Total War: Three Kingdoms next DLC is a prequel

The next story DLC for Total War: Three Kingdoms will be a wee bit of a prequel, bringing new starts a scant eight years before the main campaign kicks off. Creative Assembly today announced Mandate Of Heaven for a January 16th launch, bringing six new factions and dozens of new units. Starting in the year 182 just before the Yellow Turban rebellion, it'll tell more of the Han Empire's struggle with that.

Three new Yellow Turban warlords and three new Han Empire factions will throw down in Mandate Of Heaven. From their new starting point, 8 years before the game's usual point, they can roll on through into a regular campaign. See the Steam page for more on the factions, their units, and their goals.

"Since the launch of Three Kingdoms and Eight Princes, we've had a massive amount of player feedback in terms of what people want to see in future Three Kingdoms content packs," Creative Assembly said in the announcement FAQ. "With that in mind, Mandate Of Heaven introduces a host of new characters, 40 new battle units, a major rebalance of existing units rosters to encourage more diverse army builds, and unique faction mechanics for both new and existing playable Warlords which create distinctively different playstyles and campaign experiences."

After the first Three Kingdoms DLC was set, uh, after the Three Kingdoms era, Creative Assembly said in September that they would revise their plans "with a view to doing more of what the community is feeding back to us on." People wanted Three Kingdoms in their Three Kingdoms game, y'know. This is still outside that era but does at least roll into it.

The DLC will cost £8/€10/$10. Arriving alongside it will be the customary patch fixing and tweaking things for all players, as well as a new free warlord, Tao Qian.