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Total War: Three Kingdoms - the next major historical Total War title set in ancient China

cw8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
677
Legend of total war actually tested out that cheese tactic of sending a character alone to absorb enemy missile fire, and it didn't work. He found out that if you have the difficulty cranked up to hard or legendary, the AI will recognize that wasting ammo on a single character isn't viable and won't shoot.



That's nice, I need to up the difficulty from Normal next time. Except I can't since I'm at war with so many people. Need some cheese to actually win. Not sure why they declare war on me for no reason. And the faction that has the most reason to declare war, stays passive. When I'm trying to finish off Yuan Shao in the north, I got 5 enemy factions continuously sending stacks to hit me.
 

BlackAdderBG

Arcane
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Little Vienna
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Legend of total war actually tested out that cheese tactic of sending a character alone to absorb enemy missile fire, and it didn't work. He found out that if you have the difficulty cranked up to hard or legendary, the AI will recognize that wasting ammo on a single character isn't viable and won't shoot.



This is ridiculous, so if you want better AI you have to play with settings that give it stupid stat bonuses. If this is really a thing at some point they should have a toggle like "advanced AI" or something separate from difficulty.
 

cw8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
677
End of my 2nd Liu Bei campaign, I gave it up:

fwlw5y.jpg


Didn't win but at least I destroyed Yuan Shao.. His vassals continued the fight for him even after I liberated them and it's his vassals I can't stand fighting all alone since they attack from all over the place. Now my corruption is 77% and my income is destroyed. I can't build any buildings since I need all the armies to defend all over the place.

They really need to fix the diplomatic penalties. Say for example, you have Liu Biao as a vassal. Sun Jian who is completely neutral to you and has several deals with you like non-aggression pacts and trade deals, decides to attack Liu Biao. You go to the aid of Liu Biao and have no choice but to war with Sun Jian, u take all the diplomatic penalties of cancelling the non-aggression pacts and trade deals together with the diplomatic penalties of going to war with Sun Jian when you are not even the aggressor or the initiator of the war. That's one of the biggest bullshit that needs to be fix apart from the AI mass vassal system.

Getting conflicting reports from Steam forums saying Normal is cakewalk and that there are seldom any wars, and some saying they're facing situations like me. Think if you expand too fast, the AI will band together and target you for sure. My first campaign I expanded really slowly because I surrounded by Yuan Shao's vassals and didn't have wars declared on me while everyone was fighting everyone else.
 

Lone Wolf

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 17, 2014
Messages
3,703
You might have been better served leaving Cao Cao alone to serve as a buffer against Sun Jian. Cao Cao tends to go south ASAP and they usually clash around the Yangtze. Instead, rush Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan, thereby nabbing some of the best land in the game. That is, if you want to try Liu Bei again.

Make sure to prioritize the corruption branch of the +income Industry building, as well as the -corruption Admin building.

I think your existing campaign is easily salvageable, though. You don't need to hold on to all that territory. Give some low-yield provinces away in peace deals, demobilize a few of those stacks (I count at least five in your screenshot) and spend twenty turns rebuilding your economy. Corruption at 77% is cataclysmic. Losing territory will help with that, some. Appoint admins to key commanderies (-30% corruption for each admin), research the -% corruption techs and get your house in order.

Getting conflicting reports from Steam forums saying Normal is cakewalk and that there are seldom any wars

The strategic AI is able to see when going to war is a Bad Idea (primarily, when you're in a coalition with powerful states) to a reasonable extent. Players who get declared on a lot tend to also not have too many such relationships. Also, the AI is far more likely to declare after you've had highly damaging battles, when your armies are battered. Or when you're poor. Though the above is mostly conjecture, it's been my experience over the last 50 or so hours of playing the game.

If you're still learning the ropes, I'd actually recommend Gongsun Zan for a reasonably challenging but straightforward experience. He has a great -corruption building and only ever fights on 1-2 fronts (with a corner start pos). Cao Cao and Liu Bei, who both start in/around the Central Plains, can be quite difficult if the diplomatic game goes against you. Liu Bei is also one of the most dependable coalition partners in the game, and when you play as him you lose access to that benefit.

For a more challenging but still satisfying start, I'd go with Ma Teng or Gong Du. In both cases, you start in a corner of the map that's easily defensible and has great strategic resources (silk, horses) in abundance. The greatest challenge is in the first ten turns, which, if successfully navigated, set you up for a great campaign. The fight against Lu Bu in Anding was a hell of a time. The aforementioned challenge revolves around the fact that Ma Teng and Gong Du start right next to each other, and both go for the same province capital on T1.
 
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LizardWizard

Cipher
Joined
Feb 14, 2014
Messages
991
Liu Bei is easy as shit if you know how to abuse confederate. If you issue an ultimatum to confed and the modifier is greater than -29 you have a good chance of just eating free land and legendary lords. In fact I find pretty impossible not to snowball as Liu Bei even on VeryHard/Legendary so I just force my self to migrate West at game start and give my shit to Kong Rong so the AI has a good 20-30 turn head start.

Yuan Shao is also joke. Pro tip: Nothing can't be solved by ambush
 

cw8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
677
Make sure to prioritize the corruption branch of the +income Industry building, as well as the -corruption Admin building.

I think your existing campaign is easily salvageable, though. You don't need to hold on to all that territory. Give some low-yield provinces away in peace deals, demobilize a few of those stacks (I count at least five in your screenshot) and spend twenty turns rebuilding your economy. Corruption at 77% is cataclysmic. Losing territory will help with that, some. Appoint admins to key commanderies (-30% corruption for each admin), research the -% corruption techs and get your house in order.

I should have about 8-9 full army stacks. I will give a shot to try to sue for peace. My diplomatic points is at treacherous and everyone hates me to the core. Sick of everyone declaring war on me, I issued ultimatums for them to get vassalised or war, sometimes they just agree to it and I just go with it.

The strategic AI is able to see when going to war is a Bad Idea (primarily, when you're in a coalition with powerful states) to a reasonable extent. Players who get declared on a lot tend to also not have too many such relationships. Also, the AI is far more likely to declare after you've had highly damaging battles, when your armies are battered. Or when you're poor. Though the above is mostly conjecture, it's been my experience over the last 50 or so hours of playing the game.

Was fine all along before I hit King which automatically promoted me to Emperor rank. I had a coalition with Sun Jian before I hit Emperor. I was declaring war on people, no one declared on me. And when Emperor rank hit, he left the coalition understandably and everything went to shit.

If you're still learning the ropes, I'd actually recommend Gongsun Zan for a reasonably challenging but straightforward experience. He has a great -corruption building and only ever fights on 1-2 fronts (with a corner start pos). Cao Cao and Liu Bei, who both start in/around the Central Plains, can be quite difficult if the diplomatic game goes against you. Liu Bei is also one of the most dependable coalition partners in the game, and when you play as him you lose access to that benefit.

For a more challenging but still satisfying start, I'd go with Ma Teng or Gong Du. In both cases, you start in a corner of the map that's easily defensible and has great strategic resources (silk, horses) in abundance. The greatest challenge is in the first ten turns, which, if successfully navigated, set you up for a great campaign. The fight against Lu Bu in Anding was a hell of a time. The aforementioned challenge revolves around the fact that Ma Teng and Gong Du start right next to each other, and both go for the same province capital on T1.

I'm a Liu Bei whore, all my old Romance of the Three Kingdoms games by KOEI since RTK 2 to 11 were Liu Bei. Think I'd like to complete a Liu Bei campaign before I try others heh. Not that I'm a fanboy of Liu Bei but I just like the characters under him. I personally think now that he's a hypocrite who used kindness as a facade to gain power.
 

XenomorphII

Prophet
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Messages
1,198
Tip for Ma Teng. Don't actually take the city turn one, starve it out. Gong Du will usually attack Zhang Lu then and burn his stack up, then you can mop up everything.
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,506
I heard they activated online only mode. From what I heard about chinese laws, this release is violating chinese laws.
 

Kyl Von Kull

The Night Tripper
Patron
Joined
Jun 15, 2017
Messages
3,152
Location
Jamrock District
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I’m about 20 hours in and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Other than Warhammer, I haven’t played one of these since Rome 2 burned me out on the franchise.

Combat AI is still lousy, but the strategic AI is way, way better. And as others have mentioned, diplomacy is life or death. Factions have unique mechanics that are pretty cool: playing as Cao Cao and as he gains influence points he can manipulate other factions into fighting proxy wars every dozen or so turns.
 
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
8,819
Location
Italy
word on the street says sega pays cracking groups to delay releases for as long as possible. it's a rumor who's been around for years already.
 

Enosh

Arcane
Joined
Jan 11, 2015
Messages
450
word on the street says sega pays cracking groups to delay releases for as long as possible. it's a rumor who's been around for years already.
sounds like bulllshit and a rumor that I've heard about every company under the sun
fact is, Denovu is just hard to crack
 

mondblut

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2005
Messages
22,205
Location
Ingrija
http://www.e-reading.mobi/book.php?book=93594

I want this to be a mod now.

CHAPTER 2
Floyd-Chardin Whips The Government Officer; Jackson-Hoffman Plots To Kill The Eunuchs.

CHAPTER 3
In Wenming Garden, Wilson-Donahue Denounces McLeod-Orange; With Red-Hare, Glyn-Ruiz Bribes Bullard-Lundmark.

CHAPTER 4
The Deposition Of The Emperor: Prince Of Chenliu-Augusta Becomes Emperor; Schemes Against Wilson-Donahue: Murphy-Shackley Presents A Sword.

CHAPTER 5
Murphy-Shackley Appeals To The Powerful Lords; The Three Brothers Fight Against Bullard-Lundmark.

CHAPTER 6
Burning The Capital, Wilson-Donahue Commits An Atrocity; Hiding The Imperial Hereditary Seal, Kinsey-Estrada Breaks Faith.

CHAPTER 7
Shannon-Yonker Fights Northrop-Kaminski At The River Turquoise; Kinsey-Estrada Attacks Bambury-Lewis Across The Great River.

:salute:
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,087
Location
Bulgaria
slits throat
Funny thing,a mate of mine just saw a dude slit his throat with a glass while talking with me on the phone. The guy also suffered a lot,it seems some of the glass went down the throat and cut shit. Also the dumb fuck didn't went for the artery and bleed for like 5-10 minutes in pain.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
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Messages
37,087
Location
Bulgaria

cw8

Cipher
Joined
Oct 7, 2014
Messages
677
After 3 failed games:

2rztfu9.jpg


fjpb2a.jpg


The remaining factions are vassals that stayed with me from thick and thin. I have no wish to reward their loyalty with annexation. This time round I built anti-corruption buildings all over the place and income stabilised regardless of how much territory I had. 23 full stack armies around the map with some elite units, income is shown on the screenshot.
 
Self-Ejected

RNGsus

Self-Ejected
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
8,106
I can't get over how mobile game the UI looks. It looks like it was built for a tablet.
 

ZeniBot

Cipher
Joined
Nov 1, 2011
Messages
823
Location
Todd Howard's Sex Dungeon - Send Help
I can't get over how mobile game the UI looks. It looks like it was built for a tablet.

Probably because it was. (The did release Rome 1 on IOS with a modified engine- nevermind how stupid it is that they still use Warscape despite the fact that the old engine works fine and could be updated no problems as proven there).
Next step is they do Console. CA has wanted to do that for years, they even killed CA Australia in an attempt that backfired spectacularly.
 

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