Welcome to Total War: Three Kingdom’s new
DLC Mandate of Heaven. This DLC gives you
so much in terms of new units and news ways
to play the game. The amount of work that
has gone into this content is outstanding.
Let’s dive in and take a look.
You join me playing as Emperor Liu Hong, yes,
that is correct, for the first time in Total
War: Three Kingdoms you can play as the main
‘Han’ himself. Complete with his own elite
units and mechanics.
Mandate of Heaven takes place 12 years before
the Three Kingdoms main campaign. Making it
a great jumping off point for new players,
as well as veteran player who what to experience
the events that began the Three Kingdoms period.
Depending on how you choose to play, will
affect the events after 190. We start you
off in the winter of 182 but you join me in
the summer of 184 where all hell has broken
lose.
The Emperor gives you a unique starting position,
never seen in Three Kingdoms. As the Emperor
you start with everything, Land, money and
power, but your empire is on the brink of
collapse. Starvation grips your empire and
the Eunuchs have perverted the old bureaucratic
ways and have infested your court. While they
hold a majority in your court, they will give
you a host of de-buffs including; negative
trade contracts, increased construction cost
and a massive deficit per turn.
Playing as the Emperor you will have to deal
with three major parties, the bureaucrats,
Dynasty, and the Warlords. Each giving majority
power in your court will provide different
bonuses or penalties.
The objectives are simple, balance your court,
defeat the rebels and above all, survive.
The challenging part is knowing how, but being
the emperor of a collapsing empire was never
going to be easy.
You may have noticed that the emperor himself
isn’t a character on the map. You govern
from your palace. Even though the Emperor
and Empress aren’t a playable characters
it doesn’t mean our artists have spared
any expense on the design and art.
One of your greatest generals, is your brother-in-law,
He Jin a fiery, dutiful leader also known
as “The Butcher of the He”. He has a deep
hatred for the Eunuch’s and therefore the
Bureaucrats. You can see that he has a -80%
upkeep for the new imperial units, meaning
your incredibly powerful imperial army only
costs you 500 per turn while He Jin is in
command.
Speaking of He Jin; you can see him about
to engage Nanyang Jade mine. The Yellow Turbans
have instigated their rebellion springing
ambushes all over the country. Being so close
to my own province I can’t let this go unanswered.
Let’s show them what the might of the empire
can do.
Let’s take a closer look at a few of the
imperial units under your command – They
come with all formations unlocked from the
start and all wear the gold and black plate
armour of the finest professional fighting
force China has to offer:
The Imperial Sword Guard are equipped with
their swords, tower shields and heavy armour,
they are your ultimate frontline unit; steadfast
with good moral.
The Imperial Lancer Cavalry are armed with
a two-handed lance and wear heavy armour.
With the passive ‘Mighty Knock Back’ ability,
which has only been seen on hero units, they
have a tremendously high charge bonus. These
guys will obliterate most anything that gets
in their way.
The Imperial Household cavalry with their
swords and shields can not only charge into
the enemy and deal a massive amount of damage
but stick around in the thick of combat to
fight instead of having to retreat, regroup
and charge again.
And my personal favourite, the Imperial Palace
Crossbowmen. These crossbows can be fired
and reloaded with relative speed and accuracy.
In the hands of these well-trained soldiers
many enemy units won’t come close to your
front line.
I’ll leave you with some highlights of my
decisive victory against the rebel scum!
They put up a good fight, but they were no
match for the might of the emperors finest.
The imperial cavalry units - if used right
- will decimate anything that stands in their
way. But as you can see, the imperial units
have a huge replenishment penalty, and with
this massive deficit I have per-turn another
army would bankrupt me in short order, meaning
I’ll have to pick and choose my battles
wisely.
Let’s skip ahead to the year 187 You can
see I’ve managed to get a handle on that
massive deficit, and my population is doing
better.
Using political influence, I’ve removed
and expelled a lot of the bureaucratic influence
poisoning my court; meaning that my relationship
with the other factions has been getting better,
but there’s still a long way to go.
Political influence builds per turn. You can
increase the amount with the Administration
Office - as you can see here. Dispelling dissidents
isn’t the only thing you can use political
influence for. You can Annex land off your
lords, or anyone who agreed to your mandated
rule. Or even take their cites. Of course,
doing this too much will make the lord very
unhappy with you so choose your time wisely.
While I’ve been fighting fires within my
own lands and court the Zhang Brothers lead
by the Zhang Jue, have grown in strength.
You can see the lands north of the Yellow
River have started to fall to their dogmatic
doctrine. Ignoring this uprising and leaving
it this long has been a big mistake. The only
way I can see to stay this tide is to cut
the head off the snake.
Zhang Jue keeps to himself at the very north
of the map. Not an easy place to get to, but
I’ve spotted a weakness. His west flank
is completely unguarded. Doing a rather costly
deal with a young and slightly thinner Dong
Zhuo, has allowed me military access over
the mountains. Allowing me strike directly
at his western flank. As you can see, I’ve
caught him on the march. Killing him will
really weaken the rebellion and may give me
leverage to barter for a much-needed time
of peace.
Let’s jump in the battle.
One new amazing feature are battlefield deployable.
Steaks, towers and oil. All are deployable
the same as any unit. You gain them through
the military branches of the tech tree. Zhang
Jue has mainly infantry and a few horses,
so I’m going to use the streaks to guard
my flank and drench the ground Infront of
me oil, all the while bombarding him with
arrows. His Messengers of Heaven cavalry can
do massive damage to my ranged units, so my
first priority is to focus fire on them and
not let them get too close.
Here’s what happened when the ‘Butcher
of the He’ and the ‘General of Heaven’
met in the field.
Now the battle against Zhang Jue has been
won. My empire is victorious, a tentative
peace has been struck. But unfortunately,
the war is far from over. It’s now time
to head home and face the hidden political
battles still raging in my courts and quell
any delusions of grandeur from my lords and
deal with the traitors. if I want my dynasty
to survive long into the future there is still
a lot of work to be done.
Even with their leader dead they are resolute
in their devotions. The other brothers refused
my proposal of peace. Unfortunately, this
war is far from over. With hidden political
battles still raging in my courts the Yellow
Turbans taking my lands and delusions of grandeur
from my lords this will be a hard fight if
I want my dynasty to survive long into the
future
Playing the Emperor is a fun challenge that
forces you to think and play the game differently.
The odds are stacked against you from the
start so failure is a real option, will you
go the way of history and crumble into antiquity
or can you carry your empire forward into
the main Three Kingdoms campaign and re-build
your empire back to its former strengths?
How would you play as the Emperor? Total tyrannical
control or a more measured politician? Leave
a comment and let us know and forget to check
out the Mandate of Heaven official trailer
now live on our YouTube.
