They were gunpowder weapons introduced in China during the 10-12th century and were the ancestor of modern firearms.
The weapon is made of bamboo with gunpowder inside that would spray fire when ignited. Fire lance - Wikipedia
In-game stats:
Chinese unique gunpowder unit with high attack but slow firing rate.
Stats:
Availability: Imperial Age after Rocketry is researched.
Cost: 45 food, 45 gold
HP: 45
Base Pierce Attack: 18
Base Range: 7
Base Melee/Pierce: 1/0
Rate of Fire: 4
Stats are subject to tweaking, please give feedback!
2 Likes
Well, actually… Slingers have a projectile speed of 5.5. I won’t include siege, but not all projectiles have a speed of 7.
Oh yes, I have forgotten about that
To emphasize the point, I’d like to make it the previous unit of the Hand Cannoneer.
The Fire Lancer could be trainable at Archery Ranges in the Castle Age and upgraded to the Hand Cannoneer after Chemistry is researched. It could have 30 HP, 0 melee armor and a range of 6, but still have a decent 15 attack. As a primitive gunpowder weapon, the effective range of the fire lance is indeed not long, and the lethality is relatively limited. After Rocketry is researched, it and the Hand Cannoneer get +2 attack too.
By the way, it would be interesting to make the Flamethrower trainable at Siege Workshops in the Imperial Age. Perhaps both the Fire Lancer and the Flamethrower could be the new UU for the Chinese.
I would like to see the flamethrower used in a tech tree somewhere. It’s such a cool model, and it’s a shame it only sees use in one campaign mission.