has inspired the prettiest
campaign map yet.China’s natural
environmental variety
hasinspiredtheprettiest1
To take the town
attackersmustrout
thedefendersorcapturea
zone at the town’s heart.
2
Guardtowers
providefiresupport
todefenders,helpingthem
tofendofflargernumbers.
3
Someheroesunlock
specialformations
for certain units.
4
Settlementscatch
fireasattackers
breachtheouterline.
2134SIEGE MENTALITY SOME SETTLEMENTS WON’T GO DOWN EASILY
into battle. Heroes come in five
flavors. Strategists can debuff enemies,
commanders can encourage allies
and reinforce a line, vanguard heroes
are good fighters who can disrupt a
line, sentinels mostly refuse to die,
and champions excel at hunting down
enemy heroes and duelling them
to death.
Given how powerful they are, it
pays to have your leaders in the right
place at the right time. In Lü Bu’s case,
that’s in the midst of a hundred enemy
archers hunting down their general.
A battle to take back a fishing village
south of my empire has escalated
quickly, and I have just realised that
I’m heading for a direct clash with
Cao Cao in nearby territory. Lü Bu
is working alongside a commander
who gives nice boosts to my archers
and lets them use flaming arrows,
and a strategist who stands around
looking regal a safe distance away
from the fight. Though your army is
organised into three retinues, you’re
free to command all of your units
however you wish — they don’t haveto stay near their hero. I push up my
flame arrow archers and instruct my
trebuchets to sling buckets of what the
description text charitably calls ‘ichor’.
Then I unleash Lü Bu. I have hidden
him in a forest on the right flank,
with a couple of units of cavalry. They
burst from the trees and slam into the
enemy’s contingent of archers, sending
men flying. I select Lü Bu, click on the
‘duel’ command, and challenge their
leader to a one-on-one fight to
the death.
He accepts. The archers and
my cavalry back away and form a
respectful circle to give the two heroes
space. Lü Bu charges, but his attack is
deflected. He jumps off his horse and
engages in some spectacular martial
arts action. The fight goes back and
forth. One minute Lü Bu has the
upper hand, the next he’s sent flying
by a counter-kick to the stomach. I
suddenly realise I have a battle to
run, so I zoom the camera back out
and tell my trebuchets to target their
demoralising poop buckets at the fight
near the duel.
With a thrust of his weapon Lü Bu
finishes the fight and charges into the
archers. I don’t remember a part of
the Romance of the Three Kingdoms
where Lü Bu bests a hundred men in
a shower of shite, but Total War is all
about making your own stories.
The enemy morale breaks, and
they flee the field, but not before my