[182] Campaign Revival: Historical Logic & Coalition

Tired of the 182 campaign (MANDATE OF HEAVEN) feeling empty once the Yellow Turbans are defeated?

This mod is a sort of revival of the Mandate of Heaven DLC. It tries to simulate the historical Coalition War and strengthens major powers for the campaign durability.

MAJOR GAMEPLAY CHANGES

Corrected Start Positions (Turn 1)

Cao Cao: Starts near Chen (Penchang). But Cao Cao’s army is not moved, the AI manage its own path. It mostly prevents the AI from drifting into Sun Jian’s lands. If you play as Cao Cao, you can complete your early-game quests while having strategic cities from the start.

-Liu Biao: Settles in Xiangyang.

-Yuan Shu: Takes control of Nanyang.

-Sun Jian: Established in Jianan.

Coalition War Simulation (after turn 33 – Dong Zhuo’s Seizure of Power) The world shifts. To make Dong Zhuo a true threat and simulate the collapse of the Empire:

Total War: Immediate war declarations from all major lords (Cao Cao, Yuan Shao, Liu Bei, Sun Jian, Yuan Shu, Kong Rong, Tao Qian, Liu Biao) against Dong Zhuo.

Capital Relocation: Dong Zhuo’s capital is forcibly moved further south (usually to Chang’an). In the vanilla game, the Emperor remains stuck in his far North-West capital, making his capture tedious. Now, the conflict is centralized in the heart of China and closer to the 190 campaign start.

Power Consolidation: Minor factions merge with major leaders to create solid power blocs. Cao Cao confederates his father, Liu Bei and Kong Rong absorb their neighbors, and Yuan Shao recovers the cities of Shangdang north of the Yellow River. Dong Zhuo becomes more powerful by integrating the Liang Rebels and Yuan Yi’s faction.

Also:
Gongsun Zan: If still alive, he takes full control of Liu Yu’s faction

Lü Bu: Joins Dong Zhuo at the appropriate time to become his heir.

Empress He: Safely moved to Lu Zhi’s faction because why not.
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WARNINGS

I highly recommend subscribing to this mod ‘AI Won’t Execute Characters’, especially since Yellow Turban factions are very aggressive and tend to execute many legendary characters at the start of the campaign.

Loading Bug: If you load a save game created between the Emperor’s death and Dong Zhuo’s rise to power, the script may bug, failing to trigger subsequent events and Dong Zhuo’s arrival. This issue exists in the original game and is not caused by the mod.

Playing as Dong Zhuo: If you play as Dong Zhuo, you will lose two northern cities to your vassal, the Han Empire. This is the only technical way I found in order to force the capital to move south (Chang’an).
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COMPATIBILITY

MTU: Fully compatible.

TUP: Potential incompatibility. Since TUP also modifies the global_event file, one mod will overwrite the other depending on your Load Order.

Savegames: New game highly recommended to benefit from the Turn 1 start position changes.