History YMMV / TotalWarThreeKingdoms

* BrokenBase: Some think that CA should decide between history and fantasy instead of adapting a semi-historical heroic fantasy novel. This persists in spite of the fact that the game has two different modes of campaign: a realistic historical one, and an embellished romantic one with the standard {{Wuxia}} flair. However, players have noted the lack of attention towards "Records" mode, making it less balanced than the "Romance" mode.

** Players who want a relatively easy time will use Sun Jian, due to the reasons listed under his Demonic Spiders entry below.
*** For that matter, anyone starting remotely near the south will rush to grab the Han commanderies in the south-east, as three of the map's six copper mines are located in the region; copper allows the player to eventually build a mint in the settlement to reduce faction-wide inflation.

** Strategists are practically a must-have in every army, since they're the only hero type to be able to recruit missile units above the basic Archer Militia, and have access to the only usable-against-enemy-units siege weapon in the game, Trebuchets (which are a GameBreaker in of themselves).
*** Vanguards are a close-second with how a shock cavalry's charge into most units will utterly total enemy units, unless they have charge negation or charge reflection...at which then you can just rear charge them, which ''will'' total pretty much any unit.
** Factions who start with an underage heir will mostly likely swap in an adult (especially a Commander) to act as a placeholder, since the position is pretty important, and the faction heir's Authority increases the satisfaction rating of officials.
*** In the same vein, when increasing the stats of faction leaders and heirs, Authority occupies a pretty high spot. This is made easier with Nanman factions, as they can straight away pick increases in Authority whenever their characters gain levels.

* GeniusBonus: The names of some duchies/kingdoms were from the Eastern Zhou era. Examples include Chu (Liu Biao), Qi (Kong Rong), Yan (Gongsun Zan) and Song (Yuan Shao).

** Rome : [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98e6zuZhM0M Three Kingdoms]], Zhanguo (The Warring States).
** Medieval II : [[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?660842-%26%2319977%3B%26%2322269%3B%26%2319978%3B-Rise-of-Three-Kingdoms-v1-0-Official-Release-Preview Rise of Three Kingdoms]].
** Shogun 2 : Morning Sun.
** Rome II : Kessen.
** Attila : Spring and Autumn.

** Emperor Liu Hong from the Mandate of Heaven DLC is an even worse offender. Ostensibly a "Very Hard" faction, he in fact has one of the easiest campaigns in the game, if not ''the'' easiest. Starting off with the massive advantages of a late-game army that only has to pay 20% of its normal upkeep and what's effectively a military alliance with the rest of China, his faction is supposed to be balanced by the large negative modifiers incurred, thanks to the number of eunuchs within his court, chief among these being the per-turn deficit incurred on account of their high salaries. Dealing with this problem, however, becomes a cakewalk once you realize that a eunuch can be dismissed every other turn without penalty, and with 100,000 currency in the treasury at the start of the campaign you have plenty of time to do it. As for the Mandate War itself? The warlords will more often than not prove themselves completely capable of beating the Yellow Turbans without your assistance, meaning that it is perfectly possible to win as Liu Hong ''without ever leaving your starting commandery.'' This one became so bad that [=CA=] created a hotfix to make him a harder faction to play as; said patch was also the ''only'' balance patch to be released before the addition of ''A World Betrayed''.
*** The trope becomes averted as of patch 1.5.3. For some reason, Liu Hong is unable to "Request Aid" from his court officials, which lowers their satisfaction. Before "Request Aid" was removed, it was a vital part of any player's strategy in order to force eunuchs to leave the imperial court.

* SurpriseDifficulty: Cao Cao is the game's recommendation for an "easy" game in 190 CE. However, this lower difficulty is only apparent if the player uses his unique Credibility to make other factions like him or to incite proxy wars. Location-wise, he actually starts in a crowded neighborhood, and with Yuan Shao not too far away. Moreover, he has ''two'' unique building chains; one of them can only be built over rice/grain settlements, making it easy to miss.

* DuelingGames: ''Mandate'' with ''VideoGame/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms XIV'', as both games are released on the same day in Jan 2020. ''A World Betrayed'' is also scheduled to clash with ''Romance'''s DLC release in March 2020.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Prior to ''Fates Divided'', several factions which were playable in certain start dates were not playable in others despite their existence; examples include Yuan Shu and Ma Teng in 182 CE, and Liu Chong in 194 CE. With the patch accompanying ''Fates Divided'', these were resolved.

* CriticalResearchFailure: In ''Mandate'', when playing as Liu Hong, the eunuchs and scholars were placed in the same "bureaucrat" faction, which was absolutely ''not'' the case historically. [[note]]Historically, the scholar-bureaucrats and the eunuchs were ''mortal enemies''. In fact, Kong Rong first won fame for his actions against the eunuchs. At the age of sixteen, he took in a scholar named Zhang Jian, who was wanted by the eunuchs. 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. In his younger days, Liu Biao was also known for his opposition of the eunuchs.[[/note]]

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Creative Assembly's announcement in May 2021 that official support for the game has ended was widely seen as this, particularly since many bugs remain in the final version (patch 1.71). [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423136085 A bug fix mod]] listed at least ''81'' bugs remaining. In addition, CA never fully fixed the issue of events not firing, which requires [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2281892119 another mod]] to fix.

** The ''Mandate of Heaven'' DLC takes a spotlight to Liu Chong, a bona fide badass from the Han imperial court that gets overlooked in most Three Kingdoms media. His historical affinity for [[WeaponOfChoice crossbows]] translates to [[RainOfArrows powerful archery bonuses]], which along with his unique design and trophy room mechanic makes him a new favourite among players.

** Liu Bei players starting in 194 CE will almost always adopt Lyu Bu when he offers to join Liu, and then make him faction heir. Making Lyu the faction heir is pretty much the only way to keep him loyal and a loyal Lyu Bu is a ''beast''. [[note]]It also doesn't hurt that Liu Bei doesn't start with a heir at this point.[[/note]]

** Liu Bei players starting in 194 CE will almost always adopt Lyu Bu when he offers to join Liu, and then make him faction heir. Making Lyu the faction heir is pretty much the only way to keep him loyal and a loyal Lyu Bu is a ''beast''.

** Players playing as Cao Cao in 190 CE would almost certainly use Cao Song in some form of marriage diplomacy, [[spoiler: since Song is going to die a few turns into the game.]]

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Creative Assembly's announcement in May 2021 that official support for the game has ended was widely seen as this, particularly since many bugs remain in the final version (patch 1.71). [[https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2423136085 A bug fix mod]] listed at least ''81'' bugs remaining.

** Ma Teng's start is fairly normal, even on Hard difficulty. Fight an army, take a town, start building infrastructure, that whole jazz. ''Now'', after the release of the Yellow Turban DLC, following the normal starter path is almost guaranteed to result in a wiped army. After taking the nearby Yellow Turban commandery, which you are prompted to do, you will see Gong Du's army in its starting position, facing down a Han army. While normally this is fine, the starting armies usually are about equal in strength, you just fought two battles against opponents that don't surrender, chipping down your forces, while the Han army is highly likely to ''retreat'' from Gong Du, allowing him to just waltz up and force you into a remarkably difficult siege battle with his full starter army. A nasty surprise for anyone unaware, and throws Ma Teng's whole game plan out of whack.

* ScrewedByTheNetwork: Creative Assembly's announcement in May 2021 that official support for the game has ended was widely seen as this, particularly since many bugs remain in the final version (patch 1.71).

** Another DS candidate is Sun Jian, as his starting position is relatively opposition-free. By gobbling up the commanderies held by the pathetically weak Han Empire, his faction can easily expand to cover most of China south of the Yangtze, leading his faction to probably be an eventual huge opponent later in the game. [[note]]Historically, the Sun family did exactly that under Sun Jian's sons, with Sun Quan's alliance with Liu Bei famously leading to the defeat of Cao Cao at the Battle of Red Cliffs (Chibi). On the flip side, Wu was never able to expand north, as Cao Wei always managed to stop them at Hefei, with Wei even building and maintaining a fortress there. As for westward expansion, Wu stopped after recovering the southern half of Jingzhou in order to maintain the alliance with Shu-Han.[[/note]] [[ButWaitTheresMore To rub it in]], two nearby commanderies, Changsha and Poyang, are excellent sources of coin income from commerce and industry respectively.

*** AscendedMeme: CA called Dong Zhuo "Big Daddy Dong Zhuo" in the official promotion "How to play as Lv Bu" video, a name the fans have been using in several iterations since the Dong Zhuo trailer.

** ''Simply the Best'' [[note]]Progress a character to the maximum rank.[[/note]] requires heavy investment in Schools and other experience-gaining methods, which may not fit in the overall grand scheme of things. Oh, and your characters can easily die of old age. Averted in ''A World Betrayed'', as Lv Bu can get maximum rank pretty much incidentally.

* AntiClimaxBoss: Dong Zhuo can come off as this to players who aren't familiar with the time period, as the work that the promotional materials put into setting him up as the BigBad is usually undone when he's assassinated by Lü Bu near the beginning of the 190 CE campaign. Averted in the 182 CE campaign, as Dong is still a minor character at the start.

*** Inverted by Liu Biao in the 182CE bookmark. As he requires Tea as a strategic resource for his advanced Lodge buildings, Liu Biao has to expand towards the south. However, the Yellow Turbans are mostly located in the ''north''.

*** AscendedMeme: CA called Dong Zhuo "Big Daddy Dong Zhuo" in the official promotion "How to play as Lu Bu" video, a name the fans have been using in several iterations since the Dong Zhuo trailer.

** ''Simply the Best'' [[note]]Progress a character to the maximum rank.[[/note]] requires heavy investment in Schools and other experience-gaining methods, which may not fit in the overall grand scheme of things. Oh, and your characters can easily die of old age. Averted in ''A World Betrayed'', as Lu Bu can get maximum rank pretty much incidentally.

*** AscendedMeme: CA called Dong Zhuo "Big Daddy Dong Zhuo" in the official promotion "How to play as Lyu Bu" video, a name the fans have been using in several iterations since the Dong Zhuo trailer.

** ''Simply the Best'' [[note]]Progress a character to the maximum rank.[[/note]] requires heavy investment in Schools and other experience-gaining methods, which may not fit in the overall grand scheme of things. Oh, and your characters can easily die of old age. Averted in ''A World Betrayed'', as Lyu Bu can get maximum rank pretty much incidentally.

** The ''Mandate of Heaven'' [=DLC=]. Most players expected a new start date, but placed it later than 190C.E.. Very few expected an ''earlier'' start date, or that Emperor Ling himself to be playable.

* VocalMinority: A small number of Chinese players review-bombed ''Eight Princes'' on Steam after its announcement, [[UsefulNotes/MisplacedNationalism apparently livid]] that it's set during a period that effectively heralded the Chinese Dark Ages.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: As a Total War game, the player can opt to play the various personalities - both heroic and villainous - from the Three Kingdoms period in various ways, leading to this trope. From the lead-up to the game, Youtuber Cody Bonds provided an alternate take for, of all people, [[BigBad Dong Zhuo]]. He points out that Dong Zhuo can be seen as a victim of [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade historical villification]] (which isn't entirely unfounded), and argues that many of his acts can be seen as VillainHasAPoint and IDidWhatIHadToDo. Many of the Tyrant's more traditionally-reviled actions - such as the burning of Luoyang and the use of fear tactics - have a rather logical basis in military strategy and psychological warfare. The video can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLPcNvrggY here]].[[labelnote:*]]It's worth noting that, even with this more generous and forgiving interpretation, [[{{Jerkass}} Dong Zhuo still comes across as being kind of an asshole]], even for the time period he lived in.[[/labelnote]]

* EndingFatigue: Both the ''Three Kingdoms'' and ''Eight Princes'' campaigns suffer from this for their Ultimate Victory conditions. That being said, its more basic victory has an advantage compared to most other ''Total War'' games due to only requiring you be powerful enough to declare yourself Emperor, having enough territory and seizing the capitals of other two rival kingdoms - which also may be done simply by killing most of their forces, as that will quickly cause them to concede and give you their faction's holdings.

* {{Woolseyism}}: The Chinese voice track option is this, as the narration is peppered with idioms and classical expressions, with the English subtitles being a partial translation at best.

*** AscendedMeme: CA called Dong Zhuo "Big Daddy Dong Zhuo" in the official promotion "How to play as Lu Bu" video, a name the fans have been using in several iterations since the Dong Zhuo trailer.

** Sun Ren comes of age on Turn 87, prompting many jokes about players waiting until then to spam her with marriage proposals.

** ''Simply the Best'' [[note]]Progress a character to the maximum rank.[[/note]] requires heavy investment in Schools and other experience-gaining methods, which may not fit in the overall grand scheme of things. Oh, and your characters can easily die of old age. Averted in ''A World Betrayed'', as Lu Bu can get maximum rank pretty much incidentally.

* AuthorSavingThrow: Prior to ''Fates Divided'', several factions which were playable in certain start dates were not playable in others despite their existence; examples include Yuan Shu and Ma Teng in 182 CE, and Liu Chong in 194 CE. With the patch accompanying ''Fates Divided'', these were resolved.

*** In the same vein, when increasing the stats of faction leaders and heirs, Authority occupies a pretty high spot. This is made easier with Nanman factions, as they can straight away pick increases in Authority whenever their characters gains levels.

** Players trying for the "Han Shot First" achievement will play as a governor faction, and is very likely to choose Liu Biao, as his starting position is by far the strongest/flexible of the three governors. [[spoiler:His only difficulty at the start is a shortage of food, which can be resolved by trading with his vassals. In contrast, Ma Teng can become hampered by his alliance with Han Sui, while his starting position is uncomfortably close to Dong Zhuo, making it difficult to grab Han commanderies without igniting a big war. Kong Rong's main difficulty is a mandatory battle with Yellow Turban rebels near Beihai a few turns into his campaign.]] [[note]]Part of the historical Longzhong Plan by Zhuge Liang involved the taking over of Jingzhou (which Liu Biao's territory formed the northern half of; the southern half was held by Sun Jian at the game's start) before expanding to Yizhou.[[/note]]