Total War: THREE KINGDOMS

This was, in my opinion, the last great Total War. It fully embraced its setting, and introduced new and innovative gameplay elements while keeping true to the soul of Total War. Many will criticize the fantastical elements of Romance mode, or the neglect of Records mode, but in my opinion Records mode is a historical experience on part with legacy historical Total War games, and becomes an all-time great with the mod TROM. Trom is to Three Kingdoms what Stainless Steel was to Medieval 2, or LME4 was to Napoleon Total War.

Some of the things I love about this game:
1. The retinue system. The retinue system introduces a happy medium of army stacks being tied to generals to avoid stack spamming by the AI, and the flexibility of having the option of breaking out sub-sections of an army to accomplish side-tasks.
2. Simple campaign mechanics like an actual population mechanic, a food mechanic, and an army supply mechanic makes this one of the most historically authentic campaign experiences in Total War.
3. The emphasis on characters brings back the old magic from Medieval 2 Total War, but it's built-in to the game.
4. Massive scale. Ultra unit scale in this game is 240 men per infantry unit. That's the biggest vanilla Total War unit size I've ever seen.
5. Diplomacy. It's extremely well done and enhances the gameplay, rather than being a chore.

I think the main thing that Western audiences won't like is the setting and the Chinese names. To this I really urge people to try and embrace the setting rather than being turned off by it. The Han Dynasty was one of the greatest empires in the history of mankind, and the names become way more digestible.

This really should have been the foundation that future total war games were built on, including Warhammer 3, with all of the major features that define Three Kingdoms. But Creative Assembly is allergic to progress and evolved backwards instead.

Why three kingdoms is the best total war ever. the MAIN reasons.
Not talking about the immersive atmosphere of the game, which some like and some don't, lets get to the game itself on 2 sections just so u see how well thought out and in depth they are:

1. it has the best diplomacy in all total war games; factions act like they should according to their personality. there is the option to trade territories, so u can get that territory that u really want and its actually doable more often than not. when it comes to enemies, u can make peace if u treated ur enemies fairly, and this peace will hold if the enemy personality allows it and who knows u might become best allies. if a faction is saying no to you in diplomacy you know exactly why, there are no vague terms like "BASE VALUE" like in troy saga. what is that even! it is even possible to win the game with economy (i.e. force others to trade territories with a monopoly on trade)

2. a spy system that actually makes sense; here spies are spies. Meaning, there may be a spy among your characters (generals, administrators or perhaps family members) and you will never know who they are until they show their true face. U have to pay attention to the type of personalities that u surround urself with. spies can become double agents, or perhaps give u a territory for free. The world is your oyster!

3. each increase in faction rank is meaningful, granting u access to additional features that make sense. factions treat you accordingly (some like u and some fear u), your characters are also affected by it.

Every choice in this game makes sense. it has a deeply satisfying sense of role-playing to it that is there in warhammer 2 for example but is magnified by 10 here.
You wont regret the time spent on this game, if u like total war titles
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Only 6 hours in and I am hooked. As someone older and slowing down I struggle with the games that require fast reflexes. This is the perfect mix of high level strategy and battle level tactics. It is absolutely stunning.

It's a fun game, but the original game has a lot limitations and not match the real history. I played like 100-200 hours and have no more interest. But I found the mod called "New General Collection", these mods make this game 100000X fun than the original. That's why I can play 1000 hours.

Folks, let me tell you, I am Sun Jian, the man who founded the Eastern Wu kingdom. And let me tell you, that Liu Bei guy, he's no good. He's weak, he's spineless, and he doesn't know how to make deals.

I'll tell you what, back when we were all part of the same group, the Red Cliffs Alliance, Liu Bei was always trying to take advantage of us. He'd say things like, "Oh, Sun Jian, we need to work together against Cao Cao." But then as soon as we'd win a battle, he'd turn around and side with Cao Cao instead. Can you believe that?

And then, when we finally broke away from Cao Cao and formed our own kingdoms, what does Liu Bei do? He tries to take land from us! He's always trying to expand his little Shu kingdom at our expense. That's right, folks. Liu Bei, he's a snake. He's got no loyalty, no honor. He'll stab you in the back every chance he gets.I'm telling you, folks, Liu Bei is a loser.

no two battles are the same
no two battle landscapes are the same
AI is VERY competent, always manages to surprise and impress me with it's tactics
very well intertwined systems: diplomacy, relationships, troop types etc etc etc
amazing artstyle and sound design

MASTERPIECE! WORK OF ART!

This is the model of Total War I have always dreamed it could be: A Strategy roleplay game. It blends all that the historical Total War games have and even innovates on ideas that I still have yet to see return to One.

If you are looking for Total War's best historical title to date, you found it.

With or without mods, this game should be considered among the greatest of all strategy games and a bar by which to hold Creative Assembly to.

This is Total War at it's best.