I think Chinese could use some buff. It feels strange that not every dynasty has a dynasty unit and building The Tang dynasty is missing a unit and the Ming dynasty misses a building. My idea is too give each dynasty a dynasty unit and a dynasty building.
Tang: unique unit Zhuge Nu (still available in feudal age), unique building Village
Song: unique unit Fire Lancer (available in feudal age with reduced stats veteran upgrade in Castle Age), unique building granary
Yuan: unique unit Mongol Cavalry (mounted archer) or alternatively Early Hand Cannoneer (weaker Hand Cannoneer available in Castle Age can be upgraded to Hand Cannoneer in imp age) , unique building Pagoda
Ming: unique unit grenadier, unique building Stone Wall Cannon Tower (Stone Wall Tower with a cannon emplacement increases the range of all defensive emplacements in an aura radius) can only build 3 like other dynasty buildings.
They actually changed it. Pagoda’s used to be locked to Ming Dynasty (Villagers were song, etc). I do think China needs a little bit of ##### ### not sure if this is the way to go about it (also really not a fan of another defensive structure late game).
While their winrate is a bit on the low side for what it should be, I think it is partly hurt by overtuned early game civs combined with a very aggressive map pool that is really bad for China. I don’t think they need much of a buff (once Zhu Xi early game and Jeanne is nerfed a bit more).
Zhuge Nu are the Song Dynasty unit and they were since launch. The thing that changed was all dynasty buildings became a dynasty earlier. All dynasty units and buildings remained unlocked after a dynasty change. Right now their is not a good reason to go Ming Dynasty its too expensive for what it gives. The dynasty building could always be something different. Maybe a military production building that produces dynasty units at a discount. limited to 3 like other dynasty buildings. can be overseen by an imperial official for faster production.
Another dynasty unit could be the Iron Pagoda Cavalry, and changing the Yuan dynasty to the Jin dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty could have unique markets.
Unique Markets that can be inspired by an imperial official allowing for 20% gold dropped off and faster trader production
As the Tang dynasty starts from 907 not 618 in the game, it was totally the age of chaos and independence till 1105 the song dynasty, so there would be no military buff I’m pretty sure.
But there should be some eco bonus to enter the next dyansty faster. The middle game of Chinese is kind of weird like playing a civ that has 0 special unit except nest of bees.
The extrodinary tech boost in Song dynasty is due to the recogization of the first Song dynasty emperor, that the worship of warfare would lead to nothing but ruins and rubbles. The emperor brothers forfeited the old order of martial art imperial examination invented by Wu Zetian, made the imperial officials having a higher rank than the military officer. The history finally led the dynasty to the amazing tech boost, like the clocktower at age III.
So from the history view, in age 3 chinese should have some amazing tech in eco, but not quite effective in military. Like mining, medicine, astronomy, one-year-two-harvest farming, and some very ancient type of gunpowder, like exploding it in a hollow stone grenade on the wall defense. Well, of course the blooming pop of Song is not because they had 2 town center each city right.
I would just untie the unique units from dynasty.
It simpler and make more sense, it makes no sense to have a tang dynasty unit only available in feudal. Then it’s just a normal unit.
Fire lancer in song would be way too strong.
On top of that you don’t lose access to unit when going to better dynasty so to me they are completely unrelated to dynasties.
Just do
zhuge nu : feudal
fire lancer : castle
grenadier : imperial
there we go
That makes sense seeing how expensive dynasties are especially Ming their passive bonuses need a buff or a rework. or adding a unique tech at each dynasty building.
The problem with buffing something like Ming is that it pretty much only affects team games, and it’s not like China needs help in 4v4. It’s the issue China had when the game first came out where they were turbo-broken in team games when late game was to strong, but they were still pretty poor below the pro level in 1v1.