Rule a house in 196 AD

Three Kingdoms Reimagined is a strategy game for one or two players. You rule from a pausable real-time campaign map of China and fight your battles yourself, with thousands of soldiers on the field. Begin as Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu, Sun Ce or another historical ruler, or create your own: choose a face, dress and arm them for battle, pick how they fight, and bring up to two companions you made.

Command the battle

When armies meet, read the contact report first. It shows both forces and the stratagems you can afford: dust dragged behind your riders so the enemy thinks you are many, a bandit chief's horsemen waiting off their flank for your signal. The enemy plans its own. Then fight the battle yourself or let Auto Resolve settle it.

On the field, order your cohorts to move, attack or hold, and watch morale and fatigue before you commit them. Officers lead their own share of the army, and soldiers near an officer's banner hold together. Famous officers have moments of their own: Zhang Fei roars, Lu Bu breaks the first rank, Zhao Yun cuts his way out when he is surrounded. When your men break and run, raise a standard and rally them.

Duels in the ranks

When two officers meet between the lines, one can challenge the other. Accept, and the ranks fall back to make a ring while the fighting goes on around it. A duel lasts up to a minute, and the winner gets back some of the strength it cost them. Before a battle you can also call out the enemy commander, and both armies stop to watch.

The Champions' Tournament

Once in a campaign, Lu Bu calls the strongest houses to a tournament at his parade ground. If he has fallen, the strongest house hosts. Each house sends its best fighter. Choose your champion, fight each bout yourself or let it resolve, and watch the others. Every house that enters is paid by how far its champion went, and the winner gains +3 WAR for good and the title Champion of the Realm.

Take the walls, or hold them

Cities are fought for on their own walls. Send a ram to the gate and ladder parties up the wall, and set your archers to keep the defenders' heads down. The garrison answers with boiling oil on the ram and stones on the ladders, and it will not break while its walls stand. In a single-player campaign, when an enemy storms a town your army is in, you can man the battlements yourself.

Keep a court

Your officers come to you when something happens. After a deed, a wound, or a plan you set aside, an officer's card waits on the map with one line and two answers, and the campaign keeps running while you decide. They ask for what matters to them: a command, a duel with a named enemy, an office. Promise it and the promise has a deadline. Keep it and they owe you a favor; break it and everyone who values good faith hears.

Your choices build your name: merciful or severe, bold or cautious, faithful or faithless. Officers who admire it serve gladly, and free officers weigh it before they join. Officers make friends in battle and rivals over honors. Swear an oath with a trusted officer once you have faced danger together, marry, or arrange a match between two of your court. Close officers send gifts, and an officer captured in a defeat can be ransomed or traded home.

Bonds that fight

Sworn brothers, spouses and friends steady each other's men when they fight side by side. When one falls, the other may rage or falter, and a comrade who goes down draws a rescue ride.

The Annals

After the first months, dated crises reach your court. A pretender claims the throne, Lu Bu is cornered at Xiapi, and the north fights its great war. Each crisis gives you ten days and several answers, and at least one leads to a grand battle you can fight yourself. Turning Points such as a captive emperor, a general who changes banners and a last coalition arrive one at a time, so each gets your attention.

Decide where to expand

Develop settlements, muster troops, trade grain and goods, and appoint officers to lead armies or run your cities. Your council proposes a plan; you choose which one your commanders follow. Scouts and reports show part of the situation, not every enemy movement.

Make peace by sending an envoy with terms, gold or a returned captive, or bind another court to yours by marriage. Hold a majority of the realm's 29 capitals to claim the Mandate, and expect the other courts to unite against you before the end. Win as Emperor, as Regent of the Han or as King, depending on the road you took. Lose your last holding and your house falls.

Every battle carries on

A victory may win territory while leaving your army too weak to press on. Survivors, wounds, captured officers and lost gates all stay in the campaign. Officers earn deeds, traits and titles, teach each other on campaign, and remember the promises you kept. A commander who keeps beating one of yours becomes a nemesis. Each officer's biography and your campaign's Chronicle keep the story.

Share the campaign with a friend

Two players can play one campaign together, each leading a historical warlord from their own seat. Begin as allies, at peace or at war, and keep the alliance or break it. Allies fight in each other's battles, each commanding their own army; rivals race each other for the realm. Each player can bring a character they created as a champion in their army. Stop and save together and carry on later. Custom Battle has a multiplayer lobby too, with drafted officers and armies of up to 500 men.

Also in this build

• English and Simplified Chinese
  
• 30 Steam achievements
  
• Gamepad play
  
• Steam Cloud saves

Screenshots and GIFs are captured from the current Early Access build. Some battles were set up for the camera.