an army in 4 and 6. ...

one of the best games i had ever played.

have fun!
kobold

[Zakyn]

Just about one of the best gems ever from Koei along with RTK2.

Of most of the playable/controlled heroes

Shi Jin ranks as the best character stats wise
Followed I reckon with Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Wu Song
then Lu Zhi Shen etc etc

The best overall stats Character is Hua Rong with his 96 dex.

Of course then there is Luo Zhen Ren who lets not fool ourselves isn't that good really. However he is probably the one in which you need like over 2xx popularity before you can recruit him.

Gong Shu Sheng + Wu Yong would probably serve you much better.

The key to win battle in this game is FIRE.
Get good fellow with Wisdom of 60+ and you can set fire.
Good fellow with Dexterity of 50+ can extinguish fire.
Have both of these fellows go into the battle, don't attack, just set fire to the enemy in the castle.
When your enemy escape from the castle, extinguish fire, and secure the castle.
Secure all castles for one turn and you will win.

This is my best strategy for this game.