[Cause]

Decided to treat myself this weekend! PC games are so cheap compared to console games!

Thoughts so far: The game is different. Very different. I may need to start a new campaign because the game asked my if I was new to total war. I said no. If I was new to three kingdoms, I said yes. It then just threw me into the campaign. I need more info! There area all sorts of mechanics I don't understand. You make money, but you also make food. Low food leads to negative effects I think. I think armies now carry 0-100 supplies. Not sure how this works excactly but I think attrition is now based on supplies rather than just if your in enemy territory or in the winter etc. You have to recruit generals, but generals can also be regional govenors, spies at court and placed into beurecratic positions. Generals can enjoy working together or hate it. I'm not clear yet on how unit recruitment works but I think the type of general determines the units he can recruit. Not sure if buildings matter.



Campaign so Far: I chose Coa Coa as he is the recommended starting campaign. Despite being a famous strategist the dude can throw down and his 2 best generals have a serious bro-mance for each other and for him so I think the primary army is a beast. Sadly for now the primary army is the only army and the game started me off with exactly one city (commandery) and so the early game is really slow! I immediately struck south to capture the first minor settlement that's part of my commandery's territory. Tried to play it safe and do a siege to begin attrition damage but reinforcements arrived immediately. I retreated, mustered my army to a full stack (mustering is now very different) and then struck back out and engaged the reinforcing army and the small cities garrison. The battle was unfavorable but I trusted my TW veteran status and had at it. Victory actually came quite easily. My champion duled their general and won easily and my cavalry drove the archers from the field and then struck the spearmen from behind while Coa Coa and my vanguard champion ate regular human infantry for breakfast. With my first conquest I struck west to get the final territory of my starting commandery, held by those insidious rogues the yellow turbans. Peasant scum fighting for equal rights or some such nonsense. It takes two turns to cross a territory so it took me like five turns to get there! An easy conquest of the farmland region, followed by an attack on a yellow turban stack that was coming to retake it.

Not sure what to do from here. My economy is weak, only one major city and 2 minor. Cant afford a second army but need to attack to grow. Nothing to defend what I leave behind but I am open from east, west, south and north. This game is gonna be one giant clusterfuck of never ending madness I think. The only defence you have is that everyone else is open from every side too. At some point I must expand east if for no other reason than that the ocean will atleast provide some defence on one side.

[Imperial Historian]

I've also been playing this, and similarly a bit lost.

I just discovered there is an army stance called march which speeds up movement which makes travel time not ridiculous.

I'm still not sure what food does but the ai seems to value it a lot, i have multiple deals with people paying me for food, which also seems to make them like me more.

The hero units and there special abilities do make things very fun though!

Definitely the most fun ive had playing total war for a while though.

[Cause]

Imperial Historian, on 03 June 2019 - 12:09 PM, said:

I've also been playing this, and similarly a bit lost.

I just discovered there is an army stance called march which speeds up movement which makes travel time not ridiculous.

I'm still not sure what food does but the ai seems to value it a lot, i have multiple deals with people paying me for food, which also seems to make them like me more.

The hero units and there special abilities do make things very fun though!

Definitely the most fun ive had playing total war for a while though.

Which campaign are you doing?

I think the food mechanic has been used before. Maybe Shogun 2. Id guess lots of excess food has bonuses for military supplies, replenishment rates, population growth etc and low food causes unhappiness, extra attrition etc

[Imperial Historian]

Cause, on 03 June 2019 - 12:59 PM, said:

Imperial Historian, on 03 June 2019 - 12:09 PM, said:

I've also been playing this, and similarly a bit lost.

I just discovered there is an army stance called march which speeds up movement which makes travel time not ridiculous.

I'm still not sure what food does but the ai seems to value it a lot, i have multiple deals with people paying me for food, which also seems to make them like me more.

The hero units and there special abilities do make things very fun though!

Definitely the most fun ive had playing total war for a while though.

Which campaign are you doing?

I think the food mechanic has been used before. Maybe Shogun 2. Id guess lots of excess food has bonuses for military supplies, replenishment rates, population growth etc and low food causes unhappiness, extra attrition etc

Cao cao as well.

I guess it probably has something to do with that but i have so much food it doesnt really make much difference. Try selling your food its a nice income stream!

One other thing i found recently which I wish I'd noticed earlier... Each commandery has a unique bonus which is hidden away at the bottom, which can help give a steer on how to specialise the province, chen which you start with for example has high fertility which makes food buildings better.

[Aptorian]

Cause, I will give you a cookie if you edit your title to "Total War: Three Kingdoms" instead of using an abbreviation.

[Cause]

Aptorian, on 03 June 2019 - 02:04 PM, said:

Cause, I will give you a cookie if you edit your title to "Total War: Three Kingdoms" instead of using an abbreviation.

How do I do this? I better get a cookie! Choc chip?

[Aptorian]

If you edit your opening post, you can change the title and subtitle. Don't know if it works with the mobile skin.

[Imperial Historian]

If I ever come to Denmark Apt, I'm claiming the cookie

[Macros]

WOW
WOW
WOW

Three kingdoms?????

How the fuck was I unaware of this?

what engine, please don't tell me shitty Rome 2

[Macros]

its £50 on steam with the Yellow Turban DLC.

I simply love this setting and really want to buy it, but was so disappointed by TWWarhammer and TWR2 I'm loathe to part with that much money, especially given how little I time I spend playing games now.

Will possibly wait until I have some more time and it will be a bit cheaper

[Imperial Historian]

I was also massively disappointed by rome 2, i picked this up after a friend raved about the improvements in warhammer 2. I have to say it's a big jump up.

I've enjoyed my brief foray so far more than shogun 2, it's very good.

[Imperial Historian]

And i don't know if it's improvements in the ai, my rustiness in the game or the challenge of the additional elements but i was playing on normal and i felt challenged, which hasn't happened in a game of total war for ages.

[Macros]

reveiws are saying AI is a massive step up

[D'rek]

Cause, on 03 June 2019 - 11:04 AM, said:

Coa Coa

Cao Cao!

Cause, on 03 June 2019 - 11:04 AM, said:

those insidious rogues the yellow turbans. Peasant scum fighting for equal rights or some such nonsense.

If by "equal rights" you mean wanting the government to actually pacify the bandits raiding their villages like they're supposed to and stop stealing the peasants' crops during a 2-year drought, rather than just sitting around being corrupt and kidnapping more concubines.

[Morgoth]

D, on 03 June 2019 - 09:29 PM, said:

Cause, on 03 June 2019 - 11:04 AM, said:

those insidious rogues the yellow turbans. Peasant scum fighting for equal rights or some such nonsense.

If by "equal rights" you mean wanting the government to actually pacify the bandits raiding their villages like they're supposed to and stop stealing the peasants' crops during a 2-year drought, rather than just sitting around being corrupt and kidnapping more concubines.

Exactly. Peasant scum.

[Cause]

D, on 03 June 2019 - 09:29 PM, said:

If by "equal rights" you mean wanting the government to actually pacify the bandits raiding their villages like they're supposed to and stop stealing the peasants' crops during a 2-year drought, rather than just sitting around being corrupt and kidnapping more concubines.

Is this some kind of peasant joke I'm too rich to understand?

[D'rek]

Cause, on 04 June 2019 - 08:04 AM, said:

D, on 03 June 2019 - 09:29 PM, said:

If by "equal rights" you mean wanting the government to actually pacify the bandits raiding their villages like they're supposed to and stop stealing the peasants' crops during a 2-year drought, rather than just sitting around being corrupt and kidnapping more concubines.

Is this some kind of peasant joke I'm too rich to understand?

If you're playing Cao Cao... then yes

[Tapper]

When I can, I drop an hour or so in my Ma Teng campaign and am having a blast. Now around turn 20 or so and I managed to monopolise Silk (the silk building chain gives a global income % bonus and the percentages get ridiculous fast).

Ma Teng gives a big malus on public order (reducing peasant income and leading to negative population growth) each turn. As a result, money is tight and you need to let go of taxing each commandery once every 4 turns or so.

He also has negative character traits (cruel and careless) that piss off his wife and it seems also his heir, plus most legendary heroes.

On top of that, Lu Bu has been camped within my borders with a full stack - and he's loyal to Dong Zhou/ Dong Min, so I cannot poach Han territories without facing him.

On the plus side, Ma Teng brings amazing cavalry, dirt cheap.

[Cause]

So not pursue lu bu!

[Cause]

Okay, I did a lot of cheating last night, reloading previous save states because the computer was being mean to me! No seriously Total War had some nasty surprises for me which I put down to the learning curve.

1st) I decided to head west and finish off the yellow turbans and take their minor settlement. No problem! I destroyed He Yi's full stack on the border, annihilated him and his army to complete destruction, marched towards the city, rested, marched and found He Yi and a full stack army waiting for me in the city! As a major charcter he is effectively immortal apparently and his death just resulted in him respawning at his closest settlement. He is like a lvl 5 commander and he was able to just muster another full stack in the 2 turns it took me to go from defeating him in the field to reaching his city? A full stack, In a minor city, with its garrison proved to be a nut too tough to crack. Weirdly minor settlements have bigger garrisons than low tier cities by a mile! Cities can have garrison buildings added I guess whereas minor settlements just start with massive garrisons.

The real difficulty came from diplomacy. I know Lu Bu is my enemy, but there is also Lu Bio (?) and and Lio Bu (?) or something like this. I know ones my ally and one was my enemy but I got confused and literally just watched a full stack walk past my army and ignored it because I thought he was friendly and he sacked one of my cities! So I decided to reset backa few turns at this moment because this was just monumental stupidity. It did finally make me take the time to figure out diplomacy and Cao Cao is like the high eleves from the Total Warhammer. He can just spend a faction unique resource to make people like him, like others or like each other. So that helps a lot! So I made my enemies my friends and quickly set up allies to the east, west and north. So I can now pretty much focus on only the Han, who are vassals of Dong Zhou, the primary enemy of my campaign so far.

Despite taking a new minor city and a minor settlement however I reamin broke, not sure how to fix this as yet.