HeiGuang cavalry I don’t know if it is regional unit. Should Vietnamese need have it, instead for cavalry line, together with China, Korean and some like Jurchen or a little bit khitan. It opportunity.
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I would have liked for the Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans to have it, simply for visual reasons. The knight line and hand cannoneers always seemed the most out of place visually for non-European civs.
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My opinion because look at the new tech free it seem remove knight line instead by hei guang cavalry, and yes about visual I want to see east Asia cavalry and Paladin( now can see paladin is region unit for Euro, although have one other discus about regional unit for Europer, but not much idea in this topic. Indeed heavy cavalry from east Asia region have a lot of equipment has same, and different only is decorate on hat, weapon, or armor. So I just hopefully it will be have an unit together new patch, or new DLC is inbound.
Hei Guang Cavalry is a stable unit, which could mean regional because it got an elite version improvement. It can also be the first vanilla unit line unique replacement in the game, we’ll see.
I’ve just realized that the icon on that tech tree preview and the green cataphract rider on the preview screenshot have their left arm placed identically. If you pay attention to the pixels colors on the dropdown tech preview menu, you can also see white-grey pixel for the blade, and a yellow-gold cluster of pixel for the “hand guard”, which seens to matches the green cavalier weapon design too.
If we assume both are the same unit, there the elite version, on the green screen the non elite, then it seems to be shared by two civ.
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If Hei Guang Cavalry is just a generic Knight-variant, I don’t see why they wouldn’t be available for every East Asian civ. I mean, they’re objectively a better fit than European Knights.
I think, they’re specific, so only 2-3 civs will get them.
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I hope it will instead for knight line of European( it is not ugly) just want to see unit belong to other region. It more diversity.
Do like AOE4. Lancers for eastern civs, same exact stats as the knight, just reskinned.
But if it’s just a reskin then regional unit skins would do the job.
Hmm, if just 2 - 3 new civ have it although they location the same east, and China, Korean and Viet put outside of groups. Really feel a bit disappointment. We can see almost region now nearly get their horse region unit( not africa) so I still hopefully about it. 
I feel like the demand in more regional units and more unique units will massively drop once they add regional skins.
One of the main reasons why people want new units added to old civs is because the generic ones just look out of place.
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Metal availablness ? Blacksmith technics ? Battlefield terrain type ? Horses availablity ? Ruler mentality ?
I mean, a cataphract type rider isn’t something, I imagine, that any horse rider can become. I’ve learn how to ride a horse when I was young, and imaging myself wearing a damn metallic armor, using one hand for the horse the other for the huge weapon… I can totally tell you it’s not anyone who can do that, I would not be able to.
But you’re right about “why not everyone has it then”, maybe cause of a special doctrina. Remember we’re talking about a region of the world where all those groups of people existed over many different climats, so availability of materials to make the weapon may lead military leaders to choose to not bet on that or that type of unit style blah blah.
Or, maybe the answer is “Balancing”. Remember it’s AoE2, it’s a video game meant to be playable in multiplayer, so it has to sometime sacrifice realism for balancing.
Problem with things like “Hei Guang”, is more to determine… Why the devs picked this term rather than another ? Is the term historical, or more generic, etc. So we’ll have to wait to see if it’s a unique unit for Jurchen or a regional unit for multiple civ (but not available to Chinese that represent also early china, when they used heavy cavalry horses too, this tend to the unique unit model)
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If have and yes suitable for all people, some mod reskin for unit look good, but for now just subscribe jannis with hat, shrivam with suit from Indian, Persia ele with mahout, some more because not at all mod do good. It is a choice
1 other way to look at history if it balance about game no mind from me, but heavy cavalry in East Asia culture a lot of they learn together, special is equipment. Of course every country have independent name called their cavalry but together they look very similar. That I mean about topic and My hope.
Each civ has to stay “unique”, but yeah, I also would love to see more “region related visuals”, like no french paladin, nor european hand canoneer etc.
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Likely indeed, and it’s logical that units with a similar equipment perform close enough to pass as a reskin. On foot, full metal armour (preferably with as much plate as possible) + a big 2h weapon ? That should match the champion.
Indeed regional units should be for units that are too far from the norm.
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The key is having the unit look good and recognisable at once, but keeping a similar colour pattern should do most of the job. If it carries a big pointy stick : mostly leather = spear, white surcoat = pike, dark metal armour = halb.
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