Events and Initial dilemma are new features introduced for the player to create their own war stories during game progression.

The game now features story events and diverted paths.

Undercover Network returns to replace the old Agent system and plays vastly different from assassination and espionage system in previous titles.

Reforms system, which is Three Kingdoms' unique take on tech tree, is refined and redesigned.

People with low satisfaction and unpleasant guanxi within your court will automatically leave your faction to seek employment elsewhere and bring their own retinues and territories with them. The player can give out Administrator position for your characters, ensuring their effective and satisfied employment in your court. New faction council provides bonus and generate missions for the player to improve the national industry, military, and commerce. It now features various new court positions, family tree, and character relationship web. It also adds new diplomacy options such as coalition and guaranteeing vassal autonomy. These include haggling deals and trade territory and ancillaries, and how AI values your offer, which affects state relationships and attitudes between different leaderships. The new Diplomacy revolutionizes a host of traditional features and systems from previous titles in the franchise.

The developer rewrites the diplomacy model and AI from scratch to support these new aims and features. Diplomacy is completely revamped from previous titles.A character's portrait will also change according to the ancillary equipped. Ancillary are now items that can be equipped on characters to provide bonuses for your character's attributes.They also form their deep relationships with each other, both positive and negative, that shape how your story plays out. Each of these characters is brought to life with their own unique personalities, motivations, and likes/dislikes. The Guanxi System (Friendship and Loyalty) is modeled after Guanxi, the Chinese concept of dynamic inter-relationships, The Creative Assembly claims that the game has taken a paradigm-shifting approach to character agency.The game features a cast of hundreds of historical characters with some of them being famous figure with unique design. So all of the player's characters can be a spy one day, a general on the battlefield next, and a governor in the court after. There are no dedicated Generals, Spies, or Diplomats in the Three Kingdoms, all characters can perform all roles. Characters in the game are now unique entities with different backgrounds and traits. However, with each warlord having personal ambitions and constantly shifting allegiances, players need to utilize strategy and tactics to unify China and write their own history. New warlords rise and form the coalition to start the campaign against Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo's oppressive rule leads to chaos. The enthroned child Emperor, Xian, was manipulated by the warlord Dong Zhuo, at the age of eight. The game begins in 190 CE, in which the once glorious Han dynasty is on the verge of collapse.

Total war three kingdoms map