China didn’t get touched AT ALL despite being easily one of the weakest civs in the game since DE release.
Even Aztec got some changes, but China got nothing. Take a look at this forum, or any of the discords, or reddit, or steam forums (maybe not this one) and you will find constant talk about how China is completely absent from 1v1 competitive.
The goal of the next patch should be clear, to improve balance and make all civs viable. One small tweak was enough to make Portugal a top tier civ. China desperately needs a buff to their starting crates, now that every civ has the best possible starting crates. But thats not the only issue. Compared to other FF civs like Germany or Spain, China is terrible at Age 2. But Germany and Spain have many options and are much more flexible in Age 2 than China.
China starts into the game with 200 food and 300 wood and 1 Goat. Because of this terrible starting position, they are the slowest to start Age 2 with the standard TP village build (or 2x village, which is only 10 wood difference). They start their Age 2 at around 3:20-3:30. Even Sweden has a better start with the same crates, now considering they can have 2 Torps gathering ressources from Berries, Coin mine + Hunts in Age I now.
Meanwhile, you have a civ like France, which is doing 12/10 every single game and can start Age 2 at 2:17, more than a minute faster. They reach Age 2 by around 3:45 and can start sending 4 CDB or Hussars. We have seen 12/10 dominate tournaments so much that players had to play 3 French Mirrors in a single series.
Another huge tournament is coming. I predict we are going to see a lot more Portugal, more France (as usual) and certainly no one is going to play China given the terrible state that is in.
We can only encourage the developers to take a look at our forum, where tons of players have gathered many different suggestions for China:
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The goal should be to give China a faster Age 2 now that every civ gets the best starting crate and offer more variety in Age 2 by adding some small buffs to Russian and German consulate and improving the flamethrowers, which is a terrible unit with no reason to be build. Even 10 Strelets can beat 1 Flamethrower…