Chinese might actually have the best cav archer

[ausmht]

It might be surprising because when we think about cav archer civs it is always mongols, tatars, huns, berbers, turks, magyars, etc. Chinese CA is only missing parthian tactics from tech tree.

But the biggest issue for CA is difficulty to fully upgrade them as they require so many techs and take so long to reach the power, that’s exactly where chinese shines, CA requires so many techs that by using CA as Chinese you are using the cheaper tech bonus to maximum, and combined with strong eco, allowing you to get the CA number quickly with proper upgrades.

I think the only close one is Huns where you save a lot of res when you have a good number of CAs your savings pays off, it is also not fully upgraded either. However Huns civ is pretty much geared towards that unit, it is fully expected huns player goes CA. But a strong CA is the only side army composition for Chinese and if you play Chinese CA it might catch opponent off guard as it is a small surprise

[casusincorrabil]

Chinese miiss Parthian Tactics. But they also lack Hussar.
It’s almost as important as having FU CA to also get Hussar. And one big part of why Parthian Tacics is so important for the CA civs is that little bit of extra bonus damage against Spears. Cause this allows then to use the CA super efficient against the biggest threat for the Hussars: Halberdiers.

And Chinese miss both these techs => not top tier CA.

But I agree if Chinese HAD these, their CA would be amazing. Sadly we rarely see CA play these days anymore. Most games on generally open maps actually don’t even reach that lategame anymore.