The strategic mastermind Cao Cao, for instance, can build up political influence, and use it to instigate proxy wars between other factions, letting them fight each other for a while before you enter the fray to clean up the weakened forces.
Special, randomized items called Ancillaries can be equipped on your generals and political figures for bonuses, or traded away for money or during diplomatic negotiations.ĭepending on what faction you play as, you might have some faction-specific diplomatic tricks up your sleeve as well. You can also arrange marriages between other factions and members of your faction leader's family, and you will even need to take into account whether the bride and groom like each other if you want to avoid trouble down the road. However, offering up a large donation of cash and some regular food shipments will change that number, letting you tweak a deal such that both parties can get what they want. One small but useful addition is a number that represents the feelings of another faction about a proposed deal – for instance, offering a peace treaty when you're losing will result in a negative number, indicating the enemy won't go for it. The diplomacy system has been revamped and is much improved over past games, allowing for far more flexible and interesting wheeling and dealing than ever before. To facilitate the complicated political landscape, Three Kingdoms provides a significant shake-up to how the grand-strategy side of the Total War formula plays out. Though the specifics of each faction type are a bit different – for example, governor factions are still loyal to the weakened Han Empire, while coalition factions are not – the ultimate goal remains the same: try and become powerful enough for your faction leader to become the new emperor of China and reunite the divided nation.
You can also unlock and play as the tyrant Dong Zhou himself. As a player, you can choose to enter the fray as one of twelve factions, which are divided up between coalition, governor and outlaw types.
The game does a decent job of introducing new ideas, and has a clever function that lets you put on a UI overlay with tooltips for everything, but there is a lot to take in and it's an appreciable learning curve nonetheless. The game is absolutely massive with a lot of depth to the point that it is somewhat intimidating to approach, even for Total War veterans.
TOTAL WAR THREE KINGDOMS REVIEW SERIES
Just as significant is how Three Kingdoms bucks the trend of streamlining that has been occurring in the series for a while now. Total War Three Kingdoms allows you to step into the shoes of these warlords, at which point you can attempt to follow or upset history after the factually founded starting conditions that see Dong Zhou taking control. With no clear centralized ruler, various factions led by opportunistic warlords fought and schemed to gain power and unite China under new leadership. China at the end of the 2nd century was a divided empire, as the fall of the Han dynasty following a rebellion left power in the hands of a corrupt and tyrannical leader Dong Zhuo, whose eventual assassination sent the country in an extended period of political turmoil and civil war. This works much like a simplified version of Civilization, but since the gameplay emphasis is very different that’s in no way a negative.One major aspect of Three Kingdoms that greatly enriches the experience is the setting. You can play the whole game from here if you like, constructing buildings, training troops, and taking diplomatic and personal decisions. Three Kingdoms uses the same basic set-up as all the main Total War titles, with overall control of your armies taking place on a turn-based strategic map. For years now Total War has been increasing the influence and importance of individual generals and leaders and the Three Kingdoms period presents the prefect way to humanise every battle and have it be more than just an abstract game of toy soldiers. There are three major factions, with a clear goal to reunite the country, but also dozens of smaller factions and hundreds of colourful and interesting characters to meet along the way. This is the first time the Total War series has ever dealt with China in any major way and it’s immediately obvious that the setting is perfect for the franchise.
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