Total War: Three Kingdoms – Useful Tips for New Players

Gameplay Tips for Beginners

The battlefield shouldnt be chaotic line your melee up to meet the enemy and use cav each side to counter his cav or chase down archers/routing troops.

The different infantries have different strengths and weaknesses etc but usually spearmen are decent. Swords will often beat spears but lose out to cav. Spears beat cav, and then the elite troops can usually beat all the other standard enemies.

Try to flank units so hold a unit then hit them in the side rear with cav or footsoldiers. You want decent units to hold the enemy. Using militia they may break if you dont flank fast.

Try to get updated units into your army they will make a huge difference, but in this game you dont need to min max like in warhammer. Basically the armies are more realistic so you can keep some lower grade troops in there.

The generals are basically a single unit on their own so USE THE GENERALS!!

They can be used to shut down other generals to stop them running riot, so attack the other general or challenge them to a duel. Also they will run riot in enemy units. Each general has a feature.

So the commanders etc yellow and blue are weak to fight but can buff troops etc. They can fight other normal units but care vs enemy generals.

The Vanguard is amazing at trashing enemy units.

The champion great vs enemy generals and can hit enemy units.

The sentinal (purple) is your tank. So they can slow down enemy generals, also enemy units but may not send out so much damage.

Use the generals to slow units or harass like cav. Important general skills to use in the battle are the defence from arrows skill which you use early on as the armies trade volleys. Using him can give your missile troops the edge, he needs to be near them as its area effect around him.

The other attacks are from vanguards etc and are splash attacks or mini bomb style attacks around them. Basically pop these once you are fighting a unit and in the midst of it.

Be aware the generals can get knocked off their horses by spear units to be careful of that.

Hope that helps and if you have any questions please ask.

Also dont neglect the diplomatic as others have said. Asking for trade deals, making a non agression pact with an enemy on an undefended side of your kingdom.

Finally you can move armies (fairly) fast by disbanding them, and then rehiring next turn where you need them. This is costly so cant be done early game but can late game. Rather than walking them 10 turns across the map, disband and rehire where you need them.

Also you can disband and rehire later on if you have more armies than you need at that moment though beware i believe the enemy looks at your military size when its thinking of declaring war and so this could encourage them to attack you. Not 100% on this.