Officers who make a name: deeds, titles and court honors

Officers now remember what they did in your service, earn titles for it, and want things from you in return. Out today in the free demo and the full game.

Guan Yu used to start a campaign as "Retainer, Untested Blade", and whatever happened after that, the History tab only listed experience awards: "Field battle won, +30 XP", once per battle. In a 240-day test campaign Cao Cao fought 29 battles and came out of them without a single memory. The officers are the reason people love this period, and the game was forgetting everything they did.

So I rebuilt how an officer's life is recorded. It is the largest change to officers since the demo went up, and it touches the battlefield, the court, diplomacy and the Chronicle. Everything shown here comes from one Cao Cao campaign, between day 428 and day 473.

Qiao, in the snow. Xu Chu breaks the first rank with fifteen men slain, and moments later the enemy commander, Liu Pi, goes down.

Deeds come from the battle itself

A fought battle now keeps track of the moments people remember. An officer who wins a duel, or strikes down an enemy officer with their own blow, has done a deed. So has one who cuts down fifteen men in a battle their side wins, keeps fighting after being unhorsed, takes command when the commander falls and the army is not ahead, or rallies men after a rout. A reinforcement that arrives with the battle going badly and turns it is a deed, and so is a win against heavy odds.

Some deeds come from the campaign rather than one fight: holding or taking a city, a fifth victory in the same province, fifty and then a hundred battles of service. Officers away from the front earn theirs too, by building up a city's works, carrying a treaty, winning a talent trial, teaching, or giving the warning at council that turned out to be right.

To keep the record readable, a single battle keeps at most three of its standout deeds for each side.

The title comes home with the after-battle report.

Titles you earn, titles you give

Most deeds come with a title. The officer who strikes down Gao Shun can be known as "Slayer of Gao Shun", and the one who arrives with fresh troops while the line is failing and carries the day becomes the one "Who Turned the Field at Xuchang". Several of the novel's great names start with their famous sobriquets: Xu Chu is "the Tiger Fool" and Zhang Fei "a Match for Ten Thousand".

Officers in other courts go by their best title. Your own officers keep the title they hold until you decide otherwise. Bestowing one of their earned titles raises their standing, and 25 officers who care about recognition value it even more. You can also write a title yourself, up to 32 characters; that one is only a name and does nothing for their standing.

Renown and the record

Deeds add renown in five fields: command, arms, counsel, stewardship and diplomacy. Renown never fades. An officer becomes Noted at 20, Famed at 60, Renowned at 140 and Legendary at 280, and the 29 great heroes of the period start out Famed. A court full of famous names is also easier to join. Each Famed officer in your service adds three points to the chance that a free officer accepts your offer, up to twelve.

The History tab now opens with a short biography written from the record. It covers where the officer started, who they served, the deeds that defined them, the names they were given and how the chronicle judges them. Below it are the deeds themselves, newest first, then renown by field, titles and court honors. The biography can be copied, so you can paste your officer's story wherever you like.

Xu Chu's History tab after Qiao, written from 473 days of this campaign.

Nine court honors

The four generals of the Front, Left, Right and Rear and the Military Adviser General can be appointed from the start. The Prefect of the Masters of Writing and the Grand Herald open when you hold three capitals; the generals of Chariots and Cavalry and of Agile Cavalry open at six. Each office asks for a certain level of renown.

Appointing an officer raises their standing, more if the office suits their talents and more again if they value recognition. Taking an office away costs standing. Rival courts appoint their own officers to these posts as well.

Cao Ren after Cao Cao's first appointments as Chancellor: General of the Front, and known by Cao Cao's grant as "Victor of Guangling". The campaign has also made Cao Ren "the Embittered and the Disgraced".

What your officers want

Every officer now has an ambition. Xu Chu's was to stand at Cao Cao's right hand, and in this campaign Xu Chu got there. Others want to be remembered as a great general, to see their counsel proven right, to build a state that lasts, or to hold a front alone. The profile shows how close they are and what would help. A fulfilled ambition brings a title and a large rise in standing.

Each officer also has something they will not stand for, and it differs from one officer to the next. Some resent being left idle at court for two months or passed over for an office; others take it badly when you break your word, open wars on too many fronts, abandon a city or ignore the advice they gave. When it happens, their standing drops.

Xu Chu will not abide bad faith, and Cao Cao has broken the peace twice.

Sworn enemies

When an officer strikes down someone's kin or sworn companion, the survivor swears vengeance on the officer who did it. Striking down the same enemy twice makes two officers sworn enemies as well. When their armies meet again the contact report says so, and settling the score is a deed of its own. These feuds only form when your court is involved, and an officer carries at most two at a time.

A ruler's rise

Rulers climb as their realm grows. A ruler who holds a capital is a governor. At six capitals they become Chancellor, at nine a Duke and at twelve a King, and a title once taken stays even if capitals are lost later. A card marks each step, and the Chancellor's also opens the last two generals' offices. Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Sun Ce, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao and Lu Bu each speak a line as they take the three higher titles, in English and in Chinese. Not everyone at court is pleased. If Xun Yu is still in Cao Cao's service on the day Cao Cao becomes a Duke, the ceremony goes ahead without Xun Yu.

Day 428: a sixth capital, and Cao Cao becomes Chancellor. In the game the card comes with Cao Cao's spoken line.

A Chronicle you can read

The Chronicle used to record nearly everything, and almost every line began "Your banner reports". In that 240-day test it collected 312 entries, most of them officers coming home from battle and routine clashes. Now routine victories fold into one line for each season ("Summer 196 · 9 other battles won"). Deeds, captures, wars and the Turning Points always keep their own entries, and a report that reached you late says how many days late it was. A comparable hands-off campaign now ends with 90 entries. The save slots have moved to a screen of their own.

Day 473. The routine wins of the season share one line, and Xiaopei, taken by three of Cao Cao's armies on the same day, is a single entry.

Out today

All of this is in today's update, for the free demo and for the full game. The demo still ends after fifty days, which is enough to see deeds, titles, the first court honors, ambitions and the new Chronicle. The higher ruler titles take a longer campaign: the Chancellor's card and the battle in this post come from a full-game campaign more than four hundred days in.

Campaigns saved in the previous version carry over. Your officers start with renown for the victories, works and treaties already on their record, and rulers keep the title their realm has earned.

I would love to hear which titles your officers end up with, and which ones you write for them.

Wishlist Three Kingdoms Reimagined on Steam