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

[zoner16]

They didn't add Vietnam either which at this time was under China's control. I think it may have to do with politics more than gameplay at this point.

They did, but only half of it. The more populous and important half, but still.

[Mayer]

This game looks underwhelming. If at all, i would buy it years after release when the most horrible bugs are fixed and it's in the bargain bin.
3K probably isn't worth full price. The same engine since empire, shallow gameplay, lack of polish, etc.

[PointOfViewGun]

The campaign map part seems to be gearing up to be perhaps the best Total War game ever. If they can deliver a matching battle experience then it will definitely be the best game.

[AHumpierRogue]

This game looks underwhelming. If at all, i would buy it years after release when the most horrible bugs are fixed and it's in the bargain bin.
3K probably isn't worth full price. The same engine since empire, shallow gameplay, lack of polish, etc.

I feel like this is the same recycled stuff people have been saying since at least Shogun 2.

[legate]

Do we know yet if hard copies of the game will be sold apart from the limited edition?

Also, what are the best books covering the military history of this period?

[zoner16]

Also, what are the best books covering the military history of this period?

In the area of books, your best bet are the works of Rafe de Crespigny. He's perhaps the most seminal author on the early stages of the period. Here's a link to his open source works on the University of Australia portal:

https://openresearch-repository.anu....e+de+crespigny

As for his books, you can find Imperial Warlord (a biography of Cao Cao) and Fire over Luoyang (a history of the Later Han Dynasty) on Amazon. You can also find the Biographical Dictionary of Later Han on Amazon as well.

These are most of what you'll need for an intro.

If you want some stuff on the later era, Carl Leban and Achilles Fang have both published some excellent work on the progression of the period up until the end. Some of it is available here: http://the-scholars.com/index.php

Search for "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" for the most direct transcription of the history as complied by the Song-era historian Sima Guang, and translated by Achilles Fang.

Some amateur translated work of the most contemporary and comprehensive history, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which is one of the two primary sources for this game, can be found at these two places: http://kongming.net/ https://threestatesrecords.com/

I find the latter more true to the original text, but both are still incomplete.

Finally, here is a fan (but well curated) wiki for the period: http://threekingdoms.wikia.com/

[Mayer]

I feel like this is the same recycled stuff people have been saying since at least Shogun 2.

It's also the same recycled stuff CA has been delivering to us.

[PointOfViewGun]

It's also the same recycled stuff CA has been delivering to us.

You pretty much said what he said but implied that you were building up on his statement. What was the build up?

[legate]

In the area of books, your best bet are the works of Rafe de Crespigny. He's perhaps the most seminal author on the early stages of the period. Here's a link to his open source works on the University of Australia portal:

https://openresearch-repository.anu....e+de+crespigny

As for his books, you can find Imperial Warlord (a biography of Cao Cao) and Fire over Luoyang (a history of the Later Han Dynasty) on Amazon. You can also find the Biographical Dictionary of Later Han on Amazon as well.

These are most of what you'll need for an intro.

If you want some stuff on the later era, Carl Leban and Achilles Fang have both published some excellent work on the progression of the period up until the end. Some of it is available here: http://the-scholars.com/index.php

Search for "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" for the most direct transcription of the history as complied by the Song-era historian Sima Guang, and translated by Achilles Fang.

Some amateur translated work of the most contemporary and comprehensive history, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, which is one of the two primary sources for this game, can be found at these two places: http://kongming.net/ https://threestatesrecords.com/

I find the latter more true to the original text, but both are still incomplete.

Finally, here is a fan (but well curated) wiki for the period: http://threekingdoms.wikia.com/

Thanks very much!

[Sint]

Looks worse than I expected and I didn't expect much...

[AHumpierRogue]

Did any of you guys watch the stream today? I thought it looked pretty good! The graphics were nice, though the stream bitrate was a bit crap. One thing I noticed that I loved was that Yuan Shao's elite unit, the Defenders of Hebei, moved forward in a very organized fashion like a disciplined unit when told to move forward, while the Ji militia moved forward in a disorganized manner, and seemed like a herd more than a unit. I thought that was really cool and a good way to show a difference in Quality.

Battles and combat resolutions also seemed much slower than the gameplay last month, and that was even considering we didn't see any really big full stack battles. Also, we learned that you can opt to retrain/replace a unit in this game. In Rome 2-Warhammer 2, if you wanted to replace a unit in your army you had to destroy them and then recruit a new unit. In this game though rather than disbanding troops to replace them if say, you unlocked a higher quality unit you can instead retrain a unit which seems to cost less money than the old disbanding and then recruiting a new unit system, while also making it so you have an almost full unit upon recruitment, as opposed to having a very weakened unit when you recruit troops the normal way.

[legate]

Overall it's shaping up quite nicely. I see that armies can move onto rivers and sail around, rivers also seem more of an obstacle this time, which is good.

[ptoss1]

Stream was much better than I thought it would be. Definitely not dumbed down like ToB or a burning dumpster fire like Rome 2. At worst I think it'll be an average TW game.

[legate]

Yep, it seems like a solid game. There are one or two 'arcade' type elements that I would rather were not there, but overall it is looking like a very good game.

[Fredrin]

My thoughts in a nutshell:

Bummed about battle gameplay barely having changed for the last 15 years.

Hyped about some big strides on the campaign map (which also looks bloody great).

[legate]

My thoughts in a nutshell:

Bummed about battle gameplay barely having changed for the last 15 years.

Hyped about some big strides on the campaign map (which also looks bloody great).

I don't think the battles are ever really going to change. I was hoping for larger-scale engagements for this setting. Not sure a new game engine will change things although I would say its overdue since Warscape has been in use since they developed it in 2006-2007 for Empire.

[Hardric62]

Welp, guess CA did learn from the Warriors of Chaos-gate:

https://forums.totalwar.com/discussi...ng-zhuo-reveal

Yup it is real, and goes with this blog:

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-...ends-dong-zhuo

Warning, hype train is going to go overload. Keep all your limbs inside the vehicle. We are not responsible for any wound if you do not listen to that warning....

[PointOfViewGun]

How could the battle change in a substantial manner?

[Anna_Gein]

In many different way. Just be inventive about it.

For a start larger units would change the battles. Just try R2 or Warhammer with ×2 larger units. Thé battles feel significantly different.

[PointOfViewGun]

In many different way. Just be inventive about it.

For a start larger units would change the battles. Just try R2 or Warhammer with ×2 larger units. Thé battles feel significantly different.

OK. Scale is one, though likely the scale they use is the only manageable one. What else?