About the new unit, the grenadier, I wonder how would it work?
It seem from the picture that drops the grenade and left a hole in the ground with some oil-burned (black spots) and fire.
The unit are so close to the enemy units that may have a melee attack too.
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Maybe it will let the ground on fire for a couple of secs, damaging any unit over that area.
Or maybe just a ranged melee attack with splash damage
I think those grenadier have some considerable range.
If you track the smoke trails back they go quite a ways back.
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For English speakers, “Cambridge History of China” is a good place to start
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This was the big book series I was implying to with my comment. It’s just that I hoped that there were some more concise books about that period or time frame, as I must admit I have simply no more space left in my home library 
Can’t wait for the DLC announcement. Let’s see if there are 3 civs or regular 2.
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If there are only regular 2, they don’t have to deliberately imply that this DLC will be similar to DoI.
Let’s keep our faith in the Khitans and Chinese rework.
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Yeah. And yesterday they also said it is one of the most exciting DLC for Age2 DE.
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Normally how long we must wait to received detail announcement of the new DLC?
Looking at its appearance, it doesn’t look like it will fire projectiles with a straight line trajectory. In reality and in AoE4, its projectiles also have a curved trajectory. If it is a replacement, it could be more reasonable to replace Mangonels or Bombard Cannons. It is still possible to be a completely new unit and not replace existing units.
I’m even imagining now that Fire Lancers, Grenadiers, and Nests of Bees could all be regional units, like South Asia has Battle Elephants, Elephant Archers, and Siege Elephants as regional units.
If I could choose, I would leave Imperial Steppe Lancer to the Gokturks, after all, they are very suitable to be a steppe civilization without the Knight line. But yeah Imperial Steppe Lancer is possible for any steppe civ.
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Good DLC like those we love !
The last khan was on the western steppe nomad, this incoming DLC is on the eastern steppe nomads.
Fire lancer : a pikeman with a charged ranged attack.
I think than the fire lancer must be a regional unit, the chinese must have them because they invent it. Maybe as a regional upgrade replacing the halberdier. Song and jurchen used it.
Grenade thrower
Certainly an unique unit.
Camel catapult
Unique unit for the tanguts.
New cavalry unit
Unique unit or unique upgrade for the steppe lancer ?
For the nest of bee or hwacha this must be a regional replacement for the scorpion. Civilizations who can have acces to it : chinese, korean, japanese, mongol, (tangut, jurchen)
Also new model for tree, ruin, yurt and a crane.
Good thing : Genghis campaign and Temujin scenario will be improved with tangut and jurchen who are actualy played by chinese.
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I think any 1 of 3 can be regional upgrade of standard unit. Grenade thrower can be early short-ranged BBC.
Camel catapult can replace onager-line.
I’m sure at least 1 of them is. And I also have a feeling that yellow in picture 2 is the same civ as red in picture 1.
Well spotted with those grenades.
I don’t personally think the blasted bit on the ground is them though. As it looks like an effect on the tiles that you can make in the scenario editor. Wouldn’t take much effort to have them lob one at the area for visual effect.
I think there might be more reason to believe the presumably tangut castle, is in fact, tangut.
I found this flag of western xia.
digging around it seems to be a recreation from this medieval art. I cranked the saturation up to a zillion to make the colors easier to see.
These same colors are found as banners on the castle.
Furthermore if anyone can identify what the inspiration is for that red and white shield design, that could be quite informative.
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These medieval Chinese grenades or bombs were used somewhat differently from modern grenades. They were called Taojili (literally “Ceramic Caltrop”). There were two ways that they can be used, either set up somewhere on the path of the enemy and ignited with a fuse shortly before the enemy’s arrival, or dropped on the enemy from a higher elevation (say from a cliff or on top of a wall). They were too bulky to be thrown by hand like modern grenades (although could still be thrown via traction trebuchets).
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Interesting. One of the things that attracts me to history is seeing human ingenuity, whether in adapting the environment for survival or inventing things. It all seems obvious in retrospect, but who would have thought of putting a catapult on top of a camel, for example? It’s a very creative thing to do.
Just a trivia, some West African people filled calabashes with bees and threw them at their enemies, much like modern grenades.
After doing more digging, I think I have identified the units properly and where they will be going.
Iron Pagoda
This is the Jurchens castle UU. While the armour looks similar to the steppe lancer, it’s only because they both come from a roughly similar part of the world.
The real clue is in the pose and silhouette. Looking at that, the Iron Pagoda does not match any stable unit. All additional stages/split evolutions have a roughly similar body plan to the previous one. With the only real exception being the Militia line, but even that has them split into two pairs and the base one.
Grenadier
This is a Jurchen unit they can make at another building. The armour and grenade shape are Jurchen in design.
With the Iron Pagoda being the castle unit, this one will probably be made at either the archery range or siege workshop. It might even be their Team Bonus, like the Condotierro or Genitour.
Camel Catapult
This is the Tangut castle UU. There’s no other unit that fits them in this group of five. So I think we can move on.
Hwacha
Yes, I wrote Hwacha, as after careful comparison, this unit bears only a rough similarity to the Nest of Bees (in that they do a similar thing, and have a similar silhouette). But the design is a perfect match for the Hwacha, with the rectangular shape of the holding mechanism.
So what is it in-game? Well, I believe given the fact it is a Hwacha, that it is a new UU for the Koreans. Whether or not it replaces the War Wagon, I don’t know. But it isn’t a regional unit, as nobody other than the Koreans used this unit.
Fire Lancer
This looks like the regional unit candidate. Fire Lancers were used by several different civilisations, namely the Chinese (who invented it) and the Jurchens. But it wouldn’t be much of a stretch giving it to some other civilisations in this DLC. Hell, apparently the Japanese even used these now and again, so it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to have it either.
Some have speculated that it replaces the halberdier. I personally don’t think so, as it’s a bit weird to replace a unit that’s pretty integral to the late game rock-paper-scissors. Not to mention imagine this thing being a trash unit, scattering buckshot everywhere. Nasty.
No. I think this is likely an archery range unit. I’ve created a hypothetical version before where it’s a pre-evolution to the Hand Cannoneer, and perhaps it is. But it could easily be its own thing as a regional replacement for that unit.
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I am wondering and “Viper” in the preview YouTube video is also not sure, what the “Trade shop” means, possibly for training of new Fire lancer or Gunpowder canons units?
So far, this building as “Gunpowder depot” only been used for cosmetic purposes in the Chinese campaign, maybe it will be now use as an “active building” with the new DLC. If anyone knows more about it, feel free to post.
The Chinese workshop is the one in the middle.
You can follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEwOrjpocFg
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