KIT Three Kingdoms: Heroes at War

KIT Three Kingdoms: Heroes at War is a solo-developed Three Kingdoms strategy game built around Realm-Unification Mode, connecting realm management on a grand map with streamlined real-time battles. Govern cities, raise armies and assign officers to key roles—but before a force marches, you must decide who will join it, where it will go and whether its food supply can sustain the operation.

Victory is not decided by troop numbers alone. Routes, food, formations, direction of attack, officer abilities and siege preparation all shape the outcome. An army can win a field battle and still fail at the city walls if its supplies collapse.

Govern Cities and Expand Your Realm

Your cities are the foundation of every war. Organise production, recruit troops, strengthen defences, search for new talent and assign officers to key positions. Each decision affects what you can send into the field and how long you can support it.

Before an expedition departs, choose its officers and consider the troop type each one commands. Decide how much food and equipment the force will carry, then plan a route to its next city or battlefield. A larger army may be more powerful, but it also demands more food and becomes harder to sustain during a long operation.

Officers with no assigned troops remain eligible for the battle roster, but in a defensive battle they must stay in the city for the initial deployment. They may sortie after receiving troops from later supplies. Both sieges and defensive battles may begin with no units in the initial formation, preserving forces for rotation and counterattack. A battle can field no more than eight officers; if more are available, first choose the eight-person roster, then decide who stays behind or deploys.

Computer Factions Weigh the Strategic Situation

Computer factions treat administration, recruitment, ordinary transport and expeditions as connected strategic choices. They compare target troops, officers, fortification durability and counter-fire, estimate the route, battle duration, food coverage and expected losses, and weigh rosters of up to eight officers. When a front is underprepared, they can consider transporting resources or reinforcing it before another operation.

These decisions are changing estimates, not hard rules that forbid an attack. A computer faction may still accept a risky opportunity or misjudge a situation as information and the front change; players can exploit its supply lines, troop movements and mistakes.

Food Is the Clock Behind Every War

Food is more than a resource stockpiled in your cities. It determines how long your armies can march, fight and maintain a siege.

• Cities consume food each day to support their population, garrison and reserve troops.
  
• An expedition carries food when it departs. Consumption rises with army size and with the time spent marching or fighting.
  
• Both sides continue consuming food during a field battle. If one force runs out, it can be forced to withdraw. If both sides deplete their supplies at the same time, the engagement can end with both armies disengaging.
  
• Sieges place a heavier supply burden on the attacker. An attacking army without food must retreat. If the defender’s food reaches zero, disorder breaks out inside the city and the city begins losing durability as the siege continues.
  
• A supply collapse on the strategic map can cost additional troops and trigger a rapid rout.
  
• Some tactics can raid enemy supplies directly, while certain Advisor Skills can reduce food consumption.

Send Supplies That Must Reach the Battlefield

During a battle, you can dispatch food and reserves from a friendly city only when it has stock, is out of combat and has an open route to the battlefield. Confirming the dispatch actually deducts the selected food and reserves from the source city. They do not appear at the front instantly: the convoy must travel the route, and the supplies take effect only after it arrives.

Ordinary transport and battlefield resupply serve different purposes. Ordinary transport assigns one officer, carries no combat troops, and transfers food, gold, reserves and siege engines between sites. Battlefield resupply is tied to one active battle and delivers only food and reserves to that front. Both travel along real routes, but their cargo has a different destination and use after arrival.

The interface shows the source stock, journey and estimated arrival time, and totals the convoys, food and reserves en route to or waiting for that battle. Warnings appear as battlefield food falls to 75%, 50% and 25% or less of the opening supply, giving you time to act before the supply line collapses.

Winning a battle therefore requires more than defeating the enemy in front of you. You must manage your remaining supplies and judge whether the army can still complete its objective, wait for a convoy or withdraw safely after the fighting is over.

March to Relieve a Siege

When one of your cities is under siege, you can redirect an idle army already on the map or select officers in an eligible friendly city and dispatch a new relief force. Reinforcements do not teleport into the battle: they carry their own food and march along the actual road network, so their supplies must cover the journey. On arrival, they intercept the chosen besieging army on the road outside the city and begin a separate encounter battle.

Read the Formation Before You Commit

When armies meet, the game shifts from strategic planning to real-time command. Troop type, formation, facing and whether a unit is already engaged all matter.

• Cavalry units build charge while moving, then convert that momentum into additional damage on impact.
  
• A prepared spear formation can intercept a frontal cavalry charge—but only while it is facing the attack, has not been broken and is not already locked in close combat.
  
• Archer fire can temporarily suppress a spear formation, creating an opening for cavalry or infantry. Archers, however, become vulnerable when enemies close the distance.
  
• Infantry is suited to frontal engagements and can anchor the line while other units manoeuvre.

Spear formations do not automatically stop cavalry, and cavalry cannot simply charge through every prepared spear formation. Timing, facing and whether the spears are already engaged decide whether the interception succeeds.

Break the Fortifications

Siege battles add gates, walls and specialised equipment to the battlefield. Battering rams attack city gates, ladders support assaults at close range, and ballistae and catapults apply pressure from a distance.

The strategic fortification rating becomes both city durability and defensive counter-fire in a formal siege. Units attacking gates, walls and other defensive targets take return damage; while the fortifications remain intact, that counter-fire can steadily wear down the attacker. Breaking the durability and opening the defence is therefore part of winning the siege.

Siege engines are committed and consumed once per expedition. Confirming dispatch immediately deducts the selected engines from the site's stock, and they apply only to that expedition. In a formal siege, each committed engine increases the attacker's damage to gates, walls and other fortification targets by 1.8%, up to a total bonus of 22%. Defender stock and field battles do not trigger this bonus.

Committed engines are not returned after arrival, withdrawal, garrisoning or occupation. Moving siege engines by ordinary transport is only a stock transfer between sites and does not consume them as expedition supplies. An otherwise powerful army may still fail if it reaches the walls without enough equipment—or runs out of food before it can finish the assault.

After capturing a city, any unspent gold carried by that expedition can fund an immediate fortification repair. Repairs use the domestic construction rate and can restore defenses only up to their pre-battle value; loot and the city’s existing treasury do not increase this emergency budget.

Choose How Much to Command

The battle system supports three control styles:

• Manual — issue movement and attack orders directly.
  
• Semi Auto — combine player orders with automated unit behaviour.
  
• Full Auto — let the AI direct the battle and observe how your preparations play out.

You can take direct command when detailed positioning matters, or focus on army composition, logistics and preparation before letting the battle unfold.

Battle Arts and Stratagems Follow Different Rules

Officer attributes and combat roles affect battlefield performance. Each officer commands a particular troop type, so the officers you deploy also determine the shape of your army. Battle Arts and Stratagems are two different ability systems.

• Battle Arts are generally carried by martial officers and rely heavily on Might and current strength. They activate automatically once Morale is full and the relevant conditions are met.
  
• Stratagems are generally carried by advisers or commander-type officers. In manual and semi-automatic battles, you control their activation timing and target. Only fully automatic mode lets the AI control Stratagems for both sides.
  
• Targeting can be immediate, at a designated location, or in a designated direction. The battlefield displays the expected area or direction while aiming; canceling or releasing at an invalid target does not consume the Stratagem.

Battle Arts and Stratagems can deal direct or area damage, strengthen allies, hinder enemies, alter Morale, restore strength, create Ambushes, damage buildings, apply fire or Bleeding, and control movement.

Settle the Clash in a Duel

Under the right battle conditions, two officers may challenge each other to a duel. A duel can occur at most once per battle. Refusing a challenge—or the outcome of an accepted duel—can affect morale.

During a duel, choose among three primary attacks—Slash, Thrust and Rising Strike—which form a three-way counter system:

• Slash counters Thrust.
  
• Thrust counters Rising Strike.
  
• Rising Strike counters Slash.

Counter, Guard and Evade provide limited-use defensive alternatives. Reading the opponent and deciding when to spend those options is as important as choosing the right attack.

Seven Playable Sandbox Starts

Realm-Unification Mode currently includes seven playable sandbox starts: “Yellow Turban Rebellion (184 CE),” “Coalition Against Dong Zhuo (189 CE),” “Warlords Divided (196 CE),” “Battle of Guandu (200 CE),” “Battle of Red Cliffs (208 CE),” “Liu Bei Enters Shu (211 CE),” and “Three Kingdoms (222 CE).” Choose an available faction and enter the strategic map from that scenario’s initial territorial situation to manage cities, organise armies, expand your realm and pursue unification.

These starts are open-ended strategic setups rather than separate historical campaigns. They do not include individual chains of historical events or scenario-specific scripted victory objectives, and they are not the complete historical stages shown in the DLC development preview below.

Unify the Realm Within One Hundred Years

Each scenario counts a full 100 in-game years from its own starting date. Control every city before the deadline to complete unification; otherwise the campaign ends with the “A Century Unfinished” outcome. The full game contains 49 achievements covering first victories, captures, successful defenses, relief and supply battles, city and officer milestones, and unification with different scenarios and factions.

Historical Campaign DLC — Development Preview

Historical Campaign Mode is in development as a separate DLC and is not included in the full game's v1.0. Images shown here preview the five-language chapter and story browser interface currently in development, including the flow for viewing chapters, stages and story context.

This development preview does not mean that every Historical Campaign battle is complete, or that the DLC has been uploaded or released. Its final content, completed scope and release timing may change.

Full-Game Scope

The game will not enter Early Access and will be released as a complete single-player game centred on Realm-Unification Mode. Historical Campaign Mode is not included in v1.0; it remains a separate DLC development preview whose final content, completed scope, delivery and timing may change. Essential maintenance, bug fixes and balance updates will continue separately.

Developed Independently

This is a solo-developed game. Its strategic map, city management, logistics, real-time battles, sieges, tactics and duels form one complete realm-unification loop.