Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV’s map showcases the territory captured and the thrill of expansion using a simplified color system – paying homage to the original Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV, released on PC back in 1985. Everything from war to diplomatic affairs will be geared toward managing and gathering land as players attempt to spread their strategies at will across the vast China map.

In addition, RTK14 will adopt the ruler-based system from RTK9 and RTK11 in order to help return classic gameplay to the series. This means that all actions – from domestic, to political, to battle – will now take place on a single map. Greater individuality among characters will also be on display; with officers from the Three Kingdoms, like Liu Bei and Guan Yu, asserting themselves at various situations in order to fully immerse players into the game’s rich history.

But that’s not all, as a new Evolved Artificial Intelligence system is also being implemented to challenge players across repeated playthroughs. With organizations now determined through each ruler’s ideals, different game experiences are now possible via different rulers. Even within the same faction; different policies now bring with them different strategies for expansion, making the wise use of various officers a cornerstone of advanced gameplay.

The Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack is loaded with new possibilities, including trade with great Eurasian empires -- including Rome and India -- allowing for even broader strategies to unfold on a path to unify China. But that’s not all, as the expansion pack also introduces cities of foreign forces onto the map. Apart from conflicts in the central area, armies will now need to deal with intensified border clashes, upping the stakes in every skirmish.

In addition, new geographical advantages will be assigned to each province, so the strategies gamers will be able to choose from will vary dramatically depending on which provinces are conquered. For example: Conquering Qing Province expands the area you conquer, while conquering Yo Province allows you to open up trade with the nomadic tribe of the region, making the order of which province you conquer first now vitally important. 

New officer characteristics and special tactics have also been added, along with new buildings for specific topography, a calendar that enables you to reflect on previous activities in the game, and an all-new campaign entitled “War Chronicles Mode.”

In the thrilling new War Chronicles Mode, five new short scenarios will be added to the battlefield, including the Anti Dong Zhou Coalition”, “The Battle of Guandu”, “The Battle of Chibi”, “The Battle for Jing Province”, and “The Battle for Wuzhang Plains”. In this new mode, gamers will take command of forces which cannot be chosen in normal scenarios -- such as Zhou Yu in “The Battle of Chibi” and rivals Zhuge Liang or Sima Yi in the heated “Battle of Wuzhang Plains” -- and each scenario will include original events, adding even more excitement to the classic scenes in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At the conclusion of each scenario, players will be evaluated and given a score according to several factors including how many turns were used, how many orders were consumed, and how many times a coordinated tactic was executed, testing the true skills of every gamer out on the virtual battlefield.

Beyond War Chronicles Mode, the ability to provide “False Information” against enemy units was also revealed. “False information” is a unit command which disseminates disinformation to enemy units and leads them into traps. If you lay a trap in advance and activate the command “False Information” against a marching enemy unit, your previous commands will be suspended and your unit will deceive the enemy unit to move toward the ensuing trap. With “False Information”, success depends on intelligence, so officers with high intelligence are going to play a more active part in battlefields than ever before. New officer characteristics referring to “false information” will also be introduced into the game, such as “Seer” and “Careless”, allowing officers to have more vivid and effective personality types throughout every campaign.

In addition, the new “Destroy Building” ability will enable players to sabotage structures on the map. Instead of simply marching units to destroy a building in a soldier’s way like in previous games, now you’ll be able to set traps like falling rocks to devastate buildings impeding your path to victory.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV: Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack also features a variety of early purchase bonus items that will be available to freely download within the first two weeks from launch. The bonus scenario ‘The Fall of Shu Han’ will be available for players on all platforms, while the ‘Battle of Yiling’ scenario, originally a bonus for the release of Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV, will be available exclusively to Switch players.

The Romance of The Three Kingdoms XIV: Diplomacy and Strategy Expansion Pack is scheduled to release for PS4, PC (Steam), and making its series debut on Nintendo Switch on February 11, 2021.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV is currently available for PS4 and PC.