Total War: Three Kingdoms

Like its predecessors, Total War: Three Kingdoms is a turn-based strategy real-time tactics game. Set during the End of the Han dynasty (189-220) and into the Three Kingdoms era (220–280), the player controls one of the factions, who must eliminate or vassalize other factions, gaining enough prestige to declare themselves Emperor. The player must also defeat the other two Emperors which are the two most powerful factions, unify China and become its ultimate ruler. These factions are led by warlords, such as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, and Sun Quan.

In siege battles, the player commands both infantry and cavalry units. All the units featured in the game are divided into different retinues, with each led by a powerful general. The player can deploy up to three generals into the battlefield at once along with three in reserve, and there will only be access to the units that those generals can recruit.

Taking place in 190 AD, the once glorious Han dynasty is on the verge of collapse. The new emperor, Emperor Xian, enthroned at the age of eight, was manipulated by the warlord Dong Zhuo, whose oppressive rule leads to chaos. New warlords rise and form alliances to start the campaign against Dong Zhuo. With each warlord having personal ambitions and allegiances constantly shifting, the champions that emerge from the everlasting wars will shape the future of China.

The game was developed by Creative Assembly. Creative Assembly had refined many elements of the game, bringing changes to both the artificial intelligence and the user interface. The team introduced the system of "guanxi" in order to make the characters and generals more important in the game, as Records and Romances, two of the team's most prominent source materials, have a huge focus on characters. The sinologist Rafe de Crespigny, an expert on the era, acted as a consultant for the game.

When the game was still in preproduction in November 2016, Creative Assembly announced that the next historical Total War title would explore a new era instead of being a sequel to any prior game. Three Kingdoms was revealed by publisher Sega on January 11, 2018 with a cinematic trailer. Originally set to be released in the second half of 2018, the game was delayed to early 2019 so that the team had additional development time to complete the production. A new release date of March 7, 2019 was later announced, which was then delayed to May 23, 2019.

Total War: Three Kingdoms received positive reviews from critics, with many specifically praising the character-driven gameplay mechanics and storytelling elements. Chris Wray of wccftech describes the game is "as close to flawless, with a fantastic balance of 4X strategy and character-focused development and emergent storytelling." IGN's TJ Hafer stated that Three Kingdoms should serve as the example for all games of its genre going forward. Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of The Guardian stated the game "...is a wonderfully torrid period epic that understands the greatest stories are written about people, not empires." Jody Macgregor of PC Gamer praised the campaign elements, but found the game still could not break off from longstanding problems the series has always faced, claiming Three Kingdoms "is not the best Total War game but not the worst by a long shot."

The Romance mode has also been praised as bringing fascinating additions to the game, with many reviewers comparing it to Total War: Warhammer. Preston Dozsa of CGMagazine stated that the game "represents the best of both the historical and fantasy sides of the franchise." Sean Martin from Hooked Gamers stated the game "is the most divergent Total War I’ve seen since Total War: Warhammer... taking what is good in fantasy and using it to complement the historical components of the game." Denis Ryan of Rock, Paper, Shotgun said it draws inspiration from many games that Creative Assembly developed in the past, and "despite the resemblance there really is no game which has quite the same combination of elements, nor is there any strategy game that looks this good."