New Historical total war era - Total War: Three Kingdoms!

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Yeah I saw the first one, about cavalry. It was Sou Sou (see what I did there ).

[PikeStance]

Just to piggyback on Zoner's posts. Here are the three videos.







If a video does not show up, a work around is to click on share, then embed and copy and paste the embed. Delete everthing excet the green text.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oh21nMJevZM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[NostalgiaFan]

Again, not really a problem, just not worth the effort.

They are going to put out videos and trailers anyway so there is no wasted effort if they do it earlier instead of later.

There actually is a fair amount of work that goes into prepping news releases at a marketing department for a major product. In this case, the next major news release would probably be the first gameplay trailer. There's a lot of production that goes into the first gameplay trailer. You want it to be representative of a lot of features that are going to get people excited, polished to a T to prevent anyone from turning minor hiccups into memes, and easily digestible so that news spreads fast and is easily communicable. Given the nature of the game, they're probably also going to be prepping a Chinese version for release either simultaneously or soon after. That's going to require the dev team to give you a playable demo to create the gameplay trailer from, the media team to process and edit all the footage, and a bunch of producers to pour over it and make sure it meets standard. All that together is a lot more work that just dropping twitter teasers, which they aren't going to do right now because those only really work for sustaining hype (which a major trailer is for), not generating it.

You forget I am not just talking about a big gameplay trailer, just teases and info dumps hinting at things, which are not that hard to do nor would people mind as long as they get something at all.

So it just makes way more sense to delay that till after the distractions are out of the way, and since E3 is just around the corner and you can be sure most gamers and potential fans are going to be tuned in for that, it's best to drop such a big announcement right then and there. After the mess that was Rome 2, CA have (wisely, IMO) gone for shorter marketing cycles.

Rome 2 was a mess because CA lied and misled the customers, not because they gave out more info. There is nothing wrong with giving small amounts of info to build up suspense before the big reveal, CA just need to be honest about it, that's all. And like I said it's not that much of a distraction since I am not asking for big gameplay trailers, just tiny snippets of info so I don't understand why that is supposed to be hard. There is still no evidence this supposed to be better when almost no one is talking about it which looks to me like people are losing interest, not building it.

[Basileos Leandros I]

I don't understand why there's no info apart from the reveal trailer yet. It's out in less than 6 months...

[zoner16]

They are going to put out videos and trailers anyway so there is no wasted effort if they do it earlier instead of later.

You forget I am not just talking about a big gameplay trailer, just teases and info dumps hinting at things, which are not that hard to do nor would people mind as long as they get something at all.

Rome 2 was a mess because CA lied and misled the customers, not because they gave out more info. There is nothing wrong with giving small amounts of info to build up suspense before the big reveal, CA just need to be honest about it, that's all. And like I said it's not that much of a distraction since I am not asking for big gameplay trailers, just tiny snippets of info so I don't understand why that is supposed to be hard. There is still no evidence this supposed to be better when almost no one is talking about it which looks to me like people are losing interest, not building it.

Again, I am not saying there is something wrong with any of this. Just that there's no point. Giving small bits of info now isn't going to bring anybody back that won't be brought back by the gameplay trailer at E3 which will bring old and new fans alike to the table, hungry for scraps of information then. Then you can just space out whatever small to medium news you want to over the remaining months to keep the hype cycle going. There's no point in building interest now because anyone desperate enough to be scrounging twitter posts and reddit teasers at this stage will still be here when the gameplay trailer drops.


In other news, given the recent dev interview linked to on reddit, I am a little worried on how much Romance is going to be in this game. I'm not talking Dynasty Warriors level nonsense, but rather an over focus on general duels, some misrepresentation of historical figures (like sucking off Zhuge Liang some more), and the creeping in of some of the really dumb formations/tactics that the Romance thought up to make certain characters look smart.

https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/03/h...can-push-back/

[Daruwind]

Cao Cao in-engine trailer :-)
-lots of units in tight formation, infantry, cavalry, trebuchets, city siege. No Magic, just one hero and two generals on battlefield.

EDIT: SPRING 2019! No more release this fall...

[zoner16]

Well color me right, wrong, and impressed in the same breath. They're actually going to try and have it both ways.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/three-...icised-history

Total War: THREE KINGDOMS is the next major Total War historical game and is set in the titular period of ancient China. It launches in Spring 2019.
Inspired by Luo Guanzhong’s 14th Century historical novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, this epic strategy game follows the dramatic lives of near-mythical warring lords and their retainers in 2nd to 3rd century China. But true to the series’ legacy, the game will also feature a Classic Mode that offers a much more grounded recreation of the period for players who prefer a historically authentic Total War experience.

The rest of the article goes into detail, but essentially, you get to choose if you want to play the Romance or the Records version of the story. In the Romance version, the thing they specifically stated is that heroes are single entity units that can hold their own against hundreds of troops. In the Records version, they're deployed within a bodyguard unit and function just like any elite unit.

And the most important thing:

We’re working with numerous consultants to ensure both historical and cultural authenticity, one of whom is renowned historian Rafe De Crespigny. He’s helping us ensure all the historical aspects of the game are as authentic as we can make them.

They actually got the master himself to help out on this.

Here's the Cao Cao trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhhHecSt3LM

[Anna_Gein]

I don't understand why there's no info apart from the reveal trailer yet. It's out in less than 6 months...

The game is delayed to spring 2019

[Daruwind]

And spring 2019! too quick writing, forgot to add it probably the most important part of info...!

[Daruwind]

One comment by Grace on reddit:

Total War: THREE KINGDOMS will be based on the romanticised history by default, but there’ll also be a Classic Mode option before you start a campaign that makes the experience closer in execution to past Total War historical titles.

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/co...name=frontpage

[Huberto]

Single heroes taking on hundreds of regular troops isn't even something depicted in Romance of the Three Kingdoms -- or I'm told. So this "default" mode is 100% pandering to the new Warhammer audience and the existing Dynasty Warriors fans. It's a complete departure for CA in a historical title and it's the game -- by default. Historical authenticity is described as the series' "legacy." Even I'm shocked.

Also looks to be another game on the venerable Warscape engine.

I wonder when they got this idea for two versions, or which version came first?

[IGdood]

I'm still trying to figure out the lyrics in the song in the background of the videos....

This time the singer is male.

[Sir Sesshaku]

The game looks historically decent, except for heroes, but that will be optional. However, why the hell is there a counterweight trebuchet on the siege footage?. The earliest register of it's kind in China is during a Mongol siege, almost 1000 years later....

[Abdülmecid I]

I wouldn't expect historically accurate rosters, even by CA's previous standards. Very few are really familiar with Chinese military history, so there's no real pressure for spending time and resources for something not many really care about. Personally, I am completely clueless about Chinese armor and equipment, so I would never complain about Mongol-style Chinese as persistently as I would about New Kingdom chariots for the Ptolemies. Additionally, relevant sources are more difficult to find for an English-speaking company, which, in any case, struggles even with writing correctly the names of Napoleonic marshals. For example, the relatively high level of "authenticity" in military units of Rome II (but not in other aspects, such as the map, where the imaginary faction of Media was not even located in actual Media), was mainly achieved thanks to copying the work (without giving credit, unfortunately) of Europa Barbarorum. No mod with the fame of EB exists for the Three Kingdoms period, though.

[zoner16]

I wouldn't expect historically accurate rosters, even by CA's previous standards. Very few are really familiar with Chinese military history, so there's no real pressure for spending time and resources for something not many really care about. Personally, I am completely clueless about Chinese armor and equipment, so I would never complain about Mongol-style Chinese as persistently as I would about New Kingdom chariots for the Ptolemies. Additionally, relevant sources are more difficult to find for an English-speaking company, which, in any case, struggles even with writing correctly the names of Napoleonic marshals. For example, the relatively high level of "authenticity" in military units of Rome II (but not in other aspects, such as the map, where the imaginary faction of Media was not even located in actual Media), was mainly achieved thanks to copying the work (without giving credit, unfortunately) of Europa Barbarorum. No mod with the fame of EB exists for the Three Kingdoms period, though.

If they really are working with Rafe de Crespigny, then I have hope that historical accuracy might actually be very high with this one. He is probably the foremost scholar on the period in the world right now.

I detailed this in the other thread, but for the most part, the weapons and armor in the trailer is accurate, though the exact composition of the armies may be imbalanced (not enough crossbows, their halberd units are being used oddly).

[Intranetusa]

It's a complete departure for CA in a historical title and it's the game -- by default. Historical authenticity is described as the series' "legacy." Even I'm shocked.

Yeh. They call it a historical game but make fiction/semi-fantasy the default mode.

The game looks historically decent, except for heroes, but that will be optional. However, why the hell is there a counterweight trebuchet on the siege footage?. The earliest register of it's kind in China is during a Mongol siege, almost 1000 years later....

Probably for the same reason why they have medieval Eastern Roman pikemen, huscarls, dane axes, etc 500 years too early in Attila TW.

[Huberto]

If they really are working with Rafe de Crespigny, then I have hope that historical accuracy might actually be very high with this one. He is probably the foremost scholar on the period in the world right now.

I detailed this in the other thread, but for the most part, the weapons and armor in the trailer is accurate, though the exact composition of the armies may be imbalanced (not enough crossbows, their halberd units are being used oddly).

Fingers crossed then. Keep the updates on historical authenticity coming as they release info. But I am decidedly un-hyped.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

The Cao Cao trailer wasn't bad I guess. It was more consistent with the story than with the records. Though I'm sure Yuan Shao will be playable, still I wanted to see Cao Cao face off against Yuan Shao in the trailer.

Tsao Tsao Mengde The Martial Emperor, did nothing wrong.

[zoner16]

Tsao Tsao Mengde

You keep that Wade-Giles nonsense in the last century where it belongs.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Wade-Giles is easier to pronounce than Pinyin. I mean "Cao Cao" should be read as Kow Kow, which is incorrect. Zhou Yuguang couldn't even Latin apparently.