I played easy mode campaign and normal battles on warhammer 1/2 I'm not a great administrator but I'm ok in battles, I've tried hard mode battles but the buffs the ai gets takes some of the fun for me cuz I'm not that good
@@echoes222 best part is when you look at a bad situation and your plans and moves causing a victory. It makes you feel like those old generals from history lol.
The population system falling to zero might not be because of everyone dieing, but fleeing to the countryside. Then moving back if the problem is fixed.
That is why the population changed a lot during the period. People would either move to the cities for protections, or they would move to the countryside to evade taxes or move somewhere else.
In the actual history, yes, that was the case for most of the time. Once fled to the countryside, it is really difficult to figure out how many people were actually there (but fixed in later period by later government).
I've had decent luck with it too. Playing on Very Hard/Very Hard, got generals in Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's armies during one campaign. When Cao Cao tried to attack me with his army, I called on my spy to betray him and suddenly 1/3 of his army was fighting with me instead of him
Yeah Had good luck with spies to on very hard and hard. I did send high level generals why should a top faction recruit a level 1 or 2 in to a general pool all my spies where like level 4 and above where many times level 4 general did not get recruited but 6 and 7 all the time got recruited. What was intresting as well was that I lost some spies because their happienes was to low so they deffected rather fast. I did experience as well that spie did use spies on me they actualy did use the option where they diminshed my supplies. So I like the spy system personally
I mean, think about it. Green is the best in 40k. Salamanders, Death Guard/NOIGLE, necrons, guardsmen and of course the best heretics are the Dark Angles
Nah. I rely on your brutal honesty, and your honesty helped show CA how poorly their product was 18 months ago. Your Imperator review saved me 60 bones.
@@locosiap4184 That's even worse, honestly. "Oh boo hoo, he made some spicy quips about Blacks and Jews on the internet" or whatever... yeah, so? Anyone who's been deluded by some Twitter echo chamber into thinking that this is a _problem_ somehow, or that it could _cause_ problems somewhere down the road, is a retarded, gibbering fucking lunatic who can - and should - be safely ignored. I'd much rather companies try to promote their image and court consumers based on what would be _actually profitable,_ and _not_ be motivated by some pea-brained messianic quest to push backwards moralistic agendas onto their community and customers. The first denotes a healthy, free society, while the second is blatantly fascistic.
Mallcore yes - in principle I do agree - but he’s not a comedian and making that behaviour out to be okay in the public eye sends out the wrong message. Creative assembly can’t be seen to co-sign that as it effects their brand. Also, he has a lot of fans and with his influence it might not be good to make those jokes.
@@tuxedomollusk what if , offended people are real people and seeing someone being promoted doing offensive "joke" at their expense wouldn't buy the game? It depend on "the joke" and the context , but to extrapolate , i'm fine with dark humor on black people , i'm not fine on BS racist comment . And yeah that would affect how i spend my money if it's promoted content. Because guess what , my money is a way of giving my opinion on what i find acceptable or not , essentially democracy. And that's where your argument fall flat , if it didn't affect sell they wouldn't care (depending on the industry sexist joke are okay or not , because the public sometimes care or not) , they care because consumers decide if they buy or not depending on what the product, featured content , sale practice , advertisement say , how it say it and why. I'm sure you wouldn't buy a game that would tell you indian is the master race and they ruled europe even if the game was amazing , me neither but i bet my right hand some indian supremacist (they do exist) would. Again i'm using hyperbole so you get the point, i get it twitter sjw is oppressive and boring , but buisness is affected by public opinion and it does matter weither we like it or not. That's how society work and that's how moral is created , conveyed and evolve through ages : with people that have a public, with people voicing opinion and how they voice it. It will change no matter what and it matter .
Juff rey honestly this summer break is amazing, I ended high school on May 17th and I dont start college till september, got a job now, part time with a flexible schedule, free time to hang out with friends, and the money to do so, life is great
Very fitting that Yuan Shu sold you cities for food, the story has it that he died on the way home from a failed war effort, he was sick and starving and they had nothing to eat. He wanted to drink some honey water and they could not find any honey, he screamed "How did I get to this point." and died.
how long have the AI wasted ammo on units? I remember Legend's West Rome campaign where he just parked a testudo within archer range and waited for the AI to spend its ammo on one unit which barely took damage lol...
I've watched your videos for years now and I've got to say your progression as a content creator is quite a sight. this kind of work really sets you apart from other game reviewers and channels and really makes long-time fans happy to have supported you along the way. keep it up.
There's a bug in UA-cam where it'll display the wrong comment until you open it up to reply to it and this comment is way better than the one I came here to respond to
I remember when I started TW games when I were a kid. I thought that higher level generals would be smarter on the battlefield... I was so wrong at the time :D
@@Tespri i find it hilarious that expecting something that happens in pretty much every other strategy game under the planet was wrong and people defended CA because making a passable AI for an RTS is apparently extremely difficult when even games from the 90s like age of empires 2 have better AI
I won my 1st ever campaign using Liu Bei without ever really fighting, I had just a small area of land but I focused on my buildings, gold and food, I then vassalised everyone other than Wei and Wu and told them to go to war, once Wu lost their throne I made them a vassal and sent the entire country to finish off Wei. All in all I love this game
@@WaltherMotU Dude I hope not. On the one hand it would be good for his content, but on the other how much longer is it HIS content if he adjusts it that much. I mean this is just a little tidbit at the end of videos that he's been doing basically since the beginning. If he was calling us something vile I'd get it, but fuckers is hardly an insult at this point. It's the little wink he's been giving us since forever, it's sad not to have it :(
The reason duels were in this game was because in China, dueling was actually extremely commonplace, even amongst high generals. Lu Bu was a commanding officer, led his own faction, yet you'd hear countless duels he was in with opponents. If you're familiar with any TK literature, you'll notice duels between generals happen quite frequently. This is why it works and is actually a good feature of Total War: TK. It might not be your thing, and that's okay, but it totally deserves a place in this series and would not have been very TK-y without it. It's not unheard of for a general who thinks he's more skilled than the other to go out and fight a general who clearly outclasses him, historically speaking, because the thought of glory at beating them is worth it, and perhaps they overestimate their own skills.
@@pooroldman5089 Lets get this straight, critics are different from haters. They observe from the outside and judge or decide. A hater only spits nonsensical crap, while a sipathyzer not good or bad but they are just there.
I think your criticisms/concerns (given if it's legitimate ones) of yours and other youtubers made a impact on a 3K's development, resulting a good quality product.
i think total biscuit used to be really critical of CA when rome 2 happen (including sega striking out against him), they never really reconcile. and i think criticisms against developers have to be made if they messed up
@@witsleep in the end youtubers are but instruments for promotions for companies. Nothing more and nothing less.. if you influence their sales poorly you are a risk to them so chances are they wont risk the person.
@@iagoporto5522 He just wants to make money, there is no faulting him for that. Personally I only started watching him years ago because I found his brand of edgy humor funny, but he can't survive on UA-cam doing that anymore so he has to adapt. It's not really his fault, I just enjoy razzing him.
The undercover network functions pretty well to be honest. Not too expansive, but still helps plenty at times. In my limited time so far, of the dozen spies I've sent out between campaigns 10 of them have been employed the first time. The other two were hired on their second sally. Helped a lot in a siege as Ma Teng where I had a Lu Bu full stack and a smaller army that seriously outnumbered me, the small army got the plague, and I used my spy to poison Lu Bu's force which reduced its numbers by a third.
Three Kingdoms made me realize what the Total War series is lacking, and I say this as a huge fan of the Total War games, I've played each one of them since Medieval II. Total War needs COMPLEXITY. It needs depth. It needs to have a more complex and interesting economy system. After dozens of Total War, it starts to feel very repetitive to always do the same thing : build an army, conquer a city, have more money, build more stuff to have bigger armies, to conquer more cities to.... have more money, to build more armies.... until there's nobody left to fight or conquer. Total War really needs to work on something more deep and complex and less superficial, they need to develop a system that could be interesting to play with even if there's no enemy or anything to conquer. They need to go deep on the city management stuff and nation management stuff. They've mastered the battles and war side, we got it. Now we need more.
Two comments about your reviews: 1. I've actually seen people killing their spy as enemy generals because they forgot to keep track with their spy network. In that case, you actually have the option to make the army your spy is leading defect. 2. With your level of battle skills, it is possible that you are able to complete the most difficult campaign without paying much attention to personal networks. But this doesn't mean that the mechanics is not important.
Legendary spies (having a stat > 100) get recruited and promoted fast. This is especially true if the faction is a very small one with limited choices for officers.
@@shpongle7322 That's how he got Twitch blacklisted, because of a Witcher monster. The Blacklist Legend is referring to is the CA one which was for a different reason.
They should split battle difficulty into two categories: Enemy Skill, and Enemy Power. The first representing the AI's competance with game mechanics such as ammo usage, which units to engage, when to charge, when to hold ground, while the ladder provides those statistical buffs we're normally used to in TW game difficulties. Another thing they should consider in later games, is maybe changing the AI dynamically depending on the statistics of the enemy commanders, their behavior in battle and unit composition, for example.
On the sieges, using that equipment wasn't necessarily unheard of, so it is historically accurate. I understand you may prefer siege towers, but it certainly would not be out of the realm of impossibilities that soldiers used rope (which they would have known) to climb and scale walls, and in fact some cases of this are documented later on. There is a disadvantage to this though in that you are totally vulnerable while climbing up. What should happen instead is heavier casualties by trying to climb up by rope. Using a siege tower instead should minimize casualties, which would make better sense, as usually climbing up walls by rope tended to end not so favorably except in overwhelming forces.
About the tech tree: Yellow Turban rebellion can get 20% (1 turn less to wait) increase in reasearch rate if they capture the province with OG Confusian temple. So, while it is a pre-set location (a.k.a. livestock farm/rice paddy) it actually provides different buffs depending on the faction origin you play.
Don't knock yourself down, dude. CA blacklist anyone who gives even the most minor of criticism. I don't watch other total war youtubers because they're not honest. Not to name names but on the release of Rome 2 and later titles they didn't speak the truth even after the game released in such a sorry state. They put on a fake smile and pushed through, making excuses for every game-breaking bug they encountered which just put their subscribers money in SEGA's pocket when it wasn't deserved. I watch you because I know that you will be 100% transparent on your views of the games released by CA. I will gladly wait a few more days to get a review from you and I'm sure the majority of us feel the same.
@@midnightpunching6931 Well one of those you mentioned is the reason I stopped watching total war related videos altogether. He's a little brown-noser for CA. Can't trust anything he says. The only tw channel I watch now is legend.
@@ConorChaos I like LionHeartx more than Jackiefish and Pixie but their fanbase is absolute shithole and i dont want to attack anyone but how come you enjoy mechanics that are broken as fuck. Still i'm not buying Three Kingdoms untill i see the reviews untill the first sales of this game.Something tells me that this one have the potential to be good total war game.
Angry Joe absolutely ripped Rome 2 apart. Next he's getting sponsored to play 3k. Perhaps your "black listed" friends were shit nobody youtubers that just flamed it incoherently? Lots of stupid people on this channel, worth checking.
loved the review, 3 things to make known from your review 1. the dlc yellow turbans have a different reform style thats less messy 2. the spy network is odd, however you might find success in choosing your spy carefully and sending him to the correct leader. I had a strong regular lord with a full army become a spy to Yuan Shao. Lore wise he recruits a lot of able body warriors and doesn't do great background checks. The only reason I sent the guy to be a spy was cause of he tendency to see rainbows and become a weirdo. 3. the satisfaction and friendship mechanics is kinda messy. The point of it seemed to allude to the book and how the characters in each faction have reasons for feeling the way they do. Its great early game cause if you know the characters you can pair them up early and get some good friendships. The problem is you cant recreate the entire story. The AI will just kill an important lord and you wont be able to get them to the army. I killed Xaihou yuan as sun jian because he was for some reason apart of the Han at turn 5..... Cao Cao prolly made him a spy or something idk. I'm worried as the game progresses the system will break and random traits will cause sworn brothers to become revials. Like if Guan Yu rebelled against Lui Bei. It makes it interesting but atm idk how to bridge those broken friendships. I like the review. Learned alot that I didn't know from the small amount of time I spent playing It (18 hrs isn't quite enough). I'm curious how you feel about Records mode. Granted It would remove the gimmicky stuff you didn't seem to be a fan off.
trigun630 Strange he hasn’t mentioned records yet, maybe a future review. I’ve only been playing records mode at the moment, so this review was helpful to me in illuminating a bit of the difference with romance play. Nice comment by the way, useful too.
@@TheBlackfall234 I mean I forget records even exists lmao. Mainly because of my love for the novel. 1 man defending choke points or cutting through thousands of enemies to save a baby and make it back safely? Hard to not want to reenact that. Regardless records would prolly be a shorter vid and maybe change some of his hangups. Im curious how he'll see it though
@@trigun630 of course it would change some of his hangups. You cant do a review and just forget a whole mode wich in detail doesnt change much, but for the gameplay in battles its quite the difference honestly.
Something I did notice about the relationships, even if they are oathsworn and don't like each other afterwards because of traits, they'll still stay oathsworn. At least, I had Zhang Fei and Liu Bei traits change to be incompatible but that didn't stop them. Don't know if the same applies to rivalry though
That feel when you hold your wallet a hostage because you know Legend will cover all significant the weak spots of the game so you can make a balanced, long-term oriented descision wether to buy the game or not. Thanks Legend for thorough approach and and shipping the review before the tempting "early adopter" bonus runs out.
@@saltedllama2759 lol the review is about whether or not to spend the money. Why would you spend the money then think for yourself? Youre obviously going to be baised because youve already invested $60. You can't think for yourself if you havent even played it bud.
@@saltedllama2759 Except for that to happen you MUST buy the game first, in which case if it wasn't worth it you've just wasted money because you refuse to find a reviewer you find trustworthy to advise you on buying it or not. Your feelings on the game once you have it are obviously the ones that matter in the end, but the point of a review is so that you have a better idea whether you should take the risk or not.
People liking/disliking each other: it does NOT affect their satisfaction. These bonds forming affect their usefulness in battle by A LOT. Basically, generals who likes each other provide number of buffs to a WHOLE ARMY and not just their retinue. Some buffs are meh but other are really good. There are no penalties if they don't like each other - it is just your army is not at the full potential. Also, if during the battle 1 of the generals dies/flees from the battle the buff is lost for the remainder of the battle.
@@niallreid7664 it was back in Thrones of Brittania days. He made some poor decisions, got blacklisted by CA, then he got unblacklisted either early this year or late last year. Basically, he and the head of CA's early access did not get along and things went south
I just got to about 1:45 and I wanted to comment. I for one Waited for your review of 3k, because of your unaffiliated status with CA. Your opinion in my opinion is unbiased and comes from the position of someone who likes and appreciates the games for what they are. Thank you for all of your hard word, and thank you for continuing to generate this content for people who are looking for unfiltered information about the Total War series.
I'm trusting your review over other tw UA-camrs simply because you tell it how it is and don't hold back on any negatives the game has but also give praise to the positives. Also you're an Aussie
@Ebba Akerlund Agreed. I have to say, I don't think Legend really understands spying IRL. It's a high-risk, high-reward thing with more intense actions. Sure you can plant a spy for general information and to lurk, but assassinating someone should be VERY risky and have SEVERE penalties as it is IRL. I think at times Legend comes at things with a bit too much of a "gamer" view and so it's good to get a diff view from a history focused reviewer.
Lovely, thanks Legend. I was wondering whether to buy myself. TOB was so bad that this was the first TW game I hesitated to buy. Lets see how the review goes!
@@dillonfloyd It looks OK, but not for the price. CA took that much from me for TOB which was disappointing. I'm playing EB right now and will probably go with either RS or RTR next time I play TW. I have Attila and both Warhammers which I haven't played enough either. But I appreciate a review like this from a trustworthy source like Legend. Maybe I will buy on a Steam sale if I have a spare 30 bucks.
@@Redact42 Just buy it man. You won't regret it. I had some doubts myself as well. I fucking despised warhammer and ToB for their simplicity plus the freaking 3 month delay after countless bugs emerged. And when I complained to my Chinese friend he gifted 3K to me(apparently Chinese doods are more generous lol). And the whole diplomacy revamp is *worth* the 60 bucks! It felt a bit more Europa-ish. Not entirely though but it's way better than any other total war. And the characters felt a lot better than warhammer due to the 5 attributes(that works really well and can make your character legendary), the dueling system and the various attainable items. The battles feel a bit like a mix of Attila and shogun 2. So if you liked either of these 2 games you'll be fine with the battles. Some systems maybe simple. But as a total war game, this is probably the most complex one out of all the total wars and it works. After being exposed to Europe Universalis 4, all total war games felt boring as fuck. Total war games felt like tetris. But 3K with it's diplomacy has brought me back to total war.
@@NyangisKhanWell, i guess it depends on the person. I, for one, prefer the variety of warhammer and I don't mind bad diplomacy, so EU4 isn't really great for me. So, I don't think I'm gonna get 3K
Just a point at 22:14 regarding everyone researching at the exact same rate, Yellow turbans have different research mechanics, similar to TWW2 Good review though!
Nice review Legend, I already bought the game before you made your review, but glad you made it despite being delayed from doing so. Getting a review from someone who wasn't given any special treatment, paid promotion, early access, ect, honestly gives this review more credibility.
but if you think on both sides, it can also lead to him being more biased in a negativ way. Hes not talking about records mode at all, but states clealy that he doesnt like the duels. Yeah so it would be fair to mention that all of that is just optional. He doesnt even mention it. It was a decent review honestly. Decent.
@@TheBlackfall234 If there's anything you can say about Legend, I think you've gotta give it to him that he's honest and will accept when he's wrong. He does so even to begin the video, and after that he praises a feature of the game. Also, he's made it clear that he wants TW to be GrEaT aGaIn.
I think he left out a lot of the basic stuff on purpose because his review is probably meant for Total War players that already know what the game is about and what the advertised features are but just want to know what#s good about it and what's not.
Great review, although there are some points that I like to add for newcomers if you don't mind: + The hate/like system is just for show for most of the time. The deciding factor is the satisfaction, being at 0 satisfaction will make him/her betray you. + Court position is the best way to secure satisfaction, so save it, do NOT fill it as soon as possible since the benefits do not really outweigh the disadvantages. Administrators are DIFFERENT kinds of position, they buff the Commandery and are much more valuable, relying on Traits and Skills of the character. Use characters with traits that decrease their ambition. + Check candidate frequently for legendary characters in court. + I don't agree with the opinion on the family tree here, all you can do is MANUAL marrying (not automatically find bride like in Atila) and changing heir. And, apparently, the people of China in this period do not make love because they will RARELY give birth, other than the faction leader you started with. Thus, KEEP YOUR WOMEN, and even hire some female officer if you want to produce an heir. In fact, you don't have to care about the family tree at all, just choose a character with the best trait for the faction as heir. + If you don't like dueling system, play record mode. The generals in romance mode are just for dueling, and (IMO) less valuable than generals in record mode. They have more unit, more mass => better at countering archer. If not for their special ability, I would say most generals in romance mode are useless. + Use AMBUSH ALL THE TIME. The AI can easily be tricked into battle with small garrison and a weak army as a bait. Usually, you have base 45% ambush, and can even go up to 100% pretty easily. + The game has prestige system which makes you gain rank (duke, king, etc). Build main buildings (castle and such) and taking settlements are the common way to gain prestige. + Balance between your economy and food since you need food to build up your main buildings and income to maintain large army (both for defending and attacking). As a result, thinking twice before deciding which land to take. + BEWARE of other factions' Title (Especially King). If they become king and strong enough, they may vassalize nearly EVERYONE and since you have to take settlements to increase your own rank, you basically have to declare war with the vassals and their master. If you become king too, there is no way to become ally. In this game, you WIN or you DIE, there is NO middle ground.
Regarding relations, the red X means they don't share the same values. However, this is just one factor (or potentially a few, depending on how much they disagree on) affecting whether their relation is positive or not. Winning battles together (with low casualties) is another important factor, which often becomes sufficient to maintain friend/oathsworn status even while not sharing the same values.
Loved this review, the most honest one by FAR! I just can't believe CA would leave the best Ai improvements only for the Legendary Difficulty. Would be much better if it was a setting under a menu just like you can change gamplay aspects and then no matter what difficulty you choose you get to enable the smarter Ai without having the Ai also cheating with stat boosts etc that the LEGENDARY difficulty has.
I actually love the undercover system. . . as an idea. The two main things I wish they would change about it, is either be able to choose which settlements your spy goes to so you can scout out armies or wherever your spy is reveal the whole commandery. Secondly, I wish there where things you could actively do to make you spies better so it's not so much RNG.
Thank you for being an honest reviewer. I am just getting into total war, and I am deciding which game to get. Before I got to your channel, all I saw was IGN type "every game is good" content. You are honest, even when it is to your own detriment. I hope creative assembly comes around to your side, because while you sometimes give bad reviews, your good reviews are the only ones that matter. If someone says everything is good, their opinion doesn't matter, because you cannot tell what they are thinking. I am a supporter of your channel, and everyone else who happens to read this comment, subscribe to legend. He is one of the most articulate, honest, and skilled game reviewers I have ever seen on this platform.
Great news about the AI, hope that works its way into warhammer 2 & 3. I have to say id really appreciate separate sliders for AI bonus's and AI Competence. Id love to be fighting a more competent AI but without the very hard battle difficulty buffs as that unbalances army selection. That being said Id also like to see the buffs be % based to mitigate that issue too. Im also starting think you should do reviews based on 'department' of CA - you know, let the teams you really do love their work KNOW that you do. eg art & music teams have been strait 10/10 for me since warhammer 1, code monkeys a solid 9 and game design.. maybe a 7.
Cheers for taking the time to review Legend. Appreciate all your thoughts on the TW franchise. Usually insightful and well considered thoughts on different aspects.
My though upon your review : I mostly agree with you (even learned about IA changing mechanics at difficulty levels). For me spies are good, but dispensables (I had a kong rong run where I went full spies and that was fun, my main issue being it costs time and a quality officer to spend). The unique ressource feature is a great gameplay/replayability addition, and a potential plus for DLC to come. Sun Jian is definitly too easy, even for IA (I've yet to see, in 3 campaigns, Sun Jian not becoming emperor). And I find the three main features you found unappealing really good namely the tech tree, recruitment process and city buildings, and that's for a common reason : the shared color and progression. the fact the three of them are in synergy (and not having separate mil and civic trees) means you'll have to adapt what you unlock depending on the actual situation (or the one to be 20 turns away), often dictated by the color of available generals, and unlocking certain buildings, buffs and so on. It's not huge, but really gives flavor to a game. there are some way around, but for non commander leaders (or unpopular ones) it can be necessary to rush some reforms. That's just a difference of view upon the game, not at all an attack. I really can't wait to see your thoughs about the different units, as for me they are all good when used properly, without any being that OP.
Le coût critique wow I literally thought Lui Bei was the easiest campaign. At the start he has the three strongest generals in the game. Every other faction I start off with I get stomped in the first 3 turns.
@@stalliontv465 Liu bei is OP when you cheese a lot (abuse his special "take the han for free", with a lone officer roaming the south country). Sun Jian have the whole south to take and keep, and will usually blob out of proportions, should you not fail your economy, and manage Liu biao decently. In the same trend, the hardest of coalition member is yuan shu, because the more his special trait devellope the more you are declared war from everybody. And it's also a real pain to have any vassals.
Taking into this being two months old, I will give it seven more months before the new Legend vs. old Legend fan civil war starts. I’ve been watching him since he was a teenager and the second time I have heard him apologize...the war will be bloodly.
As a Chinese player who read the romance prolly 7 times over, certain things just didn't occur to me before I saw this video. I guess now I see this game is actually pandering to people like me a lot. Some of the things you are neutral about or hated is actually things that I like. For example, having units locked by general types is in my opinion great. Cuz it makes sense for some generals to specialize in cavalry and do not know how to lead infantries effectively. It is also fitting to the novel and lore. Another similar thing is character affinity. This is almost a guaranteed feature for any Koei strategy game. As for the one example you gave, about how the system seems rng and unpredictable, I think it's what they are going for, and it happend in History. Chingis Khan had a sworn brother, who he eventually part ways, fought and executed due to difference in opinion. So yes, events that pop up changing character trait (reputation maybe a better descriptor) that either attract or repel people makes sense. Also, like I said, reading the novel so many times, I'm pretty much playing historical and know who were best friends and what their reputations were, as long as I stick with those, I got pretty much all ticks, except several really exceptional characters from historically rival factions I just really wanted. Overall, I feel like this game has try to make it feel authentic to people who loves the original novel (very few in the West I assume, but hugely popular in East Asia including Japan and Korea). It borrowed heavily from Koei games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (This Japanese company is now on its 13th release in this series, speaks for the popularity of the book in Japan), Nobunaga's Ambition series and yes, dynasty warriors. I can even see a hint of paradox games in here, which is to my delight. Like you said, the diplomatic system is much better now because it actually shows what you need to make deals work, is straight from games like EU4. It's just great. I also agree with you, the espionage system is kinda waste of time, but I don't blame CA. Paradox with all these years in grand strategy still can't make espionage work, it's just intrinsically hard to balance. I would say EU4 as of now has the best espionage system that's somewhat fun, making claims, reveal maps, stealing maps, incite rebels, to name a few, maybe CA can take a couple of ideas from there, but not half-ass it.
@Anzioo24 I can only imagine that he's talking about how much he criticized 3K before release. Every time a new video was released he'd take some time to criticize it and talk about how the game doesn't appeal to him.
Yes. the review is here! Can't wait for more Tk content! Quick tip: during deals if u dont min max you can get a major relations boost if the trade favors the other party, which is great for confederating/vasallizing
@@diomedes7971 the battles are actually the worst part of the game. Everybody has mostly the same unit, with some very small variations. but yeah when comparing it TWW2, 3K has almost 0 unit and faction diversity Diversity in 3K comes from the heroes and from diplomacy. While in Romance factions mostly behave the same in Records it actually varies a lot from campaign to campaign
C.A Blacklisting? Wont support a developer who blacklists, silencing reviewers, doesn't matter what you said or done Legend, banning someone for an opinion is morally wrong. Until CA change their attitude on this I wont be buying their games, I've managed so far since Shogun 2, it's like they don't want to take my money? Throw it back in my face.
Thanks for making this review! I think it is worth waiting for. I really value your opinion, since you hold it to the standard of the older better total war.
About the relationships thing at 30:10, instead of the person not liking the other people providing a negative, it is more about the lack of benefit gained from the friend and oathsworn relationship.
36:30, duels make sense in the context of this setting (Ancient China), it's really a personal honour thing within the culture and the time period, I can accept if duels never makes an appearance in other TW games from now on, but for this game I think it's implemented very well
As Sun Jian I was in a three-way alliance with Cao Cao and Lui Bei till they forced us all at war toward the Three Kingdoms "Scenario" like 100 turns in. Firm friends even married one of my non legendary Children to Zang Fei and got him as a general.
Spys give map data on a faction your attempting to infiltrate, so even if they arnt selected and dont infiltrate the faction it will still reveal some locations and troop movements. I've enjoyed spys in this game. I havnt been able to do an assassination or start a civil war yet but I have gotten legendary characters kicked out and stolen land.
To all of the subs who are here, I think he isn't swearing because this is a more official video, not his casual uploads like SYDC. It's a video that will build a lot more views.
Legend, it's so inspiring to see you take action against your shortcomings like you have. Around the same time I had a similar kick in the teeth that prompted me to rapidly redo a lot of things about me like my attitude, work ethic, relationships and my outlook, and now I'm feeling like a completely different and objectively better person. To see you do the same in regards to your channel is really inspiring to me to further progress myself.
1:20...simple answer: I waited for your review, because I trust your opinion on Total War Games. Not seen the rest of the video though and looking forward to do so now.
Heres the thing. We forgave you a long time Legend. People make mistakes. People change. Whether it was in jest and edgy or not, it's in the past. CA may not let you back into their club, but if we can still keep watching videos from an honest and funny UA-camr playing total war games, then fuck it, reviews can be late as long as they are honest from you.
I may be wrong but I think at 14:40 I think the Duchy of Wu vassalized the two factions because of how powerful they were. They had reached the status of duke and you hadn't yet. In my campaigns once I got to the size of the Duchy of Wu lots of smaller factions were happy to become my vassal whereas before they didn't. So I don't think its AI 'cheats" per se.
I believe that the greatest thing to praise about this video is your maturity, recognising your past mistakes whilst giving the game a fair review, pointing the good and bad points without holding anything back, gives your opinion credibility, and tells me i can believe this video to decide if i want the game or not. Good video Legend, your content gets better by the day!
I wonder if legendary difficulty archers would recognize a generals unit on records mode and shoot it, or where the AI would think its still just a single man. Infact there was a battle yesterday where i flanked the enemy archers with a small unit of cav that had about 9 men in it and they would not shoot at it despite looking straight at it.
The air of all total wars has no sense of self preservation. Its programmed to as a whole try to defeat the player with a few extra forced triggers to make them fight each other.
Ok listen to this guys, this is what legend meand to me, i never had a pc but always wanted to play total war, after watching legends Ottoman empire campaign for like unlimited hours i decided that i have to buy a PC i brought a pc not knowing anything about them, ended up getting an integrated graphics card dont laugh i didnt know anything about graphic cards so i played empire total war for 300 hours on recomended graphics lol which were full on performence everything was pixelated later on i figured out that you can buy and add on a graphics card i went to pc world brought a graphics card and there you go i was good enough to run warhammer on my pc but yh back to the topic legend was the reason i brought a pc just for a game called total war which enden being more than worth it now i have combined hours of all the total war games which make it about 4 thousand hours. So thank you Legend for being a legend and the most under rated guy on youtube. 👍
Im a relatively newer player to the total war franchise the first one i played was Shogun 2 which was about 4-5 years ago and just recently found out about your chanel. I really love the content you put out, makes me learn more about the games or franchise in general so yeah keep up the good work and I'll be looking forward to more total war from you
I'm a Total War fan since Shogun, I've played them all except Warhammer 2 (didn't like warhammer). After the enormous deception of Attila, I'm very cautious before spending my money and above all my time in a new TW game. My preferred are Medieval 2 and Rome 2. I'd love to enjoy a new TW, let see if 3K will be the one.
CA to sort out owning 2x resource minor settlement - add a small bonus for having x2 of the same, dependent on the resource. E.G. tools increase faction industry income by like 5%, Horses increase cavalry charge bonus by 10%. So thing small to make it a not game changing but to make it valuable to target a 2nd livestock farm.
you forgot to mention battle maps i think and from what iv seen they look pretty good, not empire tw levels of beauty. id probably put it third after empire and sho 2
It should be mentioned that you can recruit the faction-specific unit on any general regardless of colour, so a strategist can recruit cao cao's tiger and leopard cavalry if his rank is high enough
"I've done things no one else would think of doing" have you played on easy difficulty?
Hey, I sometimes play on Easy battles as I suck at strategy... ;(
@jaguar warrior I used to. Now I've been promoted to normal ;P and with cheese, I can do legendary in Warhammer :D
@jaguar warrior im mostly playing on easy to charge my men to death soviet style
I played easy mode campaign and normal battles on warhammer 1/2 I'm not a great administrator but I'm ok in battles, I've tried hard mode battles but the buffs the ai gets takes some of the fun for me cuz I'm not that good
@@echoes222 best part is when you look at a bad situation and your plans and moves causing a victory. It makes you feel like those old generals from history lol.
The population system falling to zero might not be because of everyone dieing, but fleeing to the countryside. Then moving back if the problem is fixed.
Migration is what I presumed as well. If townsfolk don't like living somewhere, they'll simply pack up and leave.
That is why the population changed a lot during the period. People would either move to the cities for protections, or they would move to the countryside to evade taxes or move somewhere else.
In the actual history, yes, that was the case for most of the time. Once fled to the countryside, it is really difficult to figure out how many people were actually there (but fixed in later period by later government).
Got my spy to be the wife of Cao Cao. Had him Assassinated. 10/10 would use Spys again.
3eyed raven in china now.
I've had decent luck with it too. Playing on Very Hard/Very Hard, got generals in Yuan Shao and Cao Cao's armies during one campaign. When Cao Cao tried to attack me with his army, I called on my spy to betray him and suddenly 1/3 of his army was fighting with me instead of him
damn that is some sweet juice
Yeah Had good luck with spies to on very hard and hard. I did send high level generals why should a top faction recruit a level 1 or 2 in to a general pool all my spies where like level 4 and above where many times level 4 general did not get recruited but 6 and 7 all the time got recruited. What was intresting as well was that I lost some spies because their happienes was to low so they deffected rather fast. I did experience as well that spie did use spies on me they actualy did use the option where they diminshed my supplies. So I like the spy system personally
Any tips on how to get elite characters to spy for you?
Green are the best at dueling
>distant WAAAAAARGGH intensifying
Gave me a nice chuckle, well done.
Lu bu says otherwise
@@bubblez4859 actually, Yellow Turbans Veteran Hero, He Man an Guan Yu always end up winning against Lu Bu.
We is better dan dem!
I mean, think about it. Green is the best in 40k. Salamanders, Death Guard/NOIGLE, necrons, guardsmen and of course the best heretics are the Dark Angles
Nah. I rely on your brutal honesty, and your honesty helped show CA how poorly their product was 18 months ago. Your Imperator review saved me 60 bones.
@@herrerasauro7429 The games need polish anyway, Always better to wait a year or two.
Well he didn’t get blacklisted for criticism he got it because of stupid and racists jokes on stream
@@locosiap4184 That's even worse, honestly. "Oh boo hoo, he made some spicy quips about Blacks and Jews on the internet" or whatever... yeah, so? Anyone who's been deluded by some Twitter echo chamber into thinking that this is a _problem_ somehow, or that it could _cause_ problems somewhere down the road, is a retarded, gibbering fucking lunatic who can - and should - be safely ignored.
I'd much rather companies try to promote their image and court consumers based on what would be _actually profitable,_ and _not_ be motivated by some pea-brained messianic quest to push backwards moralistic agendas onto their community and customers. The first denotes a healthy, free society, while the second is blatantly fascistic.
Mallcore yes - in principle I do agree - but he’s not a comedian and making that behaviour out to be okay in the public eye sends out the wrong message. Creative assembly can’t be seen to co-sign that as it effects their brand. Also, he has a lot of fans and with his influence it might not be good to make those jokes.
@@tuxedomollusk what if , offended people are real people and seeing someone being promoted doing offensive "joke" at their expense wouldn't buy the game? It depend on "the joke" and the context , but to extrapolate , i'm fine with dark humor on black people , i'm not fine on BS racist comment . And yeah that would affect how i spend my money if it's promoted content. Because guess what , my money is a way of giving my opinion on what i find acceptable or not , essentially democracy.
And that's where your argument fall flat , if it didn't affect sell they wouldn't care (depending on the industry sexist joke are okay or not , because the public sometimes care or not) , they care because consumers decide if they buy or not depending on what the product, featured content , sale practice , advertisement say , how it say it and why. I'm sure you wouldn't buy a game that would tell you indian is the master race and they ruled europe even if the game was amazing , me neither but i bet my right hand some indian supremacist (they do exist) would. Again i'm using hyperbole so you get the point, i get it twitter sjw is oppressive and boring , but buisness is affected by public opinion and it does matter weither we like it or not. That's how society work and that's how moral is created , conveyed and evolve through ages : with people that have a public, with people voicing opinion and how they voice it. It will change no matter what and it matter .
Only 1:20 into the video, but please know I have waited for your review before I decided to purchase. Over 1000 hours into WH2. Much respect Legend.
@@FlyingDragoon8 I am not Jeff James.
A_Zero I honestly can’t tell if this comment is serious or not lmao
@@FlyingDragoon8 what's it like not having to school for a few months?
Juff rey honestly this summer break is amazing, I ended high school on May 17th and I dont start college till september, got a job now, part time with a flexible schedule, free time to hang out with friends, and the money to do so, life is great
A_Zero
What‘s wrong with wanting to know another opinion?
"Hmm, I think that I will make a 20 minutes long video, I am not AngryJoe"
Reality : 39 minutes.
Thank you for your review. You help me alot
Yeah this vid long as shit xD
Crypticexpert you must never watch/listen to podcasts or watch streams. 39 minutes is nothing
He threw shade at Angry Joe?
@@pwnerdowner no he just basically said that he did not want to have a long review . And btw he like AngryJoe as well
@@ilax3071 Omg look at you being cool because you enjoy sitting
Very fitting that Yuan Shu sold you cities for food, the story has it that he died on the way home from a failed war effort, he was sick and starving and they had nothing to eat. He wanted to drink some honey water and they could not find any honey, he screamed "How did I get to this point." and died.
CA must have watched your warhammer videos. 4:17
how long have the AI wasted ammo on units?
I remember Legend's West Rome campaign where he just parked a testudo within archer range and waited for the AI to spend its ammo on one unit which barely took damage lol...
@@KrMaHo Damn I always have the same strategy like him through titles, seems like we can't cheese anymore xD
lol!!!
I've watched your videos for years now and I've got to say your progression as a content creator is quite a sight. this kind of work really sets you apart from other game reviewers and channels and really makes long-time fans happy to have supported you along the way. keep it up.
There's a bug in UA-cam where it'll display the wrong comment until you open it up to reply to it and this comment is way better than the one I came here to respond to
You had me at AI improving on harder difficulties
which just makes normal AI retard mode lol
I remember when I started TW games when I were a kid. I thought that higher level generals would be smarter on the battlefield... I was so wrong at the time :D
@@Tespri i find it hilarious that expecting something that happens in pretty much every other strategy game under the planet was wrong and people defended CA because making a passable AI for an RTS is apparently extremely difficult when even games from the 90s like age of empires 2 have better AI
@@richardvlasek2445 Which strategy game employ smarter AI instead of buffs on higher difficulty?
Still dumb, but it does some things others did not, which makes them better in those ways.
Ah, I see my opinion on the game has been uploaded.
Lol
Agias welcome to the LegendOfTotalWar hive mind.
@@placeholder8768 ok
Lmao
Replace legend saying "weird" with saying "shit" for the good old legend
Thank you.
I miss the old, Legend
straight from the 'Go legend
this
You need to be nerfed in multiplayer.
I won my 1st ever campaign using Liu Bei without ever really fighting, I had just a small area of land but I focused on my buildings, gold and food, I then vassalised everyone other than Wei and Wu and told them to go to war, once Wu lost their throne I made them a vassal and sent the entire country to finish off Wei. All in all I love this game
Legend: "I'll see you next time"
Me: Yeeees...?
Legend: (ends vid)
Me: ಠ_ಠ
*Fuckers*
Where is my "fuckers" at the end?
The ending felt so empty
Because he is seeking this "reconciliation" with CA? He wants to appear more "polite"??
@@WaltherMotU Dude I hope not. On the one hand it would be good for his content, but on the other how much longer is it HIS content if he adjusts it that much. I mean this is just a little tidbit at the end of videos that he's been doing basically since the beginning. If he was calling us something vile I'd get it, but fuckers is hardly an insult at this point. It's the little wink he's been giving us since forever, it's sad not to have it :(
Legend has finally embraced his inner merchant and has become the Great Wal-Mart of China.
An attendent of the Great Mall of China
Selling cheese to everyone.
China will grow larger.... does anyone recognize it from a strategy game?
@@totalwarlegendary326 yes c@c generals
Total_War_LEGENDARY I build...for China
Finally! Thanks for taking the time to get this done, mate!
The reason duels were in this game was because in China, dueling was actually extremely commonplace, even amongst high generals. Lu Bu was a commanding officer, led his own faction, yet you'd hear countless duels he was in with opponents. If you're familiar with any TK literature, you'll notice duels between generals happen quite frequently. This is why it works and is actually a good feature of Total War: TK. It might not be your thing, and that's okay, but it totally deserves a place in this series and would not have been very TK-y without it. It's not unheard of for a general who thinks he's more skilled than the other to go out and fight a general who clearly outclasses him, historically speaking, because the thought of glory at beating them is worth it, and perhaps they overestimate their own skills.
+
finally, i was waiting for this
TLDR did he like it?
@@HyunaTheHyena Understandably he likes the campaign & battle AI changes, duels & spies are meh
@@HyunaTheHyena Good kpop playlist, subbed.
We all did :-)
The words of a critic is worth ten times more than the words of a sympathizer
Love what you do Legend and I hope you have a wonderful year
@@pooroldman5089 Lets get this straight, critics are different from haters. They observe from the outside and judge or decide. A hater only spits nonsensical crap, while a sipathyzer not good or bad but they are just there.
I think your criticisms/concerns (given if it's legitimate ones) of yours and other youtubers made a impact on a 3K's development, resulting a good quality product.
i think total biscuit used to be really critical of CA when rome 2 happen (including sega striking out against him), they never really reconcile. and i think criticisms against developers have to be made if they messed up
@@witsleep in the end youtubers are but instruments for promotions for companies. Nothing more and nothing less.. if you influence their sales poorly you are a risk to them so chances are they wont risk the person.
Hayro sorry this game is to good reviewed by the youidiots Sega suckers
No F-Bomb at the end???!?? Who are you and what have you done with Legend????
That was the old Legend. This is the new family-friendly, clean-cut Legend, perfect for advertisers and small children.
@@FreshSqueezedLoyalty He's a chickenshit sellout. Just saying it...
@@iagoporto5522
He just wants to make money, there is no faulting him for that. Personally I only started watching him years ago because I found his brand of edgy humor funny, but he can't survive on UA-cam doing that anymore so he has to adapt. It's not really his fault, I just enjoy razzing him.
@@FreshSqueezedLoyalty True that, unfortunately it's over for the little guy...
Iago Porto no he’s smart and realised he has a wider impact and audience these days and being more balanced is good for him. Grow up.
You can turn off duels. Then your generals will have thier elite guard.
Turn it from Romance to Realism
@@SchrodingerMil *Romance to Records
Lmao fuck that poor wording. Took a third person to get some basic game mode names correct 😌. C'mon kids pick it up.
@@jakea3950 u alright bud?
The undercover network functions pretty well to be honest. Not too expansive, but still helps plenty at times. In my limited time so far, of the dozen spies I've sent out between campaigns 10 of them have been employed the first time. The other two were hired on their second sally.
Helped a lot in a siege as Ma Teng where I had a Lu Bu full stack and a smaller army that seriously outnumbered me, the small army got the plague, and I used my spy to poison Lu Bu's force which reduced its numbers by a third.
Three Kingdoms made me realize what the Total War series is lacking, and I say this as a huge fan of the Total War games, I've played each one of them since Medieval II.
Total War needs COMPLEXITY. It needs depth. It needs to have a more complex and interesting economy system. After dozens of Total War, it starts to feel very repetitive to always do the same thing : build an army, conquer a city, have more money, build more stuff to have bigger armies, to conquer more cities to.... have more money, to build more armies.... until there's nobody left to fight or conquer.
Total War really needs to work on something more deep and complex and less superficial, they need to develop a system that could be interesting to play with even if there's no enemy or anything to conquer. They need to go deep on the city management stuff and nation management stuff. They've mastered the battles and war side, we got it. Now we need more.
Two comments about your reviews:
1. I've actually seen people killing their spy as enemy generals because they forgot to keep track with their spy network. In that case, you actually have the option to make the army your spy is leading defect.
2. With your level of battle skills, it is possible that you are able to complete the most difficult campaign without paying much attention to personal networks. But this doesn't mean that the mechanics is not important.
He is just being a legendary asshole as usual.
pretty much, he failed to mention that having friends/oath-sworn in the same fight provides generals with buffs.
Great job with the review dude, keep up the awesome work 👍
You can say that again :-)
Legendary spies (having a stat > 100) get recruited and promoted fast.
This is especially true if the faction is a very small one with limited choices for officers.
I also agree that your channel has got way better since bl, look forward to seeing you get back in the sun
why/how did he get black listed?
Just man humour on his livestreams
@@Ableseamansainz r u kidding? thats some straight bullshit and pisses me off honestly
@@shpongle7322 That's how he got Twitch blacklisted, because of a Witcher monster. The Blacklist Legend is referring to is the CA one which was for a different reason.
@@marcusromulus5646 what specifically did he say tho
Note 33:40 You can change the UI system so it removes the retinues during battles. 36:18 You can also remove duels in options. (romance vs. historic.)
They should split battle difficulty into two categories: Enemy Skill, and Enemy Power. The first representing the AI's competance with game mechanics such as ammo usage, which units to engage, when to charge, when to hold ground, while the ladder provides those statistical buffs we're normally used to in TW game difficulties.
Another thing they should consider in later games, is maybe changing the AI dynamically depending on the statistics of the enemy commanders, their behavior in battle and unit composition, for example.
On the sieges, using that equipment wasn't necessarily unheard of, so it is historically accurate. I understand you may prefer siege towers, but it certainly would not be out of the realm of impossibilities that soldiers used rope (which they would have known) to climb and scale walls, and in fact some cases of this are documented later on. There is a disadvantage to this though in that you are totally vulnerable while climbing up. What should happen instead is heavier casualties by trying to climb up by rope. Using a siege tower instead should minimize casualties, which would make better sense, as usually climbing up walls by rope tended to end not so favorably except in overwhelming forces.
Love to see you coming so far! Keep going legend!
About the tech tree: Yellow Turban rebellion can get 20% (1 turn less to wait) increase in reasearch rate if they capture the province with OG Confusian temple. So, while it is a pre-set location (a.k.a. livestock farm/rice paddy) it actually provides different buffs depending on the faction origin you play.
Don't knock yourself down, dude. CA blacklist anyone who gives even the most minor of criticism. I don't watch other total war youtubers because they're not honest. Not to name names but on the release of Rome 2 and later titles they didn't speak the truth even after the game released in such a sorry state. They put on a fake smile and pushed through, making excuses for every game-breaking bug they encountered which just put their subscribers money in SEGA's pocket when it wasn't deserved. I watch you because I know that you will be 100% transparent on your views of the games released by CA.
I will gladly wait a few more days to get a review from you and I'm sure the majority of us feel the same.
I really dont get LionHeartX and Pixalated Apolo they just think it's good game just for the sake of having a good game.A bunch of fanboys.
@@midnightpunching6931 Well one of those you mentioned is the reason I stopped watching total war related videos altogether. He's a little brown-noser for CA. Can't trust anything he says. The only tw channel I watch now is legend.
@@ConorChaos I like LionHeartx more than Jackiefish and Pixie but their fanbase is absolute shithole and i dont want to attack anyone but how come you enjoy mechanics that are broken as fuck.
Still i'm not buying Three Kingdoms untill i see the reviews untill the first sales of this game.Something tells me that this one have the potential to be good total war game.
Angry Joe absolutely ripped Rome 2 apart. Next he's getting sponsored to play 3k. Perhaps your "black listed" friends were shit nobody youtubers that just flamed it incoherently? Lots of stupid people on this channel, worth checking.
loved the review, 3 things to make known from your review
1. the dlc yellow turbans have a different reform style thats less messy
2. the spy network is odd, however you might find success in choosing your spy carefully and sending him to the correct leader. I had a strong regular lord with a full army become a spy to Yuan Shao. Lore wise he recruits a lot of able body warriors and doesn't do great background checks. The only reason I sent the guy to be a spy was cause of he tendency to see rainbows and become a weirdo.
3. the satisfaction and friendship mechanics is kinda messy. The point of it seemed to allude to the book and how the characters in each faction have reasons for feeling the way they do. Its great early game cause if you know the characters you can pair them up early and get some good friendships. The problem is you cant recreate the entire story. The AI will just kill an important lord and you wont be able to get them to the army. I killed Xaihou yuan as sun jian because he was for some reason apart of the Han at turn 5..... Cao Cao prolly made him a spy or something idk. I'm worried as the game progresses the system will break and random traits will cause sworn brothers to become revials. Like if Guan Yu rebelled against Lui Bei. It makes it interesting but atm idk how to bridge those broken friendships.
I like the review. Learned alot that I didn't know from the small amount of time I spent playing It (18 hrs isn't quite enough). I'm curious how you feel about Records mode. Granted It would remove the gimmicky stuff you didn't seem to be a fan off.
he does a 40 minute review and isnt talking about records mode ? What a downer actually.
trigun630
Strange he hasn’t mentioned records yet, maybe a future review.
I’ve only been playing records mode at the moment, so this review was helpful to me in illuminating a bit of the difference with romance play.
Nice comment by the way, useful too.
@@TheBlackfall234 I mean I forget records even exists lmao. Mainly because of my love for the novel. 1 man defending choke points or cutting through thousands of enemies to save a baby and make it back safely? Hard to not want to reenact that. Regardless records would prolly be a shorter vid and maybe change some of his hangups. Im curious how he'll see it though
@@trigun630 of course it would change some of his hangups. You cant do a review and just forget a whole mode wich in detail doesnt change much, but for the gameplay in battles its quite the difference honestly.
Something I did notice about the relationships, even if they are oathsworn and don't like each other afterwards because of traits, they'll still stay oathsworn. At least, I had Zhang Fei and Liu Bei traits change to be incompatible but that didn't stop them. Don't know if the same applies to rivalry though
That feel when you hold your wallet a hostage because you know Legend will cover all significant the weak spots of the game so you can make a balanced, long-term oriented descision wether to buy the game or not.
Thanks Legend for thorough approach and and shipping the review before the tempting "early adopter" bonus runs out.
Good man
No review is going to be as important as your own. Think for yourself.
@@saltedllama2759 lol the review is about whether or not to spend the money. Why would you spend the money then think for yourself? Youre obviously going to be baised because youve already invested $60. You can't think for yourself if you havent even played it bud.
@@saltedllama2759 Except for that to happen you MUST buy the game first, in which case if it wasn't worth it you've just wasted money because you refuse to find a reviewer you find trustworthy to advise you on buying it or not. Your feelings on the game once you have it are obviously the ones that matter in the end, but the point of a review is so that you have a better idea whether you should take the risk or not.
@@ThePhantomBean uh. Ya you can be unbiased. A person can be unbiased in anything.
People liking/disliking each other: it does NOT affect their satisfaction. These bonds forming affect their usefulness in battle by A LOT. Basically, generals who likes each other provide number of buffs to a WHOLE ARMY and not just their retinue. Some buffs are meh but other are really good. There are no penalties if they don't like each other - it is just your army is not at the full potential. Also, if during the battle 1 of the generals dies/flees from the battle the buff is lost for the remainder of the battle.
Great to know bro.
I do believe it does affect the satisfaction a little, but it is definitely neglectible.
Finally, the only 40 minute long video on youtube Im willing to sit through the whole thing and concentrate
His most viewed video has an average of 3 hour watch time per view.
I've actually watched other three kingdom videos and I gotta admit he is focusing on different stuff and not filling the video with bullshit
You need to see Lindybeige channel ^^
21:45 I was literally sitting here shouting " OH FOR FUCKS SAKE, the tree is shifting a milimeter with the mouse. What the hell!"
You feel you've made a mistake and you've owned up to it.
My loyalty is yours sire.
Funny how 90% of the internet is incapable of this
What was this mistake he was talking about? I'm new to the channel.
@@niallreid7664 it was back in Thrones of Brittania days. He made some poor decisions, got blacklisted by CA, then he got unblacklisted either early this year or late last year. Basically, he and the head of CA's early access did not get along and things went south
I just got to about 1:45 and I wanted to comment. I for one Waited for your review of 3k, because of your unaffiliated status with CA. Your opinion in my opinion is unbiased and comes from the position of someone who likes and appreciates the games for what they are. Thank you for all of your hard word, and thank you for continuing to generate this content for people who are looking for unfiltered information about the Total War series.
I'm trusting your review over other tw UA-camrs simply because you tell it how it is and don't hold back on any negatives the game has but also give praise to the positives.
Also you're an Aussie
also spying is hard to do in Legendary. I actually use it to give enemy bad generals.
@Ebba Akerlund Agreed. I have to say, I don't think Legend really understands spying IRL. It's a high-risk, high-reward thing with more intense actions. Sure you can plant a spy for general information and to lurk, but assassinating someone should be VERY risky and have SEVERE penalties as it is IRL. I think at times Legend comes at things with a bit too much of a "gamer" view and so it's good to get a diff view from a history focused reviewer.
Lovely, thanks Legend. I was wondering whether to buy myself. TOB was so bad that this was the first TW game I hesitated to buy. Lets see how the review goes!
I am in the same boat, still don't think I am going to bother.
@@dillonfloyd It looks OK, but not for the price. CA took that much from me for TOB which was disappointing. I'm playing EB right now and will probably go with either RS or RTR next time I play TW. I have Attila and both Warhammers which I haven't played enough either. But I appreciate a review like this from a trustworthy source like Legend. Maybe I will buy on a Steam sale if I have a spare 30 bucks.
@@Redact42 Just buy it man. You won't regret it. I had some doubts myself as well. I fucking despised warhammer and ToB for their simplicity plus the freaking 3 month delay after countless bugs emerged. And when I complained to my Chinese friend he gifted 3K to me(apparently Chinese doods are more generous lol). And the whole diplomacy revamp is *worth* the 60 bucks! It felt a bit more Europa-ish. Not entirely though but it's way better than any other total war. And the characters felt a lot better than warhammer due to the 5 attributes(that works really well and can make your character legendary), the dueling system and the various attainable items. The battles feel a bit like a mix of Attila and shogun 2. So if you liked either of these 2 games you'll be fine with the battles. Some systems maybe simple. But as a total war game, this is probably the most complex one out of all the total wars and it works.
After being exposed to Europe Universalis 4, all total war games felt boring as fuck. Total war games felt like tetris. But 3K with it's diplomacy has brought me back to total war.
@@NyangisKhanWell, i guess it depends on the person. I, for one, prefer the variety of warhammer and I don't mind bad diplomacy, so EU4 isn't really great for me. So, I don't think I'm gonna get 3K
@@NyangisKhan it's now on my wishlist once its on sale i will definitely give a go. Thanks for the comment!
Just a point at 22:14 regarding everyone researching at the exact same rate, Yellow turbans have different research mechanics, similar to TWW2
Good review though!
Nice review Legend, I already bought the game before you made your review, but glad you made it despite being delayed from doing so. Getting a review from someone who wasn't given any special treatment, paid promotion, early access, ect, honestly gives this review more credibility.
but if you think on both sides, it can also lead to him being more biased in a negativ way. Hes not talking about records mode at all, but states clealy that he doesnt like the duels. Yeah so it would be fair to mention that all of that is just optional. He doesnt even mention it. It was a decent review honestly. Decent.
@@TheBlackfall234
If there's anything you can say about Legend, I think you've gotta give it to him that he's honest and will accept when he's wrong. He does so even to begin the video, and after that he praises a feature of the game. Also, he's made it clear that he wants TW to be GrEaT aGaIn.
“I can’t complain about it unless I’m really nit picky about it.”
I’m liking the new Legend.
holy shit they finally added non-aggression pacts
I think legend you didn't mention special resources of each faction like cao cao get credibility and proxy war
I think he left out a lot of the basic stuff on purpose because his review is probably meant for Total War players that already know what the game is about and what the advertised features are but just want to know what#s good about it and what's not.
That is something a lot of other people covered
Great review, although there are some points that I like to add for newcomers if you don't mind:
+ The hate/like system is just for show for most of the time. The deciding factor is the satisfaction, being at 0 satisfaction will make him/her betray you.
+ Court position is the best way to secure satisfaction, so save it, do NOT fill it as soon as possible since the benefits do not really outweigh the disadvantages. Administrators are DIFFERENT kinds of position, they buff the Commandery and are much more valuable, relying on Traits and Skills of the character. Use characters with traits that decrease their ambition.
+ Check candidate frequently for legendary characters in court.
+ I don't agree with the opinion on the family tree here, all you can do is MANUAL marrying (not automatically find bride like in Atila) and changing heir. And, apparently, the people of China in this period do not make love because they will RARELY give birth, other than the faction leader you started with. Thus, KEEP YOUR WOMEN, and even hire some female officer if you want to produce an heir. In fact, you don't have to care about the family tree at all, just choose a character with the best trait for the faction as heir.
+ If you don't like dueling system, play record mode. The generals in romance mode are just for dueling, and (IMO) less valuable than generals in record mode. They have more unit, more mass => better at countering archer. If not for their special ability, I would say most generals in romance mode are useless.
+ Use AMBUSH ALL THE TIME. The AI can easily be tricked into battle with small garrison and a weak army as a bait. Usually, you have base 45% ambush, and can even go up to 100% pretty easily.
+ The game has prestige system which makes you gain rank (duke, king, etc). Build main buildings (castle and such) and taking settlements are the common way to gain prestige.
+ Balance between your economy and food since you need food to build up your main buildings and income to maintain large army (both for defending and attacking). As a result, thinking twice before deciding which land to take.
+ BEWARE of other factions' Title (Especially King). If they become king and strong enough, they may vassalize nearly EVERYONE and since you have to take settlements to increase your own rank, you basically have to declare war with the vassals and their master. If you become king too, there is no way to become ally.
In this game, you WIN or you DIE, there is NO middle ground.
trungfat51
Some good points here.
I’ve only played record mode so far, maybe Legend will prefer it.
yes, Attila family tree was so good.
in every turn, u manage the army, the settlements, the diplomacy, and the family tree
Regarding relations, the red X means they don't share the same values. However, this is just one factor (or potentially a few, depending on how much they disagree on) affecting whether their relation is positive or not. Winning battles together (with low casualties) is another important factor, which often becomes sufficient to maintain friend/oathsworn status even while not sharing the same values.
Loved this review, the most honest one by FAR! I just can't believe CA would leave the best Ai improvements only for the Legendary Difficulty. Would be much better if it was a setting under a menu just like you can change gamplay aspects and then no matter what difficulty you choose you get to enable the smarter Ai without having the Ai also cheating with stat boosts etc that the LEGENDARY difficulty has.
If your review quality remains like this your channel is guaranteed to blow up .
Is that a threat
@@VarietyGamerChannel blow up = become more popular
I actually love the undercover system. . . as an idea. The two main things I wish they would change about it, is either be able to choose which settlements your spy goes to so you can scout out armies or wherever your spy is reveal the whole commandery. Secondly, I wish there where things you could actively do to make you spies better so it's not so much RNG.
Thank you for being an honest reviewer. I am just getting into total war, and I am deciding which game to get. Before I got to your channel, all I saw was IGN type "every game is good" content. You are honest, even when it is to your own detriment. I hope creative assembly comes around to your side, because while you sometimes give bad reviews, your good reviews are the only ones that matter. If someone says everything is good, their opinion doesn't matter, because you cannot tell what they are thinking. I am a supporter of your channel, and everyone else who happens to read this comment, subscribe to legend. He is one of the most articulate, honest, and skilled game reviewers I have ever seen on this platform.
Finally I know what to think!
? ,,, erm...use your brain to think and dont wait for people to tell you what o think?????? dont be an NPC
Kamil Kolanda lmao u didn’t get the joke
@@kamilkolanda5144 how you live with zero sense of humor ?
@@randomguyonyoutubewithnovi6738 the joke is u telling us how to think... think for urself NOW!!
@@jake-rg3fd can't tell if b8
22:10 I think you missed this one, but iirc Cao Cao can advance reforms using his unique resource faster than other factions
Great news about the AI, hope that works its way into warhammer 2 & 3. I have to say id really appreciate separate sliders for AI bonus's and AI Competence. Id love to be fighting a more competent AI but without the very hard battle difficulty buffs as that unbalances army selection. That being said Id also like to see the buffs be % based to mitigate that issue too.
Im also starting think you should do reviews based on 'department' of CA - you know, let the teams you really do love their work KNOW that you do. eg art & music teams have been strait 10/10 for me since warhammer 1, code monkeys a solid 9 and game design.. maybe a 7.
Cheers for taking the time to review Legend. Appreciate all your thoughts on the TW franchise. Usually insightful and well considered thoughts on different aspects.
My though upon your review :
I mostly agree with you (even learned about IA changing mechanics at difficulty levels).
For me spies are good, but dispensables (I had a kong rong run where I went full spies and that was fun, my main issue being it costs time and a quality officer to spend). The unique ressource feature is a great gameplay/replayability addition, and a potential plus for DLC to come. Sun Jian is definitly too easy, even for IA (I've yet to see, in 3 campaigns, Sun Jian not becoming emperor).
And I find the three main features you found unappealing really good namely the tech tree, recruitment process and city buildings, and that's for a common reason : the shared color and progression. the fact the three of them are in synergy (and not having separate mil and civic trees) means you'll have to adapt what you unlock depending on the actual situation (or the one to be 20 turns away), often dictated by the color of available generals, and unlocking certain buildings, buffs and so on. It's not huge, but really gives flavor to a game. there are some way around, but for non commander leaders (or unpopular ones) it can be necessary to rush some reforms.
That's just a difference of view upon the game, not at all an attack.
I really can't wait to see your thoughs about the different units, as for me they are all good when used properly, without any being that OP.
Le coût critique wow I literally thought Lui Bei was the easiest campaign. At the start he has the three strongest generals in the game. Every other faction I start off with I get stomped in the first 3 turns.
@@stalliontv465 Liu bei is OP when you cheese a lot (abuse his special "take the han for free", with a lone officer roaming the south country).
Sun Jian have the whole south to take and keep, and will usually blob out of proportions, should you not fail your economy, and manage Liu biao decently.
In the same trend, the hardest of coalition member is yuan shu, because the more his special trait devellope the more you are declared war from everybody. And it's also a real pain to have any vassals.
Taking into this being two months old, I will give it seven more months before the new Legend vs. old Legend fan civil war starts. I’ve been watching him since he was a teenager and the second time I have heard him apologize...the war will be bloodly.
Games these dayz need a good balance of hard criticism and positive feed back. You do a good job at both of these and we all appreciate what you do ✊
As a Chinese player who read the romance prolly 7 times over, certain things just didn't occur to me before I saw this video. I guess now I see this game is actually pandering to people like me a lot. Some of the things you are neutral about or hated is actually things that I like. For example, having units locked by general types is in my opinion great. Cuz it makes sense for some generals to specialize in cavalry and do not know how to lead infantries effectively. It is also fitting to the novel and lore. Another similar thing is character affinity. This is almost a guaranteed feature for any Koei strategy game. As for the one example you gave, about how the system seems rng and unpredictable, I think it's what they are going for, and it happend in History. Chingis Khan had a sworn brother, who he eventually part ways, fought and executed due to difference in opinion. So yes, events that pop up changing character trait (reputation maybe a better descriptor) that either attract or repel people makes sense. Also, like I said, reading the novel so many times, I'm pretty much playing historical and know who were best friends and what their reputations were, as long as I stick with those, I got pretty much all ticks, except several really exceptional characters from historically rival factions I just really wanted. Overall, I feel like this game has try to make it feel authentic to people who loves the original novel (very few in the West I assume, but hugely popular in East Asia including Japan and Korea). It borrowed heavily from Koei games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms series (This Japanese company is now on its 13th release in this series, speaks for the popularity of the book in Japan), Nobunaga's Ambition series and yes, dynasty warriors. I can even see a hint of paradox games in here, which is to my delight. Like you said, the diplomatic system is much better now because it actually shows what you need to make deals work, is straight from games like EU4. It's just great. I also agree with you, the espionage system is kinda waste of time, but I don't blame CA. Paradox with all these years in grand strategy still can't make espionage work, it's just intrinsically hard to balance. I would say EU4 as of now has the best espionage system that's somewhat fun, making claims, reveal maps, stealing maps, incite rebels, to name a few, maybe CA can take a couple of ideas from there, but not half-ass it.
Happy to see him accept responsibility and take the time for quality and a good review.
@Anzioo24 I can only imagine that he's talking about how much he criticized 3K before release. Every time a new video was released he'd take some time to criticize it and talk about how the game doesn't appeal to him.
AnOriginalName tbf, the sneak peeks of 3k were scary for the future of the game. I was hyped but worried about it being another Rome 2
@Anzioo24 He was making jokes on stream while reviewing 3k that some people took offensively. and ended up getting Legend blacklisted
Yes. the review is here! Can't wait for more Tk content!
Quick tip: during deals if u dont min max you can get a major relations boost if the trade favors the other party, which is great for confederating/vasallizing
First couple minutes showed a lot of personal growth, we're all proud of you boio. We can all learn to focus on ourselves sometimes
This is the only 3K review I was looking forward to.
Bought the game and I really really like it.
@@diomedes7971 the battles are actually the worst part of the game. Everybody has mostly the same unit, with some very small variations.
but yeah when comparing it TWW2, 3K has almost 0 unit and faction diversity
Diversity in 3K comes from the heroes and from diplomacy. While in Romance factions mostly behave the same in Records it actually varies a lot from campaign to campaign
C.A Blacklisting?
Wont support a developer who blacklists, silencing reviewers, doesn't matter what you said or done Legend, banning someone for an opinion is morally wrong.
Until CA change their attitude on this I wont be buying their games, I've managed so far since Shogun 2, it's like they don't want to take my money? Throw it back in my face.
They have changed clearly. He's no longer blacklisted and their listening too
Thanks for making this review! I think it is worth waiting for. I really value your opinion, since you hold it to the standard of the older better total war.
Also I am surprised you weren't playing on records mode!
Me: sees a picture of a tree
Legend: So the way it works is there are these branches
Me: no shit
About the relationships thing at 30:10, instead of the person not liking the other people providing a negative, it is more about the lack of benefit gained from the friend and oathsworn relationship.
36:30, duels make sense in the context of this setting (Ancient China), it's really a personal honour thing within the culture and the time period, I can accept if duels never makes an appearance in other TW games from now on, but for this game I think it's implemented very well
As Sun Jian I was in a three-way alliance with Cao Cao and Lui Bei till they forced us all at war toward the Three Kingdoms "Scenario" like 100 turns in. Firm friends even married one of my non legendary Children to Zang Fei and got him as a general.
Spys give map data on a faction your attempting to infiltrate, so even if they arnt selected and dont infiltrate the faction it will still reveal some locations and troop movements. I've enjoyed spys in this game. I havnt been able to do an assassination or start a civil war yet but I have gotten legendary characters kicked out and stolen land.
To all of the subs who are here, I think he isn't swearing because this is a more official video, not his casual uploads like SYDC. It's a video that will build a lot more views.
actually the city does get larger as its level goes up. some level 8 or up city is very large
yeah wtf
Legend, it's so inspiring to see you take action against your shortcomings like you have. Around the same time I had a similar kick in the teeth that prompted me to rapidly redo a lot of things about me like my attitude, work ethic, relationships and my outlook, and now I'm feeling like a completely different and objectively better person. To see you do the same in regards to your channel is really inspiring to me to further progress myself.
Ooooh?! Three kingdoms review by legend? I wonder how many times he will mention medieval 2
1:20...simple answer: I waited for your review, because I trust your opinion on Total War Games. Not seen the rest of the video though and looking forward to do so now.
Heres the thing. We forgave you a long time Legend. People make mistakes. People change. Whether it was in jest and edgy or not, it's in the past. CA may not let you back into their club, but if we can still keep watching videos from an honest and funny UA-camr playing total war games, then fuck it, reviews can be late as long as they are honest from you.
I may be wrong but I think at 14:40 I think the Duchy of Wu vassalized the two factions because of how powerful they were. They had reached the status of duke and you hadn't yet. In my campaigns once I got to the size of the Duchy of Wu lots of smaller factions were happy to become my vassal whereas before they didn't. So I don't think its AI 'cheats" per se.
maybe now that legend did the review he can finally put his chair together
Happy to see you grow, as a person and as a channel.
Cheers for the review Legend :)
I'm pleasantly surprised.
I believe that the greatest thing to praise about this video is your maturity, recognising your past mistakes whilst giving the game a fair review, pointing the good and bad points without holding anything back, gives your opinion credibility, and tells me i can believe this video to decide if i want the game or not. Good video Legend, your content gets better by the day!
" ...in a game that made such big leaps in some areas ... " ; did you notice all these leaps were re-introduced mechanics from as far back as Rome 1 ?
I wonder if legendary difficulty archers would recognize a generals unit on records mode and shoot it, or where the AI would think its still just a single man.
Infact there was a battle yesterday where i flanked the enemy archers with a small unit of cav that had about 9 men in it and they would not shoot at it despite looking straight at it.
The air of all total wars has no sense of self preservation. Its programmed to as a whole try to defeat the player with a few extra forced triggers to make them fight each other.
It's like CA has been watching you use the archer ammo tactic lol well played sir.
Ok listen to this guys, this is what legend meand to me, i never had a pc but always wanted to play total war, after watching legends Ottoman empire campaign for like unlimited hours i decided that i have to buy a PC i brought a pc not knowing anything about them, ended up getting an integrated graphics card dont laugh i didnt know anything about graphic cards so i played empire total war for 300 hours on recomended graphics lol which were full on performence everything was pixelated later on i figured out that you can buy and add on a graphics card i went to pc world brought a graphics card and there you go i was good enough to run warhammer on my pc but yh back to the topic legend was the reason i brought a pc just for a game called total war which enden being more than worth it now i have combined hours of all the total war games which make it about 4 thousand hours. So thank you Legend for being a legend and the most under rated guy on youtube. 👍
legend "the food market" total war
That's Cao Cao. He starts right in the middle of a huge amount of farmland. It was that way on my normal playthrough
Im a relatively newer player to the total war franchise the first one i played was Shogun 2 which was about 4-5 years ago and just recently found out about your chanel. I really love the content you put out, makes me learn more about the games or franchise in general so yeah keep up the good work and I'll be looking forward to more total war from you
Kind of worrying that you spend less than 10 minutes discussing the units and battles.
I'm a Total War fan since Shogun, I've played them all except Warhammer 2 (didn't like warhammer). After the enormous deception of Attila, I'm very cautious before spending my money and above all my time in a new TW game. My preferred are Medieval 2 and Rome 2. I'd love to enjoy a new TW, let see if 3K will be the one.
Excellent review legend worth the wait. Now when will we see u play 3 kingdoms??
CA to sort out owning 2x resource minor settlement - add a small bonus for having x2 of the same, dependent on the resource. E.G. tools increase faction industry income by like 5%, Horses increase cavalry charge bonus by 10%. So thing small to make it a not game changing but to make it valuable to target a 2nd livestock farm.
you forgot to mention battle maps i think and from what iv seen they look pretty good, not empire tw levels of beauty. id probably put it third after empire and sho 2
It should be mentioned that you can recruit the faction-specific unit on any general regardless of colour, so a strategist can recruit cao cao's tiger and leopard cavalry if his rank is high enough
The spy system looks very much like the Knights of Honor one, which was really good. Maybe you weren't lucky enough to get your spies hired ?