Hello,
I just played a game, and to my surprise, a simple Chinese fire lance cavalry (strong against buildings and siege engines), literally destroyed my upgraded pikemen, archer, cavalry with simple charges. It has the same effect as 10 catapults… The charge creates an area explosion that one shot or nearly all units, and a single hit and run no match an entire army. A rebalancing of these units should be done because, on the one hand this unit does not cost much, but in addition it is enough to spam them to destroy even the counter-cavalry units.
1 Like
Fire lancer are a late medieval/early imperial unit.
Their charge doesn’t oneshot anything, it deals like 40 dmg aoe and can be blocked by simple chargeblock with spears.
Open formation and big units also work great against them, since the aoe damage is pretty much limited to 1 unit most of the time then.
After the charge they are basically just normal horsemen.
Fire lancers are a noobfinisher, same as mongol mangudai only rn.
Too less players feel comfortable, walling the map or their base properly without a defensive landmark/keep/unit rally point at home.
There are tools in the game that deal with firelancers pretty well, and a light cav unit in early imp timing if no big castle commitment has been made, is okayish but not optimal (since fights become more static when gunpowder units hit the field and players start to have multiple keeps).
Meaning you can throw tons of firelancers away into a meatgrinder really quickly.
They are fine in the spot they are rn.
I’d even argue that the entire dynasty unlocks unit mechanic is holding china back way too hard rn.
7 Likes
China is so weak now.Watch the EGC,China is played only twice.Simulataneously,French is played 98 times.
6 Likes
Yes but you can make fire lancers at age 3, that’s why it’s insane. I tried with spears, the aoe pre-shot my army. the aoe is cumulative with each lancer
Two games in a row actually. All the Chinese players I see now use this same age 3 rush strategy and spam them.
I will try some strategies, but the hit and run of fire lancers is abused
Even tho Chinese are anything but OP and are actually a bottom tier civ, I believe the Fire-lancer needs to be nerfed.
The reason being it overshadows the other options the Chinese have, Zhuqo nu and imperial guards are almost unplayable compared to the fire-lancer pick.
I think the right call would be to nerf fire-lancer, and buff the Chinese with another eco boon. That would make their army composition more interesting, and won’t take away from their overall strength
You can only make them in the Yuan Dynasty, which means you need to take the castle age twice, meaning it’s going to be late castle age/early imp depending on how the players play out the game.
Chinese are increadibly underwhelming, and while i agree that the unit itself is useable and good, I don’t think they are as much of a grand scaling issue as you make it seem it is.
1 Like
Obviously I forgot to specify in team play. In 1v1 the question does not arise because the maps are very small and allow a constant rush
Fire lancer is not op.
and Chinese need buff now . they are bottom tier civ.
need buff
2 Likes
Mm fire lancers are probably the closest thing China has to OP right now but they don’t seem like a big deal based on how few people have learned to play China in the early game.
If you are against a yuan dynasty China you need stonewalls around at least 1 landmark or you will lose.
Yes, China is indeed too weak
Just because an unit is hard to get doesn’t justified it being OP
Fire lancers are op in big team games when they get around 25-50 of them. I played a 4v4 where the chinese player was using them and even when doing spread formations my army would almost instantly die to them. Any thing he doesn’t kill he can just micro away and recharge instantly. I built numerous keeps with burning oil and had my army underneath the keeps. He would dive the keeps and kill them in 5 seconds cycle his cav out and recharge evaporating my army. My allies French royal knights were evaporated by them. He was also able to run around and snipe landmarks in seconds. Walls won’t do much as it’s a team game and one of his teammates will have bombards. Castles with boiling oil didn’t work and any kind army besides maybe elephants I see no way of working. The AOE effect is just insane. And I’m not the best player but I’m a lot better than most at around top 25% of the 1v1 ladder. I actually don’t think any other units are too op and they can be countered. I don’t see a counter for this unit. You don’t see them in 1v1s because China should be dead if they go yuan dynasty, but if you play enough 4v4s you will see them and you will probably die to them.
1 Like
Not saying fire lancers aren’t OP but pikemens brace does cancel the charge damage if you are looking for a counter.