***Total War: Three Kingdoms***

2,210 Views | 21 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by Prime0882
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Anyone play this series of games? This will be my first one to try out and I'm pretty exciting about this one since the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series was one of my favorite historical strategy games growing up.

Currently at work so I can't post the reviews, but the overall reviews have been excellent. Those who have played the game say the campaign is the best yet with two different game modes: Historical and Romance. Romance modes allows the named characters to be "super powered" and plays similar to hero characters in RTS's. Historical mode is more like recent Total War games where your generals can die pretty easily.

A lot of good impressions on the city and empire management side of the game, the campaign is the best yet supposedly, but the tactical side supposedly took a step back from TW: Warhammer 2. Sounds like almost every battle has to be fought by the player as the two sides are generally pretty equal.
Aggie_Journalist
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I've played Total War Warhammer I and II quite a bit and enjoy both games. I haven't played more than an hour or so of any of the historical Total Wars. I picked up ROME II on sale but haven't gotten into it.

Please share your thoughts on 3K when you give it a shot. I'll be curious what you think of it.
Thanks and gig'em
Eliminatus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Huge TW fan and have been for well over a decade. Thousands upon thousands of hours put into them.

BUT

That being said, I would wait a bit if you hadn't bought it yet. You think EA is bad about buggy, horribly balanced games at release....

TW makes fantastic games. You just usually have to wait for them to finish them first. Which historically is NOT before actual release.
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Eliminatus said:

Huge TW fan and have been for well over a decade. Thousands upon thousands of hours put into them.

BUT

That being said, I would wait a bit if you hadn't bought it yet. You think EA is bad about buggy, horribly balanced games at release....

TW makes fantastic games. You just usually have to wait for them to finish them first. Which historically is NOT before actual release.


From what I've read in reviews, this is the most stable launch for a TW game yet. Sounds like the game's months long delay ironed out some of the bugs and experiences you've mentioned.
Madmarttigan
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I've only ever played the warhammer versions but I find myself constantly going back to them though. I don't know if I will be interested in a non fantasy setting though.
BadMoonRisin
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I have played many hours of Total War, but I am still not any good at them.

Luckily, that is not a prerequisite to having fun.
I know I ain't leavin' you like I know He ain't leavin' us
I know we believe in God and I know God believes in us
3rd and 2
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
It's out today. Has anyone played it yet?
.
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Maroon Stormtrooper said:

It's out today. Has anyone played it yet?
Hopefully I'll get a chance to play is this evening after work. The subreddit sounds all excited about it and has had pretty good impressions. They may also be a lot of fanboys who woke up at 3am to play it when it released.
Claude!
How long do you want to ignore this user?
Just don't pursue Lu Bu.
rhutton125
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
So far so good!
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Played last night and I've never really played a Total War series too much (tried TW:Warhammer for a single evening's worth of playtime). Feel like I am getting my ass handed to me, but, I'm not really sure.

Historically, a warlord named Yuan Shao consolidates the majority of the north of China during this time period until his death, and the in-game character guy really lives up to the historical warlord. He conquered or vassalized 1/4th of China within the first 60 turns and set his eyes on me. I ended up negotiating peace with him by agreeing to become his vassal, but with autonomy and a decent payout. I wore my armies out trying to take over another country that was equal to me on troops, but they had a lot more archers. Going to see if I can shore up my armies and try to break away from Yuan Shao in the future since I can wage war against his enemies freely.

The game is fun and I am still trying to figure it out. The whole experience is very smooth and I've yet to see a single hiccup. Sounds like the delay the developers took to work on the game helped a lot.

Since I am newish to the series I think I may be playing too slowly. There are reforms you get every five turns that can unlock spying and a few other abilities. Think I hamstrung myself by not demolishing buildings at a few places I took over to build other buildings required to unlock some of the tech trees. I'm undecided on if tonight I want to start over or just see this first playthrough to the end.
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Ok, so reading the Total War subreddit it sounds like most players are running through the same issues with the Yuan Shao warlord. The AI is doing what it's supposed to do, but, there may be an issue where Yuan Shao has too many economic advantages. Most people are saying the warlord is running around with numerous three stack armies very early in the game and is just wrecking house.

Sounds like the developers are aware that Yuan Shao has become like Civilization's Ghandi and will tweak him a bit in the near future.
Aggie_Journalist
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
After hearing all the great reviews, I bought this last night on Fanatical, which is offering $10 off and the yellow turban DLC for free, in case anyone else is interested.

I'm about to host family and won't be able to play til next weekend, but I'm looking forward to diving in!
Thanks and gig'em
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Looks like Creative Assembly knew what they were doing going with the China/Romance of the Three Kingdoms setting for this game. Total War:3K became a top 20 release on Steam and the biggest launch of Steam's year.

Do not underestimate the Chinese market, or pursue Lu Bu.
Claude!
How long do you want to ignore this user?
I don't think it's just the Chinese market. The Three Kingdoms period has a surprisingly large following in Japan and the West, thanks in part to the various video games of Koei Tecmo that mine the period.
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Claude! said:

I don't think it's just the Chinese market. The Three Kingdoms period has a surprisingly large following in Japan and the West, thanks in part to the various video games of Koei Tecmo that mine the period.
You're right... I know I've been interested ever since playing a NES game as a kid called Destiny of an Emperor, and then the Romance of the Three Kingdoms game on SNES (RoTK IV). I've personally not met too many of people who know of the novels and time period the games are set in, but, I do know it's got a much bigger following than I've realized after searching a few things over the weekend.

For those interested, John Woo made a movie on the battle of Red Cliff that's pretty good. I've been reading something on the Total War subreddit about a TV series about the period made in 1994 and another in 2010 that I may need to check out.
Eliminatus
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Finally got a few hours in and I don't know what it is exactly, but I would rather be playing the other TW's. Aside from the UI, which I really dislike, I can't quite put my finger on it but it seems....meh. I played a few rounds of Three kingdoms, then booted up Shogun 2 for a comparison to figure out why I wasn't jiving with TK. Still don't know and I ended up playing Shogun for almost 8 hours straight. I then switched to Napoleon and yeah, it's gonna take some time I imagine before I put more hours into TK.

I don't dislike it, but I do prefer the other TWs to it and I know that's on me, but it is what it is. I'll venture back to it but I can say with certainty that it did NOT grab me from the get go. Like literally every other TW to date.
JW
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
It's good. Warhammer spoiled on unit types though. The diplomacy is pretty good.
Madmarttigan
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I just can't imagine after playing warhammer so
Much that I would enjoy this setting so haven't bothered to buy this one.
rhutton125
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
I've completed one campaign (Gongsun Zan) and I'm about 2/3 through another (Gong Du, one of the Yellow Turban DLC leaders), so I thought I'd chime in with some thoughts. Side note, these characters might not be the best two to start with. They're both a little generic, and neither has a unique resource to mix things up. Also, I missed Gongsun Zan's "initial dilemma," I think because I'd beaten my first opponent before Yuan Shao could mix things up with an inticing offer.


- there isn't a ton of unit variety, from what I've seen. Spear, sword, bow, cavalry. There are other axe units, or rare Black Mountain Bandits and things like that. Gongsun Zan had some white horse cavalry, but they were expensive, and maybe by the time I could have been using them, he was dead.

- the Yellow Turban units/commanders are weird. There's a lot more unit variety, but I'm not sure what levels you have to be to recruit them, etc., so I'm mostly doing auto-resolve.

- the battles themselves have all been pretty tense. I'm able to turn a "valiant defeat" to a "close victory," mostly with a few good cavalry units or a Vanguard to go mess things up.

- the campaign feels to me to be about 25% too long. My first campaign took maybe 30 hours to complete. I could beat a Shogun 2 campaign in ~20. My GZ campaign was a mess, and even though I'd conquered 1/4 of China, to get to the other 2 emperors I would either have to keep invading other factions or just blitzkrieg. I opted to blitzkrieg. It was messy and frustrating but eventually I won.

- My Yellow Turban campaign has been slow and methodical. I own about 1/4 of China at the moment, and have managed to stay out of wars that I didn't want to be involved in. The 3 emperor seats aren't very conveniently located, but I've systematically built up my economy to a point to where I should be able to make a push and defeat whatever armies I need to on my way to glory.


Overall, it's a lot of fun, but it seems to be slower / take longer than I'd want. I'd also like to play a character like Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao or Dong Zhuo with a unique resource, to change up my play style. The two guys I've played so far have been kind of boring, with a military unit or structure or two, and that's about it. So part of this may be on me.

Like it a lot, but will be taking a break before campaign #3. But I shall return, which is more than I ever wanted after Rome 2's 50-hour campaign. Never went back. (I've beaten Shogun 2 about 8 times, probably)
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
rhutton125 said:

I've completed one campaign (Gongsun Zan) and I'm about 2/3 through another (Gong Du, one of the Yellow Turban DLC leaders), so I thought I'd chime in with some thoughts. Side note, these characters might not be the best two to start with. They're both a little generic, and neither has a unique resource to mix things up. Also, I missed Gongsun Zan's "initial dilemma," I think because I'd beaten my first opponent before Yuan Shao could mix things up with an inticing offer.
Since Cao Cao, Sun Jian, and Liu Bei were the three main figures in the Romance saga/actual history, they do seem to be the most interesting warlord to play as so far.

Cao Cao is interesting since he can create proxy wars between factions pretty easily. My first playthrough had me abusing diplomacy and the proxy war system to keep heat off my kingdom and weaken some of the major players.

Liu Bei will be my next playthrough, but, I've been waiting for a patch or two to calm down Yuan Shao from vassalizing everyone and to hopefully get some of the major generals who are recruited through events to pop more often. I know Zhao Yun, who first served under Gongsun Zan, is now supposed to pop more often during a Liu Bei campaign (which would be historically accurate).

I may wait a hot minute to see if mods fix some of these issues. I'd be really interested to see a historically accurate playthrough be able to be possible via mods in the future.
rhutton125
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
Good points. I saw a Beta of a Yuan Shao fix. Thankfully, he hasn't been too much of a beast in my two playthroughs. I'd actually love to play as him, but he starts so close to Gongsun Zan that maybe I should pick someone more in the middle of the map.

The map is just so damn big. You could (theoretically) play as Sun Jian and just go south, never really bumping into anyone of note until you've got 15 commanderies. But I guess that's the point of the dilemmas, forcing you into conflict with Liu Biao or something like that.
Prime0882
How long do you want to ignore this user?
AG
rhutton125 said:

Good points. I saw a Beta of a Yuan Shao fix. Thankfully, he hasn't been too much of a beast in my two playthroughs. I'd actually love to play as him, but he starts so close to Gongsun Zan that maybe I should pick someone more in the middle of the map.

The map is just so damn big. You could (theoretically) play as Sun Jian and just go south, never really bumping into anyone of note until you've got 15 commanderies. But I guess that's the point of the dilemmas, forcing you into conflict with Liu Biao or something like that.
Playing Sun Jian like that would be pretty historically accurate. He took over a huge swath southern China while Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Yuan Shao fought in the north.

The big issue with Sun Jian is there are a lot of resource poor commandaries in the south, which would probably make me want to branch west and into central China to increase my income (which would also be historically accurate). Think Sun Jian mostly fought it out with a few warlords in the south before going at it with Liu Biao, Yuan Shu, and later Liu Bei.
Refresh
Page 1 of 1
 
×
subscribe Verify your student status
See Subscription Benefits
Trial only available to users who have never subscribed or participated in a previous trial.