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[Mech#4]

Seeing as we're getting more details on their upcoming title, a thread specifically for Total War: Three Kingdoms should serve us well.


"Total War: Three Kingdoms" is planned to be released come March - May 2019. Based on the period of rebellion and unrest between 169 - 220A.D, starting near the end of the Han Dynasty.

Link to F.A.Q on Creative Assembly blog.

Trailer featuring Cao Cao, one of the faction leaders.

Total War: Three Kingdoms E3 Gameplay Reveal.


I am quite interested in the new setting Creative Assembly have chosen for their next game. While I know there is quite a lot of games based on this setting, specifically from the japaneses developer Koei Tecmo with the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" series and "Dynasty Warriors" it'll be interesting to see another companies take of the setting.
I must mention that I know very little of this period myself. I do own the book, as monolithic as it is, and should get around to reading it sometime, though it seems like the setting is complicated enough that I'd have to do multiple readings.


Things of note from details so far:
- Game will have two modes: Hero and Historical mode.
- Heroes will be able to duel each other during battles.
- Heroes have items that can be looted from them if they're defeated. (I assume this will be similar to how it's done in Warhammer: Total War).
- Cities can be set on fire like in Attila: Total War.
- Different leader focuses (Combat, Strategy).
- Cities are the fully on the battle map, unlike Warhammer: Total War where they're a single wall.
- Modding support with the Assembly Kit is planned, like in previous Total War games.


I suppose, more then anything, I'm looking forward to seeing the cities designed and modeled. The architecture of chinese cities at the time is very impressive and I'll get a lot of enjoyment just from zooming around looking at the buildings.


The dueling system seems interesting. The gameplay video shows one and it seems that the heroes will dismount each other then fight on foot. A bar shows which hero is winning with a lot of choreographed animations that's nice to see.
Though, such dueling systems reminds me somewhat of what was in Warhammer: Mark of Chaos. In that game duels could be held between lords but you had to click buttons for abilities. It was tedious and often a choice between winning with your lord and losing your army or winning with your army and losing your lord. I'm sure it won't be as annoying in this.

[Akura]

Huh. I was thinking a few days ago that there really needed to be a Total War: Three Kingdoms.

[Mech#4]

Another video has been released showcasing the campaign map as well as another of the notable figures of the period, "Sun Jian".

The campaign map fly-over doesn't give you and idea of the layout of provinces or settlement locations but it does look very nice, showing mountains, rivers, plains and the coastline.

[scriver]

His name becomes "Sun Sword". Clearly he is the good guy.

[Zangi]

His name becomes "Sun Sword". Clearly he is the good guy.

Too bad he took one too many arrows within the vicinity of his knees.

[umiman]

It's been confirmed that there's no naval battles in this.

I guess Cao Cao is unstoppable now. His only weakness has been removed.

[Mech#4]

An article has been posted by "Rock Paper Shotgun" covering the gameplay of an ambush battle. It talks about some of the unit types, heroes, dueling and how these mechanics work.

There's also an accompanying 15 minute video of gameplay footage. 
Some things of note is this is played in the "Romance" mode, meaning heroes are a big deal (Unlike Classic mode where it's more like Rome 2 or Shogun 2), duels are to the death though you can flee but your character gains permanent morale penalties, apparently forests can catch fire and spread, some units are hybrids like in Warhammer (Spearmen with bows in this battle), if your character is dismounted due to a duel you can still mount your horse again afterwards.

It also shows off a character ability "Heartseeker" which is a ranged shot that can one shot low level heroes.


Edit: A video of the ambush has been put up by Creative Assembly on their official YouTube channel. It gives a better overview of the battle, more close ups and the like.

One interesting thing mentioned in the video is the spear units with bows can fight in a formation where the back ranks can still use their bows while the front ranks are fighting in melee.

[scriver]

One interesting thing mentioned in the video is the spear units with bows can fight in a formation where the back ranks can still use their bows while the front ranks are fighting in melee.

That's pretty cool. I hope it becomes a mainstay of total war games.

[umiman]

So Grace has confirmed that there is full Mandarin VO in the game with English text.

So if you're like me and can't stand shitty dubs then we're in luck!

Well... I don't even need the English text in the first place but hey, at least we have full Chinese VO. No need to hear their terrible mispronunciations of names.

-------

Edit: Also I had no frigging clue who this new character even is. Apparently she was just a minor bandit. But you can see how CA is trying to make the starting lords a bit more interesting in variety so they added a female lord to start with, which is cool.

Grace also had this to say:

She's also mentioned in the biographical dictionary written by Rafe De Crespigny who we have worked very closely with on this game.

Zheng Jiang has been an intriguing character to work with from a research perspective, as records differ as to whether a single person or two people carried the name. After reviewing the sources of information available with our historical consultant Dr. Rafe De Crespigny, we all felt that the strongest case is made for two individuals. So while Zheng Jiang is a Warlord and faction leader in her own right, a second character named Lue Zheng also appears within her faction, as her close friend and second-in-command.

So her name is actually referring to two people and you get both in game.

[scriver]

Trying to conquer the Chinese market, maybe? Hope it will be a success.

[Ludorum Rex]

One interesting thing mentioned in the video is the spear units with bows can fight in a formation where the back ranks can still use their bows while the front ranks are fighting in melee.

That's pretty cool. I hope it becomes a mainstay of total war games.

I think you can already do this in Warhammer 2 (maybe other TW games, not sure). If you give toggle Guard and Free Fire on a ranged unit, the back ranks while fire while the front ranks fight. I cannot remember if it requires receiving the charge or also works when charging.

[Mech#4]

There's been several more videos released since the last post I did here in August. With most of my interest held by Warhammer 2, as well as my limited knowledge on the Three Kingdoms, I haven't been keeping up with this Total War game terribly closely.


Here are two videos covering the improved and expanded diplomatic systems within Three Kingdoms: Total War. It showcasess things like a closer understanding on how to get the A.I. to agree with deals, being able to trade for food as well as trading regions, entering into coalitions with other factions, demanding resources from others as well as how taking certain actions can harm your trustworthiness.

Diplomacy Gameplay video 1
Diplomacy Gameplay video 2

There was also two short videos showcasing some new characters who I assume will be available to play as in the game upon release.
Trailer 1: A Hero's Journey - Zhuge Liang
Trailer 2: Zheng Jiang
There is also a blog post about Zheng Jiang on the Total War website.
It goes into her motivations, playstyle, starting location and other such things. From peoples comments I'm gathing the character is more of a minor player with little established lore, though it'll be interesting to have a character that isn't a major political leader or general who doesn't have the finesse of others when it comes to diplomacy. The blog makes mention that she'll need to keep wars going and stay active to maintain infamy or risk penalties.

Finally, there was a video focusing on espionage and spies.
Spies Gameplay Reveal.

The video shows how you can have characters in your faction who may have loyalties elsewhere, how missions can lead to having them compromised or even switch allegiance unbeknownst to you. The example given in the video was a character who was used to incite a rebellion, succeeded in the mission but was discovered. Instead of capturing or killing them, however, the enemy faction decided to release them possibly making them a double agent.
You can also take characters and release them into the recruitment pool again, potentially having them hired by other factions but still having loyalty to you. This can also happen to you as you may hire a character with loyalties to a past faction.



Edit:Ok, Creative Assembly has been releasing character posters over the past number of months. I thought to order them all out here but there's so many of them I was getting a headache. Thankfully Creative Assembly have done a webpage where you can read about the warlords in a much easier way. I'll link to the original posters anyway, as they've been compiled into forum posts, though I don't know if it's all of them and I don't really care to check through their twitter posts and all that stuff.

Meet The Warlords: Character Posters.
Meet The Warlords: Character Posters Detail.
Three Kingdoms Warlords Information Webpage.

It doesn't look like the webpage lists all of the characters, more being the main playable ones. There's a bunch of minor character posters in the link above, so if someone you know is missing they might be listed there.

[Puzzlemaker]

I am excited about those spies!  Looks awesome.

[Tack]

Posting for Keen

Gonna wait probably until just before release though. I want the 10% off but I don’t like preordering- but let’s be honest i’m a total war whore.

[scriver]

Honestly those Diplomacy and Spy videos have probably convinced me to buy this.

Also I Cao Cao really pronounced that way? I had guessed it was like Kao Kao. I am dissapoint.