Is it good?

[Ludicus]

Can easily spend 10 minutes planning the moves, the diplomacy, city managements etc before ending the turn

This

[Iskar]

^ +1

It is indeed very polished. I spend ages plotting my next campaign moves as well, which is great fun. Enemies still pose a reasonable challenge and usually send well balanced armies, which is not something one could say of every TW game. Battle AI is also rather decent for a vanilla release version. They try to bombard, flank, pin down. I even encountered them holding back their infantry until their archers had set my defensive towers ablaze. I still won the battle with heavy losses but I was amazed the AI can do such a sensible thing.

Garrisons are well balanced as well, in that they are more than capable of fending off minor incursions but easily falter in the face of proper armies, not like the crazy garrisons in Attila that could fend off two full stacks with 50 men losses in toto.

[LestaT]

I have to add that managing expectations and satisfactions of the characters is very satisfying, sometimes causing personal dilemma like having legendary character who like you but somehow did not get along with another commander that you like, having survive hardship and battles together. It's a kind of problem that somehow adds to the fun on the game.

I have released legendary character because I believe keeping him will cause much trouble in the future only to realize that my action caused many more discontent with other neutral character.

I have released (dicorced) my wife because she did not like my best buddy and my heir (since I marry off my first heir to another faction) then later to find my wife became a general of my enemy (she's a good non legendary strategist).

My verdict is that this is a game where I can finally create my own romance of the three kingdoms.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

This was one of the few times I've ever won a Total War campaign.
As Liu Bei, I stayed around my home territory for most of the campaign, fighting largely defensively. For the longest time, I was stuck in between two dominant factions, Cao Cao's Duchy of Wei, and Yuan Shao's group of vassals. Meanwhile, after I sailed up the Yellow River and rescued the Emperor from Dong Zhou, I founded the Yellow River Coalition with Kong Rong, adding a third power to the mix.
Cao Cao and Yuan Shao went to war, and apparently unlike everyone else's campaign, in mine, Cao Cao won easily, crushing Yuan Shao and all of his vassals. Except Gongsun Zan, who betrayed Yuan Shao, joined the Yellow River Coalition, and scooped up much of the territory across the Yellow River that Cao Cao hadn't taken.
Around this time, Cao Cao declared himself Emperor, and founded his Imperial Seat in Ye. Here's where it got slightly confusing. Gongsun Zan went to war with Cao Cao, and took the Imperial Seat of Ye, declaring himself Emperor.
In response to this, Cao Cao then formed a second Imperial Seat, in Chen. And then, Im not exactly sure how or when, but Cao Cao came into control of a third Imperial Seat in Lujiang.
Then, in an odd twist, Cao Cao abdicated to Gongsun Zan. Meaning, all of a sudden, Gongsun Zan controlled all three Imperial Seats, preventing any other faction from proclaiming themselves Emperor.
After some treachery from the Sun family (I killed Sun Ren and Sun Ce, and then vassalized their father. He was unhappy with the arrangement, and rebelled. So I killed him as well. And then his wife. Finally made peace with Sun Quan.) I ended up at war with the Kingdom of Yan.
This war was very brutal, mostly taking place back and forth across the Yellow River. My allies did much of the fighting while I was simply conquering undefended settlements in central China. The final year of my campaign saw the most important event happen. The false Emperor of Yan was killed in battle, and his heir was too young to take over. A regent took over, a violent, near barbaric woman. But, she was almost immediately slain in battle in the next season, which led to a second regent taking over. This man was cowardly and appeasing to larger powers. Seeing his situation going downhill fast, he betrayed his young Emperor and abdicated to me, instantly giving me the seats necessary to win the campaign.
What I found so interesting about this is that I am pretty sure I won this campaign purely because the enemy emperor died and the one who took over was so cowardly he gave up immediately. In every other campaign I've ever played in Total War, that sort of reaction would never happen. Im pretty amazed and impressed with this. This is a massive step forwards in the Total War series.

[Kraut]

I still have to get used to the UI (in feel it is too cluttered), but then, the game is really promising.
Campaign feels deep, diplomacy has many Options, and the graphics, both campaign map and battle landscapes, are just.. beautiful!

[Dacadey]

- Best total war campaign ever with a lot of depth and interesting choices, far better diplomacy, court, espionage, etc
- Worst total war tutorial ever (I seriously suggest you find a tutorial video on Youtube and watch it since the game is so poorly explained)
- Middle of the road battles, they look nice and polished but quite aracadey, I found the campaign far more enjoyable
- Phenomenal music
- Beautiful but a bit confusing UI

Overall very fun, I would say 8/10, and hopefully will get higher with the upcoming patches and DLC content.

[chilon]

First Total War game I've been able to really get into in a decade. I wanted to like Shogun 2 but for some reason that game just didn't draw me in. Ditto for Rome 2. And Warhammer with all the fantasy elements was not interesting to me at all.

But I love this one and I can see myself playing it on and off for years to come.

[AstroCat]

I've been playing since Shogun, modding and playing all through years. For me Three Kingdoms is fun, playing Romance mode first then I'll try Records. The Campaign side so far is one of the best yet, it's not a Paradox game but it's got a lot more depth and TONS of flavor, good for the rpg moments.

[Leonardo]

Thread re-opened after cleaning. Please, stay on topic Gents.

[Elmar]

So far, though it has some very good points, I am not too impressed.

The UI somehow manages to be both cluttered yet also hide the information I am looking for deeper than ever.
As for unit balance (and I have to admit it's been quite a while since I played any TW Vanilla) but the TW "feel" is not there.
Whomever let those towers slip through was smoking the good stuff. With their range and firepower it is a bloodbath to assault a town against all but the most token of defences. It is absurd.
I am still quite early in the campaign but troop selection and the retinue system feels extremely limiting. Nor is the path to getting upgrades very intuitive.

One thing bothering me is entirely not the games fault but the Chinese names are both confusing and meaningless to me. If Takeda Shingen declares war on me, I know enough to go "Oh bugger" but when Shen Yuang does it, I have no clue how worried I should be. Not helped by the existence of Shin Jiuang or whatever other quite similar name is out there. Sorry China, I'm sure your history is amazing and undeserving of my ignorance. But I am really struggling to have any name, be it person, town, or province, mean anything to me.

I do like the diplomacy a lot though. It gives you so many more deal making options and information. I love mixing and matching an acceptable deal together. Once again, the UI could stand to be a bit better but it is workable.

I am sure with me growing more knowledgable about this game's idiosyncrasies, the lore of China and above all a good mod I will enjoy this game more. But right now I, a total War fan of literal day one, am not enjoying myself. It is the hardest time I have ever had with any Total War game.

[Cool13]

Guys,i wanted to ask you some things about the game.

Currently there is only one campaign,right? Is it story based (like vortex in WH2) or sandbox? You select between 3 lords? What are the goals and the short and long campaign victories for each one of them?

Do you consider this game better than Warhammer 2? I read many possitives about the diplomancy,so for sure that part is better,but how about the rest?

[LestaT]

Guys,i wanted to ask you some things about the game.

Currently there is only one campaign,right? Is it story based (like vortex in WH2) or sandbox? You select between 3 lords? What are the goals and the short and long campaign victories for each one of them?

Do you consider this game better than Warhammer 2? I read many possitives about the diplomancy,so for sure that part is better,but how about the rest?

There are 2 campaigns, Records and Romance and the difference if minimal where in Romance you'll have single heroes or generals while Records the generals will have bodyguards like in traditional Total War games. Records is more slower paced in battles where fatigue plan an important factor. Some events may be different in both campaigns as Records mode is based of the historical Records of the Three Kingdom written a generation after the event whike Romance mode is based on historical fiction novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms written a thousand years after the events.

There are basically 3 stages of the game where you can select any of the 11 characters to play as (12 after you unlock the big Dong, 15 if you have the Yellow Turban DLC. The early stages are like other Totak War games where you build up your influence and forces, making alliences and enemies until you reach the rank of Duke.

The second part is to become a King where you can declare to be an Emperor, where 2 other contenders will also declare themselves emperors. This is the formation of the Three Kingdoms period.

The final part is to defeat the other 2 emperors so that you can declare yourself the Emperor of China under your own dynasty.

There are missions and dilemma where you can follow to choose the historical way or choose to go your own way. It's still a Total War sandbox to its core.

[Cool13]

Ok thanks. So in the end it will always lead to defeat the other two Emperors.

[Yerevan]

Anybody reached the endgame yet ? Is it fun and decisive as FOTS's endgame for instance ? I find the 3 kingdoms fighting each other scenario intriguing, but can't it lead to an endless stale ?

[SirAndrean]

Anybody reached the endgame yet ? Is it fun and decisive as FOTS's endgame for instance ? I find the 3 kingdoms fighting each other scenario intriguing, but can't it lead to an endless stale ?

Hi, i have played into the late game in my various campaign. There are few things i find quite interesting:1. After the three kingdom era kick in, diplomacy is still workable. You can forge new alliance and even work with other emperor to fight the other emperor2. Some of the smaller faction still try to preserve their independent and doesn't instantly become vassal of the three emperors3. You doesn't need to conquer every last settlement of the other emperor. You reduce their strength and ask them to abdicate. If he/she agree, you will confederate them.4. If other smaller faction take one of the emperor seat, he/she become emperor, and the seat become his/her new capital.5. if you have vassal, do not forget to set war target for them. if not, they will send their army to guard the emperor seat (your capital).