Total War: Three Kingdoms
The strategy series gets bigger and bolder
$59.99 From Feral Interactive, store.feralinteractive.com
Needs macOS 10.14.4 or later, 2GHz Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 2GB Nvidia 680MX, 2GB AMD R9 M290, 1.5GB Intel Iris Graphics 540 or better
After the stripped–back nature of Thrones of Britannia comes the full–fat, no–holds–barred Three Kingdoms. It’s as expansive as the name suggests, taking inspiration from a 14th–century historical novel chronicling the events at the end of the Han dynasty and the steps toward Chinese unification. On the surface is the classic Total War structure: a turn–based strategy game in which armies and generals prowl the map, capturing cities and building them up, before rooting out enemies and rebellions, and a real–time tactical battle game when armies clash. You can play in Records mode, in which generals and other characters are powerful but need retinues of bodyguards to fight for them; or Romance mode, in which generals are supermen, capable of flattening an entire regiment of archers, and more politically astute characters can foment a war out of thin air. Romance mode feels more like the way the game is intended to be played, with all the playful
manipulations and one–on–one battles adding so much to the experience on both maps.
For Warhammer or Britannia veterans, this game is slower, as you spend more time on the strategy map and in the diplomacy screens — where a new button works out what it will take to get what you want from the other side, removing the need to make any leaps in the dark. Now it’s clear: gold, trade goods, and a daughter in return for a defensive alliance? Fine. Just make sure that said daughter doesn’t come back in 10 turns as a powerful enemy general.
The focus on individual characters may be an even larger change than the return of the game’s full systems. You’re asked to choose a character at the beginning, your choice dictating starting position and difficulty. From
then on, you’re not fighting other factions as much as other leaders, looking at their personality traits along with the disposition of their armies.
Things feel more familiar on the battlefield. The camera system hasn’t changed, and you still get some time to deploy before the battle begins, making use of the terrain. The enemy AI is still straightforward enough that you can bog down your opponent’s infantry with a well–designed army while your cavalry mop up archers and wheel around to slam into the back of enemy infantry. The focus on characters means the loss of a general is strongly felt, but it almost seems a shame to send a regiment after an enemy leader when you could send one of your own and watch the fireworks of a duel.
This series constantly evolves, never afraid to cut back or embrace new settings. The return to history — albeit a fictionalized version of it — after the Warhammer games has led to the developer throwing everything it can at Three Kingdoms.
the bottom liNe. A huge game, completely open–ended, with enough starting positions that it’ll take you centuries to complete. IAN EVENDEN