When you’re planning an empire in Total War Three Kingdoms, you can’t spend your entire time sitting on your armies and hoping for the best by winning in overwhelming numbers. Eventually, you’re going to encounter a force larger than yours. You need to have additional advantages on your side to help influence your chances of victory. One of these is by using the Reforms tree. By planning your way through these trees, you’re going to change the units, buildings, and passives your empire receives.

Total War Three Kingdoms Reforms Tree

When Do These Show Up?

You’re going to have the opportunity to add a new Reform to your faction every five turns. The game will prompt you to decide before you can end your turn, and you’ll know it’s coming up when you see the small tree icon where you usually see the little arrow in the bottom right to let the other factions make their turn. You’ll get taken to the Reform page, which is a beautiful tree with only a handful of flowers attached to the branches. The more Reforms your faction unlocks, the more flowers blossom and grow on the branches, showing your progression.

How Do You Plan Out Reforms?

You do not have to wait to review the Reforms page every five turns. You can do so by clicking the “4” button on your keyboard and opening it up. You may want to do this after you’ve made your first Reform decision and want to start thinking about expanding through the tree. Here are some significant branches you should become familiar with during your campaign:

  • Resettlement Incentives: By advancing through this tree, you’re going to gain access buildings that increase the population growth of your settlements. You’ll want to focus on these if you feel you need to add more people to smaller cities, and is a great way to expand early. However, you are going to need to open up the Provincial Iron Tool Forges branch, which you can only do once you have a Farm Labourer Camp in one of your cities.
  • Regional Commissioners: For those who find themselves leaning more towards war, you’ll want to become familiar with this tree during your campaign. The first option in this tree cuts down the unit recruitment cost by eight percent, giving you an ideal price break early on. Additionally, as you expand out, you’re going to gain access to military buildings that make it so you can recruit stronger units from the start, have new units, and reduce the upkeep costs of your army. If you find your troops are lacking military supplies, go through the Military Markets branch to increase how much your generals can carry into enemy territory.
  • Bureau of Banditry: If you’re finding that you’re not gaining as much prestige as you’d your faction leader to have due to having a weak army or active adversaries surround you, you may want to explore the Bureau of Banditry branch. This branch is going to give you access to additional administration buildings, which are great to keep your settlements in line while your main armies are away fighting. Individual buildings in this tree also grow a leader’s prestige, making them ideal for factions that are struggling to gain prestige through war.
  • Currency-Based Economy: Are you a fan of making your treasury grow? You’ll want to explore this tree early on if you find yourself with an overabundance of gold in your pockets. You’ll gain access to buildings that increase how much money your settlements produce, and some of them even increase the leader’s prestige. If you have several allies in your campaign, you’ll want to go down the Guide to Estate Management branch because you can unlock buildings that are going to increase your trade influence. The higher trade influence you have, the more income you’re going to receive from a trade agreement.
  • Liu Bo, Private Tutors, and Foreign Envoys: The final section of the Reforms tree you need to become familiar with is on the left side of the tree. The main one is Private Tutors. However, the other two are essential, too. Parts of this tree is going to expand your archery units, granting you further ranged units you can call to your armies. You’ll also find that these trees are going to increase the number of spies you can have your disposal, along with notable buildings that are going to give a jolt to your economy — if you have the limited resources.

You can always refer back to the Reforms page whenever you need to review your strategy, and don’t be afraid to expand out to a new branch you haven’t touched yet. All of the branches are meant to benefit you as you expand your faction.