Three Kingdoms has more or less served as my entry point when it comes to the Total War series. Sure, I dabbled a bit in Empire and Shogun 2 back in the day, but the total number of hours spent in these two games pale in comparison to the some 300 hours I have spent playing this game. In other words, I may be more inclined to take a liking to this game, than longer-running fans of the series; who, by now, probably has worked out their exact preferences in terms of mechanics, settings, and so on. And no, I haven't played Warhammer I or II. And from all the praise I'm hearing, I probably won't until I am 100% finished with this game (speaking both in terms of completion, and emotion).

I like the diplomacy. I like the general types and how each of them have their own perks and attributes. I like the recurring system of the different classes and color schemes when it comes to units, generals, policies, and buildings, and I also like the friendship system and how interpersonal relationships are separated from faction-based relations. I like the setting, and I love the effort put into the artistic aspects of the game. UI is good overall, unit cards should be made more accesible though.

I love starting from the bottom and working my way up, combining the best characters with the best assignments and roles, maxing out income in the new and improved commanderies (with both a city center and decentralized farms/harbours etc.). And I also love "collecting" all the different characters and constructing my own narrative and story around them.

My biggest problem with this game has got to be replayability. This wasn't really much of an issue for the first 200 hours or so, but the more I played, and the higher I upgraded my generals and units, the less I care about each individual battle. This goes for the overall experience, as well as each separate campaign. I'll start out by managing every single battle and gradually move over to autoresolving battles rather than fighting them. The map becomes more of a chess board as each game progresses, and I rely solely on out-maneuvring enemy armies and ambushing them, rather than fighting them on the field. You feel as though you've seen it all, as there is nothing new to experience in every battle. Pair this with the fact that most factions largely retain the same type of units, and you end up with a largely homogenous battlefield. Sure, you might've just unlocked the new Imperial Spear infantry, but they just impale their enemies all the same. You eventually get tired of watching duels, cataphract charges and trebuchet/ballista volleys (the more visually interesting and striking parts of any battle) after a while, and when you do, there really isn't any reason for you to fight battles as long as you achieve pyrrhic victories and maintain your 50% replenishment (something you often get by the late-game).

Micromanaging becomes a chore in other aspects as well. Most players loathe the late-game, and I can see why. When you've racked up some 200K gold and make another 5K each turn it just seems like a waste of time to manage assignments and recruit new characters. By the time you reach the Emperor rank, most characters will have received a 20 satisfaction bonus, and you will also have filled all your admin and ministerial slots to make sure that the unique/best characters stay with your faction. The Spies rework is quite nice, but I miss having non-deployable characters as a main feature. Introducing new classes specially constructed for ministerial tasks and diplomatic assignments (concubines, ambassadors, eunuchs) would make assignment management way more rewarding and fun to play around with.

The DLC so far has been a mixed bag for me, but CA seems to be moving in the right direction. The bandit rework brought some much needed diversity to the base game, and I'm hoping they do something to the Governor culture as well; something along the lines of allowing you to restore the Han Empire rather than to just ride the coattails of one of the three kingdoms. Both Yan Baihu and Sun Ce were a joy to play, and, like always, I'm happy to see additions in terms of diplomacy and unique characters. The latter of the two is another of my criticisms of the game. The game started out with way too few, and while they have increased the number, the second generation of heroes needs to be improved upon, as the late-game once again becomes way more generic and way less immersive than the early- and mid-game.

Objectively, I think most would consider this game to be a 7/10. For me, it is slightly higher, at around 8/10, due to me having taken an parsonal fancy to it, and due to my enjoyment being much higher earlier in the game's lifetime. Hopefully, the upcoming couple DLCs (I'm looking at you, Nanman!) will keep me hooked.

Thanks, CA, and keep'em coming.