Total War: THREE KINGDOMS - Heroes & Guanxi Let's Play

[@KusunokiSG47]

"Liu Bei can boost troops morale" You see, that's why he's so charismatic *That smile, that damn smile*

[@alexandersturnn4530]

Or, alternatively: Cao Cao: That's where the trouble began. *That smile. That damned smile.* Seriously, I wonder how often Cao Cao in the later years looked at a map of the Three Kingdoms and thought: "...I *really* should've killed him when I had the chance."

[@Rukdug]

Alexander Sturnn Probably as often as he looked at the map and chuckled at how Liu Bei tricked him of all people after Lu Bu’s defeat into thinking that the shoemaker turned warlord was no threat to the future of the house of Cao. Which was probably ever damn time. Cao Cao did immensely respect Liu Bei and many of the Shu officers, even if they were his enemies. And he had the humor to laugh at himself. So he would have laughed at the mistake of letting Liu Bei live while still admiring him. It’s one of the strangest things, the relationship between those two. They both had the same overarching goals, but very different means of achieving that goal. Had they lived under different circumstances, they might well have been friends. After all Cao Cao didn’t hold a grudge against Liu Bei for aiding Tao Quing, otherwise he’d never have helped Liu Bei bring down Lu Bu. And when Guan Yu briefly served Cao Cao, they both understood it was a short term thing until Guan Yu could find Liu Bei again. Shu and Wei for the longest time had an enemy they could admire in each other.

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

@@Rukdug Probably chuckled when he heard of Liu Shan though.

[@Telsion]

A smile to rival Karl Franz

[@alexandersturnn4530]

@@Rukdug True, he did have a habit of being amused by his mistakes.

[@anarquia201]

Ah yes the ultimate challenge to strategy games fans: SOCIAL INTERACTION

[@jooasalmi730]

That's not how the mafia works!

[@alphaprawns]

The greatest challenge to face us thus far. Other people.

[@isaacalves97]

thats a hurtfull esteriotype:( i am desapointed with your comment!

[@isaacalves97]

@Natasel WTF!?!?!

[@isaacalves97]

@Natasel ok i get it now:)

[@HeloisGevit]

So glad CA have decided to treat their fanbase like adults and have given the campaign a long overdue complexity and depth overhaul, got me hyped for TW again!

[@junqqili]

I agree and I'm really looking forward to it. It's everything I've ever wanted but I can't say the same about those unit cards though.The Unit cards seems somewhat lacking.

[@edirabinovich1415]

and they also made the 2 modes for both fantasy fans and history fans :D I think this game will get their sales up big time.

[@Napoleonic_S]

@@edirabinovich1415 have they show anything from the historical mode?

[@edirabinovich1415]

@@Napoleonic_S From all the videos on youtube as of now none have historical mode gameplay, but it's 100% clear that CA will make that mode a thing

[@vangnxee]

Helois Gevit mostly for the China player

[@simon5986]

campaign mechanics are actually better than I expected, well done CA

[@MJFAN666]

lol we will give kudos when it works

[@ArmageddonAsh]

Campaign looks fantastic, shame the same can't be said for the combat side of things :(

[@skoomamuch356]

22:38 hovers mouse pointer onto the Execute option "No! my Lord, I have children to feeeed"

[@Baktrianos]

"Yeees, we can pay!" Ransom refused *hanging sounds*

[@easternstrategist5276]

Guanxi=social network.

[@uanime1]

The 5 classes relate to the 5 elements (fire, earth, wood, water, metal).

[@patrickliao2343]

Lol I was thinking about this, was it 關係 or 關西

[@jansenjunaedi4926]

@@uanime1 Cool. Didn't notice that.

[@bowenqiu9123]

Patrick Liao 關係(关系) = social network 關西(关西) is a name of a place

[@bowenqiu9123]

Jansen Junaedi Jansen Junaedi Moreover, fire restrains metal and reinforces earth, metal restrains wood and reinforces water, wood restrains earth and reinforces fire, earth restrains water and reinforces metal, water restrains fire and reinforces wood.

[@Binary84]

Thanks CA for putting the effort & money into this game. CA_Wheelan pronunciation is surprisingly spot-on which is great.

[@jetplayer77]

The pronunciation is a bit off bud, but other than that, good video

[@killershootin6934]

I want some effort into them fixing the 4k ui in previous total war games. They're unplayable in 4k.

[@xSMOKED]

@@killershootin6934 have you tried adjusting ui size in settings?

[@dylanhaze1455]

effort & money? WHERE ? look at this map omg .. Bad assets Bad colors Textures are ugly, no bump/normal on the ground.. i can do better alone.. --' no joke

[@Blackstag-jq7jx]

@@dylanhaze1455 Sure bud, I'll wait for you to release something in March then. Good luck.

[@Hugothester]

The improvements of the campaign map experience is what makes this game a masterpiece, battles and graphics have improved, that was to be expected, but man, the diplomatic/guanxi/spy/supply system is way deeper than I expected, I love it.

[@FretlessTree]

A masterpiece before it's even out?

[@Hugothester]

@@FretlessTree I have already tried it man, at the total war event in London, I speak from experience

[@theseusleoncouer704]

Sucking up to dev so they can give you free games. Pathetic!

[@jamesgrantham7754]

@@Hugothester Plays the game for a couple of hours at a highly managed event and then confirms the game to be a masterpiece. A truly sad indictment of the TW community.

[@TheElholm]

How can you claim the battles and graphics have improved? You haven't been able to play it yet. The animations for the normal soldiers look lackluster, the campaign map kinda weird with no shadows and weird lighting.

[@Dragons_Armory]

Liu Bei could almost be seen as the protagonist hero of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: a man with humble origins but ancient lineage who stowed virtues of the past while sought to restore a sense of (status quo) harmony to the realm. According to the books, his humanity is his greatest asset (in this case his Guanxi relations with many oh his followers), and acts as a force multiplier to his many loyal followers

[@Trollingtonsrus]

>humanity >plays football with liu shan >but liu shan is the football Such great benevolence indeed.

[@Dragons_Armory]

@@Trollingtonsrus lol, agreed, 🤣 I am speaking of the version that he was meant to be. I am actually much more of a Wei and Wu supporter when it comes down to it. I do love that Shu will essentially be Oda in this game tho

[@BurningSpear213]

Liu Bei is a paragon of Confucianism. He seems really great on paper but things don't always pan out for him in the real world.

[@Dragons_Armory]

@@BurningSpear213 That's why he's boring to me, too traditional and way too status quo to shore up an already hopelessly crumbling regime. I like Cao Cao for his revolutionary approach and I respect the Sun family for just being a tragedy laced group of warlords. Liu Bei is very milktose, and his narrative is so overhyped in the literature.

[@leeboi222]

@@Dragons_Armory Wu #1

[@Greger82]

Are you guys planning on releasing a unit overview?

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

Can you insult enemies to death as a strategist? That is a required mechanic for me.

[@adriebailey633]

really feels like a lot of this stuff was ripped right from KOEI. I am a big fan of that because they have screwed up the series since 11 IMO

[@endlessfreedomful]

Sima Yi would be unhappy

[@arthurxu35]

BrokenSky Wang Lang would be unhappy

[@jw1731]

Zhuge Liang: “I’ve never seen a demand more shameless than this!” jk

[@maciejk125]

From what i gather from the demo's out there, you can challenge an AI general to a duel, and it will always accept, running towards you no matter what. So, if you challenge a guy and imagine that you done so with an insult, the guy will try to get to you, running past your elite infantry and getting murdered in the process. Will that count as an insult to death?

[@gustlightfall]

The question is, will the AI be good?

[@ILoveCostcoPizza]

From what I'm getting from all the videos they created, probably just the AI campaign but the actual battles might the same AI as previous games. Still an improvement.

[@EndOfSmallSanctuary97]

AI in Total War has never been good

[@TheMisterpelo]

@@EndOfSmallSanctuary97 testudo!

[@alphabryan4703]

that shogun 2 ai

[@lordmalal]

The answer is, no

[@primarchstar2087]

4:00 I still ship Liubei with Sun Shang Xiang

[@gamling4994]

but how can you ship them if there's no naval battles? ;)

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

@@gamling4994 You can tie the boats together in a long plank bridge.... oh wait

[@rexx23ify79]

@@Aspiringamoeba1997 I'm not falling for that one again

[@rithysambathpanha]

Historically, they will get married lol

[@blahtoblahtoto6441]

Sun Ren (Shang Xiang) I think they're the same person

[@HardBassManiac]

I hope that battles last more then 5 minutes

[@danielthake8115]

If not, dresden will fix it :p

[@AssassinKID]

Not against Lubu, he will 1-hit all your generals and your units will rout :p

[@DJinKERRY831]

That's what she said.

[@WonderDuckie]

I am absolutely loving what I am seeing from the Campaign so far. The improvements to diplomacy, spying and this Guanxi system is a big step in the right direction for Total War games. I was iffy on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms setting, but with all its intrigue it's given you guys the perfect setting to refocus on much needed improvements for the series. So far for me your knocking it out of the park with them too.

[@thepiousskull]

Bring this depth to Warhammer 3 & future historic titles please.

[@MrChaoticsGaming]

There's no room for this in Warhammer, and that has nothing to do with CA. That's just the way Warhammer is.

[@thepiousskull]

@@MrChaoticsGaming Yeah, there is plenty of room. TW: Warhammer is far too bare bones at the moment in terms of game mechanics and depth beyond the battles.

[@Rex1987]

and just remember to bring naval battles to coming titles

[@thepiousskull]

@@Rex1987 Yes, naval battles, better siege maps and the more in-depth diplomacy changes are the biggest additions that Warhammer 3 & future titles need to include.

[@o8rx]

Warhammer is a waste of time, they need to move back into the realm of history instead of this fantasy crap imo.

[@martytu20]

Plot twist- Xiahou Dun is a spy told by Cao Cao to surrender and pretend to be discontent.

[@leyasu888]

show us Lu Bu already!

[@hayro252]

*dynasty warriors ost intensifies*

[@williamdaniel3020]

it's it's lu bu!!!

[@saint8257]

yisssss

[@alexyang1046]

CA does not want us to engage or pursue him just yet....

[@madogod6833]

DLC. Joking aside plz don't be DLC

[@rsspinal]

Man.. My warhammer feels so shallow at this point..

[@ReachStudioPro]

+Astroice To be fair, you're comparing the most simplistic Total War ever to the most complex ever. Even if you compared TW:W to any other TW games, you'll still end up with a big difference in complexity and mechanical content. Not trying to poke fun at TW:W, it was built to be the most simplistic TW game ever for the sake of introducing new players to the franchise and to put a big focus on the real time battles. Y'know, the one thing Warhammer is mostly about, the battles.

[@TaigaShark-ij8oh]

Three kingdom is a combination from total war series as well as inspirational ideas they received or encounter. Warhammer series has inspired them to developed the hero system for three kingdom even further. I'd say is a good thing that this happen so that there are more options for new games to be had. Who knows, lord of the ring/ game of thrones total war as official game might come to reality after all?

[@shriramprasadvenkatesan5459]

Actually, the historical TW do need this level of complexity considering their units are very similar and vanilla compared to WH. Of course, WH:TW having this level of complexity would make it the best TW ever. But that would make the historical TWs bland in comparison.

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

@@ReachStudioPro Well, it was also the magic. The battles and unit balance themselves are super complex, because all the different unit types, but the campaign was far too simple.

[@bundleofhumble3119]

@@ReachStudioPro Yes, campaign wise, this one looks to be the best. Still battle wise Warhammer is the best and it will get even bigger. If u like historic better I guess it's not for u but it's still the best battle wise.

[@wanggeng3056]

LOL Sha Hou brothers betray Cao Cao instantly while some generic general hold his loyalty...

[@barbiquearea]

To be fair Guan Yu did do the same when Cao Cao defeated Liu Bei and Guan fell into his clutches. Although Guan Yu would eventually redeem himself by returning to his sworn brother later on.

[@wanggeng3056]

@@barbiquearea I know about that part, just looks funny

[@eofalassion]

(Spoiler) Xiahou Yuan's son Xiahou Ba did actually defected to Shu late TK period.

[@cw8]

@@eofalassion Because he knew Wei kingdom was already not ruled by the Caos but the Simas were pulling all the strings.

[@wanggeng3056]

@@eofalassion yep

[@ride0n1]

23 whole minutes of 3K gameplay, looks like christmas came early this year bois :D

[@Jake-dh9qk]

More like Christmas was delayed

[@xena3764]

Jake4595 or 11 months and one day early

[@Jake-dh9qk]

@@xena3764 Or about two month delayed

[@-Zevin-]

00:47 You said Cao Cao properly! I can die happy now. Seriously though this game looks amazing and i think it's going to be the first game in a few years I'm going to dish out the cash to pay full price and not wait for a sale. You guys really earned my trust and respect for the company back with your amazing patches and fixing of Rome 2 Total war. That game had a very rough start but it's fantastic now. It could have easily been abandoned but it wasn't, and now it's one of my favorite Total War experiences to date. Fan here since the original Shogun. Can't wait to see what the future holds for Total War.

[@riekopo7638]

Looking forward to the river naval battles!

[@TsarLuna]

Wow! Thank you so much for adding so much depth and customization. The team have gone above and beyond!

[@dm3402]

this is about to be so god damn intense. Replay value out the wazoo, I'm still kicking with rome 2 spartans but now i have this too. Hope angry joe checks this out

[@jansenjunaedi4926]

And ask joe to cosplay as Zhang Fei and swing some poles. LOL.

[@Joker-yw9hl]

@@jansenjunaedi4926 lol

[@R3GARnator]

Love the popup for prisoner options, one of my favorite things from Medieval II.

[@lagrie]

i'm excited, i love romance of the three kingdoms. One of my favorite books. i can't wait for this.

[@Abygoneage]

This is incredibly in-depth!! Very heavy with the politics and diplomacy. Not just with other factions but with your own people!

[@TheRedStarReports]

Waiting for the "I want medieval 3 total war" and "I want empire 2 total war" comments

[@adamszalai6797]

I want both!

[@sylviasalentin6870]

I want medieval 3 ... with a better engine. :S

[@JimRaynor2001]

Wow the in-depth diplomatic/social interaction improvement is impressive! Can't wait to play it! And the praise the proper Cao cao pronunciation!

[@DziadekEdek]

For a second I thought "make heir" meant for the married couple to get busy to make an heir :D

[@PaulTeichman]

This looks really good, I especially loved that character art and models change based on their equipment

[@joseph9638]

I still would have released Tao Shong instead of executing him. His father did give you everything he had instead of his son. It was the least you could do to honor his father. Besides, what threat does that boy pose anyway? Lastly, I wish there were more options besides executing, employing or releasing. Maybe a 4th option like imprison would have been nice to use to barter with in diplomatic negotiations. Kind of like in Civ 6 when your agent gets captured by an enemy civ and you have to trade to get him back.

[@barbiquearea]

I agree the option to imprison captured foes should be available.

[@eofalassion]

Well tbh he's been given a chance to continue his service under Liu Bei, but he chose to defect and invite another tyrant to come and invade in order to take back his father's lands...I'd say this is an insult to his father and his wishes. But if I were LB I would have adopted the Tao siblings and gave the eldest to be the heir. That way they can still take over after their father's lands, and also prevent that idiot Liu Shan as successor lol, still blaming you LB for that stupid stunt in Changban Bridge

[@Shootingfoul]

I don't get it, for the captured officers, why isn't there a "imprison" option?

[@Shootingfoul]

@Goliath Online Yeah, it surprised me when I noticed you are put on the spot to decide "use this guy now" or "release him"...in reality, there should be an option like imprison that's in between those 2.

[@roger4326]

Like Crusader King II

[@waaaghlace]

Cao Cao : Your wife is MINE !

[@Lyserus]

人妻曹哈哈哈 （Translation: Milf Cao）

[@barbiquearea]

He did have a fetish in collecting the spouses of beaten enemies.

[@revolutionalist]

It’s out of respect for fallen soldier in ancient times, when a man die there is no man to look after his woman. In that case it is honourable to take it upon yourself to shelter the woman. In ancient times there were many widows as a result of war

[@Lyserus]

@@revolutionalist True, but Cao Cao took most of those women....to his bed :p In fact if you know history (or watched the Romance), he got his bodyguard, first son and heir and a niece killed because he tried to sleep with a surrendered warlord's aunt And when he defeated Yuan Shao, he tried to take Yuan Shao's second son's wife as his own as well...........but Cao Pi (his oldest son alive) got to her first XD

[@bowenqiu9123]

李昊 是张秀的嫂子，不是阿姨

[@SkyGuy4991]

Finally, a more thorough playthough so we can understand the game more. Really well done.

[@quantumdelta123]

Yo the video is badly compressed, making the graphics look grainy

[@fr0ntend]

No it doesn't

[@ivvan497]

Actually thats how the game looks like. I saw other youtubers play the game and this is how it looks on their side as well.

[@Ksehsatoo]

You’ve given me new hope, amazing work

[@BlackGold0406]

The melee units combat is still awkward

[@antoun7714]

i agree

[@sylviasalentin6870]

I agree too.

[@yuyaplays9311]

When you mentioned the Liu Bei's ability to help keep his people happy it reminded me something from the gameplay footage released by some youtubers a little while back were when a general was killed in battle that the entire army would route shortly after. In the time frame this is set in China, soldiers would route often when their leader died in battle but the opposite was also true especially for leaders whos troops admired them, when their lord would die in battle and the troops would throw themselves at their enemy for revenge until they were either wiped out or their enemy was. I think something like this would spice things up for battles a lot more than in previous games where you may not want to snipe out your enemy's leader if it means dealing with a now unbreakable enraged army coming down on yours.

[@Kaampper]

everything looks amazing !, cant wait to play the game. BUT : Xiahou Dun , betraying CaoCao ? that seems like a big NONO to me... just like Zhang Fei and Guan Yu will never betray Liu Bei......

[@rexx23ify79]

He wasn't the only. Xiahou Yuan was also willing. This must've been rigged cause there's no way someone like those 2 would ever serve anyone other than Cao Cao

[@Lyserus]

True. XiaHou and Cao family are actually blood relative （Cao Cao and his family branch changed their family name because his father was an adopted son of an eunch named Cao Teng ）

[@rexx23ify79]

@@Lyserus Cool. I did not know about Cao Teng, but I did know about them being cousins and that Cao Song was formerly a Xiahou

[@Lyserus]

@@rexx23ify79 Thanks. Tho I gotta say this is just one of the more popular theory （Cao Cao being XiaHou origin）, there are also theories that Cao Song （Cao Cao father）is a nephew of Cao Teng and became an adopted son, and XiaHou is just another big house that intermarried with Cao family for a looong time that both houses recognize the other as same house. However like I said Cao Cao being XiaHou origin is one of the more popular theory and it's the one used by the Romance, and either way Cao and Xiahou are thick bros and betraying the other is very unlikely

[@dracomet2097]

I hope they are spies because Xiahou bros betraying Cao Cao makes no sense to me.

[@brettd2308]

This looks amazing. I'm stoked that the muster-style recruitment made it in, that system really made ToB's recruitment feel more immersive.

[@jetfin2]

Anyone want to place bets on if this game is going to run on our computers smoothly ?

[@shiroespiral260]

I'll bet 100 Denarii

[@airanator1212]

Their system requirements seem like it’s easing up with every release. For example, Rome 2 ran waayyyy easier than the previous game. Warhammer ran wayyyy easier than Atilla.. etc.

[@KusunokiSG47]

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but a portion of the community like me, can only play mid-low games And I hope the requirements are at least not choking on our systems So far I am adequately satisfied by their system requirements as I can still play their games smoothly

[@BENuggets12]

Well ThroB had pretty good optimization and if you remove the extra effects in Warhammer 2 you get pretty high fps too. So I think this'll run fine. Doesn't look like a huge graphical leap tbh.

[@roryknox1257]

Simple - no, it won't.. they only optomize with their super computers in mind.

[@metamutualguruist65]

Looks great guys, I've been waiting for an RoTK Total war crossover forever. Thanks

[@-zerenity-2322]

The armies back then during this period consisted not of the few units we see in this game. For example, a basic card of Archers or spearmen in the game consists of 120 troops, whilst if we were to be more historically accurate, this card of Archers would probably be 1000 troops, whilst a card of spearmen would probably be 5000 troops. They really should make bigger unit sizes, not only for a more historical approach; but also because it just looks more pleasing to the Eye and more immersive. The cities are too big in comparision to the army size, making vast areas on the map look sadly very empty...

[@-zerenity-2322]

@Goliath Online hopefully, hopefully..

[@nekonari22]

Oh wow just realized the full night/day cycle and weather effects on campaign map! That looks amazing

[@joaoboechat7637]

I didn't expect so much wonderful news coming from this franchise. Great features, indeed. The only two things I really hope to be implemented in the next total war are better siege maps and some kind of capitulation system with a peace treaty. Just copy that from Eu4 and it'll make total war the perfect game.

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

I think you got your wish with the siege battles. I just saw heirofcarthage fighting over iron mines, and it's one hell of a map.

[@dongquixotee]

Amazing work CA. Thank you so much.

[@nightknght]

Kind of annoyed Zhang Fei was disloyal because of a court rank.

[@Jaredbbishop93]

This game looks great! They combined the best elements of CK2, EU4, and Total War. It really shows how far the series has come. Hopefully, this will be their best yet.

[@sirunklydunk8861]

Ok real question, from a geographical standpoint why would you have two towns with the same name so damn close to each other (Dong and Dong)

[@Tyrant_8053]

The towns are not called Dong, they are just 2 minor town/village from the same commandery, called Dong.

[@ahumpierrogue137]

It's not the name of the city but the province. I think it's like Shogun 2 where on the map it says the province(commandery) name while the names of the villages and cities(though at this scale realistically everything shown would be a city) are a bit more hidden.

[@thomasbessis2809]

Hehe, dong...

[@Asrahn]

Aint nothing wrong with two dongs in close proximity.

[@PaulJohn01]

@Denam I just hope i never see such a thing lol.

[@krevin543]

I am in love with how complex this looks! So many options and details to tweak and manage. The graphics on the campaign map and battle field didn't look as impressive as they have in some past videos, but perhaps that's early access right there.

[@Lyserus]

I hope the “big families”(士族) of each region is taken into account. Those big families are super influential in their regions and/or in han dynasty, so they are usually both suppressed and cooperate with their liege. Like house Yuan （Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu）and SiMa in the north, house Mi in XuZhou, house Cai, Peng in JingZhou, the “four houses” in Wu. I typed a lot in the comment so go check it out if you want to learn more 家族概念，以及士族寒族的区别是三国史上非常重要的概念。三国演义没有特别着重写政治方面的东西，希望制作组可以多从三国志和其他史料里了解一下

[@slickawolf]

Can you elaborate on this? Wouldnt this been seen as the same keeping your 'court' happy. He did reference that system in the video.

[@Lyserus]

@@slickawolf Keep your court happy, yes, but kinda different. As you know back in that era, the family is a important thing (I'm talking about your whole family, both close and distant relatives), and many families have rooted themselves in the region they live in, and the influence they have on those regions are very strong. Yuan Shao was from one of the most powerful Yuan family, where for 4 generations they have family member serving as one of 3 Han dynasty top officals. (四世三公). Those family have great numbers of ppl in both government office and army, and have armies of their own, making them a force to be reckoned with. (士族) And there are talented ppl rise from lowborn (寒族), they lack the social statue, and therefore are usually more loyal to their liege since their fate is mostly bind with the one promoted him to the higher rank. Those families serve in courts of their liege but they care more about their family's interest. When lieges treat them too well they get even more influence and eventually make their liege powerless, like how eventually SiMa family taken over Cao family; treat them bad and they will use their power to stab liege in the back (many examples, for example Cao Cao was backstabbed by Lv Bu because the great family in his territory house Zhang and Tian supported Lv Bu, and when house Zhang are killed off by Cao Cao and house Tian turn their back again, Lv Bu lost the support and was defeated.) (Another example, The leading offical and general of Liu Biao, Kuai Yue and Cai Mao are both from great houses, so once Liu Biao died they just forced Liu Chong surrender to Cao Cao without resisting, to protect their wealth and statues.) That is not to say those families are just pain in the butt for their lieges. When they have a strong and just liege, their support will give their liege great power and stability. Mi Zhu, Lu Xun, Zhang Zhao etc are all from great houses and they are very loyal to their liege, and provided great support. However, they do tend to favor surrender over fighting, defending over offending etc to protect the resources and manpower of their house. Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Sun Quan are all from mid to low influence families (Liu Bei despite being distant royal blood make shoes in his young life to make a living; Cao cao's father spent huge money on a official title and is an adopted son of an eunch, Sun Quan 's Wu is basically established by the military poweress led by Sun Jian and Sun Ce. So they on one hand need the support (naming members of great houses to high officials, marry their family members together to forge political alliance), but on other hand need to suppress their influence (naming members of their own family to control the army and office, let great houses infight to weaken them, and even find causes to kill off some of them). Eventually their plans all failed. Cao's Wei use their own family to control government and army, but when Caos and Xiahou failed to produced more talented members, SiMa family take over; Similarly Sun's Wu is weakened due to Sun family's infighting, and eventually surrender to SiMa. Liu's Shu maintained a good balance between the local great houses, the great houses followed Liu Bei from outside, and the talented ones from low social statue under Liu Bei and later ZhuGe Liang, however because their territory is the smallest, combined with Jiang Wei's failed military campaigns, eventually had to rely heavily on the local great houses, and eventually those are the ones persuade Liu Chan to surrender without further fighting

[@Lyserus]

@@slickawolf oh well I may have elaborated too much....oh my I didn't check how much I typed

[@slickawolf]

Well I didnt know this about the social structure and its influence during this time period. Thank you for going into more detail. So your saying that the liege lord would have a court that he managed/ruled including keeping happy and the same for influential known local families of power per region? Wouldnt the 'court' already have these influential families members in it if they were essentially the liege lords main officer/administer recruitment pool? If they are wouldnt keeping the 'court' happy be the same as keeping the major families in the region happy. As their family members in positions of power working for the liege would already be working with their families best interest in mind and the main means of notification of what the lord has planned or or is doing. Maybe I dont understand the historical details or customs enough to warrant having a second system in game to differentiate between the two.

[@Lyserus]

@@slickawolf I mean, XiaHou brothers surrendered in the video probably means there is no huge family trees, and I donno if there is family trees for non ruling houses. And that means, in the game you cannot simulate things like "mistreating one of them = mistreating all of them", and that will make the influence of those houses drastically weakened compare to real history. And like I said, there are many things that supposely can "mistreat" big families. for example lack of their family members in court will trigger them (in the game you probably don't have to care about the opinion of big houses that are under you rule but not hired by you, aka there is simply no such system), exhausting resources of a certain region/ their troops (and those of big houses will try to preserve their own troops, meaning doing things against your order from time to time) , favoring one house over the other etc For example, house Mi is of great influence in XuZhou, if you rule XuZhou, in this game currently you can simply dismiss any house Mi members if you don't really like them, and in real history that will cause problems, they may try to open the gate next time your enemy attack you, but I doubt the game currently have this feature. I'm recommending a feature where each region have the tag of some great houses, and they have their own members pool (and like your generals they have troops), and whenever you hire/promote people that are not of their family, they become less happy, and if you use them/marry your house members with theirs, they become a bit more happy etc. When they are happy, they will boost region stability, taxes etc, and give debuff when they are not. And they may even use their troop to help defend their region if they like you enough, and will turn against you, attack your army and try to open the gate in a besieged fight if they hate you enough. You basically cannot rule a region effectively if the great houses don't like you, but erasing a house without good reason will cause all great houses of all regions hate you more. Basically a minor faction feature, they have a percentage in a region to show how influential in the region (the higher the more influential, more buff/debuff depending on relationship) and their members can have double identity (for example both aligned to their house and their liege). And you should be able to interact with all of them (even the ones outside your territory), maybe even put enough same-house (can be your own) generals of other houses in an area and gift them land to make them a new great house in the region

[@CptCh4os]

I feel like with (the success of) Total War: Warhammer a new era of innovation has come for this series. I am so excited for all these new mechanics!

[@PumpkinBread2]

So much yes.

[@kappafieldx]

Here's hoping a skilled modder or modding team can cook up a Kingdom manga addon adaptation. I would be SO happy. This is shaping up well CA! Cheers to the team!

[@TheMeanConservative]

Honestly, pretty ridiculous how few units are on the battlefield. 1,441 men is a full unit roster? That's a huge downgrade. We should be seeing at least 10,000 men in a battle. The engine can certainly handle it.

[@xXcrizZx]

The engine yes, but the cpu of many players no (sorry for my english)

[@MrDefender1234]

@@xXcrizZx which is why there is usually a Unit Size slider in the options. There should be one for this game too where it goes up much much higher than these small battles.

[@xXcrizZx]

@@MrDefender1234 you can change the unit size with the pack file manager, but i agree

[@wontonzz1083]

I really like this social network system, cannot wait to try it by myself. Good Job

[@user-yb5ss1km2o]

now i understand why they didn't make the MT3 yet because they are preparing something too great for it..

[@paga1251]

Just imagine a Rome III or Medieval III game with these new deep mechanics.

[@airanator1212]

I can’t wait for this game any longer. All the bad stuff people are saying about this game doesn’t dissuade me in the slightest. It literally looks perfect for what I want. Everyone else can go play Rome 1 if they love that so much. I’m fine with this lol

[@rjfaber1991]

The graphics, particularly in battles, look downright appaling so far, so I do hope that gets some attention before launch, but beyond that, I like it. And no, I'm not a big fan of Rome I at all; the time period isn't remotely my favourite, and I basically find any TW game before Empire almost unplayable once you've got experience with more recent fair; the gameplay is almost unrecognisable in the old titles, and markedly worse in my opinion.

[@HladgerdKissinger]

Praise be, you guys got the pronunciation of Cao Cao correct! I am now even more hyped for this game!

[@mayuthecop]

I don’t know, its the first time when I say Total War is gonna be better than any Paradox game. I mean, diplomacy, annexing without war, vassals, real battles, cool growing city locations, generals and other things. Damn, if Total War would implement some manpower mechanic, it would for sure surpas Paradox. Not to mention this games ploitics are better than CK 2 rofl.

[@Mantis42]

well, lets see how it actually plays irl first, but it does sound good

[@mayuthecop]

Mantis42 i just checked a gameplay video from Heir of Chartage, the game looks really good. The tech tree, the heros, and it seems small settlements make a comeback, sort of like in Empire and Napoleon, I loved those things. You now have on map a major city surronded by small settlements like a mining town, luberjack village. You can starve out your opponent. On, and also armies now have a bagadge wagon, the require supplies to keep marching, just like in real life, the only Paradox title that has such feature is HoI. Let’s not forget that in history, army supply was THE MOST IMPORTANT when you were out conquering.

[@rjfaber1991]

To be honest, I've always found the TW games better than their Paradox rivals. Sure, the Paradox games were a dream for people who love to micromanage, but they never felt even remotely as immersive as TW games.

[@mayuthecop]

@@rjfaber1991 People overestimate the amount of micro in Paradox games really. The only thing micro heavy are your army stacks, and trust me, that ain't hard at all.

[@jansenjunaedi4926]

Because they took a tons of ideas from KOE's ROTK. Seriously they're burying ROTK with this game

[@tanks608]

I was not looking to forward for this but this has really got me looking again. I hope to god that even half of this stuff makes it in to the last warhammer game

[@kynandecoster3752]

I love almost everything except the battles, they seem too quick and the combat animations just are swipes at each other, and that you haven't shown us anything about the historical mode, c'mon some of us aren't waiting for the romance mode but for some actual historical experience

[@_greenrunner_]

Too bad

[@lucasart328]

@@_greenrunner_ trash game then

[@chortlesg.3641]

CA has said that there will be a video at some point, although fwiw it ought to be a battle video since afaik historical/Classic/Records (of the Three Kingdoms) mode is near identical at the campaign level, other than different events and possibly characters. (For example, Zhou Cang was a novel-only persona.) On Facebook/Twitter CA posted a video showing the Military Revolt spy action in historical/Classic/Records mode where the characters had a troop count of 16 for the strategists and 31 for the champion.

[@danielthake8115]

After the air stabbing fiasco that was warhammer total war, im not pre ordering any total war games, and wont purchase until i know for sure i will be satisfied with the battle map

[@thefoolnamenathan4795]

I nearly lost it when you said that the armor you equip shows on the character! i can't wait for this game !!!!!!

[@laabitres]

Cathay confirmed

[@sylviasalentin6870]

Hope wh3 is getting cancelled trollolol

[@madness1383]

There is quite a lot of depth in this game, looks good

[@mr.swedishoak2386]

the graphics looks grainy and weird

[@jackwn1405]

The UI also looks far from authentic.

[@BarneyGoogl]

And the battle animations look very twitchy. This game looks pretty rough honestly.

[@funkyfuck9098]

Are you serious? It looks beeeeautiful

[@blendcry7025]

YT probably

[@jackwn1405]

A lot of recent games based on history tend to abandon authenticity for modern flashy UI which has no relevance to the time period it’s set in. Assassins Creeds titles are very much like this.

[@hclee6582]

I'm glad you guys finally pronounced Cao Cao properly :)

[@aoishiro6622]

And why create an original character while you had Lady Gan and Mi as wife for Liu Bei?

[@discoskull]

For a different faction-specific playstyle.

[@aoishiro6622]

​@@discoskull Well, hope so still Lady Mi could have been interesting with Liu Bei's history with her brothers after Tao Qian's death.

[@Havie]

was wondering about this as well, when its Gan?

[@MegaPaddyC]

Items changing how the character looks is dope!

[@dylansf7345]

Please make bigger unit size, it's annoying to see 160 men per unit in this period, specially in China!!!!!!

[@blendcry7025]

I LOVE how the paintings change depending on the action

[@punypunic2224]

Will we ever get a look at the classic mode?

[@MrChaoticsGaming]

This is classic mode to an extent. The only real difference is going to be the change from single unit generals, to full retinues. That's it. That's the only difference.

[@chortlesg.3641]

To elaborate on what Mr. Chaotic said about the generals, no hero combat abilities (e.g. Zhang Fei's Blazing Roar), the generals are perfectly mortal despite having a bodyguard unit (I saw a sixteen-man unit for strategists and thirty-one-man unit for a champion in CA's Military Revolt video on Facebook and Twitter), and fatigue is supposed to be more intense/effective on classic mode, which should help with slowing down the battles... oh, and no Duelist's Challenge. As for the campaign layer, different events and possibly characters (e.g. Zhou Cang was a novel-only character) but mechanics would be identical.

[@DeemsDogStomper]

Character art and in-game model that changes depending on the items you have equipped? *hyped*

[@valkorion8958]

Battle gameplay needs a lot more polishing, only reason I play Total War and this just looks so clunky. And the scale of the battles to small, and considering this is ancient China were they practically shited soldiers each day... Idk, hope this isn't the max scale. And man, the campaign of all TW games always makes me laugh, feels like a dumbed down version of Civilizations trying to be a Paradox game.

[@yifanyan9071]

The comments below raised a good point about an imprisonment system. Yes the player may be inclined to just imprison every character they capture instead of being forced into making difficult decisions. I think there are few relatively easy features to introduce that would help counter this. 1) Forcing an upkeep of the imprisoned character, since you need to create a jail cell and assign soldiers to guard such an important character. 2) Each character will have a chance of escape based on their character statistic. A strong fighter may be able to overpower his captors and escape while a highly intelligent strategist may slip away by fooling his captors. 3) Finally, a more difficult to implement system. Each imprisoned character must be assigned to a settlement. They can only be moved around by being attached to an army like an agent. They gain an increase chance of escape during transit. While imprisoned in an settlement, an enemy army can raid/sack the settlement to free/recapture the prisoner for their own. This way, different factions can fight for control of important characters or rescue ones they have lost. What do you guys think?

[@googlia9751]

Xiahou Yuan would never betray Cao Cao lol

[@MrAkilleus]

I had my doubts about this game but this seams really impressive! :)

[@IAtarenI]

2:05 "Sentinels are autism builders" - ok, I can dig that

[@QianBing]

I love the increase in complexity for this game. SO EXCITED

[@aliasalias7978]

We want Medieval III

[@adrianbagin1497]

true

[@definitelynotarealshinmego9460]

You want Medieval III, I want this.

[@sylviasalentin6870]

Agree

[@seanwei9284]

Excellent art style and execution.

[@blackknight4152]

Combat doesnt look good, campaing seems better than previous games.

[@blackknight4152]

@Leon Kennedy its not so much about realism, and more about collision problems. units seem to be fast paced but this pacing is not properly inline with how badly they collide with each other. Attila improved from Rome 2 and Thrones imporved over Attila, but this seems like a step back. units move fast but when they hit each other in battle it doesnt resemble neither the old games were units would hit each other continously without that many animations, allowing for more realistic outnumber situations, nor the matched combat of later games that Thrones did improve quite a lot, slower units allowed them to make the clash of the infantry lines less clunky, still worse than the old med 2 and rome 1, was hoping for better looks after all this time since E3 but the combat hasnt changed anything. they shouldnt give heroes that weird area of space around them so units dont clash with them. Let them naturally hover out of battle formations by launching each other out of formations like in warhammer 2, here it looks weird.

[@siegelink9549]

@@blackknight4152 Medieval 2 Had horrible Collision and completely broken battles. I won Dozens of fights with just a few peasants vs thousands of soldiers.

[@blackknight4152]

@@siegelink9549 that is not broken, its numbers vs quality. if you send 1 unit vs 3 regardless of how bad this 3 are its going to die. This happens in all total wars. You can win dozens of fights with crappy units, that can be applied to every total war. What was horrible about the collision? Units would engage each other, not forced in 1v1 duels, thus making charges and high numbers much more deadly. Models would often 1v2, 1v3 each other, with how tired or how fast a weapon was used being much more important than the quality of the unit itself. Also in med 2 there was the unit mass push mechanic, which is missing in newer total wars, were a big mass of units would push naturally the enemy lines until they stretched enough to withstand the enemy superior mass, similar to rome 1 total war, and inspired in medieval and antiquity battlefields were infantry lines would push each other creating a non-linear frontline. This made the battles feel in constant motion, with devastating heavy cavalry charges, projectiles with better effects, javelins with reasonable range... It was a bloody well done game, regarding both combat and campaing. PD: if you won battles vs Ai easily, pretty much all total wars have ai easy to cheese performing certain moves. This wasnt a problem of the engine, im not claiming med 2 was perfect, i just consider that med 2 had a lot of battle mechanics that were lost in the new engine that could be readded.

[@TheKindredblades]

This trully feels like a next gen total war. I really hope that they are gonna keep in that direction and make the campaign gameplay as deep in future installment.

[@TheYabbyman]

Okay, I have one demand, please make it available to use Chinese characters for the names of places and people- .

[@Lyserus]

It would REALLY stupid if they don't have chinese version XD

[@ILoveCostcoPizza]

@@Lyserus Pretty sure the suits will demand this so they can expand their audience and gain more revenue. Suits are greedy not stupid.

[@nikhildeshpande6308]

Speechless! Going to play this game forever!

[@RolandL429]

TAKE MY MONEY!!!

[@ziljin]

employ, release or execute captured generals? wow, this game looking more and more like the Koei Romance of the Three Kingdom games. Loving it!

[@ryang58]

I am honestly not impressed so far... The new campaign mechanics are AWESOME, the depth it offers is much needed. The problem is literally everything else. The graphics actually look worse then Warhammer, they look far too cartoonish. This is evident on the battle maps, which honestly look like a mobile game app. Additionally, the scale of the game is just too small (not the campaign map, that is good) But we are in China were some of the largest battles (numerically) in human history were fought, and we have got even smaller battle sizes than in Warhammer and even empire total war. Empire total war literally had bigger battles and more units than the current gameplay. I will not bring up the horribly inaccurate and immersive breaking, general combat and dueling system as we are yet to see the historical version of the game. Siege maps are also horrible, we have got back 360-degree battle maps which is great, however, walled settlements look horrible and reminiscent of Shogun 2 cities. I am really not impressed by how generic and cookie cutter the settlements are looking. They are just too empty and look like shells, even Warhammer had amazing details in their cities (albeit it only attackable from one side) I wouldn't be worried usually as I know modders would fix all these problems, however, CA has developed a track record for straining their modding capabilities, we can no longer edit campaign maps, game codes... basically, the core necessities for the modding community to fix the game. I am really worried about the title, especially after the issues with the last few historical games. More then anything battles need to be bigger and larger. If medieval 2 and empire total war, games that are years and years old, can support larger battles then a current game in development, then there is something wrong. It seems for every step forward the game takes, it takes an additional 2 steps backwards.

[@jamesjoe5979]

totally agree with everything you said

[@benrobertson9658]

You sir have just summed up everything I've been thinking about this game. Good comment.

[@MrWatchingclosely]

This game play actually changed my mind. I'm onboard with this one.

[@xTheHedenx]

I just want a medieval 3 :(

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

But this is a good game though.

[@xXcrizZx]

Or a remake of medieval 2 with better Ai

[@siegelink9549]

@@xXcrizZx Don't you mean better everything. There was not one thing good about that Complete Broken Mess of a glitch fest.

[@twinzzlers]

@@siegelink9549 It's regarded as the best total war though

[@xXcrizZx]

Sorry for my english is basic. You mean that Medieval 2 sucks? I remember that was a good game for the for the time that was released @@siegelink9549

[@SilverstreamMusic]

THANK YOU for that effect list! Oh, how I missed this feature in all previous TW games...

[@aaronbiduk813]

Why only eighteen units in an army WTF

[@flerkan2802]

21 if you count the lords, but yes I also find it abit weird...

[@PaulJohn01]

@@totalwar Thanks for the reply, it does still seem as if TW armys are getting smaller.

[@Sr68720]

Each character is a unit as well don't forget.

[@Aspiringamoeba1997]

@@flerkan2802 It's a lot better than warhammer. I barely get a thousand troops on a good day unless I'm playing skaven.

[@aidanmattys7488]

If we can consider lords and heroes units in warhammer, we can consider generals as units in this game

[@legiokrato61]

There are no breaks on the hype train now. Just pre-ordered!

[@avengerXable]

total war medieval 3 when? this game looks amazing

[@harecrazy9104]

after this and warhammer 3, then maybe just maybe CA will announce med 3

[@sylviasalentin6870]

Hopefully soon.

[@mechrafael]

Good job CA, i can't wait to play this beauty...

[@kloossik5670]

This game looks like mobile game. Is it joke?

[@Frankfurter47]

Anyone who is interested in this game should take a chance to watch Romance of Three Kingdoms tv series 1994 (available on KZbin) to have a better appreciation of its historical background and unique characters of each figure.