New Historical total war era - Total War: Three Kingdoms!

[Huberto]

You're asking if its really necessary that two generals getting close to each other in the heat of the battle would desire and go for the other general's kill? Sigh...

I'm trying to understand why it's so important "in the heat of battle" to know where my specific heroes are...in other words, the need to track them in battle suggests that heroes play a much larger role in "Classic Mode" 3K than generals do in a typical Total War game. As far as dueling goes, yes dueling matched combat seems silly unless it's quite clear in the historical record that it happened frequently enough to include it in game.

[Daruwind]

How often in other TWs you are using general unit as front line? I don´t know how you play but I usually don´t commit general unless I need to ie. very beginning of campaign, usually he camps behind a few lines of warrior and usually I use him in cavalry unit to pursue fleeing enemy because I usually prefer skills like +% to army movement, higher morale etc. not combat oriented skills for general´s bodyguards. If you don´t want duel, simply keep distance with your general. It is same like charging general on horse into formation of pikemen...not good idea. Or if you have like in Shogun 2 general with skills in fighting why not use it to kill enemy commander?

And as CA stated, you have up to three commanders in battle (per army) each one commanding a few units...like 5-6-7? Normally when you use commander the army suffer morale penalty, here it will be only for the part of army. Still three more generals instead of one. So the penalty is overall lesser but it is easier to lose one of them if they are at the same time on different parts of battlefield..

[Huberto]

And as CA stated, you have up to three commanders in battle (per army) each one commanding a few units...like 5-6-7? Normally when you use commander the army suffer morale penalty, here it will be only for the part of army. Still three more generals instead of one. So the penalty is overall lesser but it is easier to lose one of them if they are at the same time on different parts of battlefield..

This is a major change from previous games and might be good or not good, but we don't really understand how it will work (or at least I don't). Subcommanders make make more sense if they are "fighting units" unless they are part of 30-40 unit stacks armies and then you can hold back from committing your "hero." If it's the unusal twenty stack army it means that your heroes will play the role of core elite fighting units. Except that: you will have to track them individually on the battlefield not only to keep them out of trouble but (I'm assuming) because of certain special abilities including how they'd behave in a duel.

Just FYI I am desperate for Total War to move away from the 20 unit stack as a basic army. Especially since this is ancient China.

[Daruwind]

We already saw how it works and CA also explained some of it. There were nothing about unit limit but looking at UI there is space for like 10 units per commander..Each commander has access to different special units or formations(or more likely cavalry general will be able to recruit better/more cavalry units and unlock advance formations for them like diamond insted of wedge?..), if you lose him, his part of army will suffer morale penalty and probably withdraw. My interpretation is that according to Hero´s skills or traits some will be more campaign oriented, some probably fighters...it is like in Warhammer. You have usually multiple Heroes and Lords per army and some can fight and some like casters are more fragile. (but that´s nothing new, I had great fighters in Shogun 2 and great campaign oriented generals in almost any TW..). You will probably need your hero near his troops to boost morale maybe unlock the formations or special abilities.

And honestly especially in Shogun 2 I had many battles with multiple generals. Imagine if you have two armies in battles, you cannot no longer put all infantry,all archers together. Nope, you keep them with their respective commander like in reallity, because they are train together in these smaller groups. For me this finally sounds more like true battle when you have multiple characters taking control of flanks, center, reserves...you cannot depend on single super character/general but must take into account advantages of all your commanders. This one is great horse master, let´s use him for flanking with cavalry...and so and so :-)

Point is, in all historical TWs having multiple generals (from two armies or just due to beginning of campaign and thus using them in one bigger army) is almost for nothing, superior general is usually like thx for reinforcement bro, you can go before something kills you cya.... WHs changed agents into battle useful characters as well and this is for me natural evolution so all generals are important. :-)

[Daruwind]

CA released new video http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post15643954

And I noticed a few things.
1) Cavalry has wedge and Diamont formations

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2) we got a veiw of campaign map. Looks like Korea and Taiwan are on the edge of screen but especially South Korea seems little bare...probably not playable?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[captainkrunch]

Trailer looks fantastic, super hyped.

Bit dissapointed that it seems that cavalry only have 60 men per unit, was hoping they would go back to 80 cavalry per unit for this game.

[Daruwind]

Trailer looks fantastic, super hyped.

Bit dissapointed that it seems that cavalry only have 60 men per unit, was hoping they would go back to 80 cavalry per unit for this game.

I counted 76 +/- in one diamond so probably 80. You can try it yourself! Just to make sure..

[captainkrunch]

You know I might just be bad at counting. I thought I counted a little over 60 so I rounded down as I thought I over counted.

Maybe 75 Cavalry per unit? Or just 80.

[zoner16]

Love the atmosphere, love the music, love the fact that CA have decided that colors exist and that's a good thing, because being a historical game shouldn't mean that you're washed out and dull.

But good God, please get some actual Chinese voice actors, because between the mispronunciations and that horrible forced accent I want to bang my head on a wall.

[perifanosEllinas]

This Sun Jian video was like the final nail in the coffin for me. Now I've completely lost interest for this game. The fantasy aesthetics for the campaign map are now officially confirmed (it totally looks like a warhammer map), the totally arcade gameplay and mechanics in battle, the awful spidermen from Shogun 2 are back, the cartoony animations (the grasshopper horses immediately come to mind, as do the soldiers flying all over the battlefield from a charge), having a fictional / fantasy campaign as the default one in a supposedly "historical" game, false advertisement, making it extremely character-centric, no blood, cringeworthy voice acting and lines, playing as a character instead of as a faction (clan), this game is not about building your empire but about building your character's relationships etc.

Well, this game is definitely not for me. In fact, the more CA reveals about three kingdoms, the more interested I become in Imperator Rome.

[PointOfViewGun]

This Sun Jian video was like the final nail in the coffin for me. Now I've completely lost interest for this game. The fantasy aesthetics for the campaign map are now officially confirmed (it totally looks like a warhammer map), the totally arcade gameplay and mechanics in battle, the awful spidermen from Shogun 2 are back, the cartoony animations (the grasshopper horses immediately come to mind, as do the soldiers flying all over the battlefield from a charge), having a fictional / fantasy campaign as the default one in a supposedly "historical" game, false advertisement, making it extremely character-centric, no blood, cringeworthy voice acting and lines, playing as a character instead of as a faction (clan) etc. Well, this game is definitely not for me.

What part of the map is fantasy?

[Polemaios]

Meet Sun Jian:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Daruwind]

hey guys, lot info in video thread : http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post15645996

-new Ambush video from TW 3K demo, looks like the ambushed force can force retreat if they manage to reach "extraction point", there is good look at how each general provide a few active/passive abilities plus how units have a few formations available.
-new look at campaign map with regions

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-no agents, everything is in characters, unit abilities, unit recruitment, formations. Character focus (spy,duels,social system between characters)
-New campaign spy mechanics, let enemy using character on their turn to get spy access on yours? Like dual character...opening gates,lowering trade income, incite civil war. (character getting like cover for supporting enemy while getting uncover for all these backstabbing action..basically there is like general´s pool for all factions where they can recruit new generals/people for goverment, player can decide to put his loyal character there to be picked up by AI and used to get access to his spying..)
-inter-character relationship, family tree, social system (tracking loyalty system, relationship between characters...actions harder for characters not liking each other etc..), character´s death permanent, friends might get like mourning cooldown period, friends get buffs if in the same battle (morale etc.), Character getting loaylty according to player actions....warlike won´t like to peaceful etc, will lower his loyalty...being honest....
-campaign ..Taiwan + Korea,seems like more seasons, day light cycle (just visual effect)
-navigable rivers,trading, confirmed no naval battles by CA :/
-province system no idea...sems like minor settlement + walled major...maybe like ToB or like Shogun 2 or something new
-11 playable warlords, faction specific mechanics, not level of WH ...not so different
-quest battle but no teleport ..at the end of some story chain,dilema chain something...

-if you want artillery for example it is about getting right commander and getting him properly into your faction.
-if zou dare to look how formation, abilities looks like Very WH abilities ..some of them..

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-MilkCookiesTW, 8months before release ...that´s like March-April 2019, collisions, animations still not finished

-21 units per army max (3 subcommanders + 3x6 units)

[ParthianWarrior]

I'm still waiting to hear if CA will explore foreign factions/different ethnic groups either through entirely playable factions or recruitable units/mercenaries. Something tells me they are avoiding the issue altogether due to the China market, but hopefully not.

[Ngazi]

Subcommanders are most likely just fixed unit groups. Instead of being able to use 1-10, you will have to use your subcommanders.

[captainkrunch]

I saw unit groups being used so that isn't the case. Standard numbered groups, it takes you out of the Commanders group and into a seprate numbered one. I think it was in Indypride/MilkandcookiesTW's video where I saw it.

[Polemaios]

Sun Ren's battle abilities and her trait/campaign ability:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Some photos from day one of Gamescom which i've found:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Three Kingdoms won the Best Strategy Game category at the event.

[Polemaios]

Sun Quan:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[LestaT]

This is a major change from previous games and might be good or not good, but we don't really understand how it will work (or at least I don't). Subcommanders make make more sense if they are "fighting units" unless they are part of 30-40 unit stacks armies and then you can hold back from committing your "hero." If it's the unusal twenty stack army it means that your heroes will play the role of core elite fighting units. Except that: you will have to track them individually on the battlefield not only to keep them out of trouble but (I'm assuming) because of certain special abilities including how they'd behave in a duel.

Just FYI I am desperate for Total War to move away from the 20 unit stack as a basic army. Especially since this is ancient China.

It's 21 per stack now. 3 general with max 6 retinue.

[Polemaios]

Meet Gan Ning and Zhou Yu:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: