10 Total War: Three Kingdoms Tips for Campaigns

Three Kingdoms is the 12th instalment of the Total War game series, which has always offered a great combination of turn-based campaign and real-time battle strategy. The Three Kingdoms game is one set in China, with the Han dynasty tottering on the brink of collapse. To win the Three Kingdoms campaign, you must seize the imperial seats (capitals) of two rival emperors and hold 95 counties (commanderies). Here are some Total War: Three Kingdoms tips for the campaign map.

Eat the Weaker Factions

War is the name of the game in Three Kingdoms, and the best way to expand before reaching King rank is to focus on defeating weaker factions. It’s always easier to defeat those factions that are smaller and weaker than your own. Try to avoid waging wars against bigger factions until the endgame period. To enhance relations with stronger factions, establish trade and military access agreements with them.

However, note that some weaker factions can be vassals of bigger ones. In which case, a war against a vassel might suck a bigger faction into it. So, check if a faction is a vassal of another before declaring war on it.

You can check the relative strength of a faction compared to yours by looking at the small arrows for their names on the diplomacy screen. A faction with one or two downward green arrows is weaker than yours. Those factions with one or two upward red arrows are the ones you should try to avert fighting when you can.

Don’t Fight Too Many Simultaneous Wars

Getting caught up in too many simultaneous wars will stretch your faction’s military resources across multiple fronts. It’s always harder to effectively defend your country against multiple enemies. So, don’t declare war on multiple factions all at once. Instead, focus on fighting and defeating one faction at a time when you can do so.

Of course, other factions can also declare war on you. That will more likely happen if you do little to enhance relations with any of your neighbors. Try establishing non-aggression pacts with nearby factions to minimize the chances of them declaring war against you. Also, consider giving bigger factions gifts, such a gold and food, to keep them sweet.

Check Out the Quick Deal Tab

The diplomacy screen in Total War: Three Kingdoms has a handy Quick Deal tab. That tab shows all the potential deals you can make with other factions at a glance. It’s especially useful for quickly identifying factions with which you can establish trade, non-aggression pacts, and military access agreements. So, click on that tab to check out what deals you can make.

Remember to Issue Assignments to Ministers

If you have some idle court members, try selecting some assignments for them. Assignments are character-driven missions that you can select to boost commandery public order, revenue, population growth, etc. The assignment bonuses can give your commanderies a good boost when completed.

Thus, sending characters on assignments is a good way to optimize your commanderies. You can view available assignments by clicking the Assignments button for settlements. Then, select to send your characters on available assignments.

Maintain Order

Maintaining reasonable public order in commanderies is important to ensuring economic growth and preventing rebellions. If you neglect public order too much, rebel armies will spawn, which can be a bit of a nightmare when fighting other factions as well. You will sometimes need to station troops in settlements to increase public order, especially after capturing them, but that also diverts military resources. These are some good ways to maintain order without military units:

• Don’t increase your tax rate.
• Don’t build buildings that decrease public order.
• Select reforms that increase public order.
• Build Confucian Temple, Grain Storage, and Military Infrastructure buildings.
• Select the Tax Exception option for settlements with low public order.
• Send characters on assignments that boost public order.

Utilize Auto Resolve For Battles You Will Win

You can always automatically resolve battles with the Delegate option. If the battle prediction says you’ll win, the Delegate option will always automatically resolve the battle in your favor (even if a Pyrrhic victory is forecasted). So, it’s worth selecting the Delegate auto resolve option for battles you’re predicted to win because it never lets you down.

However, the opposite is true for battles you’re predicted to lose. You’ll certainly lose a battle predicted to be a close or valiant defeat by selecting Delegate. However, battles against marginally superior forces are winnable. So, it can sometimes be better to manually fight battles for which close defeats are predicted, especially when defending settlements with towers.

Trade, Trade, Trade

Trade is the best way to boost your faction’s income beyond expanding commanderies. So, try to secure as many trade agreements as you can. Accept all trade deals offered to your faction. Check the Quick Deal tab to find more factions that are open to establishing trade agreements.

Save Games Before Declaring Wars

Wars can sometimes backfire, especially those against bigger factions. So, it’s a good idea to save games before starting wars. If you save a game before declaring a war, that save point will give you some insurance against costly defeats. Some players might consider that cheating, but returning to a save point after losing a war is better than starting a campaign from scratch.

Chase Down Routing Units After Winning Battles

When you win manual battles, don’t claim victory immediately. Instead, chase down routing enemy units (preferably with cavalry) to inflict maximum losses. Eliminating more fleeing troops will reduce the number of surviving enemy units that can rally in subsequent turns. Furthermore, you’ll receive more post-battle loot for inflicting heavier losses by chasing down routing units.

Beware of Looters

Looters are rather annoying armies that randomly spawn around the perimeter and corners of the Total War: Three Kingdoms map. They are especially prevalent in the northwestern corner of the map. If you have commanderies in that northwestern corner, or in the south around Shi Xie’s starting location, be prepared to set aside at least one full-stack army for protecting settlements there from looters.

There should be an in-game option for disabling/enabling looters in Three Kingdoms, but there isn’t. However, you can try disabling looters completely with mods. The Disable Looters for Total War: Three Kings is a mod for disabling looters that players confirm to work. To add that mode, click the Subscribe button on this Steam workshop page. Then you can select to enable the Disable Looters mod with the Three Kingdoms mods manager.

Those Total War: Three Kingdoms tips for the campaign game will help you conquer China! You don’t necessarily need to manually fight and win many battles to become emperor because the campaign is primarily won through faction management on the map. Good luck, and have fun waging war in Three Kingdoms!