Video Game / Total War: Three Kingdoms

Twelve Warlords. Three Kingdoms. One Land.

"At fifteen I joined the army on expedition,

Only at eighty did I finally return."

—Beginning lines of At Fifteen I joined the Army on Expedition ^*a poem recorded in Yuefu Shiji, a Northern Song compilation of poems from the Han Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties. See the Awesome Music page for the full poem.

Total War: Three Kingdoms is an RTS game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega. It is the twelfth mainline entry in the Total War series; set during the Three Kingdoms era. The era has been popularized in operas, folk stories, novels and in more recent times, films, television, and video games. The best known of these is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The year is 190CE (the first year of the Chu Ping era), and Emperor Ling had just died the previous year. China is in turmoil, as the Han Dynasty crumbles before the child-emperor, Liu Xie. He is but a figurehead; a mere puppet for the tyrant warlord Dong Zhuo. It is a brutal and oppressive regime, and as Dong Zhuo’s power grows, the empire slips further into the cauldron of anarchy. But hope yet blossoms.

Three heroes, sworn to brotherhood in the face of tyranny, rally support for the trials ahead. Scenting opportunity, warlords from China’s great families follow suit, forming a fragile coalition in a bid to challenge Dong Zhuo’s remorseless rule. Will they triumph against the tyrant, or will personal ambition shatter their already crumbling alliance and drive them to supremacy?

The crucible fizzes. Allegiances shift. The fires of conflict stoke opportunity. Only one thing is certain: the very future of China will be shaped by its champions. Total War: Three Kingdoms is the next major historical strategy game in the award-winning Total War series.

Listening to player feedback after the controversial shift in gameplay introduced by Total War: Warhammer and II, Three Kingdoms offers two modes that drastically alter the character of the game. In Romance Mode, Three Kingdoms takes on more aspects of Luo Guanzhong's story as well as Wuxia and heroic fantasy — generals are larger-than-life heroes who can cut through entire units on their own and unleash near-supernatural abilities to aid their soldiers and win the day. By contrast, Records Mode dials things back into a more grounded and historical experience reminiscent of the older Total War entries — generals and their bodyguards are still powerful battlefield assets, but you can't just run them through an army and hope for the best.

The game was released on May 23, 2019 for PC, with the Yellow Turban factions in the 190 CE start date as Pre-Order/Day One DLC.

Expansion packs

1. Eight Princes, was released on August 8th, 2019. It covers the starting phase of the War of the Eight Princes (291CE), which led to the eventual downfall of the Western Jin Dynasty and the second division of China, just over a decade after the conclusion of the Three Kingdoms period in the year 280CE and a century after the events of the "Three Kingdoms" campaign. ^note Much of the Jin nobility who fled south gathered around Sima Rui, who would establish the Eastern Jin in 318 C.E. with its capital in Jiankang (today's Nanjing; during the Three Kingdoms period, it was known as Jianye, Sun Quan's capital for his state of Wu). As for Sima Rui, he's only distantly related to the eight princes featured in the expansion. Probably the closest relation was Sima Liang; Rui's grandfather, Zhou, was a full brother of Liang (they had the same mother, Lady Fu)
2. Mandate of Heaven, was released on January 16th, 2020. It adds a new start date: 182CE, the fifth year of the Guang He era of Emperor Ling's reign, the year of Sun Quan's birth and two years before the historical start of the Yellow Turban Rebellion. It adds the Zhang brothers as Yellow Turban warlords, and adds 3 sub-factions to the Han Empire, led by Emperor Liu Hong ^note known posthumously as Emperor Ling of Han, Prince Liu Chong ^note  the last Prince of Chen, and historically assassinated by Yuan Shu in 197, and Lu Zhi ^note  general, government official, and scholar who was mentor to Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan, among others respectively. Tao Qian was also made playable as part of the free patch accompanying the DLC, and owners of Mandate will be able to play as Liu Chong in the 190CE start date. ^note While still alive in 190CE, Lu Zhi is not playable. This is probably because historically by this time, he was in seclusion after being dismissed from service, and surviving an assassination attempt by Dong Zhuo only because he took prior precautions. The DLC also adds unique new campaign mechanics (such as Fervor, which is an abstraction of Yellow Turban influence within provinces), events (including the Liang Province Rebellion), and objectives, along with new battlefield units and new unit abilities.
3. A World Betrayed, was released on March 19th, 2020. It adds a new start date: 194CE, the first year of the Xing Ping era. The expansion focuses on Lü Bu and Sun Ce. For Lü Bu, it has been two years since he killed Dong Zhuo, and he is about to have a showdown with Cao Cao over Yan Province. For Sun Ce, he is bidding his time to break free from Yuan Shu, historically his father's liege, and is about to embark on his own quest to conquer Jiangdong, a feat which historically earned him his moniker of Little Conqueror. At the same time, Liu Bei succeeded Tao Qian as governor of Xu Province. Yan Baihu, a native warlord of Jiangdong, was made playable as part of the free patch accompanying the DLC. The free patch also added unique mechanics for the bandit factions, events and objectives, along with new battlefield units and new unit abilities.
4. The Furious Wild, was released on September 3rd, 2020. In lieu of a new start date, the expansion expands the map and adds greater detail to southern China, including differentiating traditionally "Nanman" provinces from others ^note Nanman forces have combat advantages while fighting in such provinces, while other forces have penalties. The added Nanman factions are playable in 190CE and 194CE, although there will be Nanman tribes in the 182CE start date. Among the Nanman, four leaders are playable: Meng Huo, Lady Zhurong, King Mulu and King Shamoke. The Nanman tribes have over 25 new units, including animal units, new character artwork, a new Nanman-specific tech tree with keystone technologies that require missions to be completed, a completely new character progression style that uses feats to unlock traits, and unique missions and narrative events designed specifically for their culture. Shi Xie, the Administrator (tai shou) of Jiaozhi Commandery from 187CE till his death in 226CE, was made playable as part of the free patch accompanying the DLC.
5. Fates Divided, was released on March 11, 2021. It adds a new start date: 200CE, the fifth year of the Jian An era and the year of Sun Ce's death. The expansion focuses on Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and their climatic showdown at Guandu. Liu Yan, the Governor of Yi Province from 188CE till his death in 194CE and father of Liu Zhang, would be made playable as part of the DLC; those with the relevant DLCs can also play as Gong Du, King Mulu, Meng Huo, Shamoke, and Sun Ce in the new start date. The patch accompanying the DLC also allows Ma Teng and Yuan Shu to be playable in 182 CE, and for those with the relevant DLCs to play as Liu Chong and He Yi in 194 CE. The patch also overhauls the faction council and mechanics surrounding Emperor Liu Xie.

In May 2021, Creative Assembly announced that it was done working on the game, and the game would no longer receive updates or Expansion Packs, with a currently unnamed sequel to the game already in pre-production.

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Total War: Three Kingdoms contains examples of the following:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Yuan Shu, who is commonly depicted as a scheming warlord rather than a powerful general, is given combat abilities, a marked departure from his real-life personality.
  • Kong Rong leads a playable faction and can charge into battle just as anyone else can. Historically, he's famous for being a descendant of Kong Qiu/Confucius, a very clever child, his literary style, and being executed (probably) by Cao Cao for being incredibly rude.
  • Same goes for Zhuge Liang, who even in the novel for all of his military strategy was a Non-Action Guy, whereas here he is a competent enough fighter. Jia Xu, another capable (if often underrated) military master strategist, but definitely not a warrior somehow got turned into a Ninja-esque Assassin with the title "Blade in the Dark".
• The Alliance: The Rise of the Warlords campaign starts shortly after the anti-Dong Zhuo coalition falls apart. Factions can form new coalitions with other factions and possibly, alliances which are more tightly-binding. It should be noted that coalition and alliance members' territories count toward the 95 counties required for victory.
• Alternate History: In the Mandate bookmark, as long as Dong Zhuo is unable to confederate the Han Imperial faction, Liu Bian (the historical Emperor Shao) will eventually ascend the throne when he comes of age. This disables the Imperial Favour mechanic as Bian has his own fiefdom and armies, unlike his half-brother Xie. Since AI Dong Zhuo will always choose confederation, options include eliminating Dong Zhuo's faction, assassinating him, and (rarely) AI Liu Hong expelling him from the empire or declaring war.
• Amazon Brigade: In Records mode, Sun Ren comes with an all-female bodyguard unit. ^note Historically, while Lady Sun was not recorded to have participated in any combat, it is recorded that she surrounded herself with female bodyguards who were armed. This so spooked Liu Bei while they were wedded, that he assigned Zhao Yun to keep an eye on her.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • Some characters in Romance mode are portrayed with anachronistic equipment to fit their image in the popular narrative, like Guan Yu's yanyuedao glaive and Lü Bu's plate mail armour and trident ji. The Records mode replaces most of these with period-accurate equipment.
  • The main siege weapon shown in the game is the counterweight trebuchet, which didn't appear anywhere in the world until much later in history. This was most likely done for gameplay purposes and ease of animation.
  • In Zheng Jiang's trailer, there is a scene where some farmers are seen growing rice. During this era in Northern China, the staple food of the era was millets as rice would only be introduced to Northern China centuries after the Three Kingdoms era. This is accurately reflected in-game, as farms in the north produced grain while those located in the south produced rice.
• An Adventurer Is You: Non-Yellow Turban factions have five different types of Generals available to them, while YT factions have three:
  • Commander: Golden-clothed leaders of men, connected to the Earth. They act largely as a Buffer for your forces and grant bonuses to melee cavalry in particular. They also increase satisfaction for other characters in their army. As administrators they reduce corruption and give Public Order. Their traits emphasize the traits of the wise and benevolent ruler. Their Stat is Authority.
  • Champion: Paragons of the people and impeccable duelists dressed in Green, connected to Wood. Champions are hero-killers that duel enemy generals; though they suffer somewhat in large combats. As administrators, they buff population growth. Their traits are connected to decency, friendliness and down-to-earth pragmatism. Their Stat is Resolve.
  • Sentinel: Defiant and rugged warriors and survivalists that can take a punch, just as the Metal they are fashioned after. They lead shield-wielding melee infantry and buff general survivability of the army. As administrators, they add bonuses to industry among others. Their traits are equally immovable, and are concerned with loyalty and willpower. Their Stat is Expertise.
  • Vanguard: The military noble, a wild, headstrong warrior that crashes into danger like a raging Fire. They buff shock cavalry to nasty levels and have many abilities that deal Area of Effect damage. As administrators, they improve garrisons and other military capabilities. Their traits are fiery and passionate, all about following one's insticts and heart — sometimes at the loss of tact or smarts. Their stat is Instinct.
  • Strategist: Wily and cunning masters of plots and tactics, whose plans flow like Water on the battlefield. they give more supplies to the army, and more ammunition to ranged units. They can also Debuff enemy Generals with their wits. As administrators they give benefits to trade. Their traits are all about intelligence, wits and creativity, though also often scheming and underhanded-ness. Their Stat is Cunning.
  • Scholar: A Yellow Turban leader who believes in humility. They act as Sentinels and minor as Commanders, ^note though they have the best archers like Strategists having higher Expertise with middling Resolve and Authority and low Instinct and Cunning. They are Potters, Jade-Carvers, Brewers, Builders, and Farmers.
  • Veterans: A Yellow Turban leader who believes in frugality. They act as Champions and minor as Strategists having high resolve with middling expertise and cunning, low to mid instinct, and low authority. They are philosophers, sorcerers, writers, astologers, and monks.
  • Healer: A Yellow Turban leader who believes in compassion. They act as Vanguard and minor as Champions having high instinct with middling resolve and authority and low expertise and cunning. They are advisors, singers, musicians, fortune-teller, and physicians.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Lü Bu's campaign is accessed by playing Dong Zhuo's and letting history take its course. Alternatively, he can be played directly via DLC, complete with unique faction mechanics.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Several new changes have been incorporated into the diplomacy.
  • Once you suggest a diplomatic treaty, the player can click on a "Make it work" button that instantly makes the A.I. tell you what it wants in exchange for your offer.
  • A "quick deal" button has been added to the diplomacy screen, showing you a list of diplomatic deals and all known factions, and shows you how likely each faction is to agree to any selected deal. It then allows you to propose that deal, separate from the regular diplomacy menu.
  • Each treaty shows in numerical terms what impacts it has on the trade balance, and a tooltip breaks that number down by contributing factors, removing a lot of the guesswork from diplomacy.
  • Do you have no shame about Save Scumming? Well, you'll be glad to hear that you're now able to just immediately rematch a battle that you've lost instead of quitting and loading the last save.
  • When playing as the Yellow Turbans, after taking over a city, the game will automatically convert buildings within the city to their Yellow Turban equivalents.
• Annoying Arrows: In Romance Mode, heroes can take entire barrages of arrow fire with nigh a scratch on them. However, it is a different story if it's the defensive towers that are firing at them.
• Apathetic Citizens: Nope.
  • In the 182 C.E. start date, the sparks are already gathering for the inferno, and players have to either fan them further (as the Yellow Turbans) or extinguish them (as every one else). By 190 C.E., the Yellow Turban Rebellion was barely suppressed a few years prior, and low public order from misrule can re-ignite smouldering embers into a new inferno. It is even possible for a spy to deliberately incite a Yellow Turban uprising.
  • Enforced in Eight Princes, whereby "public order" was replaced by "noble support". ^note an abstraction of the scholar-officials and their families. The most obvious difference is that overcrowding, which lowered public order in the Three Kingdoms campaign, has no effect on noble support.
• Area of Effect: Most Vanguards and some Champions have access to Herd-Hitting Attack abilities that allow them to kill hordes of enemy soldiers in a single attack.
• Arbitrary Headcount Limit: A non-unit example. There can only be three kingdoms at once in a single game regardless of how many other candidates out there that can establish their own kingdom. This can lead to a situation where Sun Jian survives well into the later stages of the war, but cannot declare himself emperor despite wanting to do so historically because there are already three kingdoms. The only way for a non-kingdom faction to become a kingdom is to conquer the seat of a kingdom.
  • For some reason, any given army can also consist of no more than three generals leading six battalions each into battle.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • There are numerous complaints and examples about how broken and unreliable the autoresolve system in this game is. This is because the autoresolve doesn't take many important factors into account and seems to be biased in favor of other, less important ones like numerical superiority and settlement defenses.
  • If the side of your frontline get routed, instead of pressing the advantage and flank your now exposed side, the A.I will direct their units to attack your remaining frontline at the front, where they are likely get bogged down again.
  • If the AI has reinforcements coming up during a battle, they will often prioritize rendezvousing with the main army above everything else. Like avoiding or engaging the player's units that are cutting them off from doing so. If you can place your own units where the enemy reinforcements spawn, you can essentially slaughter all of the reinforcements free of charge.
  • The AI makes some attempt to lessen the effect of missiles and artillery against their forces by loosing formation while under fire and repositioning troops behind terrain or walls to prevent being shot at... but only some, as they will still prefer to keep their units in tight formation after a few minutes of not being under fire, so players can still maximize their ranged attacks' ammunition by shooting a bit at clumped enemies when the opportunity presents itself, and then holding fire or switching to other targets until the former targets decide to tighten their ranks again. Against enemies holed up in a settlement, they will usually prefer to stay within it and thus allow the player to fire off all of their ammunition in this way.
  • The AI cannot predict the effects of fire very well. This can actually cause their use of units like Defenders of Earth to be detrimental to them against clever players who will bait them into firing at their troops while the enemy unit or their allied forces in front of them are in a forest.
• Artistic Age: Characters only have one portrait, each correlating to their equipped armor. Legendary characters only have one portrait as they cannot change their equipped armor. This all means that all characters will only ever look like they're of a single bracket to their age in their entire life, despite characters being able to run the gamut from being literally born within your family (which cannot be used and do look like children) to dying of old age...and with Timeless Characters on, age isn't even a factor to Legendary characters who literally cannot die of old age!
• Artistic License – Economics: The game combines both fiscal corruption and inflation into one statistic, seeing as how better mints and coinage can reduce "corruption". This was probably done to simplify the interface.
• Artistic License – History:
  • The Battle of Xingyang historical scenario gives Cao Cao command of elite infantry units, allowing the player to win against Dong Zhuo's general Xu Rong relatively easily. In reality, the battle was a devastating loss for Cao Cao precisely because his army (like most of the coalition's) was a slapdash host of brigands, displaced peasants and mercenaries, which stood no chance against the professional Han troops arrayed against them.
  • City population increases with time in the game. Maximum population of Imperial cities is 8.5 million people. A census taken in 156 CE placed the population of the Han Dynasty at 56 million plus people. A census taken by the Jin Dynasty in 280 CE had the Chinese population at only 16 million plus people despite all former territory being reclaimed. Mind you, census data only counted people who paid their taxes so tax evaders and corruption made those numbers unreliable, but the actual decrease in population was similarly drastic. One main factor is that the game does not simulate population decrease due to epidemics, which are alarmingly common in ancient China.
  • How the game handles marriages, adoption and selection of faction heirs are far removed from reality.
    • In-game, it is possible to adopt a divorced spouse, which is unheard of.
    • It is possible to select a female character as faction heir, despite the fact that during this era, there were no female heirs whatsoever.
    • The Chinese practise concubinage, whereby a man has one main wife and any number of concubines. Historically, Cao Cao was well-known for his large number of concubines (and sons), and Liu Bei's eventual heir Liu Shan was the son of a concubine (Lady Gan).
  • Sun Jian and Yuan Shu are also presented as fellow warlords standing on equal ground, and becoming allies through happenstance. Historically, Yuan Shu was Sun Jian's (and after his death Sun Ce's) overlord, precisely because at the time, Sun Jian was little more than a mercenary captain called up to fight in the coalition war against Dong Zhuo. The Sun clan abandoned Yuan Shu only when he declared himself emperor. This was addressed in the 194 CE bookmark, where Sun Ce starts as a vassal under Yuan Shu.
  • To balance their access to War Elephants, Nanman factions have no access whatsoever to horseback cavalry units, aside from their generals. Historically, the inhabitants of Nanzhong were renowned horse breeders, and a major reason the Han and Shu-Han were interested in conquering the region was to lessen their dependancy on the steppe for high-quality warhorses.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Zheng Jiang, a female bandit who is only mentioned on a single line in Records of the Three Kingdoms ^note and is the amalgamation of two persons, to boot, is a full-fledged playable lord.
  • In a lesser manner, He Man. He died in the paragraph he debuted by a minor member of the Cao family, Cao Hong. While he's not a playable lord like Zheng Jiang, he is nevertheless a Unique general serving under He Yi, with a face and traits of his own.
• Automatic Crossbows: The Chinese repeating crossbow shows up as an infantry weapon. Its rate of fire makes it deadly against unarmoured targets, but the weak mechanism severely limits its range and effectiveness against armour.
• Automaton Horses: Averted for once. Cavalry units are slower compared to the previous games and tire out faster, with heavy cavalry receiving heftier penalties. This is actually quite true to life: horses of the period were relatively small, and horseshoes and stirrups were still quite limited in use. As well, when cavalry dismount and fight as infantry, their mounts left alone can be spooked from the battle and flee, preventing their riders from getting on the mounts again. Played straight with the Qiang cavalry available to Ma Teng's faction, which are immune to fatigue to highlight their steppe nomad heritage.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The highest tier administration building which reduces corruption has a version whereby the corruption reduction extends to surrounding commanderies. However, the building(s) can only work if the faction has access to jade, which is found only in two settlements in all of China. Unless a faction can physically occupy a jade mine, constructing this administration building runs the risk of it failing when trade access to jade is cut off by the faction's trade partner.
  • For that matter, administration buildings which reduce corruption are this as they require fairly-built up cities. In contrast, mints can be built in less-developed towns.
  • Level 9 & 10 cities grant a high population limit and high percentage increase to commerce income, but require a lot of food and cause public order issues (due to their high population limit). Even in the "Eight Princes" campaign, where public order is not affected by population, very few players would recommend going beyond level 8 cities.
  • The Juggernaut unit is a tank with the head of a dragon that shoots fire at the enemy. Freakin' awesome, and in the right situation can easily wrack up hundreds of kills in seconds. Unfortunately, the range of the weapon is extrmely short, and they're finicky to use; the necessity of needing optimal placement to get a good angle on the enemy combined with being extremely slow-moving makes them impractical, especially when compared to the alternatives: the trebuchet or the multi-bolt crossbow ballista. Both the trebuchet and the ballista can easily get the same number of kills as the Juggernaut while being much simpler to use. The trebuchet also lets you assault enemy fortifications (which the Juggernaut cannot do).
• Badass Family: Characters who are related to each other can share significant boosts in combat.
• Balkanize Me:
  • For 190 CE, the only large factions are Dong Zhuo and the utterly weak Han empire, with warlords peppering the land.
  • In the Eight Princes campaign, while the Jin Empire is not passive like the Han, it too will crumble once the numerous vassal princes (and not just the titular eight) decided that they too want a piece of the real estate.
• Battle Chant: If voice-over is set to Chinese, then units can be heard chanting "Shā!" (meaning "Kill!") repeatedly as they march toward the upcoming fight in battles.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: The promotional materials have shown a few, namely Cao Cao's pursuit of Dong Zhuo at Xingyang (190CE) and his showdown with Yuan Shao at Guandu (200CE). ^note The Battle of Hulao Pass was a historical battle, but it took place during the Tang Dynasty when the pass was renamed "Wulao", in order to avoid mentioning the character "Hu", as that was Tang Gaozu Li Yuan's grandfather's name.
• Big Good: Cao Cao is portrayed as such in the initial trailers, but after the release of 'A Hero's Journey' trailer, it is clear that this figure is actually Liu Bei. In addition, in the campaign map, Liu has traits such as 'Kind' and 'Humble'. Also, he is described as the Leader of the People, reflecting his role in the original Romance (even if this was debatable in real life).
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The theme song is "十五從軍征" (Shiwu cong jun zheng — at fifteen I joined the army on expedition), featured as the page quote.
  • The songs heard in Cao Cao's trailer is "蒿里行" (Hāolǐ Háng), a historical poem by Cao Cao himself lamenting the collapse of the Guandong Alliance before they could bring Dong Zhuo to justice, and the fate of his friendship with Yuan Shao in particular.
  • Sun Jian's trailer has the song "The billowing Long River flows east" ^note also known as "The Immortals by the River" which is actually the name of music piece to which the poem is written. The poem itself has no title. In addition, this song was also the title song for the much-praised 1994 version of the Three Kingdoms TV series., commenting that all heroic or monstrous deeds, after ages, mean little and only linger on in the commoner's gossips.
  • Liu Bei's trailer has ""蜀道难" (Shu dao nan — The Difficulty of the Shu Road) written by the great poet Li Bai during the Tang dynasty describing the treacherous road in the country of Shu.
  • The "Eight Princes" trailer features the "Seven Steps Verse" poem by Cao Zhi, one of Cao Cao's sons. It served as allegory of the ruinous nature of infighting between brothers over petty matters, mirroring the chaos and destruction that the struggle between the princes of the Sima family would bring upon their dynasty.
• Black-and-Gray Morality:
  • For all the talk of peace and order, all the Warlords during the game are ruthless Generals readily sending thousands upon thousands of soldiers to their death, ostensibly "for the good of the realm". Even the ones who are legitimately interested in decency like Liu Bei, Kong Rong or arguably Cao Cao are still warlords who press the peasantry to their breaking-point to feed their armies and fight their battles, and the Yellow Turbans are little different except that they replace feudalism with an inefficient system of collective management. And that's just the Grey ones! The Black ones, such as Dong Zhuo, Yuan Shu or Zheng Jiang are entirely self-serving and could care less if they have to slaughter the entirety of China to stay on top. It must be said though that, on a personal level, quite a lot of the characters in-game are very good people, who wish to help others and save the peasantry from tyranny and chaos. Only a few characters are legitimately cruel and horrible people, and many are extremely virtuous and decent. Random characters can fall everywhere on the spectrum, depending on their Traits.
  • Played straight in the Eight Princes campaign, as all the warring leaders are members of the Sima clan whose struggle for power is motivated either by a genuine desire to restore order or the plain ambition of taking the Imperial throne for themselves, yet none of them would have acted were it not for Jia Nanfeng's scheming and messing of the Imperial Order. This also extends beyond the Sima family as the period is characterized by the self-interest and indolence of the nobility and officers at the growing crisis.
• Bows Versus Crossbows: While bow units have more ammunition and access to fire arrows, crossbows have a longer range and are more effective against armoured or shielded units.
• Butt-Monkey: The Han empire is this, as the faction is unable to recruit troops or build buildings. In addition, any faction who has Liu Xie in their possession can march up to any Han settlement, pay the coin cost and just take over the administration. The situation improved with the introduction of Imperial Favour, as attacking Han regions too frequently is a fast way of decreasing imperial favour, which incurs some penalties.
  • The player can become this if playing in the Mandate bookmark and remaining within the Divine Empire, as the Han Imperial faction can just march up to a region and take it over, no ifs and buts on the player's part.
  • At the meta level, AI Yuan Shu is treated like this, as his unique Legitimacy mechanic makes him less liked by the other factions. Along with his rather precarious starting position, he's often treated like The Friend Nobody Likes.
• Caltrops: The Mandate of Heaven expansion adds the ability for units to throw caltrops to slow others down.
• Cavalry Refusal: A literal example is seen in Cao Cao's trailer. As he engages in battle against Dong Zhuo's forces, Cao Cao spots Yuan Shao and his men on a nearby hill and signals to him to join the fight. Unfortunately for him, Yuan Shao chooses against reinforcing him and rides away, leaving Cao Cao to face defeat.
  • This is a (very dramatized) retelling of the actual circumstances behind the Battle of Xingyang: Cao Cao attempted to rally the Coalition by pressing his own army forwards as a vanguard, but the rest of the Coalition under Yuan Shao remained indecisive on how to best prosecute the war and refused to follow him. As a result of this indecisiveness, Cao Cao suffered a decisive defeat and became much more hostile to Yuan Shao, further accelerating the Coalition's demise.
• The Chessmaster: Cao Cao is a brilliant military strategist (one of the finest of his era), but as his trailer depicts, his true skill is maneuvering himself into greater power. His unique abilities are also themed around this, allowing him extra ways to influence relationships and even incite proxy wars.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Depending on their traits, some faction leaders may be prone to this, and they (obviously) tend to be poor allies or vassals.
• Civil War:
  • The historical "Three Kingdoms" are the Kingdoms of Wu, Shu-Han and Wei. They all consider themselves to be China. You can imagine this leads to quite a few violent disagreements.
  • In A World Betrayed, the faction formerly led by Dong Zhuo will descend into this as Li Jue and Guo Si fight among themselves.
  • The "Eight Princes" campaign covers the conflict between the eight members of the Sima family that would eventually lead to the end of a unified Jin dynasty and the barbarian invasions of Northern China.
  • On a meta level, you can trigger this if your spy manages to infiltrate the top ranks of an enemy faction. Of course, enemy spies can also do the same to you.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The Wu Xing ("Five Elements") are assigned colours for easy identification. This extends to the Reform tree and troop types.
  • Diplomatic stances are also color-coded when the AI factions take their turns. Factions leaders at war with you have a red background around their portraits, allies are blue while vassals are green. Leaders at war with your alliance are marked in pink.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Enforced in Romance mode. If a duel is taking place between two Generals, no one will interfere unless you specifically order the unit to — even when it's a single General vs another AND his five units of Ji Militia.
• Cosmetically Different Sides: Downplayed among the non-Yellow Turban Han Chinese factions. Each leader has strengths in different fields, and while certain troops are common among them, they usually have unique troop types and buildings. Averted by the Yellow Turbans, who have entirely different buildings and reforms, and unique playstyles. They cannot even recruit officers from non-Yellow Turban factions. Also averted by the Nanman tribes, who similarly have different structures, units, mechanics, and reforms.
• Continuity Nod: There is an option on the tech tree to begin trading with the Roman Empire. Truth in Television as the Romans and the Han Chinese did come into contact with another in the era the game is set in, albeit indirectly.
• Culture Clash: Yellow Turban factions have a heavy diplomacy penalty with other factions and can't offer any treaties initially. Slowly as they gain in strength, they can start making actual deals with factions. At top level, they are legitimized as much as any warlord or governor faction. Then you have a choice of who you pick as your emperor. Seat a peasant child who seems blessed, seat a noble man's son that started supporting you early in the war, or seat yourself. The former and the latter are treated as illegitimate by every other faction. If you seat the nobleman's son, you gain a diplomacy bonus that completely counteracts the initial penalty. It doesn't REMOVE the penalty as you are still an army led by peasants and revolutionaries undermining imperial order, but the other factions respect you for supporting noble lineage. Also, all heroes of other factions will refuse to join you. You are stuck with Veterans, Scholars, and Healers as your generals.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The "Eight Princes" DLC, which covers the conflict of the eponymous eight princes of the Sima family, is depicted as such in comparison to the main campaign. In contrast to how the warlords of the "Three Kingdoms" era were presented with some degree of heroism or romance, the trailer focuses more in the bitter nature of the infighting between the family members that would ruin the Jin Dynasty.
  • Records mode in general has a more muted color palette, period-accurate visuals (in terms of armor and weaponry), and a grittier atmosphere that's more in line with earlier historical Total War titles.
• Death by Adaptation: Xun Yu, who was a junior civil servant at the beginning of the 190CE scenario, is set up as an Early-Bird Boss for Zheng Jiang, which means that he usually bites it a few turns into the game. Averted from patch 1.3.0 onwards, which turns him into a unique character and places him in Han Fu's faction.
• Decapitated Army: Retinue units take a large morale hit if their attached commander is defeated and can no longer rally if they break. The same applies to the sub-commanders if the commanding General dies.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • Playing as Yuan Shu is this, as it is not immediately apparent how his Demand Legitimacy diplomacy action really works. As it counts as a benevolent diplomatic action, if a faction accepts his Demand Legitimacy, they get a relationship boost with him, while factions friendly to that faction get a smaller boost with Yuan. Thus, if the player plays the diplomacy game right, it will be easy to build good relationships with many factions with proper use of Demand Legitimacy.
  • Dong Zhuo's starting position in 190 CE is, in a word, precarious: literally everyone hates/is at war with you, your second in command and greatest general is Benedict Arnold on steroids, you're tied at the hip to the dying Han Dynasty which drags you into war after war as people beat on it, and your local stomping ground is effectively Mordor (that is, a desolate wasteland ringed by mountains). However, should you survive the first couple dozen turns, you essentially become forgotten as the other factions turn on each other. Moreover, you realize that the supposed backwater you're sitting on is in fact a gold mine: not only is northwest China replete with mines and horse pastures, you sit astride a major commercial waterway and the frigging terminus of the Silk Road. Dong Zhuo's faction thus becomes incredibly powerful mid-late game, as your economic strength allows you to raise huge armies and roll over your weak neighbors with little to no fuss.
  • Liu Biao and his faction in 190 CE. He starts just north of Sun Jian and south of Cao Cao, which is not an enviable position. He also starts as a rather old faction leader, meaning he’ll die pretty quickly, which causes a loss of satisfaction for all generals for some time. He has access to only one legendary hero at the start (admittedly badass Huang Zhong), and Liu Biao's two sons have a rivalry ongoing. Satisfying your generals especially after he dies will be a problem in the early game. But once he’s dead and his son takes over and enters mid game...things suddenly start to look up. Having two sons means lots of grandchildren and they’re old enough and leveled up enough to take part in operations. Liu Biao's “average” generals also level up rather quickly due to his unique buildings and court system, creating a band of nice high level generals. Moreover, all of Liu Biao's armies have excellent Jing Infantry (spear guards but better) that can be recruited by any general, and since you had to crush either Cao Cao or Sun Jian to survive, you have all the nice resource-rich land between the Yangtze and Yellow rivers to just build up and face all your enemies.
• The Dragon: Dong Zhuo's adopted son, Lü Bu , is this to him.
• Dramatic Irony: The use of the "Seven Steps Verse" song in the "Eight Princes" trailer takes a new depth when you consider that the poem was composed by Cao Zhi, a member of the very family the Sima had deposed to establish the Jin Dynasty.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect: In the Three Kingdoms campaign, the player would do well to remember that as the faction leader rises in rank or power, the endgame becomes closer and closer. Should any human-controlled faction leader reach the rank of King, the game will automatically crown the top three ranked non-governor faction leaders emperors, and the three factions will have massive relationship penalties with each other, often resulting in war. Governor factions cannot be crowned emperors this way; they must capture the capital of an existing emperor instead. Inverted with the alignment system in Eight Princes, as the alignments have only bonuses at the lower and highest end of the scale ^note Ranks 1, 2 and 5, but have both bonuses and penalties while being in the middle ^note Ranks 3 and 4.
• Dual Wielding: A variety of units are equipped entirely as dual-wielding axes. Some generals (and thus, their bodyguard unit in Records mode) may choose to dual-wield axes or swords with the appropriate weapon being available.
• Duel to the Death: A mechanic inside Romance mode, with any general on the field being able to challenge any enemy non-Strategist general to one. Outright refusing a duel will result in small temporary morale penalty for the side of the general that refused. If a duel is accepted, a timer will begin. If a general dies, their side suffer heavy morale losses, as they will if the general flees before the timer ends. The duel continues until one general dies, but fleeing after the timer ends does not incur a morale penalty.
• Dysfunctional Family:
  • The godfather-godson duo that is Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu. ^note Historically, Lü did have an affair with one of Dong's maids; after artistic treatment, this unnamed maid became the Diao Chan found in the Romance.
  • Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu, who are often at loggerheads. ^note Depending on how one sees their relationship, they are either half-brothers or cousins. Genetically, they had the same father, Yuan Feng. However, Feng had allowed Shao to be adopted into the family of his elder brother Yuan Cheng, who had died at a young age. Regardless, Shu saw Shao as a rival.
  • Taken to a new level in the Eight Princes DLC, where all of the eight playable lords are warring members of the Sima family.
• Easy Logistics: Still there to a degree, but handled more elegantly than in the past. Armies now carry supplies, which recover in friendly territory and deplete when in hostile territory or besieged; low supplies mean attrition. Additionally, new units no longer pop into existence with a full headcount after a set number of turns, instead being recruited gradually over that time much like replenishment.
  • Played straight with the new retinue system: you can recall a general's retinue anywhere in your empire, then deploy it again elsewhere within your territory in the next turn, plus a few turns to muster the units to full strength. This functions as an Anti-Frustration Feature, as moving your armies between fronts would take too long otherwise. Also, you can only field a fixed number of generals per season.
• End of an Era: Twofold during the "Eight Princes" campaign, the unification of China ten years prior saw the definitive end to the "Three Kingdoms" period and the Civil War caused by the princes would cause the end of the Early Imperial period and the second division of China.
• Evil Is Bigger: The cinematic trailer shows Lü Bu towering over common foot soldiers, wearing a formidable suit of armour and effortlessly slaughtering several coalition swordsmen in the blink of an eye.
• Evil Matriarch: Empress Jia Nanfeng serves as the Big Bad of the "Eight Princes" campaign due to her role in the destabilization of the already fragile political order within the Jin Dynasty, which lead to the Civil War.
• Eyepatch of Power: Xiahou Dun, one of Cao Cao's generals, can be depicted with an eyepatch as per tradition. He will initially have both eyes, until the event that causes him to lose one happens.
• Fat Bastard: Dong Zhuo has a massive gut, as he's often depicted in media.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: The "Rise of the Warlords" bookmark depicts the period immediately after the Guandong Coalition's collapse, with Yuan Shao's former coalition partners turning into independent warlords and dividing the Empire among them.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Generals can get the Mighty Knockback skill which will naturally do this on a successful charge.
• For Great Justice: By far what most of the Warlords describe as being their main drive. The smallfolk suffers and corruption reaches critical mass — literally with the bloated tyrant Dong Zhuo — which is why most of the Warlords broke with the Han Empire. Their actual drive may differ, however...
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: None of the Eight Princes of Sima are named in the trailer, however the banners of their armies have the characters of their titles; coupled with a bit knowledge on the events that followed allows one to guess their names. (In order of appearence: Sima Yue, Sima Liang, Sima Wei, Sima Jiong, Sima Ying, Sima Lun, Sima Ai and Sima Yong).
• Friendly Enemy: AI factions really value you releasing their generals — seeing a long, bloody war with another large enemy faction but with the player constantly setting their generals free after every victory over them can cause them to have much more friendly diplomatic relations with them than a variety of other factions who've suffered no worse from the player than a territorial trespassing.
• Game-Breaking Bug: If starting from the Mandate bookmark, Liu Xie exists as a character. If Dong Zhuo confederates the Han Imperial faction, Liu Xie will also (eventually) exist as an Emperor "token". The bug arises because the "character" Liu Xie does not move together with the "token" Liu Xie. Thus, when opting to restore the Han, Liu Xie will become faction head of the faction where the "character" is, not the faction where the "token" is.
• Geo Effects: Both the Yangtze and the Yellow River form formidable barriers. Unplanned conquests which leave a faction with territory on both sides of the rivers may have some difficulty in defence...
  • Depending on the location, lumber camps either cut bamboo or pine, which offer different bonuses.
• Good Is Not Soft: Healers in the Yellow Turban factions are described as representing the compassion of the Revolution. However, they specifically have high instinct and mid level resolve, meaning that they are fantastic at wiping out whole platoons of soldiers just like the vanguard.
• Guide Dang It!: When your character infiltrates another faction as a spy, they generate two resources (cover and undercover network) that they may spent for actions like theft or sabotage. The problem is that the target faction will often have technologies, buildings or characters that increase the cost of these actions. The game presents this as your spy encountering an obstacle and either retreating (while still paying the original cost) or going through with it (paying the increased resource cost). You can, however, push through with the action without paying the cost increase at the risk of getting your spy captured, making the whole thing a gamble on your part.
• Gunboat Diplomacy: An actual diplomatic option is to demand something from another faction which will cause a war declaration against them if it is not accepted.
• Hard-Coded Hostility:
  • Yellow Turban playable factions cannot engage in the most rudimentary of diplomacy until the mid-game, and are essentially in a state of permanent war with the rest of China until the Three Kingdoms form. The Yellow Turban rebels are at war with everyone who isn't a playable Yellow Turban.
  • This also happens in the endgame. Once a human-controlled faction leader reaches the rank of King, the top three non-governor factions all declare themselves as emperors and automatically get large relationship penalties with each other.
• Hegemonic Empire: Strong leaders on their way to unifying China often build this type of empire, by intimidating/bribing factions to become their vassals. Vassals have to give up a portion of their coin income to the hegemon, and have to seek permission before declaring war; they also cannot refuse their hegemon's request to go to war with the hegemon's target. Territory controlled by vassals count towards the territorial requirement part of the victory condition. However, hegemons are duty-bound to protect vassals from attacks. Failure to do so will allow the vassal being attacked to become independent and damage the hegemon's reputation.
• Hero Unit: Generals serve as this in Romance mode.
• Idle Rich: By the time of the "Eight Princes" campaign, the nobility has become detached from the political sphere unless they have something to gain out of it, making the Jin Dynasty strong on paper and weak in practice. This extends from the powerful clans to the new "gentry" class.
• Impoverished Patrician: Downplayed. After the Emperor abdicates, there is a chance he'll appear in your court as a Commander. However, he is no longer being held as a political pawn, so it's frankly not all bad for him at this point.
• Just Before the End: While the main campaign begins with the last gasps of the Han Dynasty, the Mandate bookmark shows the Empire just before its terminal collapse - beset by rebellion and betrayal, yet still sturdy enough to potentially avoid disaster or at the very least, die trying.
• Kill It with Fire: The best way to deal with a defender's very powerful towers is to burn them down with flaming arrows or flaming shot. These arrows can also cause a morale penalty to enemies hit to help rout them sooner.
• Knight Errant: Youxia units are made up of these kind of people.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: Downplayed by Strategists, who are unable to duel. This however doesn't prevent others from sending just about any melee unit to probably kill them instead anyway.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Downplayed. Unlike previous historical Total War titles, Three Kingdoms takes cues from the Total War: Warhammer games, such as One-Man Army generals with active abilities, battles focusing on clever use of high-powered actions, and one-on-one duels with Mook Chivalry, but only in the Romance mode. Playing in Records mode removes many of the fantastical elements for a more traditional Total War game.
• Logical Weakness: The Yellow Turban faction relies on mass peasant support and weight of numbers. While this means that Turban armies can be raised and replenished with astonishing speed, their troops are a bewildering hodgepodge of types and roles, their cavalry support is subpar, and general officers appear relatively rarely.
• Loyal to the Position: In a marked departure from past Total War games, troops under any individual officer are loyal to that officer only; they cannot be reassigned to another officer's command (unless the officer passed away outside of combat). Also, when the officer leaves a faction's service, the troops they command will also leave the faction with them.
• Luck-Based Mission: Apart from Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu and Sima Yi, none of the heroes who aren't on the map from the start are guaranteed to spawn in a given campaign. It's possible, for example, to play as Cao Cao in the earlier start dates and never come across Dian Wei or Xu Chu throughout your whole campaign.
• Magikarp Power: The final level of some buildings and settlements introduces benefits which often are considerably more powerful than what the buildings/settlements have been producing previously. For instance, the final level of the Yellow Turban headquarters allows the appointment of one additional Local Leader (when previously the building is mainly about increasing public order). One option for the final level of the copper mine settlement decreases corruption (when previously the building is mainly about increasing industrial coin income).
  • In Cao Cao's hands, grain and rice settlements can be converted into facilities which increases the replenishment of retinues either within the commandery (grain) or faction-wide (rice).
• Master of None: The Yellow Turban leaders are all like this except for some of the legendary characters. Veterans have the most in common with champions but can act like sentinels or vanguard. However, they're the only class leader in the Yellow Turbans to have any cunning worth a damn meaning (except for the legendary lords) so they will be forced into the strategist role despite the fact that Scholars have better archers. However, since they have the best cavalry, you can make them commanders. Scholars are most like sentinels, but can act like champions or commanders. They are generally forced into the commander or strategist role because of their low instinct, but they also have the worst cavalry. Healers are most like vanguard and can act like champions or commanders, but they have the best unbreakable infantry putting them in Sentinel or Vanguard territory given their high instinct so you think they would excel in combat. However, they also have the worst armor, barely any better than strategists because they're doctors and spiritual healers. Furthermore, none of them can be equipped with armor manually. They are locked into whatever armor they start with and are randomly locked into a slightly better set of armor as they increase in rank. None of them are good duelists because of this and you will often have to interrupt their duels with other units — or refuse to duel entirely. Justified as the Yellow Turbans are a Revolution of the common people. The leaders' roles are downplayed for the betterment of all which is why many of their units are unbreakable. It's not uncommon to lose a battle with your leaders fleeing while the unbreakable units fight to the death to allow them time to escape. ^note Veterans have the best cavalry and the only siege equipment, Scholars have the best archers and support infantry, and healers have the heavy spear cavalry and the Youxia infantry. Veterans have the second best archers and the faction's only (terrible) missile cavalry, Scholars have the second best Infantry, but they have better Support infantry as mentioned, and Healers have the second best cavalry as was already mentioned. They also all have very quirky units just for added chaos.
• Mêlée à Trois: What the endgame essentially boils down to. The moment a human-controlled faction leader reaches the rank of King, the game will immediately elevate the top three ranked non-governor faction leaders to emperors, and the three factions will declare war on each other.
• Morality Kitchen Sink: The contenders for the Empire are people, with all that entails. Many of the warlords are noble individuals fighting to do what's right for China's people, others are scheming Well Intentioned Extremists, some are motivated by power and arrogance, and there's a sprinkling of downright bastards in the mix (such as Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu).
• Morton's Fork: Vassals who are hated by factions who have agreements with you can be this when they're attacked by said factions. Should you decline to protect the vassal, the vassal becomes independent and you take a hit to reputation. Should you agree to defend the vassal, your reputation drops as you went to war shortly (immediately, really) after terminating the agreements.
• Non-Indicative Name: Strictly speaking, the Three Kingdoms era truly began more than 30 years after the 190CE start date.
• One-Man Army: Generals in Romance mode, who can hold their own against entire units in the right matchups.
• Only Six Faces: There's a limited number of characters with unique models, and generic characters have very little variance between them.
• Origins Episode: In the 182 AD start date, players can play the origin stories of characters such as Cao Cao and Liu Bei.
• The Power of Friendship: The Chinese cultural ideal of guanxi is adapted into a game mechanic, making characters with close relationships fight better when they're together on the battlefield.
• Promoted to Playable: Dong Zhuo can be unlocked by becoming an Emperor with any of the starting warlords. And when you play his campaign, you will stumble upon an event that allows Lü Bu to usurp him as the faction leader.
• Punny Name: With names like He Man, it was an inevitability that there would be no shortage of TW3K memes dedicated to Chinese names that hardly fit the proper definition of a name.
• Puppet King: The child-emperor, Liu Xie, has no real power and is merely a figurehead (and hostage) to Dong Zhuo. Should any faction capture the city of Chang'an from Dong, Liu Xie would then become hostage to the faction and held in the new capital city.
  • In Eight Princes, Sima Zhong is this, and unlike Liu Xie who at least can still push back via the imperial favor mechanic, Zhong is utterly helpless.
• Rain of Arrows:
  • Missile units are among the deadliest threats on the battlefield, with showers of arrows and crossbow bolts being able to decimate entire units before the battlelines even meet.
  • In Romance mode, some Heroes such as Taishi Ci, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong and He Man have access to the Hail of Arrows ability which allows them to fire what are essentially shotgun blasts into mobs of enemies. Yan Baihu has an event more powerful variant of this ability as his attacks are poisonous.
• Redshirt Army: Early in the game, most armies will be compromised of peasants and militias who are likely to die by the thousands. Downplayed in that they actually deal decent damage; they just can't take it, which is what leads to such deadly confrontations.
• Regent for Life:
  • In the 190CE start date, Dong Zhuo aims to be this, as he already has the young emperor Liu Xie in his custody.
  • In Eight Princes, it is possible for the player to become this when they capture both Luoyang and Emperor Sima Zhong. The alternative is to remove Zhong from the throne.
• The Remnant: At the 190CE start, the main Yellow Turban uprising has been put down, but Huang Shao, Gong Du and He Yi still lead local bands of Yellow Turbans and low public order can cause more to arise. If playing a Yellow Turban leader, your main objective is to reverse this state of affairs.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Yellow Turbans are capable of the same brutality as the nobles they oppose, including sacking towns, beheading surrendered enemies and press-ganging foes into their armies. On occasion, they can even come into conflict with local Yellow Turban uprisings. And, of course, ultimately their goal isn't to completely undo the Chinese social order, but simply put a more worthy dynasty in charge. In addition, they struggle with corruption as they do not have institutions to combat corruption; fighting corruption is dependent on Local Leaders^note their equivalent of Administrators or assigning officers to the relevant assignment, which are limited in number.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: That said, their factions' creed, technologies and the fluff text on most of their units and buildings make clear that the Yellow Turbans are ultimately motivated by a desire for justice and egalitarianism for China's peasantry; their farms, industrial buildings and housing buildings are collectivized instead of feudal, and all of their Legendary Lords (especially He Yi) are presented as humble and pious characters.
• Rightful King Returns: As of Fates Divided, warlords with Emperor Liu Xie in their possession ^note If starting in Mandate, the warlord must have Liu Xie as a character and as the emperor "token" are provided with the option of restoring the Han Empire with Liu on the throne.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Generals declaring themselves "Oathsworn" to one another gain armour and ranged evasion buffs for fighting on the same battlefield...but if their Oathsworn falls on the battlefield, they/their unit will go berserk. Hope it won't be a Self-Destructive Charge for you!
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • Any character who crowns themselves Emperor will inevitably be this, having fought dozens of battles and done much to save the realm from chaos and turmoil.
  • The Eight Princes themselves could be considered a deconstruction as their direct involvement in the Civil War is what would condemn the Jin Dynasty to infamy and cost it the Imperial Throne. (In turn, this would be among the reasons for the lionizing of Liu Bei and vilification of Cao Cao in the original Romance of the Three Kingdoms, just to show how unpopular the Jin Dynasty was in later times). ^note Promotion of Shu-Han as the legitimate successor to the Han dynasty gained pace when famed Southern Song philosopher Zhu Xi threw his weight behind the theory in his work which would be compiled by his students into "The String and Mesh of Zi Zhi Tong Jian" (資治通鑑綱目, Zizhi Tongjian Gangmu ).
• The Savage South: Much of southern China is empty and potentially prosperous land waiting to be colonised, though the native peoples there may have a thing or two to say about the Han's expansionism.
• Scenery Porn: The campaign map renders classical China, from the Central Plains to the southern karst mountains of Guilin, in breathtaking beauty.
• Self-Destructive Charge: In Three Kingdoms, polearm units while braced can reflect a mounted unit's charge bonus back at them. You better believe this is what happens when shock cavalry charges into the front of such a unit.
• Settling the Frontier: Downplayed. While the frontier does exist (in the south) and it is expensive to colonise abandoned settlements, it is not particularly dangerous otherwise.
• Shown Their Work:
  • In the Sun Jian trailer, the Imperial Seal is shown to be a jade block with one corner replaced with gold. This is true to historical records: the seal was damaged in 9 CE when it was thrown into the ground by Empress Dowager Wang Zhengjun in response to Wang Mang's usurpation of the throne. Wang Mang would later order the damaged corner to be restored with gold.
  • The army banners use not only the correct Chinese characters for the names of faction leaders, but also have them written in seal script and clerical script, which were prevalent during the Han dynasty as the Chinese regular script hadn't been developed yet. One particular detail is Liu Bei's banner, which use the historically-accurate character 'Han' as opposed to the oft-depicted character 'Shu' seen in many other adaptations.
  • In Cao Cao's trailer, the Go game he played with Yuan Shao is reenacting a real gameplay from the Qing Dynasty. The black (Cao Cao) is struggling against the white (Yuan Shao) until it turns the table in the corner of the board, which the white did not see coming.
• Shout-Out:
  • Malekith hating snow seemingly like Anakin Skywalker on sand was apparently not enough for Creative Assembly and so this description for sand◊ is in Three Kingdoms.
  • The description for the "Lame" trait says: "I used to be a warrior like you..."
  • The Achievements list is full of these, including (but not limited to) "Han Shot First", "Jade Empire", "They Who Control the Spice..." and "...Control the Universe".
  • During Romance Mode, Generals will often exchange Volleying Insults with each other. Including "You fight like a dairy farmer!" "How appropriate, you fight like a cow!"
  • Which Yellow Turbans character gets the title of "The Most Powerful"? He Man.
  • The Disciplinarian trait has the flavour text "You will not laugh! You will not cry! You will learn by the numbers and I will teach you!"
  • Amongst Liu Biao's starting generic generals, there is a Strategist by the name of Kuai Liang. ^note Historically, Liu Biao did have a strategist by that name. He and his brother Kuai Yue were regarded as the best minds Liu Biao had.
  • Sun Ren's bow is named Heartseeker.
  • Gongsun Zan's polearm is named Dreadbringer.
  • Xu Chu's mace is named Giantsbane.
  • One of the first missions you receive during Lu Bu's campaign is "Do Not Pursue Lu Bu.".
• Sibling Rivalry: As it was in real life, Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu cannot stand each other in-game and can go to war. However, there are random events in which the player is allowed to choose an option that improves Yuan Shao's and Yuan Shu's relationship.
  • Similarly, picking one of several siblings as heir can trigger a Satisfaction penalty in the other siblings (doubly so if you disinherit one sibling in favor of another). Also, depending on the personality traits siblings acquire, there's every chance that they just won't get along well.
• Smart People Play Chess: Several characters are shown playing Weiqi (or Go).
• Space-Filling Empire: Not the best way to complete your quest to rule all of China. As a faction's domain increases, corruption will increase, which in turn decreases coin income. Deciding whether to hold settlements or commanderies yourself or to parcel them out to trustworthy vassals is a major part of gameplay from mid-game onwards; for Liu Biao and Sima Liang in Eight Princes, this is especially vital as their faction mechanic heavily penalises realms which are too large.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Although Anyone Can Die, some characters are scripted to survive events that would lead to their deaths in real life. For instance, when an AI Dong Zhuo almost inevitably gets killed, his brother Dong Min inherits the faction, whereas in reality he was executed as a Fall Guy for Lü Bu's betrayal.
  • The Sun family. Historically, Sun Jian died in an ambush in 191AD and Sun Ce was assassinated in 200AD. Give or take a year, these events almost always happen when those factions are AI-controlled. If Sun Jian is player-controlled, depending on certain events and players' choices, you can have anything happen from both Sun lords dying at the events, to Sun Jian dying but Sun Ce surviving to Sun Jian living to a ripe old age to see all of his three children ^note and sometimes even more given that Lady Wu is specifically programmed to be fertile, which typically means even more babies given she's still of childbearing age at the start of the 190CE scenario reach adulthood.
• Stroke the Beard: The generic Strategists' artwork all put the side of a hand on their chin◊ by default.
• Succession Crisis:
  • In the 190 AD start date, the Emperor is still nominally in charge (though whoever is keeping him in their court is the de facto ruler), but once he abdicates, it's every man for himself (and the Dragon Throne). Eventually, the three largest non-governor factions will declare themselves dynasties, and begin fighting among themselves for the right to become Emperor of all China.
  • The spark that starts the War of the Eight Princes revolves around the regency of the Emperor Sima Zhong and the tricked disownment and death of Crown Prince Sima Yu (which historically took place in 299-300CE), which allowed the other princes to make their claim.
• Tech Tree:
  • The majority of factions utilize a Reforms tech tree that is literally a tree: as Reforms are implemented, they blossom like flower buds while the branches said flowers rest on extends; more complex reforms are represented by branches that intertwine, requiring all previous flower buds to bloom before the reform can be issued.
  • Yellow Turban factions received their own tree with patch 1.4. Their Reforms are gated by the faction's level of enlightenment rather than by previous reforms. The Zhang brothers in the 182 CE bookmark also have their own literal tech tree (which is not available to their underlings in the 190 CE bookmark).
  • Patch 1.5 gave Bandits a unique form of technology. Instead of reforms, they develop connections with bandit groups in each commandery, needing to have an adjacent bandit network to connect to a new commandery, and receiving a research bonus if they control the commandery where their target resides.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Cao Cao's wife, Lady Bian, is surprisingly assigned several toxic traits, making her prone to rebelling or not getting along with Cao Cao (and as a Legendary unit, she will always retain those traits). This is a far cry from her historical or novel portrayal, as a devoted, kind matriarch of the Cao family, respected by her sons and Cao Cao himself. This was addressed when she received her unique portrait and her traits were reworked.
• Trick Arrow: Flaming Arrows are commonly available to archers as long as their retinue's general has a skill granting them it. Bandit generals can instead get poisoned arrows as a skill (or any faction can have a singular general be granted by the Master of the Hunt title). Defenders of Earth take it a step farther with firing flaming arrows with oil pots affixed to them, causing damage to enemies not unlike exploding arrows.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: The 190 CE bookmark starts briefly after Dong Zhuo, a cruel north-western warlord, had taken control of the Emperor as his Prime Minister and is now the de-facto ruler of the Han Dynasty.
• Unstable Equilibrium: Downplayed. While a faction's large domain can bring with it significant advantages, the game does penalize large realms with some disadvantages.
  • Large realms bring with them increasing corruption, which reduces coin income. Corruption can be mitigated, but never fully eliminated once a realm is big enough.
  • Other factions will see a large realm as a strategic threat, reducing their goodwill during diplomacy.
• Violation of Common Sense: Some of the Steam achievements require actions which can be suicidal if not properly planned.
  • "This is Total War!" requires a campaign win, and having declared war on every faction as soon as you encounter them.
  • "Han Shot First" requires another faction to declare themselves emperor before you. If not playing as a governor faction, this usually means self-handicapping.
• Vulnerable Civilians: During battles, civilians can be seen wandering around in their settlements or working their farms. They tend to run away with the approach of a hostile force but can actually take up arms. They are very weak in combat though and will die quickly.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Like what happened historically, the Guandong Coalition that was formed to take down Dong Zhuo ended up collapsing on itself, without accomplishing its objective, because the warlord members all had their own respective ambitions of taking over China. The game begins shortly after the dissolution of the coalition, with its former members duking it out among themselves.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace:
  • The backdrop of the "Eight Princes" campaign. The Sima family was able to establish the Jin Dynasty and finish the reunification of China a decade ago. Unfortunately for them, they had to contend with a feeble grip of power since they reached the throne through intrigue and by exchanging favours with the nobles, the demobilization of troops now that the country was unified once again, and the encroaching of the barbarian tribes in the north, which would become worse once the Civil War started.
  • The core game occurs in the aftermath of the first Yellow Turban rebellion. The Han generals defeated the Yellow Turbans (though there's still multiple remnant factions), but in the process of crushing the rebellion and restoring order, they ended up as warlords controlling large areas of China. This sets the stage for the rise of Dong Zhuo and the disintegration of the Han.
• Young Future Famous People: The majority of the featured cast had yet to achieve the accomplishments which made them famous in both the 182 and 190 AD start dates. Cao Cao had yet to defeat Yuan Shao at Guandu, while the Sun brothers, Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang (among others) were only children. Pretty much the only characters who had already made their fame are Liu Biao, Kong Rong ^note At the age of sixteen, he took in a scholar named Zhang Jian, who was wanted due to the second Disaster of the Partisan Prohibitions. When the authorities found out, Rong, his brother Bao and their mother all claimed to be the one responsible for taking in the fugitive. In the end, Kong Bao was executed, but Rong's bravery won him much praise., Dong Zhuo and Sun Jian.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: Won't be a Total War game without this. Each resource usually has more than one way of obtaining them.
  • Coin: The main currency of the game. Factions earn this via taxation from the peasantry, commerce from inns/marketplaces/trade ports and industry such as mineral extraction or product manufacturing; bandit factions have a unique way of earning coin: via banditry, which decreases with high public order. Coin is also earned from occupying spice depots (found in the southwest) or silk markets (found in the northwest). Coin is spent on the construction of buildings, recruitment of troops and their maintenance. It is also used to pay officers' salaries.
  • Food: Used for increasing peasant populations in towns and settlements. Food surplus is also needed to maintain military supplies for the troops. Low food supplies will result in decreased public order, troop desertions and peasants fleeing. Food can be obtained from farming, rearing livestock or fishing; just like with coin, bandit factions can obtain food via banditry.
  • Population: Population increases coin income by a percentage, increases construction speed and slots for buildings and allows faster replenishment of depleted retinues, but they also decrease public order. Peasantry are attracted to towns and settlements by food surpluses and high public order.
  • Trade Resources: Mainly used in determining the value of trade agreements between factions. However, various resources enable the construction of special/upgraded buildings which help in the governance of the realm. Trade resources can be obtained via trade agreements or by occupying settlements which produce the resource.
    • One subset of Trade Resources are the various types of skilled labour: Artisans, Industralists and Entrepreneurs. These are acquired by constructing buildings in commandery capitals.
• You Shall Not Pass!: In his trailer, Liu Bei does this; taking up position at the mouth of a pass and holding off Cao Cao's army with his small force in an attempt to buy time for the civilians behind him to escape.