Sometimes you just gotta take over everything :)
You have to play it for awhile to figure out whats going on in the scenerio, possibly even die a few times. Unless youve played dynasty warriors, three kingdoms or read about chinese history already, your gonna be lost.. and most likely uninterested because it seems impossible to ever win.
If your into total domination of a map, and killing officers who turned on you, and reaping the world of eveyone besides those on your side, Go out and get this game, rent it buy it whichever.
High Points: Once your force is going, theres no stopping you. The computer could try to dominate you at every corner, but if you controlled everything at once, there's no way you could loose. You can set the cites under your control to run by themselves, giving them orders to attack, supply another base, hire more people, or build defense in the area.
Low Points: If you did actually run every city the whole time, one game could last you days, maybe even weeks. If your about doing everything yourself and you don't have the time to sit here and make sure everything at your cities are perfect, I highly recommend you renting the game first. Yet , even if you did rent it, I highly doubt you'll actually finish a match by the time you have to send it back without paying overdue charges.