Favourite Non-mission Faction

[MischevousWhisp]

So as I can play the mod now (Thanks for the tech support, again, wonderful people) I started a Liu Bei campaign but had to delete it because I needed to dial down the number of soldiers on the field since it was causing some troubles.
I'm looking forward to starting a game soon when exam periods are done but I was thinking about starting with a more simple less mission oriented faction (And yes, I know you can turn off missions for the main factions, but still), in the meantime I'd like to get your opinion on this matter:

What's your favourite non-mission faction to play? Some of the minor warlords to the west? Maybe the Koreans?

Let's get all opinions out here both from veterans at them mod and newbies like me!

[MilesNDavis]

Veteran here - Gongsun Zan is my favorite non-mission faction. It's pleasant to play, with access to good characters early on. With the addition to Korea and the Nomads it is just absolutely pleasant to play. Close second is the new pink Liu faction, I cannot remember for the life of me currently what the name is. That is a fun challenging start to say the least.

[Kamos]

Depends on the level of challenge you want I guess.

Hard - Shanyue - I like these guys and they've got a fun position but you're good units takes ages to get, your land is poor/low pop and early game competition is fierce. You've got to move quick to secure land for the coming of the Little Conqueror because once he looks South that becomes your whole game.

Moderate - Nanman - I have a thing for underdog barbarians. They're position is a lot more secure and prosperous than the Shanyue but you're still pretty poor, plus you can only really go East or North. You get some neat troops but they aren't amazing, you do get elephants though.

Easy - Zhang Yan - His game is actually really easy with the mountain pass fortresses but he has a pretty fun roster of bandit units and a safe starting position with rich expansion options. You could go East and fight Yuan Shao. South to take Luo Yang. West to take on Li Jue and take Chang An.

[Gongsunzan]

Gongsun Zan for me of course. Ive played his campaign several times. Got good at being able to bribe all the Wuhan barbarians and occasionally get several of yuan shaos officers and Korean characters by careful maneuvering to preserve characters outside cities and then taking their last settlement so I can bribe them as rebels. The late game becomes intense trying to fight Cao Cao with his massive stacks, but ive found using a full stack of Wuhan and xianbei horse archer mercs, with the white horse archers, can pick off stacks of enemies with little losses.

Other army ive played a few times in the Nanman, they have terrible base troops, but the elephants are a nice force multiplier and its fun fighting Liu Zhang with the nanman troops. Never did a late game with them, but I imagine, they don't do well against the doom stacks of wei and wu.