I have returned after beating this game when it was in alpha/beta and i have to say this game has improved immensely

now having been playing this game for a bit on the newer version, and almost to the point of winning, i would like to publish another guide on some things i feel like would help the newer players.

the first thing i would like to point out this game is fully playable in english only the officer biographies are in chinese still.

That being said i would like to point out some of the best starting factions and why.

Yuan Shao
this ruler is probally the best for newbies, all factions surrounding you are friendly, tons of officers, and a free base to claim if your fast enough.

Sun Jian
If you can get enough officers quickly Sun Jian starts towards the south where there arent a lot of forces meaning free bases, and two of the 4 factions that border you have 1 officers which means a easy victory should you invade them.

Cao Cao
this is a force for people who like to be aggressive you start with a lot of great officers and a lot of cities around you to conquer.

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I would now like to point out that once you start your game you are free to make officers have a infinite age in an option after choosing your force set

officer lifespan -> infinite

i usually do this so i can play out a nice long game, but this is totally optional.

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Once you start the game there are important things you need to take note of

The first is Search. This function is the main way to find officers, you also get items from time to time, i suggest having your officers with the highest Connections stat be the officer to search. (this function lasts until you cancel it so that officer will be unavailable for the rest of the game or until you replace him.)

you can access search by going in the personal tab at the bottom and going up to search.

Another important function is Spy. Since the updated version i found this to be so much more worth doing. it improves search, and opens up other venues for you to search in. I recommend putting the slider of your spys budget to as high as you can afford.

There is also develop, this increases your cities stats,
from my rough understanding of trying to understand these (nothing is official just my observation)
security - helps against enemy strategies like rumor/alienate
commerce-gold gain
farming-food gain
defence-how strong your walls are
flood control- not sure

Finally there is two options in military tree you should also note.
Military -> Recruit - lets you recruit more troops
Military -> Drill - im not sure if this make troops better but troops need 100%morale/training in order to be transported.

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Officer recruitment:

A lot of people i see struggle with this. so i will also make a guide on this.
in order to find officers there are a few ways.

The easiest is Search (found by going to personal -> search) and putting the officer with highest connections on the job.

you will eventually find officers, but it takes a few turns.
you will also notice that most factions only start with one area to search in you can increase this by having a Spy, the more areas you reveal with your spy the more areas you can search.

The second way of finding officers is by conquering a force, once you do so most of their officers will become your prisoners, and become factionless.

As a very good tip once you start having most of the map you will notice that most of the officers have very low chances to be recruited. a good lesson i learned to combat this is only recruit officers 15 days away unless you have a normal chance to very high chance to recruit ones further out.

the reason is each turn is 30 days so a 15 day travel will only take 1 turn while a 90 day officer will take 3 turns.
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Military suggestions.
im not gonna really go in tech if you need help understanding ill answer it but i would like to share some of my strategies for sieging and defending.

if your gonna attack i recommend your use the following

light infantry -> heavy infantry(this one if you can)
light archers -> crossbowmen
(make commander a archer)
and just put rams on the infantry

/Heavy infantry are really good for sieging since they have a really high range defense and melee defense.
/Calvary are not good for sieging since you have to dismount to get onto the walls.

if your defending i recommend
light calvary
light archers -> crossbowmen

do the siege map and place calvary outside
/calvary have high movement compared to other units so if a calvary is low on hp you can get away from combat quicker.
/archers are always good to repel the enemies that go for the wall.
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hope this guide helps.