It’s a great way to depict a proud, ageing warlord working tirelessly to leave behind a lasting legacy.Īs far as the new units go, while there’s nothing as dramatic as the Furious Wild’s elephants, tigers, and flamethrowers, there’s still a few additions with some great specific utility and morale-related traits. Liu Yan’s early game is all about trade-offs and challenges, making the game more difficult to unlock powerful bonuses for your faction heir. Liu Yan’s campaign is all about grassroots empire building, evoking Crusader Kings in its dynasty focused approach. I mentioned this feeling of having the early game completely skipped for Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, so it’s interesting that Fates Divided third campaign addition takes pretty much the opposite approach. At least until the point in my Yuan Shao campaign when my military ally Liu Bei spent some of his own IF to increase mine, causing the Emperor to reduce my entire faction army upkeep by 30% for ten whole turns, solidifying my place as a comically unstoppable juggernaut. Imperial Favour can be powerful, and certainly a deterrent to wanton sacking, but felt more of a flavour change than anything.
The fact I was still having a great time is a testament to how entertaining it is to navigate the state of China in 200 CE. The fact that you practically start at mid-game is a huge factor too, obviously, but it didn’t take long in either campaign before I was untouchably powerful. The new Imperial Favour and Northern Army mechanics, plus the new faction bonuses, mean the inevitable mid-game steamroll seems to hit harder than ever. Don’t do this unless you’re new to Total War. I haven’t quite worked out all the nuances of Cao Cao’s schemes because, perhaps foolishly, I played on normal mode. There’s a lot there, from granting an army movement points to increasing an enemy armies upkeep cost. Schemes themselves can affect individual characters, armies, and both Cao Cao’s own and other factions. Credibility is, somewhat initially confusingly, both gained and lost by enacting certain schemes, and can also be traded as a resource. I can’t talk about schemes, of course, without mentioning Cao Cao and his new resource termed credibility. Again, it’s all geared towards fine-tuning your faction to specialise and roleplay. The faction level up, too, now gives you points to allocate among extra trade agreements, administrators etc, instead of fixed increases. These range from the highly situational – character skill tree resets – to overhauls that could drastically change how your territory is run, like reducing industry and commerce income for a big boost to that from peasantry. The Faction Council – which previously offered a few light quests – now lets you invoke your current council members once a year, and pay for up to five powerful schemes. Namely, the Faction Council and Faction Level Up systems. It’s this welcome flexibility that extends to Three Kingdom’s core updates, too. Earlier buffs might be additions to attack rate or weapon strength, but later include things like Stalk and Unbreakable, allowing you to create custom retinues that excel at specific battlefield roles.
Yuan Shao’s new faction mechanic is The Captain Armory, a menu that allows you to use a resource called Lineage to confer buffs and bonuses to generic captain retinues. As in Three Kingdoms history, you’re given a 100% success chance to bring the god of war into the fold. You can, of course, just ignore these missions completely for a more sandbox approach, although I would suggest you at least engage Guan Yu as Cao Cao in the first turn. Perhaps the difference in railroading and leading the player along a gripping narrative is just a matter of deft application, and Yuan Shao’s early campaign, especially, pulls this off wonderfully. Sun Ce’s opening gambits in A World Betrayed felt railroaded, but despite similar direction, I never got that feeling here. Missions that put emphasis on choke points and river crossing, brought to life with flavour text that gives a real sense of a conflict unfolding.Īnd yet, none of this felt on-rails to me. Missions with big, useful rewards that task you with taking key locations in a way that makes both narrative and tactical sense.
Saying the 200 CE start is both a good introduction to Three Kingdoms and offers more complicated opening turns might sound like a contradiction, but missions bridge that gap here.
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