![]() The emperor's faction is just completely ineffectual, somehow losing everything in what could be argued as the strongest starting position and the Yellow Turbans are almost doomed to defeat. Naturally, you can continue on past the eight years of Mandate of Heaven, directly into the core campaign - granted, your start could be considerably different - Dong Zhuo, unless you control him, tends to be in a massively strong position. Personally I really enjoy these campaigns, building on the strength of the emergent storytelling that Total War, particularly Three Kingdoms, is fantastic at. You don't have any territory at the start, leaving you free to move wherever you like - funds being brought in by your family holdings, ransoming and looting and extra troops simply being recruited from wherever you can find. Looking at Liu Bei and Cao Cao first, you'll find a very story-oriented path, letting you follow the actual events of the Three Kingdoms or shoot off and make your own way. The Yellow Turbans are more about co-operation and the synergy between the three leaders - starting nomadic - with the emperor being likely the most interesting of factions within the DLC. Liu Bei and Cao Cao are quite similar, being more nomadic and pushing to prove their worthiness. Each of these factions has a different type of playstyle, giving you something quite different to what you'd be used to from playing the core game or the Eight Princes DLC. Working well with the idea that this is more of a back story is the gameplay, particularly that of Liu Bei, Cao Cao, the emperor and the Zhang brothers of the Yellow Turban rebellion. All of this makes more for the true back-story of the Three Kingdoms and the names that were made immortal during that time. Yuan Shao and Kong Rong are simply generals under the emperor. Other familiar faces will appear as you play through. These are joined by the Zhang brothers (Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao & Zhang Liang) who incited and led the Yellow Turban rebellion, with the new cast of characters being rounded up by none other than the emperor himself and Liu Bei's mentor, Lu Zhi. Liu Biao, Tao Qian and Liu Chong round up the returning cast of characters. ![]() A few usual suspects return, with Liu Bei, Cao Cao and a considerably less-fat Dong Zhuo all starting quite different to how they do in the Rise of the Warlords campaign, eight years later. What really helps here in Mandate of Heaven is that a lot of the game will still feel familiar, working with what can be a new style of playing Total War: Three Kingdoms. ![]() ![]() How, then, has Mandate of Heaven fared?Ĭonsiderably better, that's how. The alignment system was certainly interesting, but the DLC just didn't feel like it brought anything extra. The second piece of DLC was Eight Princes which was, frankly, adequate at best. With the launch of the core game came the Yellow Turban Rebellion DLC, that can very much be considered a part of my core review. Now it's time to look at the second piece of DLC, Mandate of Heaven. All of this, and more, combining to make arguably one of the best strategy games ever made. It's a beautiful game, absolutely lovely to behold, a strategy game that gives you characters to grow with, alongside an engaging army building system as well as a strong city development system, both of which further increase the level of personalisation and customisation on offer. To this day, it is still a game that I'll gladly jump on and every single bit of praise I gave it then is still something I love about it now. Total War: Three Kingdoms remains the only game to have ever been given a mythical 10/10 review score by me.
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