There’s a reason Rome and Shogun II are touted as the two best games in the series, and that’s because Total War has always been at its strongest when it kept things simple. I’m a little bit surprised by this, because I had my doubts. Instead, it’s a game where relationships matter.īasically, I love it. It’s no longer a game about raw military might, gradually absorbing provinces until you’ve painted the country in your chosen colour. This is the key difference between Three Kingdoms and all previous Total War games, it makes you care about the people you fight alongside, and even fight against.
His lands acted as a buffer between me and some nasty characters up north, and he had also helped me out in some other wars early in the game. But I didn’t want to, because I genuinely cared about my relationship with Yuan Shao. This is Total War, after all, the name is sort of of a hint. Whether by accident or design, both of my biggest enemies were hiding behind the skirts of my best friend, and if I attacked either of them, I risked setting my entire northern border on fire. But it soon turned out that Yuan Shu was best buds with, yep, you guessed it, Yuan Shao, who as I just mentioned has vassalised the greatest strategic mind in China. Again I bit back, again he sued for peace offering a big sack of gold, and again I accepted, with a mind to biding my time until I could seek vengeance.
As I was just about to do just that, however, Yuan Shao, my most powerful ally, vassalised Cao Cao, meaning I could no longer declare war on him without risking the cohesion of our alliance.Īs I was figuring out how to approach this, another of my neighbours, Yuan Shu, helped himself to one of my farms. It was a brilliantly tempting offer, and I took it, thinking I can take the gold now, and finish Cao Cao off in 10 turns’ time when the treaty ends. Just as I was about to cut the head of the snake, however, Cao Cao sued for peace, offering me a fat sack of gold in return for laying down my arms. I quickly showed him that starting a war with me was a Bad Idea.
Mistaking my pleasant demeanour for weakness, Cao Cao decided that he was more deserving of Mao Ting’s lands than I and promptly invaded. I was playing as Liu Bei, Ancient China’s nicest totalitarian warlord. He also bequeathed to me a border with Cao Cao, the brightest strategic mind in Ancient China. It all began when Mao Ting died, and bequeathed to me all his lands as he had no heirs. I thin I’ve spent more time looking at the diplomacy screen in Total War: Three Kingdoms than I have conducting actual battles.