A few turns into my Total War: Three Kingdoms - Mandate of Heaven campaign and everything is already falling apart. As the Emperor and ruler of the Han dynasty, I might be a big shot, but I've got looters at my gates, traitors in my court and a huge rebellion kicking off up north. I'm in heaven. 

For the second of Three Kingdoms' campaign expansions, Creative Assembly is doing things a bit differently. Instead of a separate miniature campaign, Mandate of Heaven has been integrated in the main campaign as a sort of prelude, expanding things by around a decade. That's not very long in the context of Total War, but it has ramifications that extend well beyond those early years. 

Several returning leaders are once again available with the new start date, though their situations are all different from what you might be used to from the base game. The real focus, however, is on the newly playable Han Empire and the originators of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, both of which are fighting for control over the burning empire.

Both factions have multiple leaders for you to play as, some with easier starts than others, but in all cases it's a bit of an uphill struggle. As the Emperor, possibly the person in the worst position, it's a bit of a nightmare. Despite being top dog, the Emperor only has direct control over the capital, with the rest of the empire being split up between other warlords. To use all that power you have, then, you have to keep lots of people happy. That ain't easy.

The real threat to the empire are the eunuchs. Playing as the Han, you have to contend with a new system where three groups are vying for control over the court, each with their own supporters. The eunuchs run the bureaucracy, and their influence costs China greatly, but managing the empire sometimes necessitates giving them even more power, like giving members of your court new jobs that confer lots of bonuses. Then there are the warlords who swear fealty to you but who are just waiting for you to screw up. And finally there's the dynasty itself, representing your powerbase. Juggling these three factions is at the heart of playing the Han, and brings Three Kingdoms closer to Paradox-style grand strategy, something that makes me extremely happy.

With Three Kingdoms, Creative Assembly finally built a game with compelling diplomacy and economic systems, but no other faction has to engage with them quite like the Han. Usually the campaign eases you in, but here there are a lot of immediate problems that can't be solved with a big army. Instead you'll need to butter up your mates, beg for cash and try desperately to stop everyone from starving, all while an increasingly large horde of rebels amasses just across the river. 

The rebels don't have nearly as many problems to worry about at the start, but don't mistake them for the simple option. Like the Han, they also come with new complexities and obstacles. Initially, the three brothers—you pick one but will be allied to the others—who lead the rebellion start off with no territory at all, but they benefit from lots of cash injections and missions that take the pressure off. 

Off the bat, they'd be wiped out by the empire pretty quickly, but thankfully there are a few turns before the Mandate of Heaven war kicks off, giving them time to gobble up some land without having to fight off all of China straight away. The fragmented and competitive nature of the empire also gives them some breathing room. Before long, however, the imperial army and warlords will start coming for you.

The most important things in the rebels' bag of tricks are zeal and fervour. Zeal represents how up for a rebellion people are, shared among all three brothers. Zeal is increased by various actions, like getting into fights, but it will inevitably dwindle, inspiring counties to put their faith back in the Han and rise up against you. Fervour, meanwhile, makes things tougher for the Han. Yellow Turban buildings and troops can spread fervour, making it more likely that AI rebels will sprout in imperial counties.  

These resources and effects make the rebellion feel like this organic force that you can take advantage of but can't always control. In my game, some of the AI rebellions were nearly as successful as my own, while other times they were quickly snuffed out and there was nothing I could do to help them, half-way across the country. 

Like the Han, leading the rebellion also forces you to be a people person. Over the course of the campaign, more characters will start to appear, depending on certain prerequisites, and can join your cause, and you'll absolutely need their help. Sometimes, though, they have other ideas. He Yi, for instance, is a royal pain in the arse. He was introduced in last year's Yellow Turban DLC and now appears once you've secured the north. You can either ask him to join you as one of your generals or support him as a leader in his own right. Pick the latter and you'll be in for an interesting ride. He's suicidally brave, you see, which means he loves getting into whatever fights he can find, and he'll absolutely keep dragging you into wars. I love him, but he has no chill. 

I'll still take He Yi over my useless brothers, however, because at least he can hold onto territory. Playing as Zhang Jue, I had to do a lot of babysitting for Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao. They might need some tweaks, as they're pretty timid at the moment.  At first they were fine, but once the war started properly they spent far too much time in their settlements and gave up counties that would have been easy to defend. I know this, because I was the one that ended up doing it most of the time. Sometimes they can be handy, especially if they decide to attack your war targets, and often I used them as a buffer between me and my enemies, but a lot of the time I had to pause my own plans to trudge all the way back to their territory to save them once again. 

The war over the Mandate of Heaven can extend well into the main campaign, and probably will, so while it doesn't feel much longer than a regular campaign, it doesn't suddenly stop when you hit 190CE. It can also have a dramatic impact on what China looks like once you reach the original start date, with different factions becoming more prominent, while others could be wiped out entirely. My biggest rival in my very first game at launch, for instance, was dead and buried by 189CE in Mandate of Heaven. RIP Sun Jian. 

It's a smart move by Creative Assembly, making the campaign richer and more dynamic without drawing things out. It's already a vast, time-consuming game, and I don't think 100 more turns would do anyone any good, especially if, like me, they've finally put to rest a mammoth-sized Total War: Warhammer Mortal Empires campaign. 

Mandate of Heaven is unlikely to be the last of this kind of expansion. When you start up a new game, there's now a timeline where you can pick when you begin—again, evocative of Paradox grand strategy games—suggesting more additions to it will appear. Right now there are only three historical bookmarks, however, and only two of them are connected. There's plenty of room for more. 

Creative Assembly's Total War: Three Kingdoms captures out Best Strategy award for 2019. We'll be updating our GOTY 2019 hub with new awards and personal picks throughout December.

Wes: I'm 30 hours into a Three Kingdoms co-op campaign where I'm conquering all of southern China as Sun Jian. Meanwhile, my friend and neighbor Yuan Shu has had to become a vassal, then join an alliance, just to stop Cao Cao from trampling him. I keep giving him food out of pity. It's been illuminating to see how dramatically differently Three Kingdoms can play out depending on your starting faction. That's not completely new to Total War, but Three Kingdoms is by far the most character-focused game in the series, and the personality it injects into each faction is its greatest strength.

I won a nearly impossible battle against an army double my size by sending Sun Jian himself onto the field to duel another faction leader, Yuan Shao, and killing him at the very beginning of the fight. His army never recovered from the morale hit. I also infiltrated a spy into Yuan Shao's army, but was so determined to win that battle I inadvertently killed my spy in combat, too. So, that's a thing that can happen.

Like all Total War games, Three Kingdoms can be a bit messy. There's so much UI to keep track of when you're outside of the stellar combat. Managing the economy or sussing out how to properly arrange my faction's government or bargain with other leaders is never as intuitive or focused as it is in some other 4X games. But Three Kingdoms has made some big strides, and it's refreshing to experience the little narratives that come out of these personality clashes, without the crud of old Total War (spies were the worst) slowing things down. Every faction that asks to marry my warrior daughter, making her a member of their house, in exchange for a lousy pile of gold: she'll see you on the battlefield.

Fraser: Shogun 2, formerly the best historical Total War game, has been deposed. I put the 'historical' caveat there because my heart still belongs to Warhammer, but so much of that is down to setting and character. Three Kingdoms has everything else, and it’s still blessed with a great setting and an abundance of personality. The campaign, battles, diplomacy—they’re all the best they’ve ever been. The last one in particular seemed like a lost cause, but no, Three Kingdoms finally made interacting with other factions outside of combat engaging. It’s a miracle. 

When diplomacy fails and fights kick off, they straddle the line between historical and fantasy Total War brawls. You’ve got grounded, historical units with swords and spears and not a magical weapon among them, but then you’ve got heroes, who do get special weapons, along with flashy abilities and superhuman strength. They can change the course of a battle just on their lonesome, as long as they don’t get defeated by another hero in a duel. They’re even more powerful, arguably, than their Warhammer counterparts, and make battles more dynamic and even more entertaining to watch.

Tom: The heroes are a big new addition to CA's historical Total War series, especially on the battlefield. I'm glad that the rest of the combat has remained quite straightforward. The interplay of swordsmen, spearmen, and cavalry is such an integral part of Total War combat for me, it's satisfying to slip back into old Total War habits without having to learn a bunch of new unit types. The RTS element of Total War has always excelled at delivering the spectacle of a vast, important battle, but that doesn't mean that combat has to be especially complicated. Spears beat horses; swords beat spears; flaming arrows are great; heavy cavalry beats almost everything. That's the law of Total War, and that forms the core of Three Kingdoms' magnificent real time scraps. I don't even need campaign mode, I'll happily boot up the game for a massive skirmish to enjoy the splendid unit design and animation work.