Kong Rong Quick Start
Kong Rong Faction Characteristics
Kong Rong is the 20th generation descendent of Kong Zi, or Confucius, a famous Chinese Philosopher and Politician. His faction focuses on MONEY MAKING and TRADE. However, currently 3k is all about FOOD.
Starting Position:
Kong Rong starts on the eastern coast, to the South is your ally, Liu Bei. Liu Bei in the books was a very charismatic and honorable person. However in 3K he is just lazy. Do not follow the story and make friends with him, as his AI will block you from expansion. In the Early Game, you as Kong Rong only has one mission. Rush and take all settlements around you before Liu Bei does, because he will. To the north are two warlords, Yuan Shao (Who will vassalize everyone close to you) and Gongsun Zan (Who’s boyfriend Zhao Yun will never leave, I tried for 150 turns). Make friends with one of them, as they will prove to be powerful allies and take heat away from you to the north. Further South is Cao Cao and Sun Jian. Sun Jian in my campaign was a great ally, and we formed a military alliance along Gongsun Zan.
Faction Characteristic:
Trade will make you massive income as the faction mechanic Trade Monopoly makes your trade influence greater. Just sign trade treaties with your favorite factions and watch the money roll in.
Here is a quote from the wiki to explain the mechanic better than I ever will:
“The Three Kingdoms has the new system Trade influence for all factions that determines how much they benefit from a trade agreement, and one that is particularly important for Kong Rong. Trade income is determined by comparing the relative trade influence of the two factions – the more trade influence you have, the more of the shared pot will flow to you as income. In short, the more trade influence you have, the more you’ll benefit from trade agreements.”
The two unique units are skirmisher crossbowmen, Fury of Beihai and the other thing. They are useless, not worth their price. Ignore them completely. Instead, build 5 crossbowmen (upgrade to heavy crossbowmen) and 1 trebuchet in Kong Rong’s retinue, and focus fire enemies down before they can reach you.
Kong Ring Quick Start
Turn 1: Kill first army, head down to farm and take that too, try to make non aggression pacts and end turn.
Turn 2: Run back up to capital, recruit spear+shields on green boy and crossbowmen on King Kong.
Turn 3: Run up to the fishing port and take that, sit in it to replenish.
Turn 4: Start moving towards Taishan City, recruit crossbowmen and spear+shields along the way.
Turn 5: Take Taishan, this will be an easy battle if you play it out.
Turn 6: March back to capital, and prepare for the scripted yellow turban full army stack. This is a to take care of but you can do it, I believe in you.
Turn 7: Most important turn, SPRINT DOWN SOUTH-WEST FOR THE LANGYE LUMBER MILL BEFORE THAT DAMN LIU BEI GETS THERE.
Turn 8-10: Take Lumber Mill and crusade your way up North, building up your full army on the way.
Turn 10-15: Take Donglai, now you have 3 full commanderies + 2 little settlements. Congratulations, you now have a potential of 60+ food production.
TECH TREE
IMHO the tech tree sucks. It’s beautiful but it sucks.
Priority:
1. Get the +1 trade agreement reforms up the blue side of the tree.
2. Get the +Food production reforms down the green side of the tree.
3. If you want to get A TON of legendary characters work on -character salary up the blue side, or work on +trade reforms up the blue side. In the yellow side of the tree there are +income reforms that can boost your income by 10-25%.
4. At this point you’re set. Go after the units you want. REPEATING CROSSBOWMEN SUCK DO GO AFTER THEM.