Now Playing: Mandate of Heaven (DLC)

Mandate of Heaven is the second main DLC for Total War: Three Kingdoms. Like the previous DLC (Eight Princes), Mandate of Heaven is set within a new time period but, unlike Eight Princes, which was set nearly 100 years following the original 190 start date, Mandate is set in 182 – a prequel of sorts that leads into the core campaign.

And I think that’s why I picked up this DLC, and not Eight Princes. Whereas Eight Princes felt very disconnected from the original campaign, Mandate of Heaven integrates very cleverly with that setting and its characters. It’s kind of like a ‘mini-campaign’ that leads you into the 190 campaign, but the outcome of which will build a unique starting situation in 190 for many familiar factions and characters – some of which will be very different from their default 190 starting positions.

Characters that you were familiar with in the 190 campaign may already be defeated, or may have been incorporated into other factions. And some characters and factions that emerge in 190 will find a very different map of faction borders awaiting them. I think this aspect of Mandate of Heaven is the thing I like most about it. Once you hit 190, you are essentially playing the ‘core’ campaign again, but it’s a very different campaign sandbox to the one you’ve become familiar with.

 

Back when I reviewed Three Kingdoms, I spoke about how the core campaign needed more fleshing out – more characters, more units, more items and more unique mechanics. I also believed the southern half of the map needed to be better utilised by the AI. And I’m pleased to say that Mandate of Heaven addresses these concerns – it does add more new characters, units, items and faction mechanics. It also sees (at least in the campaigns that I’ve played) the southern half of the map being colonised more rapidly and by different competing factions.

Although you can play as several familiar factions in Mandate of Heaven (others are locked to the 190 start) the focus of this DLC is the conflict between the Han empire and the Yellow Turban rebellion – a rebellion that ultimately leads to the all out war of the 190 period. Although you can still play as the Yellow Turbans in the 190 campaign, those in Mandate of Heaven play a little differently, with their own unique reform trees, units and faction mechanics.

 

Regardless of if you play as the Han aligned factions or the Yellow Turbans, you’ll find yourself locked within a great alliance war – the empire versus the rebels. If you just want to focus on wiping out the Yellow Turbans or defeating the empire, it’s possible to wrap up the campaign as either side fairly quickly, but it’s fun to continue on beyond 190 in this new sandbox that you’ve helped to shape. I also like the fact that you can play as the Han Emperor himself and try to change history and keep the empire together. It’s a little like the Three Kingdoms version of the Western Roman Empire campaign from Total War: Attila.

Included with this DLC was a patch that also adds some welcome (free) additions to the game – siege towers and a range of deployable battlefield defences – towers, wooden stakes and ignitable oil. These, along with the the new units, add some needed variety to the battle side of the game. I can’t really factor these additions into this review, however, because they are part of the free update, not the DLC, but it’s good to see that, like the Warhammer games, each 3K DLC release will also include not only bug fixes and balance improvements, but new free content.

 

Overall, Mandate of Heaven is certainly worth picking up if you’re a fan of the core game and the original campaign. It doesn’t offer a massively new or unique experience, just a tweaked variation of what you already enjoy. I still think 3K needs more love and attention – there’s a ranged cursor bug I reported at release that’s still not been fixed – and I certainly wouldn’t say no to yet more unique character artwork, items and events to further flesh out the campaign.

It’s also going to be interesting to see what DLC they do next. I imagine the next step is to look forward, beyond 190, perhaps to the start of the historical Three Kingdoms period as it existed in reality. If you already own 3K then I’d recommend picking up Mandate of Heaven, although new players should probably begin with the 190 campaign.

7/10