Food are necessities for the player to operate empire and engage in diplomacy. Food are generated by counties with specific resource settlements such as livestock farms, farmlands and fishing ports.
Overview[]
Food is a critical resource that keeps faction's population fed and happy, and armies healthy and marching. A deficit of food will cause public order issues across commanderies as people rise up in rebellion, and hinder supplies to armies, negatively impacting them in a number of ways. Player can scrutinise the faction-wide food levels by hovering cursor over the food icon at the top left of the main campaign screen.
To produce food, player need to own specific counties such as livestock farms, farmlands and fishing ports. Player cannot simply build primary food production buildings such as farms in any settlement, though certain agricultural administration buildings can be built in commandery capitals (such as the land surveying office chain) to improve faction's food income.
Player can set up food trade agreements with other factions via diplomacy, under the trade and marriage options, in order to improve food storage or sell surplus. When player selects a faction to potentially trade with, their food stocks are displayed just below the warlord's portrait, so player can target the most desperate factions to set up a deal with.[1]
Gameplay[]
Food production[]
To produce Food, player need to own specific counties with resource settlements such as livestock farms, farmlands and fishing ports. Player cannot simply build primary food production buildings such as farms in any settlement, though certain agricultural administration buildings can be built in commandery capitals (such as the land surveying office chain) to improve faction's food income.
Commanderies' food production is marginally affected by the preset rertility modifer, and is something that should be taken in consideration when upgrading buildings or constructing new ones.
Food reserves[]
As food is produced, commanderies will lay down reserves. Reserves are very important for keeping the population content when food production is low, which can happens in winter or when the population outgrows food production, for example. A commandery’s reserves also contribute to military supplies when an army is stationed there.
Food reserves capacity can be increased in a commandery by building key buildings (such as the grain farming garrison building chain), or by the presence of certain characters in the commandery such as administrators or assignees.
Military supplies[]
- Main article: Army (Total War: Three Kingdoms)#Military Supplies
An army requires military supplies to function optimally. Its supply levels are indicated by the military supplies bar in the army panel. When an army has higher supplies, it gains morale and replenishment bonuses. When an army’s supplies fall, it begins to suffer increasingly punitive attrition and morale penalties.
When an army is in a friendly or allied commandery, it gathers supplies. The rate at which it gathers is principally determined by the reserves in the commandery itself, which in turn is dictated by food production across player's empire. Negative reserves means fewer supplies. There are other factors which can contribute to supplies, such as the number of characters in the army, character traits, certain ancillary effects and so forth.
Food Trading[]
- Main article: Diplomacy (Total War: Three Kingdoms)
Food is tradeable in the negotiation system, and can be used as bargaining chips to swing deals, or as trade items in their own right. And provided the storage infrastructure to cope, player can actually stockpile it. It’s a vital resource for all factions, and some factions have little or no farmland of their own – which implies new forms of leverage.