Duelling is one of the highlighted features in Total War: Three Kingdoms.
Overview[]
When playing Three Kingdoms in Romance mode, characters appears as powerful single heroes on horseback. Characters may issue challenges to fight one-on-one duels with enemy characters. The only character class that cannot engage in duels is the strategist.
Duelling has a number of purposes. First and foremost, it’s a way of slaying or routing enemy characters. If a character falls in a duel, that character’s entire retinue will suffer a morale penalty. Secondly, duelling is a way of locking down an enemy character for the duration of the duel, thereby preventing that character from attacking friendly units.
Gameplay[]
Two characters engage in duel
Challenge to duel[]
To issue a duel challenge, player need to select a friendly character and click the duel button. A a list of generals will then be presented in the enemy army who are capable of duelling, to the left of which is a power-meter, showing their strength relative to player's selected character.
Duelling in process[]
When a duel begins, regular units will steer a path around the fight to let the two combatants duel honourably. Player may attempt to interrupt a duel by ordering friendly units to attack the duelling enemy character, but this is a deeply dishonourable last-ditch action, and confers a major morale penalty to player's entire army, and any allied armies involved in the battle. Characters involved in a duel are allowed to activate their abilities, usually towards their and/or nearby units' benefit without consequence. Nearby generals can freely assist their duelling combatant with non-damage abilities - either passive or active - of their own. Use of these abilities can sometimes allow the weaker character to prevail over a more powerful opponent.
Withdrawn or persist[]
Player can also choose to withdraw character from a duel, rather than risk their death, but they will feel great shame and dishonour, flee the battlefield, and the act will deal an alliance-wide morale penalty, the said character will then become unavailable to use for the duration of the battle. However, also note that when a duel is initiated a countdown timer will begin. If player's dueling general is weaker than the enemy character, and survives the duel until the timer runs down before withdrawing, the character's retinue will be greatly cheered by the fact he has survived against a more powerful adversary, and will fight harder, faster and with greater morale for a period. Withdrawing a weaker character from such a duel is not considered shameful; after the countdown timer has expired, the character may withdraw honourably without any repercussions.[1]
Buffs and Debuffs[]
When a character loses a duel, they will flee the battlefield and their retinue will suffer a morale penalty. The winner will continue to fight in the battle, and their entire army plus any allied armies in the battle will receive a morale boost. If a character falls in a duel it will also have a morale impact on the enemy army, losing a hero in a duel however does not mean that the said hero unit has been killed, some heroes who fall in duels may simply be wounded and can still be used but this will impact their resilience, the amount of wounds they can endure before dying.
Duelling in records mode[]
Duelling does work in Records mode but they work differently and follow the historical records for single combat. Firstly, they happen much more organically than in Romance Mode: rather than choosing a duel option, a duel can break out between two heroes whenever they clash on the battlefield. Secondly, as heroes are not single entity units in Records Mode, when two heroes duel, their two retinues of bodyguards will clash too. The clashing bodyguards will encircle the heroes and face off while the duel takes place. Thirdly, as heroes won't have special combat abilities, there is less focus placed on the actions of the general take during a duel, and more emphasis placed on how player can manage the rest of the army while the duel takes place.[2]