Total War: Three Kingdoms

Easiest play through I have found so far was surprisingly Huang Shao.

I thought he was going to be impossible due to his location between Liu Bei, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao, and Kong Rong.. but that isn't the case. You can get right on Liu Bei in the first five turns before he gets out of control and there is enough space between you and Cao Cao so all you have to do is bully Kong Rong and hold Yuan Shao off which is obviously easier said than done. In fact I was able to take out Liu Bei's only city while his army was out trying to take another which made taking him out really, really easy.

But once you get a couple commanderies together it's smooth sailing because the Yellow Turban generals, units, and techs are insane. Once the other YTs get wiped out, you can easily snag up their legendary leaders to your roster if they don't get killed.

I would say though the YT campaign is a bit less refined. The buildings might be better, but there is no flavor text on a lot of them. The diplomacy is also pretty nonexistent, especially till you're Duke or King rank.
 
Ma Teng is the best.

Ma Teng and Pang De are great starting generals, they can each command their own army since they have access to campaign movement and replenishment early. His faction unique units are absolutely INSANE, the best non-Emperor tier units by far, probably better than most of those even. 3 types of cavalry that are immune to fatigue is hard to beat, no faction have unique units quite this good.

When you take out Han Sui and Dong Zhuo you have 3 horse pastures, 3 silk farms, and more food than you need.. with the right generals you can recruit entire retinues of Qiang cavalry that cost just a few thousand gold and a few hundred upkeep. I think some of my best generals were recruiting Qiang Raiders (the highest level unique Ma Teng cav) for just 450 gold each and less than 100 upkeep... so basically fielding entire armies of the best unit in the game that cost less than low tier spear men.

I started running full armies of all cav that backed up more regular armies with just infantry and ranged units.

I was able to snag really killer generals too, my roster includes Lu Bu, Gan Ning, and Zhao Yun.


The issues you'll have with Ma Teng is that he's kind of a dick and no one really likes him so it's hard to get a good harmony synergy with him sometimes and usually you'll be fighting with a general or two that wants to leave. Also you have a high chance of getting wiped out in the first 20 turns by Dong Zhuo's forces led by Lu Bu because the events can force you into war with his faction and Lu Bu is Lu Bu.
 
Last edited:
DAMN IT. Thought I was killing it. I was Leu Bei I had the Hans and Gongsun Zan ,who controlled like 1/3 the map, as vassals and the Wu kingdom as allies. I'm taking out the people to the west with ease. Then I hit emperor. Boom Both vassals declare independence and declare war. Gongsun Zan also declares himself the 3rd emperor. Wu break their alliance and all their vassals. They declare war on me 2 turns later. In two turns I went from me and my vassals owning at least 1/2 the map to being completely surrounded by war with zero income since all my trade deals were cancelled :(
 
game looks good.. I have never played a tw before though, are they easy to get into? like I bought and tried to get into hearts of iron 4 and was completely lost... so much to do and learn in that game.gave it up. im decent at easier strat games like the civilization series.. is it a difficult game to get into and play if you have never played a TW game before?
 
grimkitty said:
game looks good.. I have never played a tw before though, are they easy to get into? like I bought and tried to get into hearts of iron 4 and was completely lost... so much to do and learn in that game.gave it up. im decent at easier strat games like the civilization series.. is it a difficult game to get into and play if you have never played a TW game before?
Click to expand...

It's several degrees easier than Hearts of Iron series, but this game is definitely one of the more complex TW games on the strategic map, so much so that even TW Veterans have a lot to learn.

If you can handle Civilization games this one is probably right up your alley.

But the style of game really makes you want to keep trying even when you fail.
 
Headkicktoleg said:
DAMN IT. Thought I was killing it. I was Leu Bei I had the Hans and Gongsun Zan ,who controlled like 1/3 the map, as vassals and the Wu kingdom as allies. I'm taking out the people to the west with ease. Then I hit emperor. Boom Both vassals declare independence and declare war. Gongsun Zan also declares himself the 3rd emperor. Wu break their alliance and all their vassals. They declare war on me 2 turns later. In two turns I went from me and my vassals owning at least 1/2 the map to being completely surrounded by war with zero income since all my trade deals were cancelled :(
Click to expand...

Yup, you're gonna want to build a really strong domestic economy to support your troops for the late game. Once the Three Kingdoms form it can be tough to get trade agreements going.

It's really important to build your commanderies efficiently and have the right generals performing assignments to make the most money so you don't have to depend so much on trade because it's not always guaranteed.
 
Here is a mod compilation thread on Reddit to use before the release of the steam workshop.

 
Rational Poster said:
It's several degrees easier than Hearts of Iron series, but this game is definitely one of the more complex TW games on the strategic map, so much so that even TW Veterans have a lot to learn.

If you can handle Civilization games this one is probably right up your alley.

But the style of game really makes you want to keep trying even when you fail.
Click to expand...
ok good gonna pick it up... hearts of iron was like wtf
 
Rational Poster said:
Ma Teng is the best.

Ma Teng and Pang De are great starting generals, they can each command their own army since they have access to campaign movement and replenishment early. His faction unique units are absolutely INSANE, the best non-Emperor tier units by far, probably better than most of those even. 3 types of cavalry that are immune to fatigue is hard to beat, no faction have unique units quite this good.

When you take out Han Sui and Dong Zhuo you have 3 horse pastures, 3 silk farms, and more food than you need.. with the right generals you can recruit entire retinues of Qiang cavalry that cost just a few thousand gold and a few hundred upkeep. I think some of my best generals were recruiting Qiang Raiders (the highest level unique Ma Teng cav) for just 450 gold each and less than 100 upkeep... so basically fielding entire armies of the best unit in the game that cost less than low tier spear men.

I started running full armies of all cav that backed up more regular armies with just infantry and ranged units.

I was able to snag really killer generals too, my roster includes Lu Bu, Gan Ning, and Zhao Yun.


The issues you'll have with Ma Teng is that he's kind of a dick and no one really likes him so it's hard to get a good harmony synergy with him sometimes and usually you'll be fighting with a general or two that wants to leave. Also you have a high chance of getting wiped out in the first 20 turns by Dong Zhuo's forces led by Lu Bu because the events can force you into war with his faction and Lu Bu is Lu Bu.
Click to expand...

Divorce your wife on turn 2 and marry her to Lu Bu so he joins your faction. I suicided a fresh, cheap general so I could replace him with Lu Bu instead of paying that ridiculous 8000 redeployment fee. Make sure to make Lu Bu heir because he will leave the next turn. His --4 public order sucks but that 100% silk income is great later in the game.

Sadly, I wasn't able to marry Ma Chao to Sun Ren but I did snag Zheng Jiang and married her to Ma Chao. Her spear wall with his shock cav obliterates armies. I did marry Sun Jian to one of Ma Teng's divorced wives as well lol. I'm having so much fun with the diplomacy and an actually challenging end game that I'm not sure I'll return to Warhammer until 3 is released.

You do get a rival bonus with between generals that increases melee attack and something else so it's not the end of the world. It's going to be so hard using any cav with another faction because fatigue immune cav is crazy good.

Debating on a Zheng Jiang or Cao Cao playthrough next. Most likely Cao Cao because causing proxy wars and diving deeper into diplomacy sounds like a lot of fun.

Edit: The English voice acting is so fucking bad in this game lol. I turned it on to check it out and immediately went back to Chinese va. A shame because the va in the Warhammer games is absolutely sublime.
 
Last edited:
ThulsaDooom said:
Divorce your wife on turn 2 and marry her to Lu Bu so he joins your faction. I suicided a fresh, cheap general so I could replace him with Lu Bu instead of paying that ridiculous 8000 redeployment fee. Make sure to make Lu Bu heir because he will leave the next turn. His --4 public order sucks but that 100% silk income is great later in the game.

Sadly, I wasn't able to marry Ma Chao to Sun Ren but I did snag Zheng Jiang and married her to Ma Chao. Her spear wall with his shock cav obliterates armies. I did marry Sun Jian to one of Ma Teng's divorced wives as well lol. I'm having so much fun with the diplomacy and an actually challenging end game that I'm not sure I'll return to Warhammer until 3 is released.

You do get a rival bonus with between generals that increases melee attack and something else so it's not the end of the world. It's going to be so hard using any cav with another faction because fatigue immune cav is crazy good.

Debating on a Zheng Jiang or Cao Cao playthrough next. Most likely Cao Cao because causing proxy wars and diving deeper into diplomacy sounds like a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

The most optimal build actually is to keep Ma Chao your heir so that's -30% Qiang unit upkeep between him and Ma Teng right there. Then you get the 3 pastures to level 5, for another -60% upkeep (and -60% recruit cost). With the retinue upkeep reform you then have -100% upkeep for Qiang cavalry as long as Ma Teng is alive.

Then you get Sun Ce and make him your Prime Minister when it opens up, for +100 shock cav charge bonus.

Lu Bu is good, but he's not as good as having a half dozen Qiang cavalry death stacks with zero upkeep, zero fatigue, and over 600 charge bonus.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Deorum
America's Best Idea (Worldwide)
2 3 4
Replies
72
Views
4K
moreorless87
moreorless87

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,112
Messages
55,468,105
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top