Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV: Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack Bundle is the latest version of the 35 years spanning series. Based on true events albeit slightly romanticised, this strategy game lets you once again re-unite China.
Strategy royalty
This series goes way back. It’s been around since the early days of Nintendo and has gathered a bunch of fans along the way. Not every installment has been a hit but needless to say if you’re still around after 35 years, you must be doing something right. The Romance of The Three Kingdoms series is considered royalty among strategy fans. Speaking of royalty… In the series, you play different scenarios that take place during the Han Dynasty/Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. While each game more or less has the same themes, Koei tries to introduce new elements to differentiate between versions. This time around they went for a more planning-ahead Turn-based strategy approach which resulted in a fair share of caveats amongst fans.
Relay-hopping and watching paint dry
In Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV, you are in commands of a certain area represented by your own color. Each region consists of multiple hexagonal shapes and in order to truly rule over the region, you need to conquer the core and every surrounding tile. Each turn you carefully plan your moves in order to expand your territory. After choosing the right commander and a suitable formation for your troops and governing the current owned regions the game advances fairly automatically. After a turn of planning follows a moment of seeing it unfold which turns out to be a bit boring. The battles conquering and potential battles all unfold before your eyes. Reacting to what is happening isn’t possible until time advances and the next turn begins. Now turn-based strategy games can be engaging but this one sadly is not.
As you’ll soon find out… The strategy of relay-hopping from one core to another during your planning will almost be the most exciting thing you’ll do. The vast array of options you have during your turn will be mostly unused simply because there is no need for them. It can serve you well to change your investments in agriculture instead of in troops from time to time but these types of actions aren’t necessarily on the regular to make for exciting gameplay. Adding new possibilities might save grace for this installment. The Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack surely focuses on giving more options to get some more needed engagement during gameplay.
Foreign trading, traps, new scenarios, and new tactics
The Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack is adding 4 new scenarios but also a bunch of new gameplay options. Foreign tribes are introduced. These all have a big number of troops making them a force not to mess with – at least not from the beginning of the scenario. It’s better to befriend these tribes through the use of good diplomacy. The benefits of a good relationship with these tribes will give you the option to further expand and maybe gain some special items. At some point, you might be able to overtake these regions and gain a new powerful commander to further strengthen your position on the map. Beyond these local tribes, it becomes possible to send out a trade mission to other Eurasian empires like Rome and India.
Geographical advantages can be acquired by conquering certain areas. In order to make friends with the Wuhuan tribe, you need to control the Yo Province. These advantages can also be purely military in the form of new unique formations. Planning out which geographical advantage to pursue could tip the balance of the war against the other kingdoms. Laying out traps becomes a valuable option. Using the “false information” tactic in combination with these traps could result in great losses for your enemies. So using these could greatly benefit your success rate. These new options help make the game a bit less monotone but in the end, you’ll still watch things unfold a big share of the time.
The added War Chronicles Mode introduces 5 shorter scenarios. These let you play out a scenario on limited turns to test your abilities in the game. With fewer options for customization, you are really challenged to make the best of what you get. With an evaluation at the end of each scenario, you’ll have something to improve.
Expansion or full pack
Romance of The Three Kingdoms IV: Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack is available for those already owning the game. Anybody still lacking the base game can pick up the new bundle pack which includes both the base game and the expansion. Some bonus scenarios become available for download and depend on the platform you’re playing on. Switch users are in luck because Koei made it possible to enjoy the game on their console. Switch users also get an exclusive bonus to celebrate the first-time release of RTK14 on the console.
Conclusion
The Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion gives you more options. Sadly I feel these extra options can’t eclipse the fact that the base game isn’t all that exciting, to begin with. Casual fans like me should shy away from this title altogether. The Fans of the series might give this one another try because the new options add a bit more variance.
