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For the character, see Kong Rong

Kong Rong is a playable faction in Total War: Three Kingdoms. It is located in central China, in Beihai commandery. The faction appears in 190 and 194. Gaining a rank as a duke, king, or emperor renames the faction to Qi.


Unique Features[]

Unique Units

Unique Buildings

Kong Rong Unique Units

Unique Features

  • Education Programme
  • Loyalty to the Han
  • Trade Monoply


Education Programme is the unique feature of Kong Rong, although it is quite a minor one. It unlocks an assignment for your characters which boosts the income generated by commerce in the commandery in which they are assigned.

Loyalty to the Han is the second mechanic of Kong Rong. This static modifier prevents Kong Rong from declaring himself Emperor and can only become one by claiming an existing Emperor Seat from another faction.


Trade Monopoly[]

Trade Monopoly is the faction resource of Kong Rong. It focuses on both demilitarizing him while also improving his economy through diplomacy. The influence starts at 0 and has a maximum amount of 500. Like many other unique influences, these are separated into different groups. These are:


Stagnant (0-100)

  • +0% trade influence

To accumulate, one has to speculate, and very little has been ventured!


Growing (101-200)

  • -4 trade monopoly per turn (market forces)
  • +25% trade influence

What is nurtured may grow, and indeed your investments now begin to take flight!


Ambitious (201-300)

  • -8 trade monopoly per turn (market forces)
  • +50% trade influence

Investments, wisely placed, brings exponential returns!


Influential (301-400)

  • -14 trade monopoly per turn (market forces)
  • +75% trade infleunce

What money cannot buy is not worth owning.


Dominating (401-500)

  • -20 trade monopoly per turn (market forces)
  • +100 trade influence

Wealth is power.


To earn trade monopoly, you must establish one via the diplomacy screen. It is required to share a land border with the faction in question and have an ongoing trade agreement with them. Unfortunately, however, Kong Rong starts surrounded by enemies and factions who are not interested and must expand to find willing trade partners.

Raising armies provides negative bonuses to trade influence, however. Every army raised provides a -35% debuff to trade influence, meaning that simply owning three armies eliminates your ability to conduct trade. Therefore, it is strongly advised to play Kong Rong as a pacifist, diplomatically securing the loyalty of factions and never keeping more than one or two armies raised. Instead of many armies, use your considerable trade power to fund a small but elite military, which should give you the ability to expand militarily, should diplomacy fail.


Playstyle[]

Playing as Kong Rong is a relatively peaceful experience, with him favouring a pacifist playstyle that rewards peaceful trade as well as spreading education and knowledge. For Kong Rong, knowledge is power. His strategy is to seek out information and education to beat the enemy, not stoop to bloodshed as a first resort.

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.

As a master in the art of trade, Kong Rong has two unique ways to further boost his trade influence: by maintaining high population numbers, and with a unique deal in diplomacy that further increases the strength of his web of trade relations.

This means that Kong Rong doesn’t necessarily need to expand very far and can instead ally himself with warlords with more expansive territories by forging lucrative trade agreements and using the resulting wealth to further build up his existing settlements. Large settlements mean more prestige as well as wealth, allowing him to go to war if he must but also enabling him to win the campaign with a relatively few territories under his command if he so chooses.


Starting Situation[]

Rise of the Warlords (190)[]

TW3K Kong Rong 190

190, Kong Rong - Dark Blue, Enemies - Red

The bureaucracy of China can only succeed through the support of education; this is what Kong Rong earnestly believes. He is focused on wisdom and learning, that it might better the people, and the economy – in Qing Province he is establishing schools to rehabilitate the population in the wake of the devastating Yellow Turban rebellions. Now, as chaos consumes China once more, Kong Rong knows that only through knowledge and insight will prosperity prevail once more.

Start: Hard

Kong Rong starts the game in Beihai commandery. He is at war with both the Yellow Turban Rebellion and one of the three Yellow Turban warlords, Huang Shao. Thanks to your loyalty to the Han Empire, your eastern border is relatively peaceful. While Kong Rong's faction focuses on peace and diplomacy, you must get rid of these Yellow Turbans immediately. First, you have a mission to defeat Wang Rao, a local Yellow Turban leader looking to attack you. After that, you must unify Beihai by taking Jimo county. Once that is finished, you have your opportunity to strike west with your small army. Once the Yellow Turbans stand defeated, you can begin trading with neighboring warlords.

Characters

Recruitable by event


A World Betrayed (194)[]

TW3K Kong Rong 194

194, Kong Rong- Dark Blue, Enemies - Red, Enemy Vassals - Orange

The bureaucracy of China can only succeed through the support of education; this is what Kong Rong earnestly believes. He is focused on wisdom and learning, that it might better the people, and the economy – in Qing Province he is establishing schools to rehabilitate the population in the wake of the devastating Yellow Turban rebellions. Now, as chaos consumes China once more, Kong Rong knows that only through knowledge and insight will prosperity prevail once more.

Start: Very Hard

Kong Rong's territory has grown quite a lot since 190, but make no mistake; the faction stands on the brink of collapse. Both Yuan Shao and Yuan Tan have declared war on you. Your army is weak and far from the frontline, while Yuan Tan closes in on your capital city in Beihai commandery with an army much more powerful than your own. You must mobilize quickly if you want a chance to survive. The warlord Liu Bei to the south is very friendly towards you, however, and perhaps you could form an alliance with him.

Characters


Trivia[]

  • In an early build of the game, Kong Rong is one of the faction leader that doesn't have a unique Faction resource. His unique resource was added in a later build and revealed in a livestream one month before the release.


Gallery[]

Reference[]

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