Dragon Throne takes place in a period in China that should be very familiar to gamers. Taking place in AD 208,
Dragon Throne uses characters and events from the novel,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Players will take the role of either the Lui Bei, Sun Quan, or Cao Cao kingdoms, and fight to unite them under your banner.
At its core, Dragon Throne is your typical Age of Empires style RTS. You collect resources, construct towns, and build units in order to raise an army and crush your opponent. However, it does offer a little more in terms of depth, and while it does not breathe new life into the genre, it is certainly welcome.
One of the more interesting elements is the ability to send your field workers to the barracks to train as soldiers. Not only does this allow them to fight in battles, but also when you retire them from service to the kingdom, they are better able to protect their farms. During military conquests, you can also award your soldiers with honorary titles in order to give them experience, and keep them loyal. By researching new technologies, you can increase your soldiers, and peasants' effectiveness.
Diplomacy and city-management also play a big part of the game. This was one of the aspects I enjoyed the most. Fighting wars is fun, but how can you compare that to being able to tax the hell out of the people when you need money, or negotiate with another Warlord, only to stab him in the back later in the game?
Dragon Throne also offers a multiplayer mode, however I was not able to spend much time with it, so I really cannot comment much on it.