Many believe China as the weakest civ currently. Provided is a screenshot at >1200 ELO showing the civ at a 46.5% winrate. This scenario isn’t uncommon, with China being at bottom or bottom three in every single ELO range. I don’t have a problem with China being the lowest on the civ totem pole per say. As the civ is difficult to master and learn. However what I do have a problem with is that many of China’s unique gameplay mechanics are either unusable or become useless as a typical game progresses.
Therefore the buffs I suggest to make for China seek to improve upon their strengths in order to utilize what they have to offer a player. To make their core gameplay mechanics and what sets them apart from other civs more likely to occur in game, viable and fun. My suggestions aim to make the natural progression that I feel the devs intended for China (micromanaging economy through IO and going through the Dynasties) to feel more seamless and offer more incentives to go through that path.
- Dynasties Dynasty Landmarks costs are reduced by 10% stacking with each dynasty previously achieved
The dynasty mechanic, along with the Imperial Official (IO), and tax are the three gameplay mechanics which set China apart from the other civs and make it one of the most unique civs to play in the game. However the current costs of going into a dynasty, especially the later dynasties like Yuan & Ming are far too great to be considered ‘worth it’ in most games.
This stacked cost reduction lines up with the actual amounts of resources needed to go through each of the Dynasties. Song for instance is fairly easy to achieve due to the 400 Food & 200 Gold whereas Yuan with 1200 Food & 600 Gold is much harder to justify in a match. This stacking effect would encourage players to go through all the dynasties while also making them easier to achieve as the resource requirement gets higher. Keep in mind the stacking modifier only applies to making the second landmark in an age. I’m not advocating for a reduced age up for China.
- Age 3 Landmark Buff Imperial Palace offers vision to military units as well
No one uses the Imperial Palace(IP), everyone makes jokes about how useless it is. Only seeing economic units compared to having higher HP siege is not much of a choice. Seeing only economic units by spending 1800 resources is simply not worth the cost. As simply by scouting and map awareness a player would be able to know where enemy vils are at. Allowing the IP to see military as well would offer much more strategic value in allowing China to react to what their opponent is building/fielding. This also plays into China’s already established identity as a flexible and reactive civ that can switch gears depending on their opponents moves. In compensation for this new ability I believe the IP time cooldown should be increased.
- Ming Dynasty Taxes can now be dropped off at Outposts & Keeps
As of the latest China changes the Ming Dynasty bonuses are just 10% HP boost to military units and the Grenadier unique unit. This is not enough of a justification for dropping 2400 Food & 1200 Gold. Especially given that each dynasty originally offered three new things (a unit, a building, and a bonus). The Ming Dynasty should be a decision made when the game has gone very late, past the 30-40 minute mark. At that stage of the game Chinese tax is near useless due to tax only being able to be deposited at Town Centers (TC) and the Imperial Academy (IA). When the game has gone late your vils are being sent to far away woodlines and gold/stone deposits with all that tax being unable to effectively be collected. Allowing Ming outposts & Keeps to accept tax deposits would keep the Tax mechanic relevant throughout the whole game cycle. This also lines up with the Ming Dynasties extensive government bureaucracy and frontier defense (most of the ‘Great Wall’ we see today was built by the Ming). I don’t expect a new building to be created from scratch to follow the previous format, therefore giving outposts and keeps this ability would make tax viable in the late game and going into Ming more desirable beyond Grenadier Spam. Speaking of Grenadier Spam, they need a nerf. I’m not sure what kind of nerf they should receive but I think introducing a minimum range requirement would be an interesting and logical (no one would lob grenades 1 m away from themselves) nerf for the unit.
- Imperial Official Limit Each Dynasty achieved increases Imperial Official limit by 1
This is another incentive to go through each of the Dynasties and given the recent nerfs to the IO is well deserved. It allows China to make up for lost time & resources spent going to a dynasty. This also scales well as the China base gets bigger the IO becomes less efficient as scaling becomes more important as the game progresses. By late game supervising production is the only task of worth for China. The extra IO would allow for greater flexibility and give China greater strength pre-Imperial Age. Delhi and HRE both have economic support units which have no limit to their production. China should be able to make more and tying it to the Dynasty mechanic would be a fun and balanced way to implement this.
- Imperial Academy The Imperial Academy now trains Imperial Officials
I’m surprised this change hasn’t already been made. Delhi can train scholars from other buildings, so can the HRE with their prelates. Those two civs can have an unlimited number of scholars/prelates yet China can only make four and can only make them from their TC. Thus losing out of villager production when China’s economy is supposed to be one of their greatest strengths. Not to mention that the IA landmark’s usefulness only extends to about the 15 min mark. For by that time your base has grown beyond the influence of the IA and you flat out don’t receive any benefit from it. English and French can always produce military out of their age 2 no matter the game time. Delhi can train scholars out of theirs, HRE can research reduced tech costs for blacksmith, and so on. Having the IA train Imperial Officials for one just makes sense (it’s the Imperial Academy…where else would Imperial Officials logically come from?) it also gives the landmark a longer usage as the game progresses.
Conclusion:
Overall my hopes for these changes would be to preserve China’s unique playstyle while also making those mechanics more achievable in an actual match. I wish to make going through all dynasties in a game actually possible and viable while also making it more fun. Going through the dynasties with these changes would also solve all the various “bottlenecks” and challenges a Chinese player would face as the game progresses. While also offering a few select ways for China to play and win a game beyond just turtling to age 4. I understand the difficulties in balancing China as it has immense potential. I’m also aware of China’s better performance in team games which also needs to be considered. I solely play China and it’s been a really fun time. I hope some of these changes can be considered to make the civ even more fun to play and therefore give some people who’ve never tried or quit playing it to give.