The general speed of Chinese light mortars is 3, and the maximum speed is 4. The maximum speed of all artillery is 2 points higher than the speed, but this is only 1 point.
The speed of Chinese light mortars is too slow, and the collision size is too large. Although they occupy 1 population, they are the same as other artillery collision size, 0.99 * 0.99. The formation time is too long, and the area is too large, which is easy to be targeted by cavalry. In the late Empire era or treaty war, they often can’t play their strength. They hope to reduce the price or improve some attributes.
I have been playing Legacy since 2008. 131 HC with China, Played them tons of FFA fighting all kinds of civs. I really do not see the problem with the unit like you do. They are so strong and your forgetting their bonuses: long range anti art and buildings, 1 pop spam harder to counter with anti artillery, cheap and yet filling up same pop space as a mortar do more damage/ HP etc…
So if it can travel at speed of 4, and all other artillery would have to travel at 6 in limber… which is just not the case, that is only for horse cannon which come at a premium of cost and pop (so worth it) So for a small unit the speed has always seemed fine for me.
things to consider… if you group them closer together, 1 culv shot is going to kill multiple units.
Also part of it is good unit control and moving it far forward enough the long range stuff does not have to try to walk through or around stuff to get to a target.
You may be having a weakness to cavalry because generally China is weak to it and have to over compensate or send in some good mercs. Their hand mortars may be a little wonky but they are really so strong once set up that you need something to counter balance that strength.
From my experience China was always in a very strong place. its weakness was not in anti- art or its hand mortars, but in that its weak to heavy cav. While they do have some nice hard counters like pike, usually not enough survive to really make the impact they need to and you can only train them in batches to reinforce.
Its a Fun civ and really one of the strongest once one adapts to cav pushes.
4 Likes
In fact, it is not cheap, and it will cost a lot of wood. The Empire era and treaty wars cannot effectively eliminate enemy cannons.
1 Like
here is a pretty cool video on ancient naval siege, a lot of it applies and talks about naval tactics up until the time of gunpowder
They can effectively exert their abilities in the fortress and industrial period,
However, after the treaty and the Empire, the enemy and our forces are the largest. When the war begins, they line up too slowly. Their large size makes the front row generally block the rear row. The front row can’t play a big threat. They have to wait for the rear row to spread to both sides. This will take a lot of time. We have to send more soldiers to protect them
It is suggested to increase the speed by 0.3 when upgrading the Empire, which is in line with the balance of the treatybalance of the treaty