Going to war and managing your troops in the heat of battle has always been the core gameplay of Total War, either that or deliberately heading straight into battle outgunned or outnumbered in order to test the mettle of your troops. But with the Three Kingdoms things can get mighty confusing when you’re not out fighting. You’d be surprised how something as simple as choosing who to put on councils can take up your time when you’re not quite sure of your decisions. That will all go away as we show you the way of heaven’s will in this guide and lead your kingdom to prosperity!

Court Guide | Total War Three Kingdoms

Now the court is made up of your faction leaders, heirs, and your administrators. You manage your dynasty here as you unlock more positions when you progress. Let’s go further into detail below and see how you can manage your people better.

While you’re in the in-game map click on the Court button or press 2 to bring up the rest of your family tree. What you can do here first is to hover over everyone’s portraits to see the positive and negative benefits they can offer if they’re to be assigned to a certain position.

Next thing that you should be on the lookout for is the character’s Background. You can find this by hovering over the general’s name, there’s plenty of generals each with their own unique background so be careful who you choose! For this example, Liu Bei is a Virtuous Idealist. That helps you with public order and upkeep but gives you 25% less income due to their poor background.

Another interesting thing to keep in mind are the basic Traits. You will have to keep a close eye on this as it influences character relations throughout the campaign. Same with the Background, there are numerous Traits in the game and your character can earn more as you progress with them.

Of course besides the individual Traits and Backgrounds you also would want to know more about navigating the Court itself. Each individual position in the court will have its own explanation and allows you to see the rank required in order to unlock it.

You can choose good old fashioned nepotism and assign a post to a family member or a general who’s done actual work with their own hands. Each character will offer various bonuses depending on the position they’re assigned to.

Remember – not all your characters need to be out in the field as some of them are more proficient with administrative affairs. The pen is mightier than the sword, and all of that.

Now that you’ve assigned a post to the members of your Court the next thing you need to do is to make sure everyone is satisfied. You wouldn’t want someone in a position of power to complain and suddenly decide it would be in their best interest to rebel! That gets in the way of prosperity and no one wants that.

In order to view a character’s Satisfaction go and hover over their character panel or check the characters list on your campaign screen. If you choose the character panel check to the right of their age in order to see their opinion about you.

Some of the things you can do to make sure they don’t look elsewhere is to make sure that the post you assigned to them is compatible with their class. For example if your character’s class is Sentinel then you would want to make that character into an Administrator.

Lastly, it’s recommended that you assign a post that complements their level. Give them a post that’s too out of reach for them and their satisfaction will suffer just as much. Now that’s good work ethic!

And that is how you manage internal affairs in Total War: Three Kingdoms. Now that you know the intricacies of the court you can be your very own Sun Tzu and lead by example!

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