In a recent video, Creative Assembly gave fans information about the starting position of Zheng Jiang, one of the twelve playable faction leaders in Total War: Three Kingdoms. Now, the studio is considering with their Total War: Three Kingdoms starting positions spotlight series. This time, Creative Assembly is looking at Sun Jian, the so-called ‘Tiger of Jiangdong.’
Total War: Three Kingdoms Starting Locations – Sun Jian
Among the different Total War: Three Kingdoms starting locations, Sun Jian’s may be the most southerly. According to the game, his starting difficulty is considered “normal”. One of Sun Jian’s biggest boons is the fact that he starts his campaign with an existing, sizeable family of characters. This includes his children, Sun Ce, Sun Quan, and Sun Ren. His eldest son, Sun Ce, is a Vanguard hero. Sun Quan is a Commander, and Sun Ren is also a Vanguard.
Interestingly, Sun Jian starts his campaign away from his starting province of Changsha, some distance to the north. The campaign begins at the moment when Sun Jian actually perishes, but players have the chance to save him from his fate. In keeping with history, Sun Jian’s primary starting enemy is Liu Biao, who has betrayed him as Sun Jian retreats homeward after abandoning Yuan Shao’s coalition. His starting dilemma is whether to give Liu Biao the Imperial Seal, which Sun Jian has recovered from Luoyang. If Sun Jian gives him the seal, Liu Biao does not declare war on him.
Sun Jian’s Faction Resource and Unique Units
Like the other factions in Total War: Three Kingdoms, Sun Jian’s faction has a unique resource. In his case, this resource is “Heroism”. This resource decreases his unit recruitment and unit upkeep costs while also increasing the satisfaction of his characters. He gains more heroism for fighting in battles and sieges as the aggressor, and when he inflicts greater casualties than the enemy. Certainly, needing to keep his heroism score high makes Sun Jian a very aggressive and expansionist faction.
Sun Jian has a variety of unique units which he can call upon. The most significant of these are the Mercenary Captain Retinues. These character-style retinues deploy immediately from a unique building chain called the Mercenary Outpost. This building gives a boost to commerce income but more importantly, allows characters to recruit these special retinues. As they function similarly to characters, these retinues are perfect for expanding armies quickly. Indeed, the other three special faction units are the different units which the retinues can recruit; Mercenary Archers, Mercenary Infantry, and Mercenary Cavalry.