MajesticLion
Veteran
Man I'm trying to enjoy Three Kingdoms but I just can't get into it for some reason. I think it's all the Japanese names make it hard for me to know if I'm looking at a city, province, or a character.
Three Kingdoms takes place in China.
A commandery is the basis for the game, and is divided into mutiple counties. The major settlement of the commandery might be the same name as the commandery itself, but not always. Conquering a commandery entirely - main city, resource location, speciality location, whatever - is the cornerstone of building up your ranking in the game, because to properly build out a commandery you have to own it all(including counties) to gain all the benefits.
It gets a lot more detailed, but a good way to learn the minutiae is to watch lionheartx10 Let's Play YT campaign vids. Sun Jian is probably best to start with.
Also, maps help a lot. (Left click, go to tab, right-click, view image)