History VideoGame / TotalWarThreeKingdoms

* * ShoutOut:

''Total War: Three Kingdoms'' is an RTS game developed by Creator/CreativeAssembly and published by Creator/{{Sega}}. It is the latest of the ''Videogame/TotalWar'' series; set during [[UsefulNotes/ThreeKingdomsShuWeiWu the Three Kingdoms era]]. The era has been popularised in operas, folk stories, novels and in more recent times, films, television, and video games. The best known of these is Luo Guanzhong's ''Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms''.

Listening to player feedback after the controversial shift in gameplay introduced by ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' and ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII II]]'', ''Three Kingdoms'' offers two modes which 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 [[OneManArmy 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 fifth expansion pack, ''Fates Divided'', is scheduled to be 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 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guandu 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. The patch accompanying the [=DLC=] will also allow 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.

** Played straight in the Eight Princes campaign: All of the warring leaders are members of Sima family whose struggle for power is motivated either by a genuine desire to restore order or the plain out ambition of taking the Imperial throne for themselves, yet none of them would have acted were it not for [[EvilMatriarch 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.

** 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.

* CultureClash: 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 feudalism, but the other factions respect you for supporting noble lineage. Also, all heros of other factions will refuse to join you. You are stuck with Veterans, Scholars, and Healers as your generals.

* DuelToTheDeath: 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 occur a moral penalty.

* TheFellowshipHasEnded: The "Rise of the Warlords" bookmark depicts the period immediately after the Guangdong Coalition's collapse, with Yuan Shao's former coalition partners turning into independent warlords and dividing the Empire among them.

* GoodIsNotSoft: 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.

* MasterOfNone: 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 [[JustifiedTrope 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 [[ImplacableMan 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 also mentioned. They also all have very quirky units just for added chaos.[[/note]]

* MoralityKitchenSink: 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 Extremist}}s, some are motivated by power and arrogance, and there's a sprinkling of downright bastards in the mix (such as Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu).

* NonIndicativeName: Strictly speaking, the Three Kingdoms era truly began more than 30 years after the game's start date.

** The Eight Princes themselves could be considered a deconstruction as their direct involvement in the CivilWar 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 Literature/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms, just to show how unpopular the Jin Dynasty was in later times).
* TheSavageSouth: Much of southern China is empty and potentially prosperous land waiting to be colonised, though the native peoples there may have a thing to say about the Han's expansionism.

** In the Sun Jian trailer, the Imperial Seal is shown to be a jade block with one corner replaced with gold. This is [[TruthInTelevision true to historical records]]: the seal was damaged in 9 CE when it was thrown into the ground by Empress Dowager Wang in response to [[UsefulNotes/DynastiesFromShangToQing Wang Mang's usurpation of the throne]]. Wang Mang would later order the damaged corner to be restored with gold.

** 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 [[TheRemnant remnant]] factions), but in the process of crushing the rebellion and restoring order, they ended up as warlords controlling large areas of China. This the stage for the rise of Dong Zhuo and the disintegration of the Han.

The second expansion pack, ''Mandate of Heaven'', was released on January 16th, 2020. It adds a new start date: 182CE, 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[[/note]], Prince Liu Chong [[note]] the last Prince of Chen, and historically assassinated by Yuan Shu in 197[[/note]], and Lu Zhi [[note]] general, government official, and scholar who was mentor to Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan, among others[[/note]] 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. [[/note]] The DLC also adds unique new campaign mechanics (such as ''Fervor'', which is an abstraction of Yellow Turban influence within provinces), events (including the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Province_rebellion Liang Province Rebellion]]), and objectives, along with new battlefield units and new unit abilities.

The fifth expansion pack, ''Fates Divided'', is scheduled to be released on March 11, 2021. It adds a new start date: 200CE, the fifth year of the ''Jian An'' era. The expansion focuses on Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and their climatic showdown at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guandu 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. The patch accompanying the [=DLC=] will also allow Ma Teng and Yuan Shu to be playable in 182 CE, and for those with the relevant [=DLC=] to play as Liu Chong and He Yi in 194 CE.

The fifth expansion pack, ''Fates Divided'', is scheduled to be released on March 11, 2021. It adds a new start date: 200CE, the fifth year of the ''Jian An'' era. The expansion focuses on Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and their climatic showdown at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guandu 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.

The second expansion pack, ''Mandate of Heaven'', was released on January 16th, 2020. It adds a new start date: 182CE, 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[[/note]], Prince Liu Chong [[note]] the last Prince of Chen, and historically assassinated by Yuan Shu in 197[[/note]], and Lu Zhi [[note]] general, government official, and scholar who was mentor to Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan, among others[[/note]] respectively. Tao Qian would also be 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. [[/note]] The DLC also adds unique new campaign mechanics (such as ''Fervor'', which is an abstraction of Yellow Turban influence within provinces), events (including the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Province_rebellion Liang Province Rebellion]]), and objectives, along with new battlefield units and new unit abilities.

The fifth expansion pack, ''Fates Divided'', is scheduled to be released on March 11, 2021. It adds a new start date: 200CE, the fifth year of the ''Jian An'' era. The expansion focuses on Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, and their climatic showdown at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guandu 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 free patch accompanying the DLC.

** Similarly, picking one of several siblings as heir can trigger a Satisfaction penalty in the other siblings. Also, depending on the personality traits siblings acquire, there's every chance that they just won't get along well.

** Also notable with the Sun family - historically Sun Jian dies in an ambush in 191AD and Sun Ce is 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 the time[[/note]] reach adulthood.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Downplayed. [[spoiler: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 not all bad.]]

* DuelToTheDeath: 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 heavy 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 occur a moral penalty.

* DuelToTheDeath: A mechanic inside Romance mode, with any general on the field being able to challenge any enemy non-Strategist general to one. Potentially downplayed in that either side can choose to leg it even after accepting, but the morale penalty from doing this anyway just might cost their side the battle too.
** To be more precise, outright refusing a duel will result in heavy morale loss 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. If a general survives the timer, the duel ends, and if the general managed to survive the duration of the timer desptie the enemy being stronger than them, their side will gain a morale boost at seeing their general hold his own against a superior opponent.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/959ebb67_2182_4f4d_87b9_2112c992daa6.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Twelve Warlords. Three Kingdoms. One Land.]]

** During Romance Mode Generals will often exchange VolleyingInsults with each other. Including [[VideoGame/MonkeyIsland "You fight like a dairy farmer!" "How appropriate, you fight like a cow!"]]

* SpaceFillingEmpire: 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.

** The spark that starts the War of the Eight Princes revolves around the regency of the Emperor and the tricked disownment of the Crown Prince, which allowed the other princes to make their claim.

The first expansion pack, ''Eight Princes'', was released on August 8th, 2019. It covers the beginning phase of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Eight_Princes War of the Eight Princes]], 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)[[/note]]

The first expansion pack, ''Eight Princes'', was released on August 8th, 2019. It covers the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Eight_Princes War of the Eight Princes]] that led to the 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)[[/note]]

** '''Scholar:''' A Yellow Turban leader who believes in humility. They act as Sentinels, 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 having high resolve with middling expertise and cunning, low to mid instinct, and low authority. They are philosophers, sorcerers, writers, astolgers, and monks.
** '''Healer:''' A Yellow Turban leader who believes in compassion. They act as Vanguard having high instinct with middling resolve and authority and low expertise and cunning. They are advisors, singers, musicians, fortune-teller, and physicians.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Downplayed.[[spoiler: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 not all bad.]]

* CultureClash: 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 feudalism, but the other factions respect you for supporting noble lineage. Also, all heros of other factions will refuse to join you. You are stuck with Veterans, Scholars, and Healers are your generals.

* MasterOfNone: 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 they will be forced into the strategist role. Scholars are most like sentinels, but can act like champions or commanders. They are generally forced into the commander role because of their low instinct. Healers are most like vanguard and can act like champions or commanders. 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.
* MeleeATrois: What the endgame essentially boils down to. [[spoiler: 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.]]

*** Kong Rong favors a mostly conflict-free playing style that benefits greatly from trade and diplomacy. Now if only due to his starting position he didn't have to bear the brunt of [[HardCodedHostility Yellow Turban attacks]] on the map and could trade with somebody other than with only Liu Bei for the first 15 or so turns...

* AwesomeButImpractical: 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 the whole 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.

** '''Population''': Population increases peasantry coin income by a percentage, increases construction speed 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.

** There is an option on the tech tree [[VideoGame/RomeTotalWar begin trading]] [[VideoGame/TotalWarRomeII with the Roman Empire.]] TruthInTelevision as the Romans and the Han Chinese did come into contact with another in the era the game is set in, albeit indirectly.

The third expansion pack, ''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 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yan_Province Yan Province]]. For Sun Ce, he has just broken free from Yuan Shu, historically his father's former 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.

** Sun Jian and Yuan Shu are also presented as fellow warlords standing on equal ground 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.

* TheFellowshipHasEnded: The "Rise of the Warlords" bookmark depicts the period immediately after the Guangdong Coalition's collapse, with Yuan Shao's generals turning into independent warlords and dividing the Empire among them.

* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Lü Bu's campaign is accessed by playing Dong Zhuo's and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder letting history take its course]].

The third expansion pack, ''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 Lyu Bu and Sun Ce. For Lyu Bu, it has been two years since he killed Dong Zhuo, and he is about to have a showdown with Cao Cao over [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yan_Province Yan Province]]. For Sun Ce, he has just broken free from Yuan Shu, historically his father's former 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.