As a matter of fact, I did, and I think I was the first person to do so. It certainly means something.
Southwest Chinese have very close relationship with Southeast Asians. Vienamese, Thai, Burmese all can find their cousin races in Southwest China.
Yeah saw it mentioned in the other thread. People speculating about the Thai being added.
But the Vietnamese use East Asian architecture now so why would a Southwest Chinese civ have South East Asian architecture?
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I don’t think so.
Southeast Asian campaigns in the game have Siamese, Chams and Mons. 3 potential new civs. There wasn’t any civ replacement in patch notes about Southeast Asian campaigns.
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I agree it’s quite intriguing.
It must be one of the 5 new civs because no existing civ got the fire archer according to the patch notes.
So we get a new south east Asian civ?
How is vietnamese UI btw? They have east Asian architecture but I’m not sure about that.
Or maybe it’s just an editor thing.
Just because the UI has SE Asia parts doesn’t necessitate that the architecture be SE Asian as well.
It is possible that not all information was divulged in the patch notes to be fair.
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In AoM we got this “Siege Crossbow” for Chinese.
Also seeing that “Traction Trebuchet” in the Sneakpeak. Together they really remind me of the game Fate of the Dragon.
Which was the name of the chinese expansion in AoM:EE the previous version of the game.
Maybe they hired someone who played or worked on the game Fate of the Dragon. Because these siege units look soooo similar to be honest.
Now i think about this. We even got the ****ing lantern 
They did have some other cool stuff like a Glider.
Traction Trebuchet
Oh i found a video about the siege units of Fate of the Dragon game
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Yeah I wasn’t sure to name that giant crossbow a “repeating” one, but first time I saw the picture on the techtree I thought of a giant Chu-ku-no / the roman repeating scropion.
I also thought avout the multi-bow famous chinese balista that Jury mentionned but that special “reload” mechanism on the icon isn’t logic for the multi-bow balista to me.
I think it’s a very niche siege equipement from a semi nomadic tribe, according to the tech-tree, that had no gunpowder (no canon, no firelancer, no roket cart) but has…Wait it has no camel nor steppe lancer too, so not semi nomadic indeed. A chinese related civ, before gunpowder, specilized in siege warfare, with this special “easy-to-reload” siege crowwbow mounted on some protection, probably even capable of rotating.
It will probably be the civ of the genghis khan mission where you invade china, that has the siege workshop, so…Jin or Tanguts ?
I think I found a possible siege weapon that could be the new one mentionned.
Searching for a giant repeating crossbow, I found a Japanese siege equipement called “Oyumi”, a siege crossbow, but there is no drawing of it ever found.
On wikipedia I read that a japanese writer mentionned the chinese used and improved version of the oyumi, that could rotate to fire in multiple direction.
It’s strongly possible that this “Oyumi” crossbow improved version is the chinese version mentionned.
The fun thing is that I found the illustrations on an AoE4 topic about japanese and crossbows: AoE4 forum - Japanese and Crossbow
Sadly I can’t find more info about that specific siege equipement.
On the other hand, I realized, by looking at the wikipedia category “ancient chinese weapons” that nearly all the new units weapons are present in the list.
- Fire Arrow - 火箭 = Fire Archer unit ?
- Jian - 劍 = Jian Swordman ?
- Ji - 戟 = White Featured Spearman ? (Han Ji-Soearman)
- Thunder Crash Bomb - 震天雷 = Grenadier unit ?
- Huoqiang - 火槍 = Fire Lancer ?
- Guandao - 關刀 = Mounted Spear Heavy Cavalry unit ?
There is also the roket cart and trebuchet but no point listing them here, I’ve found those links on the category section of this article: Wikipedia - Repeating Crosswbow
About the Fire-.Arrow, it seems, according to wikipedia, that it’s the ancestor of the fire-lance. This could mean a “pre-gunpowder” china version is on the list. It makes me feel the dlc will include a batch of civ representing the entire evolution of china warfare. But the Fire-Archer unit was on a SEA background, and that’s what is blocking me on that idea. We know 5 civs, probably Jin and Tanguts plus Kithan and eventually this early china and the SEA one. But there is that tibetan possibility too, so I’m abit lost on the result.
The icon of the Fire-Archer, to me, is defiitly more “India” style rather than “China” style, or at least more…How to say, “Maharaja” looking unit, I mean the hat style is not that much Chinese to me, nor the dragon shoulderpads. It looks abit “fantasy”-ish, or exotic.
Alos it seems to be a foot unit, so it’s deffinitly not a munted civ, as in “not from the steppe”. It makes me think of the movie Prince of Persia, and another one I can’t remember ceature some “shadow assassin” sect.
One thing that stroke me is that we have no info about any “rifle” unit type. Maybe my knowledge on the topic is lacky, but to me, arquebuse should be a thing on a China themed expansion, different from the hand canonner I mean.
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Especially if Rocket Cart is listed on here, that list could be counting medieval with ancient.
Though also i’m wondering if some of those uniques that are referenced (especially the Jian Swordsman) are scenerio-editor only units for the Xie An scenario.
I still highly doubt they would be doing 3 kingdoms era factions as their own civs for multiplayer, given that they are 200 years before even the earliest civ inclusions in the game (not counting Romans, since they’re geared to represent late-era Romans anyway)
They won’t do 3k civs, they would rather do a civ covering the timeframe of the 3 kingdom period, and then use several existing civs to represent the different factions.
For the Jian Swordman, as it receive the “eagle” armor, now “shock infantry”, it’s probably not a scenario editor unit. Either a regional or unique unit, or a champion replacement for one civ.
Xie An Scenario will feature the chinese rework, and as from now, we saw no jian swordman listed on their rework, nor the hei guang cavalry, nor traction trebuchet.
Also keep in mind the current patchnote is mostly aiming at AoE2 update, not the DLC features. I think Korea, China and Vietnam just get access to newly introduced siege units that are also present on the 5 new dlc civ techtree, but for more details on the dlc civ we’ll have to wait or study china history to figure out who used things mentionned on the patchnote outside of the balance section.
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To me, it doesn’t explain much, since those two units could be DLC excluded, or will be added to game after DLC released. However, the major update will happen in April, before DLC arrives.
Patch is expected to come mid April and that already includes civ chnages on Campaigns, so is known that the new DLC will come that smae day as well, possibly from now and the following week the pre order will be available.
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Anyone else is also wondering what is this modification on the special ability flag 7 ?
For me, the “create building on top of unit location” is for … Traps, or fences. Also there is that new unit class, Land Mines… Imagine caltraps / spike traps / flammable-trap in AoE2 gameplay. Maybe related to the Fire-Archer civ, or the grenadiers.
Maybe we’ll see Laders units too, or bridge builders engineer in scenario.
And that Pasture thing, to me it sounds like an area for herdable to grow and feed, having a civ that can “produce” herdable, would be really interesting indeed.
About the potential civs, if we assume Tibetan, Jin(Jurchen), Tanguts, Kithan to be the incmoing civ, any guess on wonders ? (Han/Dali/Cham wonders guessing ?)
Judging from user interface in this screenshot it looks like a Southeast Asian civilization. But then it could just be a random civ from map editor unit placement for screenshot.
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Something people are using to say Dali is one of the civs is that the building in the pic at the bottom of the sneak peak post from a couple days ago has a flag with a Dali symbol on it, and that building looks wonder-sized, so i’d guess its their wonder.
It reminds me of the Viet in Three Kingdoms Total War and their Rattan military units. Those archers also love to play with fire.
And the Chinese expansion we just had for AoM Retold, called Immortal Pillars also has a Fire Archer for the Chinese. It has a special tech that gives it special attack that causes its target and surrounding targest to catch fire.
Vietnamese don’t have the East Asian UI though. So it isn’t them for sure.
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My guesses for the castles. Probably some have already been confirmed by others here.
Top Left: Vietnamese (has the Imperial Skirmisher shield)
Bottom Left: Byzantines (has the Chi Rho Cataphract & Legionary shields)
Middle Left: Ethiopians (has the civ shield on the tower next to the main gate)
Top Centre: Burmese (has the peacock civ shield just above the entrance to the stupa)
Bottom Centre: Portuguese (has the Quinas civ shield just like the Feitoria)
Middle Centre: Vikings (has the Berseker shield & the curved wooden ornaments on top of the rooves look like the longboat)
Top Right: I would say Chinese, but I’m not sure if this civ will be split or not? Does anyone recognize the symbol on the brown flags?
Bottom Right: Persians (Sassanid emblem carved into the wall) I also wonder if Persians will finally have their architecture set changed to Central Asian? The castle looks similar to both the Tatar & Cuman ones.
Middle Right: Koreans (I think others have more detailed knowledge about the architecture style, but one hint for me is the player colour being purple, which is the same as the red/blue Koreans civ icon)
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Thein if only one is gone, I hope it’s either West Euro or Central Euro
Though I’d like the NA one (which is a temple) and East Asian one to go as well