Favorite faction to play as and why?

[Cpt. Kid]

Im still checking out the game and different playstyles. Gonsun Zan isnt bad actually if you are into 3K. Right now Gonsun Zan.

[Buldor]

He Yi. Starts with one of the strongest characters (He Man), Gets full army replenishment in 1 turn before even mid game starts. Due to Yellow Turban healing, it's possible to just fight the whole campaign with your heroes and your army simply there for reserves. Only downside is you can't use unique armours, it's all based on level for Yellow Turbans.

Ma Teng for that disgusting 0 upkeep cavalry by mid-game that lets you field armies for a pittance.

Cao Cao because of the story, events and most exciting start position. By mid-game you'd of already fought both Yuans, Liu Bei, Kong Rong, Gongsun Zan, bandits, Dong Zhuo, Liu Biao, Sun Jian a few times... It's never a boring campaign for him!

[Qwertykov]

Liu Bei. He has hands down the best generals by far and he is the most worthy character to be Emperor.

[legend player]

Cao cao easiest legendary campaign. Ma teng, Zheng jiang hardest. Liu bei is also way harder than expected i guess due to legendary difficulty.

Honestly I like Ma teng cuz the fatigue immune cav is always sweet.

[lemurs2]

Cao Cao is about the third hardest campaign. Yuan Shao is probably easiest, Yuan Shu hardest.

[lemurs2]

My favorite is probably Liu Biao.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by qwertykov:

Liu Bei. He has hands down the best generals by far and he is the most worthy character to be Emperor.

I like Liu Bei... But next time I play him I need to make a conscious decision to not Unify with other factions... And perhaps not use his Annex Han Territory mechanic... And install a mod that makes it so you need much more Prestige to hit the King rank.

Liu Bei has great generals and I like how easy it is to be friendly with other factions (eventually...) even on Legendary. But my last Legendary run was over so fast, I was a little bit disappointed.

Kicked off the Endgame on Turn 59... I elevated a Second Marquis and Marquis Yuan Tan and Yuan Shu to Emperor.

And I wasn't even really trying to break the game! I know it's possible for Liu Bei to finish the game way earlier than that if you really cheese it.

---

As for my own personal favorite faction... I'd have to say Kong Rong 100% of the time. Although Liu Biao is quite up there as well.

I like the pacifistic, friendly approach where I just keep to my own territory and build up my cities until I can grow no more... Then I just buy adjacent commanderies from my neighbors.
And Kong Rong's Fury of Beihai is my favorite ranged unit.

I have a Kong Rong game going right now, and even though I've unlocked Onyx Dragons, I still primarily use Fury of Beihai with only a few Onyx Dragons added in as support for their Fire Arrows.

Though, I'm pushing 400 hours in this game now and I still haven't played Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao, or Zhang Yan...

[lemurs2]

Yuan Shu is his own worst enemy, he is just awful. You are obviously a better player than me as I tend to go into endgame on hard around turn ~115.

I had not understood Kong Rong when i first played, had 3 provinces and did not want to back stab my friends so I did not know what to do.... then I started buying provinces.

[Arnold Schwarznkniepel]

He Yi - Yellow Turbans -> If you raid a city, you can heal & help them to build up the kingdom faster. And you will get a bunch of free officers

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by lemurs2:

Yuan Shu is his own worst enemy, he is just awful. You are obviously a better player than me as I tend to go into endgame on hard around turn ~115.

I had not understood Kong Rong when i first played, had 3 provinces and did not want to back stab my friends so I did not know what to do.... then I started buying provinces.

The overwhelming economy is really fun.
This is actually one of my first games where Yuan Shao is a fairly dominant power. Most of the time, Yuan Shao is dealt with by Gongsun Zan (or by me) or someone else nearby... But he actually did his whole Hubristic Overlord shenanigans where I actually needed to use the scrollbar to see his entire vassals list.

Most of 'em were a bunch of insignificant nothings.

I was originally quite friendly with him, but our relationship started to sour. I noticed that he was already starving to death and having public order problems across his territory. And he owned one of the farmlands of Chen (mostly my territory by now).

Even though he was starving already, I managed to have that farmland off of him by offering a small food arrangement and a load of money.

Now he's the Kingdom of Song and he's at war with me (and I picked off all his annoying one-territory vassals dotting my kingdom), and he's massively starving with like -25 food.

I don't think there's been a single turn since I bought that farmland where he wasn't in a massive food deficit. And it's pretty great.