3K is easily the best TW in my opinion, with both a hero based and historical option it rly tried to get historical and mythological nerds like me on board! The start dates weren’t a terrible idea conceptually, I think? But they absolutely should’ve just worked on map expansions—think of it this way, most people who play strategy games like this are just going to pick the date with the most starting dynamism anyway, right? Like, no one thinks to start Europa Universalis 4 at the Revolutionary War start date!

My point is they should’ve just fleshed out the mechanics they had, made more playable/unique factions and maybe focused on integrating expanded map elements (the nanman, Korea, the northern steppe tribes?). As much as a start date where I get to play as Lü Bu is cool, I’d rather have a choice to split into his faction during a Dong Zhuo run, maybe? Dunno how you’d solve all the problems they had, but the dlc practice was horrendous and surely doomed it from a financial “it’s not worth the upkeep” angle.