Most OP factions in your opinion?

[Elfie]

My top 3 list:

1. Zheng Jiang
Unbreakable factionwide on high infamy = imba. Virtually, after hitting high infamy, even small garrisons of mines/farms could now defent against full stacked elite armies (in manual mode) cuz unbreakable

2. Zhang Yan
Ambuses on attacking are very op..combined with night battles, especially. The only downside - sometimes it didn't work and can get you into cheese situation

3. Ma Teng
No-fatigue cavalry. Title says it) 18 tireless cav stack can ez stomp even armies full of spearmen (except Heaven Guardians and such). Just direct this cav to enemy up front and watch the carnage))

Others in my opinion do not have such OP traits/units/features. What do you think? Who is your top-3 most OP factions?

[FanaticPharaoh]

Hard to argue against Dong Zhou starting generals. Lu Bu can solo armies and Zhang Liao has Resolve of the Righteous which is just insane. Can't remember exactly right now but it gives like +35% melee evasion and 35 morale bonus for the whole battle when you are out numbered. Plus Xi cavalry is pretty solid. Though they have no good faction traits.
Zhang is no brainer though; with unbreakable armies you would have to try to lose battles. Bandits have crazy mechanics that make up for meh special units.
Even the Yellow Turbans have insane replenishment that more than makes up for your units being low tier.
Great question, I'd go:
1. Zhang 2. Dong 3. Teng

[Elfie]

Well Dong's generasl has one problem - all except Zhang Liao are kinda old, so they will all pass away before actual endgame starts. To mop-up militia units in early game you can use random vanguards - do their job just fine

Zheng Jiang is even more OP from that point of view, being the youngest of the unique leaders at game start.

[RCMidas]

Yeah, Zheng gets an extra 50-odd turns to wreck stuff up compared to most generals. That can really make a difference in the long-term, assuming you somehow haven't won already by the time the original leaders are dying off.

[TDBD-SEBN]

Zheng Jiang unbreakable is amazing. I got a lot of pyrrhic victories and then got replenishment, then next turn wreck enemy armies up, and the replenishment building is such snowballing. every farming commandry in which I got a bandit building, replenishment up to 50% per turn without any reform done.

[Salty Nobody]

Zheng Jiang definitely belongs somewhere on top. Crazy income boosts from tributaries, crazy replenishment from buildings, and unbreakable units across the board.

I still lost a handful of battles with it, but they literally had to kill my army to the last man.

She died of old age at 56 for me though, same turn the great final war started. She missed the best part...

[Elfie]

Originally posted by Tactician:

Zheng Jiang definitely belongs somewhere on top. Crazy income boosts from tributaries, cra
She died of old age at 56 for me though, same turn the great final war started. She missed the best part...

I completed my first campaign as 3 consecutive generations of warrior-queens. Father of Jiang's dauther was Lu Bu, and of her granddaughter - SIma Yi, so granddaughter Zheng Mengxui has 3 dark blue traits (brilliat, genius, and 1 more dont rememebr which but also cool). She finally did become sole Empress in the end.

Selective breeding ftw :) A pity you cannot have female vanguards except Sun Ren

[Krono]

I guess I'm gonna have to try a Zheng Jiang campaign lol. I bullied them quite a bit while playing as Dongsun Zan, that faction is pretty strong if only because of their nice starting position

[Kwiserach]

He Yi and Lu Bu

[Liberty or Death]

Speaking for the AI, in my opinion, Gong Du is the most OP faction. I have never seen him fail and he has always become the greatest Western power.

So far, my games have been limited to Shu-Han, Wu, and Wei and I cannot give a good answer for Player OPness.

[Metadragon]

They all have their ups and downs. Sun Jian kinda wins just because as long as Sun Ren is alive she can one shot generals to death and kite the army itself

Cao Cao doesn't get enough credit for being the player version of Yuan Shao. Able to manipulate opinions and start wars and ends up vassalizing the most in player hands.

Gong Du is OP too cause Ma Teng is close and once gone he has the freedom to just expand the entire western part of the map. Plus Yellow Turbans have wonky mechanics and their units can be pretty rediculous.

[Liberty or Death]

Cao Cao's Proxy War mechanic is an absolute life safer. Getting Potential Rival A to attack Immediate Enemy B is wonderful.

[Zim]

Originally posted by Liberty or Death:

Cao Cao's Proxy War mechanic is an absolute life safer. Getting Potential Rival A to attack Immediate Enemy B is wonderful.

This. He is also married from the very beginning and has a ton of children. Liu Bei is very strong too with his Administrators, +Public Order and +20% income from all sources as well as overall better satisfaction. Underdog in the earlygame but a complete and utter beast in mid-late game