I'll have to review my Sun Tzu. Lu Bu's name sounds familiar to that text though the vernacular reference to his diminished manhood I do not recall

Well, I finally got past the first hundred turns or so and the game is finally starting to feel fun!  Thank goodness!  Global mana rocks and the Ledger screen is a blessing.  The game still doesn't seem to have that level of polish that GalCiv2 2.0 did, but it's unfair to compare two games at such different stages of their life cycle.  That said, though I'm really beginning to finally enjoy the game a bit, I have to say some things are still unappealing to me.

1. I wish it would've been more of a straightforward fantasy world.  The various races are just too similar.  I liked the variety in GalCiv and it is sorely missed here. 

2. Some things just don't make sense: Casting imbue spells, marrying and conceiving children and casting various other spells while a whole continent apart is just illogical.

3. The time it takes to get through the tech tree, even on fast setting, makes for a somewhat one dimensional experience.  I find it far too hard to choose from adventuring, diplomacy, warfare and the like.  It seems like some things could be learned concurrently.

I'm glad the game has improved this much though and feel like I'm nearly won over.  I can't wait to see what will Fallen Enchantress will be like!

Most of us do. Master of Magic & Age of Wonders were great with their different races and we all hope the factions in Elemental will eventually be distinct from one another.

I personally believe that the 2nd expansion/standalone will make the factions distinct just like Twilight of the Arnor did.

Brad requested that to help out the A.I.

There's a mod being worked on now to differentiate the factions more now to make them more unique. Still there are area's that are lacking in WOM that can be worked on further. Just hope for the next patch update 1.3 because that's where a lot more new content will be coming. 

Lu Bu played a major role during the end of the Later Han dynasty, he was known as the greatest warrior of his age, but also treacherous.

*shrug*  It could be worse.

Your sovereign could be sparkling.

I would hope that we wouldn't need a mod to resolve this aspect of the game.

Here's to wishing for that in 1.3 and beyond.

and dumb as a post on every game I've played

Well, the game is designed to be largely generic so the AI can play it.
Now adding interesting and diverse races would pretty much defeat the purpose.

Every player in the game builds the same units with the same equipment items and casts the same spells.
(to be fair - while the units have identical stats, they do have 2 different sets of skin textures)

Magic offers a little variance but it seems to be more a gimmick than an attempt to differentiate the "races". That's not even a token nod to MoM's race diversity.

but interestingly depicted as a genius in "the ravages of time", a comic. (much like just about every "idiot" general around the era...)

basis for that interpretation is that you can't be all that dumb when marshalling hundreds of thousands / millions of men, and that smart people acts dumb to catch people out.

He didn't seem like an idiot in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel.

Hey, Lord Chia (smile)   Some pussys can kick your fanny off the edge of the world!  Don't assume 'badass' and 'pussy' are antitethical (opposites).  It just aint necessially so.   

Until he runs into some nameless officer and he 1-combos you into defeat because his fan has elements on it and shave your life down to nothing in 6 hits...

Heh, I remember in the first Destiny of an Emperor, his intellect stat drops constantly as the game goes on, I think it ends up at like 26 (out of 255) the last time you can encounter him in the game.

Heh, I loved Destiney of an Emporer, first RoTK themed game I ever played.