against) in battle. In time
disagreements can become outright
rivalries and heroes can defect to join
another faction or create their own.
The devs say that you will probably
be able to let lesser heroes go, but
betrayal from major characters in
your faction – heirs, and others who
hold titles – may prove devastating to
your campaign. The relationship
system works in the other direction,
too. If two best friends go into battle
and one of them dies, the other may
fly into a rage for the rest of the fight,
and enter a period of mourning after
the battle.
You even build armies around
your heroes. You can have three in an
army and each can head to the field
and takes a retinue of up to six units
1
To t a ke th e tow n
attackers must
rout the defenders or
captureazoneatthe
town’s heart.2
Guard towers
provide fire
supporttodefenders,
helpingthemtofend
off larger numbers.3
Some heroes
unlock special
formations for
certain units.4
Settlements
catchfireas
attackers breach the
outer line.of your choice into battle. Heroes
come in five flavours. 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
clash with Cao Cao in nearbydirect2134ABOVE:China’s
natural
environmental
variety has inspired
the prettiest
campaign map yet.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 have to 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 spectacularSIEGE MENTALITY Some settlements won’t go down easily