Three Kingdoms: Income guide

Overview

Hey, I played Three Kingdoms for a bit on Legendary. Decided to make an income guide cause why not.

Intro

Hey, I played Three Kingdoms for a couple of days(as of writing this) and I think I found a general template for good income. I play on Legendary campaign and battle difficulty so I think upkeep costs are higher and min/maxing is needed a lot more in this game than others as units are freaking expensive to recruit and maintain. As a note, peasantry income is really meh as it doesn’t really make a whole lot of money without really severe penalties to either food or public order, but you can become really rich by growing food and selling it via diplomacy as the AI really values food both the early and late game as it sucks at maintaining a stable economy because it keeps upgrading cities.

Let me know if there’s any changes to be made or you would like to suggest, they made a lot of balance tweaks these recent years.

Disclaimer/short review of unique buildings

Keep in mind that factions get unique buildings that will make you deviate from this template a little bit.

For example

Caocao has a red building which is bad, but it gives food which is great
Kong Rong the big Dong gets a unique school that doesn’t give exp and instead gives income and public order, this could replace the Grain Storage and be a viable sixth building for non-port regions.
Liu Bei after Nanman now has a great building for going peasantry income.
Liu Biao has an awesome building, it’s basically a free school for every Inn you build
Lu Bu has a red building, meh
Ma Teng has a red building which is bad, but it gives food and public order which is good
Sun Jian’s building is situational and the full mercenary armies provided by it are wayyy too expensive early game, especially on Legendary. It’s not worth building for the commerce income alone. Apparently, his faction gives a “+25% commerce income faction-wide” for each port which is insane.
Gongsun Zhan has a decent administration building, more of a sidegrade as you’re losing a -20% adjacent corruption for some public order.
Yuan Shao has a decent administration building, more of a sidegrade as you’re losing a -20% adjacent corruption.
Yuan Shu’s administration building sucks as it reduces his faction’s resource, but his unique resource can give up to +9 free public order which is almost as much as a maxed out Grain storage.
Zhang Yan’s building can only be built in the mountains I think, but it’s really good. Especially the administrator limit or the loot income buff chains.
Zheng Jiang’s buildings suck if you’re playing normally. Both are situational in a bad way. You might be able to make this work, haven’t tried playing a full campaign as her yet tbh.

Also, Yellow Turbans have entirely different building chains. I might edit this if I feel like to playing them later

(Yellow Turbans are on the bottom of the guide)
(I have updated it for Nanman but I haven’t really changed the core of this guide much since release. Feel free to suggest edits)

Purple/Blue Provinces regions

I find that for most provinces you can combine industry and commerce income buildings for a lot of income. Generally, it goes like this

For port regions, build in this order going downwards except you swap 2 and 3.

For non-port regions, the first five buildings(After number one ofc since you aren’t going to be building ports on land) are your bread and butter and the last one is a bit flexible.

You can upgrade the buildings as you see fit, but prioritize flat income upgrades early, like the 2nd State Workshop upgrade, since you won’t have too much base income for the +% income to affect.

After Nanman patch, I think you can go all Regional Cities for your income provinces idk how much more food you’ll have but it should be enough to have all Regional Cities for your income provinces with extra food to spare, just make sure you don’t rush large cities too early if you don’t have the food to sustain it.

Of course if you have spare food or great Leader/Heir/PM traits then feel free to upgrade past Regional City for your major money making provinces.

You can expect between income between 4000-12,000 gold per province when you’re maxed out depending on resources. Unique building may significantly boost or lower this number.
(After numerous patches, the income should be higher than the number posted here since they only buffed income/food since release)

1. Jetties(Starting building)->Spice Trading Port(Most commerce income)

This one gives the most income out of the three options, it gives a bit less income than Grand Trading port alone, but with an Inn or some commerce income buffs, it quickly becomes better.As a note, Sun Jian’s faction gets a “+25% commerce income faction-wide buff” for each Grand Trading port which is insane and you should build that branch. CA should have been more transparent with this buff, I thought all ports had it for every faction originally >.>

2. State workshop(Industry Income)->Grand Treasury Mint(-15% corruption adjacent provinces(Includes province it’s built-in))

Just the -15% corruption to adjacent provinces would make this building worth it to build. I recommend you build this after Inn in a port city since ports give +commerce income.

3. Inn(Commerce income)->Grand Tea house(More commerce income)

The other branch gives more % commerce income, but this option gives more overall since +(commerce income)% is already really easy to stack so it’s better to have a higher base number.

4. Private workshop(Industry and Commerce buff)->Master Lacquerware Artisans(A lot bigger Industry and Commerce buff)

Gives a ridiculous amount of % commerce income, straight up upgrade from its other branch.

5. Confucian Temples (Public order)

After idk what patch Confucian Temples now give additional income from all sources, It’s always better than Grain Storage now(Unless you’re somehow making less than 200? income from a province)

6. Administration Office(+10% income)->Office for Archives and Seals(+15% income and -20% corruption adjacent provinces)

I’d spam this with the other option that reduces corruption(Grand Treasury Mint), as long as a region isn’t terribly unlucky it’s possible to get 0% corruption even late-late-game. If Public Order isn’t a problem(Late game), can build this before Temple.

6.1 (For landlocked cities) Kind of a flex building slot.

Build either a Marketplace -> Any of it’s three tiers(Silk if you have silk)(Bureau if you have trade)(Drum and Bell default since it has lowest upkeep)
Or a school
Or your faction’s unique building, like the updated Nanman Liu Bei building for example
Or the Military Forces building for some Ancillaries

What about red provinces?

If a province’s resource is red, then look at its resource and see its income. If it’s industry/commerce, just follow same template as above. If it doesn’t have any income, then build according to the other resources or build for food.

Green/Food provinces

After you start leveling up your cities their food cost really rises quite rapidly. For the Green provinces like Chen, I generally stay at the level of City. I found the sweet-spot for food income to be around the level of City as that’s when you’ll be able to have the essential buildings, and some nonessential ones, without sacrificing too much food upkeep. Late game you can upgrade the city to get all the buildings to their final levels and then downgrade back to original levels. You can speed up construction by pressing a button on the building you’re constructing.

You can expect around 1,000 gold and around 40-60 food when you’re maxed out. Unique building may significantly boost or lower this number, like Caocao or Ma Teng can get a lot more food with their unique reds at the cost of some upkeep and a build slot.
(With Nanman food buffs, expect around 20-25% more food)

1. Jetties(Starting building)->Spice Trading Port(Faction-wide spice buff)

Can go Grand Fishing Port if you really need more food(Which can happen based on starting location)

2. Land development(Food and peasantry income)->Magnate Estates(More Food and peasantry income)

The other branch gives you a lot more income but doesn’t seem to be worth the food penalty. -24 food is basically a Regional City’s worth of food.

3. Government support(Food and peasantry income buff)->Winnowing and Machine workshop(Bigger food and peasantry income buff)

This branch gives more food as you don’t really need the meagre income bonus the other branch gives you.

4. Confucian Temples
4.1

If you’re in a landlocked province and don’t have the jetties. Some good options would be
- School for experience
- Marketplace(Upgraded to the Silk faction-wide buff)
- Administration Office(Upgraded to -corruption in adjacent commanderies)
- Your faction’s unique building
- Military Forces(For Ancillaries)
As a side-note, if you’re in a province with a City and one resource building, you’ll be at 1.5 million population which gives -6 public order. Because reforms can give +8 public order you can ignore the public order building and build something else that you feel would be useful. But generally, I’d use the above layout as a template and you can change this up depending on the situation
As a side-side-note, I found that the public order penalty increases by increments of 2 where at 1.3-1.5 million people you’ll have -6, at 1.6-1.8 million people you’ll have -8, at 1.9-2.1 million people you’ll have -10 public order and so on
At 1.8 million people, which is around a small city and two resource buildings, you’ll have -8 public order which is equal to your reforms
At 2.0 million people, which is around a city with two resource buildings you’ll have -10 public order which is above the amount your reforms alone can sustain

5. What else do you need?

At 5 build slots, you’ll be at the Regional city levels where the food costs really rise to it not being worth it.

What if there is a green and a blue/purple/red resource in the same province?

As long as there’s a resource building there that gives commerce or industry income(Blue/Purple/Red), that doesn’t include the port in the main city, build for income. (There’s probably a way that gives you a bit more money, but this way saves you the brain-power and it’s a simpler way of doing it)
Keep in mind that Spices and Silk have their own separate income bonuses and the only thing that would affect them is the anti-corruption buildings
Another thing to keep in mind that while Tea Houses are green, they provide commerce income so should be treated as if they were blue

Recruitment province

They aren’t needed in this game as you don’t need buildings to recruit anymore. I generally make some(one) on my more permanent frontiers for the cheaper recruitment cost, garrison, and negative enemy supply. tbh, the only thing you need is the Garrison and the Recruitment cost.

Garrison
Conscription
Military Forces
Grain storage(+reserves)
School(+exp)
Flex

Notes

I found that you need some green provinces because as you upgrade your cities, their food cost rises massively. You could probably only afford a couple of Large Regional(-34 food), and Imperial cities(-46 food). Generally, I’d put them in your commerce provinces as they give +% income from commerce.
Public order buildings are needed as you upgrade cities and their population grows, usually, I go for some public order reforms on the right side of the tree which you can get by building a tax collection building, getting the reform, then demolishing it.
For State Workshop chain, I generally stay at tier 2 or tier 3 early game as corruption isn’t a big deal.
I usually always upgrade State Workshops before Inns because the early state workshop upgrade gives +100 more income while the Inn gives much less.

Resource building chains for the resources that branch out

Copper: Copper Coin Mint, -4% corruption faction-wide is too strong not to ignore
Fishing: Either one is good, depends on what kind of province you’re going for(Food or Income). I generally go for food
Iron: Iron Craftwork town, more income, and military supplies aren’t that important
Jade: Jade Trading town, you get a lot more income buffs from commerce than you get from the industry and this option trades -25 industry income for +30 commerce income and trade influence
Livestock: Either one is good, generally I go for the option that gives more food
Local Pines: Pine Trader camp, gives more income and trade influence, the other option gives military supplies which isn’t that important in your province
Tea: Grand Tea plantation gives more income, the trade influence that the other branch gives you isn’t that important late game as a lot of people probably hate you and you can only get a couple of trade agreements, if any
Tools: Industrial Tool Manufacturer, gives more industry income and the other option gives a bit of trade influence which isn’t that important
Tradeport: Spice Trading Port City, more commerce income compared to the rest and +50% income from spice faction-wide is pretty good

Kinda Important stuff

You need Grand-state workshops to get industrialists, I’d build it in a corner so as to not affect the “-15% corruption to the adjacent provinces” building
You also need a Marketplace or Market-wharf building somewhere to get Entrepreneurs, I’d build it in a corner or build it as a sixth building for the same reason above. Keep in mind that the silk chain of this building doesn’t give Entrepreneurs.

How corruption works

Got my information from this http://post:https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/bxdgwt/whats_the_corruption_formula_for_this_game/

You can have a max of 90% and if you manage to stack your provinces well enough, you can get 0% corruption late game.

Corruption reduction has this formula: E = B * (1 – R/100) where E – final corruption, B – base corruption, R – sum of corruption reduction. Which is demonstrated in the attached image

Yellow Turbans

Yellow Turbans are one of easiest to build as all you have to do is build according to colour.

Purple Provinces

Manufacturing: A lot of industry income
Artisan: A lot of commerce/industry income
Labour Housing: This one is actually pretty good as Yellow Turban’s base building income is pretty high
Headquarters: For public order and the administration position
Temples: More public order and income
Forges: More industry income. Build this one first if it’s on the frontier as it gives replenishment

Blue Provinces

Artisan: Same as above
Communal Inn: Income, public order
Labour Housing: Income
Communal Trade: More commerce income
Headquarters: Same as above
Schools: Experience is really important later in the game. You’ll notice that most of your generals stall at around rank 7-9.

Green Provinces: Unlike other factions, Yellow Turbans can build a really great green income province if you want to.

Farming: Food and Income
Farmer Housing: Food and Income
Grain Storage: Public order and Income
Schools: Same as above
Temples: Usually I don’t upgrade past city for my food provinces as it costs too much food. Same as above
Headquarters: Same as above

Red Provinces

Same as Purple provinces as most reds give industry income, if it’s something like a Horse Pasture, then ignore it in deciding what type of province it is.

Hybrid Provinces
Unlike other factions, Yellow Turbans are pretty good at making hybrid provinces as all their buildings are good and have a use, except for the reds ofc those are a waste of time. So here I’ll just list the buildings and say if they’re good. You can build it according to your tastes because there’s a lot of combinations of colors. I’ll give each building a rating from 1-4 with: 1 being must haves, 2 being depending on your choices in 1, 3 being depending on the number of slots you have left and how much you want it, and 4 being entirely situational. Only build it if you have the building’s colour in your province. And keep in mind that even if a building’s rated lower, you might need it for things like income or research rate.

2. Labor Housing: Build this one last in a purple/blue province
1. Manufacturing: 500 straight industry income is good, build in purple province
1. Artisans: Commerce/Industry income, build in either purple or blue province
2. Farmer Housing: Not a priority if you’re building income as the income bonus you get from population is a lot higher. Always pair this with the “Farming” building tree in a green province to get 6 extra food.
1. Farming: Great for the food and peasantry income
1. Grain Storage: Green provinces, great replacement for the yellow public order buildings, especially as it gives income
1. Communal Inn: Pretty good, pretty much a blue version of grain storage
3. Schools: Build this as a 6th building if you have space
2. Communal Trade: Blue provinces
4. Recruitment: No
3. Forges: Build it on a frontier, if you’re building hybrid, don’t ge this
4. Garrison: No, unless it’s a frontier
3. Temple: Unless you really need public order or have a lot of income from all 3 sources(Blue/Purple/Green), No. Grain Storage and Communal Inn are better.
3. Headquarters: Build it as a 6th building for public order if you decide to to to Imperial City level. I’m actually not sure how many administrators you can have in the game. If you can actually have an unlimited amount of administrators, then bump this up to a (1.) and try to replace your public order buildings with this one
4. Esotericism: No, you don’t really need the research rate as you’ll get it all eventually. If you really want to build this, then build one in every province until you get all the research, then demolish it and build for income/food.
4.He Yi Healing: No
2. Huang Shao Gardens: Good building, replace Communal Inns with this one until you get all the research
1. Gong Du Warfare: Great building for having fun, try to put on in each province and replace the (Forges, Labour Housing, and Schools) respectively in the above templates.

Notes:

I’m actually not sure if there’s a cap on administration positions. If there is, then replace the headquarters in each blue and green province with a building of your choice.
Haven’t played the Yellow Turbans’ end game so take this with a grain of salt. I’ll update it accordingly according to comments and my own experience when I play a full game with them.
For Administrators, it’s also a matching game as Blue admins give commerce income bonus and Purples give industry income bonus.

Currently it’s 2020, and looking back at this section, it looks really messy. But I haven’t played Yellow Turbans enough to change it so *shrug*

Bandits(A World Betrayed)

You are encouraged to build less in your main settlement and in exchange you get an extra build slot for your side settlements.

The only worthwhile sidebuilding at first glance is the Black Market which gives a whopping 50% income bonus from banditry which all your side buildings now have instead of the regular incomes.

Just stack banditry income w/ Black Market for your side settlements. No point in trying to do the other income as your resource settlements seem to only give banditry income. And don’t really need to upgrade past “City” as a result.

Early game focus on the side buildings and for your main city, just build food and banditry income as that’s really all you can build.

Base template for every city is
Large City
Magnate Estates
Grand Tributary Hall
Bandit Stronghold
-Free slot, I generally do something from the Military Forces Tree cause free equipment is always good

Side notes:

Not sure if it’s bugged or just bad design, but corrupt administration building is absolute garbage.
Remember to use the “Share the loot” stance to boost income occasionally. Great help in the early-mid game.
You’ll notice that you can only upgrade trib hall and military forces to somewhere like the 3-4th and 2nd level respectively. To max out, upgrade to small regional city, upgrade the buildings, and downgrade back to large city. You can speed this up with gold and this stuff is just a luxury anyways so don’t do it early game.

As of after the Nanman patch, I’m pretty sure they did something to the side-buildings, but I couldn’t find what. If you feel like another side-building is more worthwhile feel free to leave a message.

Nanman(Nanman)

First impressions, really limited building options. Especially since, from what I see, the reform tree locks out 1 of the 2 trees in every branch….. I might be wrong on this, but this is what it looks like.

For now, just build what you can ^_^

After playing the Nanman to end game, all I can say is “just build what you can ^_^ “

Total War: THREE KINGDOMS Guide