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- Void of Observation
I feel like, now that this has completed development, that I should pick it up, if not for how much I love ROTK and my recent interest in strategy games.
Total War Three Kingdoms
- Thread starter VolantRedX
- Start date
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It was absolutely worth it. It has the best diplomacy systems of any TW game to date, frankly better than all of the rest of them combined (though Troy took some good parts as befitting being the newest title).
They unfortunately kind of fumbled their DLC strategy and missed what people truly wanted in a lot of cases post-launch and it's getting left in a slightly awkward spot (Cao Cao is permanently fucking busted because he has the newest DLC) but there's still a lot to love.
You can get some very diverse playstyles still too, depending on DLC and start date.
Want a frantic war against everyone with one elite doomstack that can't cover all of the territory you need to? Play Lu Bu.
Want to sit back and develop territory mostly free of local rivals until you snowball into a behemoth? Play Sun Jian (or Cao Cao in the Mandate campaign and stay south).
Want to run horse circles around everyone? Play Ma Teng.
Want to consolidate your rule over China with an iron fist? Play Dong Zhuo.
Want to basically never have to go to war and instead just literally buy China? Play Kong Rong.
Addicted to saying 'keikaku doori'? Play Cao Cao.
Sick of all of these people with good press and want to subjugate China starting from nothing? Play Zheng Jiang (she has one of the most fun campaigns and she's in the top 3 of strongest heroes in the entire game).
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Kong Rong report, Turn 134
I hit King this turn, which kicked off the Three Kingdoms separation, and so I figured it was a reasonable time to take a break/update progress. Only Wu beat me to it and I wasn't even trying very hard, since stability works in my favor. Wu and Yan split off from the coalition while I stuck with the reformed Han Empire, as Liu Bei had the Puppet Emperor and abdicated back to him (after I went through all the effort to eliminate them as a faction right before Liu Bei took the last Dong territory!).
I'm sitting in Rank 5, with the 3 Emperors ahead of me and Zhurong in 4, who just confederated Shamoke and triggered the "Southern Lands" united. No big deal, I was about to wardec her in a couple turns anyway.
Since the last update, I had steadily been eating my way west. First through Liu Biao & Liu Cheng's coalition, then through Gong Du and the remnants of the Han. Right around then Yuan Shao broke MA and declared on me with all of his vassals in a mindbogglingly dumb move. Gongsun Zan jumped him soon in retaliation. I buzzsawed my way through his territory soon after, nicely cleaning up the borders in the central plains. (I also held off killing his last territory way in the north until Gongsun Zan did it and so didn't eat the faction hatred and now he's also in my court after his faction blew up.) I then peaced and vassalized his former vassals Ma Teng and Gongsun Kang. Afterwards, I briefly kicked Liu Yan in the teeth in order to vassalize him and roughly here we are. During all of this, I've been steadily buying off territory from the 3 big kingdoms and either keeping it (mainly in the case of Luoyang because it's going to be so rich once I finish developing it back up), releasing vassals, or holding it to use as a foothold to buy more territory. Every 10 turns, the wallet of Kong opens and more of China becomes mine.
Ideally I can hold off taking part in any of the soon to come wars and just keep buying up territory until I can get deepstrike forces in place to take all 3 capitals at once.
I hit King this turn, which kicked off the Three Kingdoms separation, and so I figured it was a reasonable time to take a break/update progress. Only Wu beat me to it and I wasn't even trying very hard, since stability works in my favor. Wu and Yan split off from the coalition while I stuck with the reformed Han Empire, as Liu Bei had the Puppet Emperor and abdicated back to him (after I went through all the effort to eliminate them as a faction right before Liu Bei took the last Dong territory!).
I'm sitting in Rank 5, with the 3 Emperors ahead of me and Zhurong in 4, who just confederated Shamoke and triggered the "Southern Lands" united. No big deal, I was about to wardec her in a couple turns anyway.
Since the last update, I had steadily been eating my way west. First through Liu Biao & Liu Cheng's coalition, then through Gong Du and the remnants of the Han. Right around then Yuan Shao broke MA and declared on me with all of his vassals in a mindbogglingly dumb move. Gongsun Zan jumped him soon in retaliation. I buzzsawed my way through his territory soon after, nicely cleaning up the borders in the central plains. (I also held off killing his last territory way in the north until Gongsun Zan did it and so didn't eat the faction hatred and now he's also in my court after his faction blew up.) I then peaced and vassalized his former vassals Ma Teng and Gongsun Kang. Afterwards, I briefly kicked Liu Yan in the teeth in order to vassalize him and roughly here we are. During all of this, I've been steadily buying off territory from the 3 big kingdoms and either keeping it (mainly in the case of Luoyang because it's going to be so rich once I finish developing it back up), releasing vassals, or holding it to use as a foothold to buy more territory. Every 10 turns, the wallet of Kong opens and more of China becomes mine.
Ideally I can hold off taking part in any of the soon to come wars and just keep buying up territory until I can get deepstrike forces in place to take all 3 capitals at once.
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So...a not significant number of turns later, the Han Empire/Liu Bei straight up confederated Yan even though the war between them was still somewhat even and now they hold two of the seats and basically all of the north.
On the plus side, they're at like -40 Food now so theoretically buying more territory should be manageable and they should be dealing with an asston of revolts everywhere in a few turns, keeping them from hopefully doing too much.
But I'm on a serious timer now as Wu's capital is in a very insecure spot because of them reaching King independently first and not getting the auto-relocate.
On another note, again showing their benefit of having the latest DLC but holy shit the Nanmans are overtuned. Why are their units so good? Why are all their generals legendary? Why are all their buildings insane? Ye gods, thank goodness for Fury of Beihai because I would not want to fight these guys with Han melee or cavalry.
If you are fighting them IN nanman territory, you get piles of debufss.
If you fight them anywhere else, they are mostly fodder.
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Spectrum
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Hrmmmmmm. Think I ran into one of the everpresent infamous Alliance War bugs.
I was still in a 3 man Alliance with the Han Empire and Liu Yao's remnants. The Han Empire calls vote to form an Empire, Liu Yao votes yes. I vote no for obvious reasons and they form the Empire and I leave the Alliance.
Things proceed as normal for a few turns and then the Han Empire declares an Empire War against my Vassal that neighboured their holdings. I do -not- get a Call to Arms. I...don't think this should be allowed?
Not sure how much I want to keep going with this one with that bug. Might let them have my vassal and see if it repeats with another one, at which point I just declare back. I can see the end but it's going to be a painful slog to get there. Going to need to field real armies and stop buying territory and just finally go and kick the Han in the face. They have a ton of armies but they're at least half staffed with garbo militia as a legacy of being ex-Liu Bei and I think my garrisons and vassals can hold against those individually. I probably can subjugate them by beelining the two capitals they hold and I'm only one province away from one of them.
I was still in a 3 man Alliance with the Han Empire and Liu Yao's remnants. The Han Empire calls vote to form an Empire, Liu Yao votes yes. I vote no for obvious reasons and they form the Empire and I leave the Alliance.
Things proceed as normal for a few turns and then the Han Empire declares an Empire War against my Vassal that neighboured their holdings. I do -not- get a Call to Arms. I...don't think this should be allowed?
Not sure how much I want to keep going with this one with that bug. Might let them have my vassal and see if it repeats with another one, at which point I just declare back. I can see the end but it's going to be a painful slog to get there. Going to need to field real armies and stop buying territory and just finally go and kick the Han in the face. They have a ton of armies but they're at least half staffed with garbo militia as a legacy of being ex-Liu Bei and I think my garrisons and vassals can hold against those individually. I probably can subjugate them by beelining the two capitals they hold and I'm only one province away from one of them.
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- Location
- Behind you~
Kong Rong report, Turn 167
The Nanmans have been subjugated. I just need to wait a turn for constructions to finish and then I can hand off the last two commanderies to new vassals. Technically Shi Xie's successor and Meng Huo are limping along as OPMs way way in the south but I can't be bothered. Ironically, I should have found a way to keep Zhurong alive even though she'd be an unreliable and dangerous vassal because by existing, everyone else loved me for war atrocities against her and that diplomod disappeared once she was eliminated. That huge diplomod was actually enough for me to Confederate Cao Cao (Lady Bian as successor) out from underneath being a Han vassal before my previous gripe post, who I then re-freed after cleaning up borders.
I'm teleporting my last army back and need to wait for them to muster after redeploying but I'm within 5 turns of taking a Han capital and 10 turns of taking both of theirs. 5-10 after that to take Wu's capital, presuming Han subjugates, and I think that's a wrap. Trying to force myself to finish this one out but the end's in sight. It's not obvious from the map but I have 2 armies sitting ready to strike the isolated capital that I've been able to buy territory to snake my way towards and I have 2 more ready to drive on their more developed capital. I'm also sitting near my army cap finally (and my trade power has taken a sizable hit) just to have armies ready to go to fight the Han directly.
In an unplanned but hilarious result of the way the campaign map has gone: because I'm sitting in the Central plains I've actually prevented the Han or Wu from actually making real moves against each other. I deny Military Access to both and so they drain supplies fast while trespassing over my vassals to try and get to each other. They can just about cross the center before attrition kicks in, then they turn back before making it into the opposite river. Afterwards, a stream of low HP stacks trickles back towards their home side. I've seen this happen once and I intend to try and time my wardec to catch the next wave and take them out in one swoop.
The Nanmans have been subjugated. I just need to wait a turn for constructions to finish and then I can hand off the last two commanderies to new vassals. Technically Shi Xie's successor and Meng Huo are limping along as OPMs way way in the south but I can't be bothered. Ironically, I should have found a way to keep Zhurong alive even though she'd be an unreliable and dangerous vassal because by existing, everyone else loved me for war atrocities against her and that diplomod disappeared once she was eliminated. That huge diplomod was actually enough for me to Confederate Cao Cao (Lady Bian as successor) out from underneath being a Han vassal before my previous gripe post, who I then re-freed after cleaning up borders.
I'm teleporting my last army back and need to wait for them to muster after redeploying but I'm within 5 turns of taking a Han capital and 10 turns of taking both of theirs. 5-10 after that to take Wu's capital, presuming Han subjugates, and I think that's a wrap. Trying to force myself to finish this one out but the end's in sight. It's not obvious from the map but I have 2 armies sitting ready to strike the isolated capital that I've been able to buy territory to snake my way towards and I have 2 more ready to drive on their more developed capital. I'm also sitting near my army cap finally (and my trade power has taken a sizable hit) just to have armies ready to go to fight the Han directly.
In an unplanned but hilarious result of the way the campaign map has gone: because I'm sitting in the Central plains I've actually prevented the Han or Wu from actually making real moves against each other. I deny Military Access to both and so they drain supplies fast while trespassing over my vassals to try and get to each other. They can just about cross the center before attrition kicks in, then they turn back before making it into the opposite river. Afterwards, a stream of low HP stacks trickles back towards their home side. I've seen this happen once and I intend to try and time my wardec to catch the next wave and take them out in one swoop.
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- Location
- Lost amidst hungry sheep
- Pronouns
- They/Them
A bit too late for you but capturing and releasing Meng Huo 7 times (or something like that) has him confederate with you, meaning you also get lady Zhurong and so on.Kong Rong report, Turn 167
The Nanmans have been subjugated. I just need to wait a turn for constructions to finish and then I can hand off the last two commanderies to new vassals. Technically Shi Xie's successor and Meng Huo are limping along as OPMs way way in the south but I can't be bothered. Ironically, I should have found a way to keep Zhurong alive even though she'd be an unreliable and dangerous vassal because by existing, everyone else loved me for war atrocities against her and that diplomod disappeared once she was eliminated. That huge diplomod was actually enough for my to Confederate Cao Cao (Lady Bian as successor) out from underneath being a Han vassal before my previous gripe post, who I then re-freed after cleaning up borders.
I'm teleporting my last army back and need to wait for them to muster after redeploying but I'm within 5 turns of taking a Han capital and 10 turns of taking both of theirs. 5-10 after that to take Wu's capital, presuming Han subjugates, and I think that's a wrap. Trying to force myself to finish this one out but the end's in sight. It's not obvious from the map but I have 2 armies sitting ready to strike the isolated capital that I've been able to buy territory to snake my way towards and I have 2 more ready to drive on their more developed capital. I'm also sitting near my army cap finally (and my trade power has taken a sizable hit) just to have armies ready to go to fight the Han directly.
In an unplanned but hilarious result of the way the campaign map has gone: because I'm sitting in the Central plains I've actually prevented the Han or Wu from actually making real moves against each other. I deny Military Access to both and so they drain supplies fast while trespassing over my vassals to try and get to each other. They can just about cross the center before attrition kicks in, then they turn back before making it into the opposite river. Afterwards, a stream of low HP stacks trickles back towards their home side. I've seen this happen once and I intend to try and time my wardec to catch the next wave and take them out in one swoop.
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How do they have that event work? That's the story plot but does it require Meng Huo to have been the one who confederated the rest of them or him being separate from them (because in my game Zhurong was the one massively snowballing) still makes something work?
- Location
- Lost amidst hungry sheep
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I have no idea how it works if he doesn't have his faction anymore. Most starts have them already married so I didn't think about that.
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In my case they just never married. I suspect it actually would work out since all the Nanman characters would flock to his faction now...but the problem is as a OPM he has no money and is going to have problems deploying himself so it would take ages to get this done...an no guarantee that someone else wouldn't kill him in between raids.
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Kong Rong wrap-up:
Just teleported all my armies down and waited for mustering to finish but didn't even need that, since the game ended once I deep striked the capital and took it instantly after wardec since Changsha is just too exposed to the river. Always a good benchmark to me if you can win the game before your original ruler kicks the bucket, assuming they weren't one of the really old guys at the start. (Maybe riding down all those retreating peasants kept him fit for that many years.)
And that puts a bow on TW3K for me. Didn't get any of the new DLC and so haven't done a Lu Bu rampage campaign or a Nanman campaign and never actually bothered with the Yellow Turbans or 8 Princes, but I think that's sufficient variety for ~250 hours.
Just teleported all my armies down and waited for mustering to finish but didn't even need that, since the game ended once I deep striked the capital and took it instantly after wardec since Changsha is just too exposed to the river. Always a good benchmark to me if you can win the game before your original ruler kicks the bucket, assuming they weren't one of the really old guys at the start. (Maybe riding down all those retreating peasants kept him fit for that many years.)
And that puts a bow on TW3K for me. Didn't get any of the new DLC and so haven't done a Lu Bu rampage campaign or a Nanman campaign and never actually bothered with the Yellow Turbans or 8 Princes, but I think that's sufficient variety for ~250 hours.
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- Location
- SMS Odette II
Highlights of my personal modlist, updated for @horngeek and @JoergenJetsam
Gameplay:
Make Them Unique - Mandatory. Simple as.
Character Biographies or Character Biographies REBORN! - Biographies for all characters with unique backgrounds in their mouseover profile. Probably what 3K desperately needed the most. The first mod looks much nicer with the game's UI but caters more towards Wudesiance than MTU, while the latter is has to redo the interface a bit but is more stable, can be used in co-op campaigns, and works well with MTU.
Relationships Matter- Enhanced Friends, Rivals, and Character Interactions! - CA's Guanxi system was this close to being greatness. This takes it that much closer.
Recruited unique character can use their special units - What it says on the tin. Gives your pokemon hero hunting even more delicious flavor.
10 Turns per Year - This is an alternative to simply turning off old age altogether, that significantly slows down the onset of old age that starts slaughtering a lot of the unique characters as well as making individual seasons even more important.
BATTLES Higher difficulties: use the cleverest AI (from vanilla) but without unit stats buffs - The stat bonuses on legendary are just bogus nonsense. Fake difficulty. All it does is encourage you to use cheese rather than being bolder and more aggressive. This keeps the genuine improvements in AI behavior from higher difficulty without any of that guff.
Respec Character Skills when they join you - The AI makes extremely questionable, and otherwise irreversible, character development choices that can really cut short a Hero's potential. This is no longer as necessary now that Council missions feature Character Respecs.
Alternative Faction Flags & Colors - It's easy to lose track of which factions are which when their central unique characters start dying of old age. This combats the issue with beautiful and distinctive motifs you can associate with them.Hopefully chapter packs to come set in the Three Kingdoms era proper will make this entirely irrelevant, but for now it's good to have.
Han Character Hoarding Nerf - Usually takes effect quick enough to save Taishi Ci from having his bow stolen from him.
Better AI Templates - Do you want to have a heart attack when six spear guards show up to your door? You will.
DLC Units for Grand Campaign - Pretty nice to have.
Purely Cosmetic: (You can pass on most of these but I think they make the experience that much better)
More Flag Variations In Battle - It looks so good, and it is so simple.
Unit model Historical reskin - If you install no other cosmetic mods, you must install this one. Make almost every unit 100%-300% cooler with authentic historical details.
Way of the Sword - Cinematic Combat - Why should you install this mod and Unit Model Historical reskin? Because:
Battlefield Conversations EXPANDED! - What it says on the tin.
Enhanced Dust Particles - Makes armies feel just that little more real.
Arrow Trails Redux - Missiles in Medieval 1, Rome 1, and Medieval II looked and felt so impactful. With the exception of Shogun 2, they've have looked horrendous following the release of Empire. This mod makes them feel a little more like the glory of Shogun 2.
Enhanced Battle Camera
Ink Selection Marker - Shogun 2 style painterly style unit selection highlight, feels much more appropriate with the artstyle of the rest of the game.
More Horse Armor Variation and Color Variation
New and Better Horse Armors for Generals
Fixed Missing Peoples (ENG) - Makes sure as many unique characters in a faction's roster shows up in their faction's lineup as possible.
Historical Titles (English) - Replaces vanilla titles with ones attested to exist in the Han dynasty.
Zheng Jiang Female Bandit Remodels - Here I go, playing Zheng Jiang again. Effects her unique units even if recruited in another faction.
Zheng Jiang All Women Units - Same as the above, but it Goes Even Further Beyond to every unit ZJ can recruit. Absolutely breathtaking modeling work.
Gameplay:
Make Them Unique - Mandatory. Simple as.
Character Biographies or Character Biographies REBORN! - Biographies for all characters with unique backgrounds in their mouseover profile. Probably what 3K desperately needed the most. The first mod looks much nicer with the game's UI but caters more towards Wudesiance than MTU, while the latter is has to redo the interface a bit but is more stable, can be used in co-op campaigns, and works well with MTU.
Relationships Matter- Enhanced Friends, Rivals, and Character Interactions! - CA's Guanxi system was this close to being greatness. This takes it that much closer.
Recruited unique character can use their special units - What it says on the tin. Gives your
10 Turns per Year - This is an alternative to simply turning off old age altogether, that significantly slows down the onset of old age that starts slaughtering a lot of the unique characters as well as making individual seasons even more important.
BATTLES Higher difficulties: use the cleverest AI (from vanilla) but without unit stats buffs - The stat bonuses on legendary are just bogus nonsense. Fake difficulty. All it does is encourage you to use cheese rather than being bolder and more aggressive. This keeps the genuine improvements in AI behavior from higher difficulty without any of that guff.
Respec Character Skills when they join you - The AI makes extremely questionable, and otherwise irreversible, character development choices that can really cut short a Hero's potential. This is no longer as necessary now that Council missions feature Character Respecs.
Alternative Faction Flags & Colors - It's easy to lose track of which factions are which when their central unique characters start dying of old age. This combats the issue with beautiful and distinctive motifs you can associate with them.
Han Character Hoarding Nerf - Usually takes effect quick enough to save Taishi Ci from having his bow stolen from him.
Better AI Templates - Do you want to have a heart attack when six spear guards show up to your door? You will.
DLC Units for Grand Campaign - Pretty nice to have.
Purely Cosmetic: (You can pass on most of these but I think they make the experience that much better)
More Flag Variations In Battle - It looks so good, and it is so simple.
Unit model Historical reskin - If you install no other cosmetic mods, you must install this one. Make almost every unit 100%-300% cooler with authentic historical details.
Way of the Sword - Cinematic Combat - Why should you install this mod and Unit Model Historical reskin? Because:
Battlefield Conversations EXPANDED! - What it says on the tin.
Enhanced Dust Particles - Makes armies feel just that little more real.
Arrow Trails Redux - Missiles in Medieval 1, Rome 1, and Medieval II looked and felt so impactful. With the exception of Shogun 2, they've have looked horrendous following the release of Empire. This mod makes them feel a little more like the glory of Shogun 2.
Enhanced Battle Camera
Ink Selection Marker - Shogun 2 style painterly style unit selection highlight, feels much more appropriate with the artstyle of the rest of the game.
More Horse Armor Variation and Color Variation
New and Better Horse Armors for Generals
Fixed Missing Peoples (ENG) - Makes sure as many unique characters in a faction's roster shows up in their faction's lineup as possible.
Historical Titles (English) - Replaces vanilla titles with ones attested to exist in the Han dynasty.
Zheng Jiang Female Bandit Remodels - Here I go, playing Zheng Jiang again. Effects her unique units even if recruited in another faction.
Zheng Jiang All Women Units - Same as the above, but it Goes Even Further Beyond to every unit ZJ can recruit. Absolutely breathtaking modeling work.
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- Location
- UK
If anyone is still interested in this game, I strongly recommend the 190 Expanded Mod, and I say this even though I admit I'm biased because I helped work on it.