For some reason, tigers and fire-axes are the point where I go, 'Come on, now.' And I know this is an absurd line to draw, because we already have Lu Bu single-handedly carving through hundreds of soldiers in each battle, or there's the fact that I'm somehow delighted by the morale-boosting elephants of the Nanman. The Furious Wild highlights the ways that Three Kingdoms splits the difference between the fantasy and historical plausibility, and there are times it stretches my disbelief just a little too far. In Total War: Warhammer all of this is par for the course: it's a fantasy world with fantasy factions. They have tiger-handlers who can, on command, set their charges loose and somehow these dozens of tigers know who their friends are. They have fighters who wield flaming blades that are straight out of Game of Thrones or an RPG sourcebook. Their fire archers are so effective that it's as if they can call in napalm strikes. But it also means the Nanman are heavily min-maxed, and a lot of the things that establish their character feel jarring in the context of the core game. This kind of exaggerated asymmetry is probably necessary to make the Nanman feel distinctive from the rest of the Han factions in Three Kingdoms, all of whom hew pretty closely to the classic Total War model of line infantry, ranged units, and cavalry. Hmm, do you want to be 'off-brand Han' or do you want to be 'death itself'? Decisions, decisions. Which sounds useful until you consider the alternative: fielding hordes of elite shock troops whose mere presence will terrorize anyone in their path, and who can frequently break enemy formations in the opening clash of the battle. If you go the Han route, for instance, your unruly infantry will learn to march in the advanced formations favored by elite Han units. Adaptation lets you make the Nanman a bit more like the Han: a more ordered and specialized society, at home and in the army.

With each tier of the 'research' tree you face a either / or choice between adaptation or tradition. To be clear, it feels like there's a right answer. Playing as the Nanman, you face choices about both how you wish to unify the tribes, and about whether you want to begin transforming their society to be more like that of the Han, or more deeply committed to their own traditions. A number of powerful Nanman leaders have arisen who have the power to bring the Nanman together as one nation in order to keep the chaos of the Han civil war from spreading into the rich jungle valleys of the Nanman.

Total war three kingdoms units