What's the point of Zheng Jiang?

[Kuromiya]

Zhang Yan has Skaven ambushes, better unique units, guerrilla deployment options for all generals, no "unique resource decay feature", and stronger diplo/econ buildings. He also begins with an extra town and superior generals who don't hate him, and then to top it off, he's an actual historical figure.

I was interested in trying Zheng Jiang... but what does she have going for her?

[alex010300]

She is a 18 yr old female who talks dirty.

[RitualistEssence]

Originally posted by KickySonichu:

Zhang Yan has Skaven ambushes, better unique units, guerrilla deployment options for all generals, no "unique resource decay feature", and stronger diplo/econ buildings. He also begins with an extra town and superior generals who don't hate him, and then to top it off, he's an actual historical figure.

I was interested in trying Zheng Jiang... but what does she have going for her?

A challenge. Zheng herself comes with a very good axe weapon thats really great in battles at least from my Zheng Jiang campaign.

[Kitty Katyusha]

I love Zheng Jiangs unique troops, they are ranged melee hybrid and can be hidden even when so close to the enemy. Me and my friend have been playing in a coop match as the bandit king and queen and so far in combat my unique troops have been more useful and powerful than his.

[G4M5T3R]

You basically said it yourself. She doesn't have handicap advantages. In fact it's arguably the opposite. Starting general doesn't like her unless you swap asap leading to lack of purpose issues, no "unique resource decay feature", 1 town then straight to War. It's a challenge to get on your feet.

[RitualistEssence]

Originally posted by G4M5T3R:

You basically said it yourself. She doesn't have handicap advantages. In fact it's arguably the opposite. Starting general doesn't like her unless you swap asap leading to lack of purpose issues, no "unique resource decay feature", 1 town then straight to War. It's a challenge to get on your feet.

And the animations with her Axe killing move is awesome.
Seems most hero's i've used have spears or swords.

[reevestone]

Though Zhang Yan definitely better encompasses the "bandit" archetype, with his constant ambushes and guerrilla deployment, there are a few things that I think Zheng Jiang has going for her. Though her unique currency is more of a problem than a benefit, especially in the early game, it does provide some very good benefits if you can overcome her difficult start and get it high enough. She's also one of the best duelists in the game, definitely better than Zhang Yan (her Poison Blades ability is freaking busted), and... weird as it may seem, her being an unmarried female faction leader at the start of the game is a point in her favor. She has her pick from a big wide map of people to bring into her faction through marriage, and using that I can and have seen Player Zheng Jiangs scoop up Lu Bu or Zhang Fei and so forth.

[Salty Nobody]

It's a challenge for the players like me who thought Legendary in previous titles was too easy.

Playing as her on Legendary though, I haven't had this much fun in a TW game in years...

[Ivarr Bashington]

Yan’s unique melee axes are good shock troops. They do very good damage and are fast. However, their defense is terrible.

Yan’s Spears are all around terrible. They share the bad defense and lack the offense of double axes. Mine were losing to cavalry MILITIA in combat. I tried using them to give the axemen cover from cavalry when guerrilla-deploying, but they were so bad, even against cavalry, I just disbanded them.

[Harukage]

Honestly i prefer Zheng Jiang's unique units. Hidden axes are just so good as they can hide and snipe at the same time. perfect for flanking. Their armored version are also good, because more archers are always welcome, and they combine it with heavy armor and axes for melee too.

[G4M5T3R]

Originally posted by Jcpsr:

And the animations with her Axe killing move is awesome.
Seems most hero's i've used have spears or swords.

Yea the Axes are pretty cool. That and I have a soft spot for strong women xD

At the risk of derailing the thread I'm curious if people enjoy Zheng Jiang and what their strategy is. I've re-rolled a few times to try different things and I've noticed certain settlements provoke other faction leaders into attacking like the fishing port (Dong) or iron mine (Zhang Yan). I find that avoiding those locations for a while and leveraging early assignments & diplomacy yields the best results early-game. Strong economic growth with what little land is occupied but this usually comes at the cost of general loyalty. With ancillaries you can keep generals at +5 or more with the full -20 lack of purpose all while using the generals/heir that actually like you. As for the story I don't follow it. I join forces with the Zhang Yan, marry, and dominate W while he goes E.

[Leanora]

The point of Zheng Jiang is to give me pleasure.
It's lots of fun playing the campaign with her.

[shde2e]

She's also the only unique female character in the game, and the TW series is pretty starved for those.

[Cacomistle]

The factionwide unbreakable at higher tiers of infamy is pretty powerful. Also if you can get someone to pay tribute it makes a ton of money for her, I was racking in like 10-20k most of the game after I declared myself emperor and that was with everyone I declared a tributary faction declaring war on me again within 10-20 turns.

In my campaign, it was basically everyone declared war on me, then they would attack a minor settlement and lose to the garrison because of unbreakable (if they didn't have fire arrows they basically just get stuck in front of the towers fighting a few troops, and the archers even form a decently effective line). I send an army over and take a city or 2. Then make them pay tribute again.

Early game though, yeah she's got little going for her and its a challenge. But its an interesting one. You just end up at war with everyone. And you can actually get the factionwide unbreakable quite early as a result (cause you can fight a lot of battles).

Originally posted by shde2e:

She's also the only unique female character in the game, and the TW series is pretty starved for those.

She's not the only unique female. There's sun ren too. But she's the only female faction leader.

[Harukage]

Originally posted by shde2e:

She's also the only unique female character in the game, and the TW series is pretty starved for those.

Ergh there is also Sun Ren. Little Lady Wu with a nuclear bow.

[shde2e]

Right, I meant to say the only unique female faction leader in the game :P
And while I love Sun Ren, i'm only counting her for half since she doesn't even come around until the midgame.