Total War: Three Kingdoms shows Sega, like Nixon, can go to China

Sega’s strategy developer is back with more battles for you to re-create. Creative Assembly announced Total War: Three Kingdoms today with a cinematic trailer. This latest entry in the real-time military sim series will put players in charge of managing armies of fighters in 190 CE China. It maintains the dynamic battle system that has kept Total War relevant since it debuted in 2000.

Total War: Three Kingdoms is due out this fall on Steam. These games have always had a dedicated audience with sales between 1 million to 3 million for each game, according to data-tracking service SteamSpy. But its new backdrop could give it a chance to succeed in the massive and growing Chinese gaming market. That could attract a significant number of new fans.

It tells the story of China as the Han Dynasty falls into the hands of the cruel and ambitious warlord Dong Zhuo. In respond, three heroes band together their families along with other powerful clans to challenge Zhuo. You can expect an epic story brimming with betrayal and friendships and, according to the trailer, dope martial-arts sequences.

Since this first trailer is only a cinematic, we haven’t seen any gameplay yet. But the game will continue enabling players to feel what it’s like to control a live-action battle where hundreds or even thousands of soldiers go up head-to-head against one another. While you can find plenty of strategy games on PC, Total War is still doing these massive battles better than anything else.

This is also a return to a historic setting for Creative Assembly. The studio’s last two games were Total War: Warhammer and Total War: Warhammer II, which take place in a fantasy world with elves and lizardmen. Three Kingdoms should not have any lizardmen because they did not show up and begin controlling all world governments until the 1970s.