Three Kingdoms begins in 190 CE with Han China collapsing and the infant emperor imprisoned by the tyrant Dong Zhou. The individuals in Three Kingdoms are real, but I'm pretty sure Liu Bei couldn't single-handedly kill 90 archers.
The closest comparison might be if a Total War set in sixth century England had King Arthur, Mordred and Excalibur. The game is as much an adaption of the fourteenth century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms as an attempt to recreate China as it existed in the second and third centuries. This shift from the player as a state to the player as an individual character is possible because Three Kingdoms has shifted Total War's focus away from history and towards romance. You've got armies and generals and territories, but they won't protect you from a cavalry charge. In Three Kingdoms you’re Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Yuan Shao or another individual in ancient China. In earlier Total War games you were Rome, France or Oda depending on the game’s time period and geographic span. For those experienced with Total War, the most disorienting changes in Three Kingdoms will be the intense focus on individuals above states or armies. Three Kingdoms is the best historical strategy game in a very long series, and certainly the most dramatic and personal.įamily members die, generals defect, courtiers hate one another, and the daughter you married to an allied warlord will reappear in a decade as an enemy general. You're a warlord in a shattered kingdom, and every campaign begins with the same instruction: China must be united. When two opposing armies fight, players command units in real time. The campaign is divided into two layers: players build towns, recruit soldiers, declare war and move armies across a map of China each turn. Total War: Three Kingdoms is a historical strategy game set during China's Three Kingdoms period. She assumes command in tragic, desperate circumstances in 201 CE she will march back to Yangzhou to duel the rebel who killed her son and become my greatest general. The only candidate has no military experience and has never left court: Lady Bian, the boy's mother. Cao Ang commanded a third of the defeated army, and without a substitute general his retinue will disband. Though my son was not a great commander or, obviously, duelist, his death is a tragedy for my whole faction. My defeated army escaped, but He Yi challenged Cao Ang to a duel and personally killed my son. At Yangzhou they were mauled by a massive army of peasant rebels led by the Yellow Turban He Yi. Xiahou’s army was the best I had: disciplined troops, carefully selected and commanded by heroes. Cao Ang led a small retinue in General Xiahou Yuan’s army. My eldest son died horribly at the Battle of Yangzhou in 198 CE.