Romance of the Three Kingdoms
            Wall of Fire
        Copyright 1997 Koei Corporation

**Goal**

Expand your kingdom by building a strong military and try to outsmart your rivals during
negotiations. Your strength also depends on the economical power of your kingdom and the
happiness of your people.

**General advice**

Pick a strong leader. Scan the scenarios to identify the traditional successors; these
tend to be the
strongest.
Appoint an advisor from among the highly intelligent generals. The higher your advisor's
rating in
intelligence, the better his advice will be.
Develop an expansion plan. Do reconnaissance work, employ diplomatic efforts or try some
more
covert actions. Before you begin to develop your territory, decide your initial attack
strategy.
When an officer's Loyalty rating drops below 50, you can fire him and recruit him anew. He
will
come back with a higher Loyalty rating. You can also boost an officer's Loyalty rating by
giving him
gold or promoting him.
Focus your investments on cities with at least 200,000 people. Smaller cities just cannot
develop the
goods you need quickly.


**Maintaining your cities**

Start the game by spending about 1,000 gold in each of farm, economy, dam and technology.
Never
let these categories fall below 100 gold invested.
Use the first 6 months of the game for building up your city. Draft a stable number of
troops for
defensive purposes, and train them for that period.
If you draft too often, your support and spirit ratings will drop. They will then be more
likely to flee
the scene of a battle or cave into psychological pressure, such as Taunts and Rumors.
Counter this
by recruiting as many troops as possible at one time and Train the troops. Also use the
Staff-Give
command, to increase your civilians' support.
Always try to increase the number of officers in a city. When you have an unused officer,
have him
Search neighboring regions for free officers. Send a charming general to other rulers and
Recruit;
when you Set Terms, Offer lots of gold.
Study your city statistics. Identify any problems that may be pestering your city and deal
with them
before you are attacked.
Gold collection occurs every year in January. Prepare for this event by investing in your
economy,
gaining the people’s support and having a charming governor. The size of the city
also determines
how much gold you receive.
Provisions collection occurs every year in July. Increase your farming level, dam and size
of the city
to get major provisions.
If you do not receive enough gold or provisions from your yearly collections to pay your
soldiers and
officers, you should use the market to purchase or sell provisions. It is vital that you
have the
sufficient gold and provisions in January and July to keep your officers happy.
Do not spend as much money on Dams in the northern and western region. These areas are
less
susceptible to flooding.
Increase your cultivation. This not only makes the peasants happier, it also increases the
value of the
property.


**Preparing for war**

Make sure your troops' spirit is high, or your losses in battle will be great. You can
increase their
spirit by resting and Training.
Do your research before you attack another city. This is best done by using the Army-Spy
command
with a loyal officer.
Take inventory of which of your generals will be good in war. Pick ones with high power
and
leadership. Combat-based skills (infantry, cavalry, archery or naval) are necessary for
your war
generals.
Use a spy to determine which city has weak support. Weaken your opponents' resources by
setting a
Plot. Try using the Arson option and burn their food.
Purchase or make war resources such as horses, crossbows, catapults and rams using the
Build
command on your Army or Market menu.
Make sure to bring along a good array of weaponry. This will give you more options in
combat.
Before you attack a neighboring ruler, send gifts to the rulers around his city so their
hostility level
drops. This will make them think of you as less of a threat and give you a few rounds
after your
victory to regroup your soldiers before they attack.
Start off by attacking a ruler who is less powerful and has fewer allies and resources. It
is best to
attack a ruler who owns only one city. Often attacking a stronger ruler will result in a
nasty counter
offensive resulting in loss of any temporary gains or loss of even more.
Hide a loyal officer amongst your enemies and you will have an advantage when you go into
combat.
When you use the Betray command in combat, and your hidden officer is on the other side,
he will
bring with him some troops and your opponents' spirit will often fall.
Assign your officers to positions within cities as you expand(such as civil officer,
marshal and
general officer).
Reward officers with items. If you have items to give to your generals, they will increase
their
loyalty and other statistics. This is especially useful for commanders going to war.

**During war**

If you are the defending side and you take an advisor to battle, you may set a Pitfall or
Hay trap.
You may ignite the hay with the Fire command or by firing a Firebolt at the hay. The fire
command
may often cause the fire to hit your troops. Use your archers and Firebolt the hay.
Position your troops in the best terrain type. The highest terrain effect rating is the
mountain region.
A higher rating will give your troops defensive and offensive advantages.
Use commanders' strengths while in war. Plotting against the enemy's commander will sway
the
balance of even fights.
If an enemy sends in reinforcements that will change the outcome of the battle, you should
Plot-Lie to
the reinforcements. If they are not threatening to alter the results, allow them to stay
and capture
their commanders by defeating them.
Use the Confuse, from the Plot menu, in a field battle (this will disable an enemy's
movement), then
start a fire on the enemy's unit. This also works with Cao Cao's ability called Chaos.
Placing your forces in a forest or grassland makes them vulnerable to a fire. Placing them
below
mountains makes them vulnerable to enemy troops hurling boulders.

**Foreign policy**

If you are not at peace with lesser powered rulers around you, grind down their resources
for the year
by periodic raids. The troops you send on these raids should be well trained, with high
spirit, and the
commander should have the appropriate commander abilities( cavalry, infantry or archery).
If you are wealthy, you can ask a foreign tribe to Invade some of your opponents. This
will slow
them down and give you the time to build more forces.
Send Gifts to rulers with low hostility. If a rulers’ hostility reaches zero, form an
alliance with the
Ally command.
Keep your spies active in other regions and monitor your opponents.
Never Free an officer. Either Recruit him or Execute him.
If a ruler proposes to make an alliance and offers you gold or goods, you often cannot
negotiate the
price. If you turn down an offer, your intended ally makes no counter offer.

Manipulate Computer:
When in battle press the SQUARE button to call up a menu that shows all the names of the officers in
battle. Select one of your opponents names and press X. Now before the next screen comes up tap the
CIRCLE button and a screen will come up that allows you to input commands in for the computer. This
works all the time when you are defending against an attack but rarely works when you are attacking
other cities.