Top 5 Favorite Legendary Lords for Three Kingdoms

[Confederate1862]

I am curious to know what are everybody's top five Legendary Lords in Three Kingdoms Total War? Please give me your list from your #1 to your #5. It can be any of the Han empire, warlord, bandit, yellow turban, or eight princes lords. You can also, optionally, give me your reasons as to why you like them.

[Confederate1862]

Mine would be;
1. Zheng Jiang
She is an absolute badass in battle. Also, I'm a sucker for underdog characters and she fits the bill in spades. Also, because of her tough starting position, she helps you get better at the game by making you think outside the box and forcing you to make your plans carefully. Her special hybrid axe/archer units are excellent too and a must have for her late game armies!
2. Sima Wei
Love his faction traits, especially his automatic 10% replenishment he gives to all armies. His semi-unique characters he starts out with are also pretty powerful commanders. Despit what the game says, he's actually really easy and not hard in the slightest. His starting retinue is very powerful too. (2 Cataphracts, 2 Chu Spearmen, and 2 Chu Swordsmen) I just fell in love with him as soon as the Eight Princes dlc launched.
3. Liu Bei
He's China's Jon Snow character, and yeah, I know a large part of it is because of the propaganda that members of his court wrote about him, but I don't care. He starts with very powerful friends in his court and more he can gather along the line. I like his 50% discount on militia upkeep, because of the fact that his people love him and know that he always puts them first. What's not to like about him honestly!
4. Zhang Jue
Challenging start position for beginners, but with enough experience, he can be a powerhouse lord to play as with his +8 morale buff. I love the Zeal mechanic and the replenishment bonuses he gets with it. He also gets the Teachings of Heaven assignment that will give you more local replenishment too. He is also (theoretically) the easiest of the three brothers to play as. Simply put, if you know what your doing, he's a piece of cake!
5. Ma Teng
An interesting character with good characters in his court. If you play his 194 start date (which I think is much easier than his 190 start date) and use the MTU mod, he has Ma Chao, Hua Lanli, Ma Yunlu, and Pang De. All of whom are excellent generals! I also like his story both in romance and in real history. His Qiang units are also another reason to play as him too, their fatigue immunity is awesome!

[Yellowdragon]

Cao Cao

Mazdamundi
Allare
Grimgor
Teclis

[Ryan]

Lu bu
Guan Yu
Diao Chan
Sun ren
Gao Shun

[Fried Noodles]

1. Zhou Tai
SIngle most valuable general in the game with Fatigue Immunity, passive healing, and unbreakable. Given enough time, he can shatter any army all by himself as long as his Oathsworn buddy is safe. Just gotta get him a nice weapon!

2. Zheng Jiang
Best girl. Also fatigue immune which I love. And a very dirty girl. It's fun throwing a poisoned dagger at an enemy general right before accepting a duel request and watching his health melt away.

3. Yan Baihu
Technically any generic bandit sentinel can do what Yan Baihu can do. But Yan Baihu comes with built-in Stalk and Poisoned Volley already. He can guerilla deploy behind enemy lines and creep up to the enemy army without getting detected to line up the most devastating Poison Volley possible, then quickly getting to safety.

4. Liu Chong
His insanely overpowered Show of Force ability is still not nerfed (unlike Poison Volley, Hail of Arrows, and Heartseeker each having limited uses per battle). Show of Force does a ton of damage and can be used to easily snipe down enemy generals from a safe distance. His only downside is he starts the game quite old and will likely die of natural causes in a normal length campaign.
And he is a master of bling with his shiny gold armor and fancy helmet.

5. Zhang Lu
Not exactly a 'legendary' character. Does not have unique artwork. But his unique title, Celestial Master, is pretty broken. If he is Heir, Faction Leader, or Prime Minister your faction enjoys +100% Food Production everywhere. No need for green reforms. Build tall and don't worry about food ever.
Whenever I see him I snap him up and adopt him to make him my heir.

[E.R.L.]

Liu Bei
Guan Yu
Zhang Fei
Zhao Yun
Taishi Ci

Personal opinion :)

[Confederate1862]

I'm talking about Three Kingdoms lords, not Warhammer 2 ones. Looking at you TanksK. Also, nice answers Fried Noodles, I have never recruited Zhang Lu, but I'll take your word for it. I'm liking Zhou Tai more and more as well too. One of these days, I'll make him Emperor and win the game with him as faction leader.

[Poljanan]

Luthor Harkon
Morathi
Vlad Von Carstein
Repanse
Nakai

[Confederate1862]

I said Three Kingdoms Total War legendary lords, not Warhammer ones! Please read my friend.

[Confederate1862]

EL2 you must really like Liu Bei's faction, don't you? I do too!

[SpectreN7]

Lu Bu - One Man Army. He has carried battles with He Yi's Greatest Warrior healing skill.

Zhang Liao - His Resolve of the Righteous can be clutch when fighting against a much larger force.

Gao Shun - Being able to have an elite retinue of Flying Riders and Camp Crushers that are comparable to militia units in upkeep thanks to his personal traits is nice.

Guo Jia - Has a high amount of cunning from character traits such as Brilliant and Cunning, can rival more well established strategists such as Sima Yi and Zhuge Liang in this regard (and often appears in the recruitment pool).

Sun Ren - Her Heart Seeker ability is OP, always a solid vanguard for me in the late game.

[E.R.L.]

Originally posted by Confederate1862:

EL2 you must really like Liu Bei's faction, don't you? I do too!

Yep :) Those characters often show up/are with you at the beginning in Liu Bei campaigns so I love using them (all three are very powerful, and Liu Bei should not be underestimated as well).
Taishi Ci is also a very well-designed hero with a great ranged focus for a sentinel, and he is always in the recruitment pool early on as well! I've played a few campaigns, several in 190 and one starting in 182 and he has not failed to show up.

[Fried Noodles]

Originally posted by E_L_2:

Yep :) Those characters often show up/are with you at the beginning in Liu Bei campaigns so I love using them (all three are very powerful, and Liu Bei should not be underestimated as well).
Taishi Ci is also a very well-designed hero with a great ranged focus for a sentinel, and he is always in the recruitment pool early on as well! I've played a few campaigns, several in 190 and one starting in 182 and he has not failed to show up.

Taishi Ci used to be my absolute favorite general until they nerfed his Hail of Arrows.
But it wasn't even the Hail of Arrows nerf that caused him to lose standing in my eyes... It was the addition of the Bandit culture!
Poison Volley functions just like Hail of Arrows but it's way better thanks to the lingering damage over time. And any generic bandit sentinel can have it.
I've had some games where I had 'armies' of 3x Bandit Sentinels and 1 unit of archer militia or something to hide in the corner (to prevent AI archers from shooting at my generals). Eliminating full stacks with just three generic sentinels is great fun.

[Confederate1862]

I agree, Yan Baihu is arguably the best bandit character in the game just for his poison volley, but I still have to be loyal to my girl. Just kidding!

[Nits1251]

Liu Bei
Lu Bu
Ma Teng
Sun Ce
Yan Bai Yu/Zheng Jiang

[JuX]

It appears people are loving Zheng Jiang for the wrong reason. Her passive for tribute gain is broken to say the least.