Moving the trickles down by one Age was a step in the right direction, but I really feel like devs just called it a day with it and the not very useful New Army change ( Beiyang Army viability was a nice addition). Here are some main points that could be addressed:
- Flamethrowers need more speed and hopefully less pop and resource cost.
- Mandarin duck squad costs 500f, sends 8 chu ko nu + 1 flamethrower while Swedes can send 2 leather canon for only 150f… what?
- Sumptuary laws card desperately needs a buff to become viable. This could open many opportunities for all Asian civs. Not only does it provide a very few amount of resources but it is also weakercompared to other trickles because the income is spread through all resources; so there should be some kind of counter-balance. Right now even getting a trickle treasure is better than this card.
- White Pagoda is a terrible Age II wonder (or in supremacy) and disciples underperform in comparison to other units with a similar role, even after hugely investing on their upgrades. Even giving them a anticav multiplier once you get White Pagoda could help. More ideas and analysis on this What's the Worst early game unit? (and how to fix them)
- China is by far the slowest civ to Age up to Age II. @AussieDrongoBBQ proposed giving them 50f initial crate and I think that’s a good proposal.
- Chinese upgrade cards are too specialized and do not affect mercenary units, outlaws, natives, etc at all (except for western reforms in Age IV with 8%). This is not the case with many other civs. Asian civs still can’t access Imperial Age mercenaries if they choose to either.
- Why can only Japan out of the Asian civs have an option to sacrifice part of their standard economy to get a viable-playable amount of export if they choose to send a card? Here are some proposals and analysis Seeing how Influence works, should Export have viable means that makes it a reliable resource income if you invest on it?
- China is the only civ in the game without viable means of obtaining alternative XP income without TP, and I prefer not to count Porcelain tower and Sumptuary Laws since it’s pretty much like 10x less than what any other civ can get.
- Summer Palace can’t produce all banner armies.