Alright guys, the first non-Han Chinese civ idea. Please advise on balancing problems, smaller issues might be a matter of numbers, but any major things should be corrected ASAP before the Edit button vanishes.
Dali / 大理 (Nanman/Cuanman/Nanzhao/Dali if possible)
If possible, the default civ name displayed should change with each Age Up (override by trigger for campaign missions of course). Regardless, it’s this lineage in the Southwest. As Dali was concurrent with Song China and conquered as part of the Yuan, they probably should not have common use of later gunpowder weapons yet, which is good for differentiation with Vietnamese and Burmese.
Just calling this group “Bai” is not accurate to most of them, and not even accurate to rulers of Nanzhao and earlier kingdoms in the region.
Civ Bonus: Berry Bushes give 20% more food and are harvested 20% faster (so last the same amount of time but give 150 food each). Rapidly and efficiently foraging edible fruit is an essential skill in the mountainous forests where the Nanman/Cuanman lived.
Civ Bonus: All foot units affected by Squires upgrade (so 10% speed).
Civ Bonus: Horse cavalry units 5/10 food discount in Castle/Imperial Age. As a Song official coming to buy Dali Horses noted, among other things, “They have been raised on bitter buckwheat, so they require little to maintain”.
Civ Bonus: +1 Pierce Damage from Herbal Medicine due to poison use.
Civ Bonus: +50% bursting power (no effect on DoT) and +1 blast (and fire field) radius for Fire Boats (any converted Demolition Ships only boost blast radius), because they should have been pretty good at area denial to avoid being invaded up the Yangtze.
Civ Bonus: Stone mines last 30% longer (stacks with Team Bonus for total 50%). Dali is named for its high-quality marble and would have a rich tradition of quarrying in general.
Team Bonus: Stone mines last 20% longer.
Castle Age Unique Tech: Named for Marble / 名曰大理 Trade units produce an extra 20% yield in Stone, and Mining Camps produce 2 Stone and 2 Gold per minute (not much early on, but quite useful in end-game Trash Wars after Gold and Stone run out).
Imperial Age UT: Governor Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar (赛典赤·赡思丁). Food and Wood sources will harvest 10% faster and last 10% longer. Monasteries can now garrison all types of land units to heal. He is known for promoting mainly Confucianism alongside Buddhism and Islam as part of his “civilizing mission”, Sayyid Ajall also introduced other agricultural techniques and published various handbooks to spread knowledge in Dali under the Yuan dynasty. The religious buildings he built are represented in the healing in monasteries.
Barracks: 2HS, Halberdier, Arson, Squires, no Gambesons (too hot).
Archery Range: Arbalester, Elite Skirmishers, Thumb Ring.
Stable: Hussar, Cavalier, Elite Battle Elephants, Bloodlines/Husbandry
Siege: Capped Ram, Onager, Heavy Scorpion, no Bombard Cannon. Not exactly renowned for powerful siege warfare with the neighbouring Chinese walled cities.
Dock: War Galley, Fire Ship, Heavy Fire Boat, and Lou Chuan, No Shipwright, Drydock or Gillnets. Really bad on water except for denial, expected for a mountainous inland civ, and not enough large lakes to have developed gillnets.
Monastery: Lacks Block Printing, Illumination and Theocracy, and should probably lack Heresy considering Imperial UT cites a famous Yuan-era Muslim governor who pushed Confucianism + Buddhism + Islam all together.
Defenses: No Bombard Tower.
Blacksmith: Full techs.
University: No Architecture, Bombard Tower, Siege Engineers (not historically very aggressive at expanding against China, where all settlements were walled, or downriver to Vietnam), Treadmill Crane.
Economy Techs: Full mining, but no Crop Rotation. Depending on balance needs, Two-Man Saw may also be lost (both partly or wholly compensated by UT).
Castle Techs: No Sappers, but have Hoardings, Conscription, the usual Petards, and Heavy Traction Trebuchet.
Unique Unit: Luojuzi, probably “shock infantry” armor class, with red helmets, leather armor, bronze shields, and bare feet, usually shown with polearms. These are the top 1% of recruits and professional soldiers of the Nanzhao military (presumably the institution was partly inherited by the Dali Kingdom). Cost estimated 55F/25G, 65 HP, 11 attack (+3 cavalry, standard buildings), 2 reload, 1/1 base armor, speed 1.05, so stat-wise a weaker 2HS with some anti-cavalry, and slightly faster, but vulnerable to swordsmen.
Elite upgrade presumably in the regular range of prices (about 600F/400G) for about +10 HP, +4 base attack (better than Champion against other units, but loses hard to Champions due to shock infantry armor class), with no speed drop because the Dali kingdom let their in-game models wear boots for lower vulnerability to ground threats (like poisonous snakes).