As a Platinum-ranked player, I believe that China seems overly weak in this version of the game. After the nerfs to chemistry, infantry, and NoB, China seems to lack powerful units during Age III and Age IV. Compared to similar civilizations like Zhu Xi, ZhugeNu also appear quite underpowered. I’m now even unsure how China can win matches against civilizations like Zhu Xi, OTD, and Abbas after 20 mins. I hope to hear the understandings of players from different ranks on whether China needs to be buffed.
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Im a Chinese main (Silver/Gold) i unterstand ur point, i have the feeling that Chinese Units have a leak of specialness in comparision to ZXL. I wish those two would be diffent. Every time i think abaout it i conclude that ZXL has the same eco but other landmark and stronger Units (Imperial Guards, Zuge Nu, Palaceguards are tankier from China but deal more damage from ZXL, ZXL has better Granadiers). The points where China has better Units is HC (but ZXL has Better X-Bows) and firelancers)
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Yes, they should make China very strong, but add a civ that counters it and call it USA. For balance purposes.
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lol 
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As a diamond player, I agree, Chinese is very weak in comparison to its variant this season.
Well, I think Zhu Xi is fun because it’s a civ showing off a lot of the theoretical and experimental Chinese weapons from the Middle Ages, including infantry fire lances (Roar of the Dragon), Shaolin monks, fragmentation bomb ammo (Cloud of Terror), or special grenades (Hard Cased Bombs)…
The problem is that it does so at the expense of being a “better version” of China, were “You don’t even need to unlock the dynasty to get the unique units”: Let’s break it down:
1.- Chinese Archers vs Chuge-nu
Is there any point in having Chinese archers instead of chu-ku-nus? Does anyone use them?
First, you have to understand why it exists:
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Season 1, The reason: When the game came out, and in Season 1, the Chinese only had “1” dynasty unit unlocked at a time. That is, you couldn’t have Fire Lancer and Chukunus. So you either decided to stay in Song for the rest of the game to use Chukunu, or you lost them in Imperial Age. This was because for balance, China had more unique units than other civs, and they thought that “Limiting” their available units would be fair to the rest of civs… but that didn’t last.
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Season 3, The change: Already from the 3rd season, with Ottomans with 4 unique units and Mali with 6, and the addition of several unique units in the 5th season for the rest of civs, the limit of units per civ was lost, and now the Chinese could have all the chukunu they wanted until Imperial Age. EVERYONE HAPPY!, but the Chinese archer lost its original function.
2.- The Chinese grenadier
Unlocked in Imperial Age only if you build 2 expensive landmarks, and for what? They lack the Hard Cased Bombs technology, so they are an inferior version to Zhu Xi’s, in a later age, and on top of that difficult to unlock.
The unit is good, it is the Chinese Area unit, most civs have one (FRE, OTT, ENG: Ribauldoquin, Delhi: War Elephant, HRE: Landknecht, etc), but precisely because they “require” an area unit, it should not be so difficult to unlock, and even less if there is a better version with its variant.
3.- Differences between father and son
I remember when the devs started calling the vanilla civ “Fathers”, what memories.
The thing is that China, as a Father civ, has many defects compared to its Son, instead of differences.
In comparison, to differentiate JoanDArc from the French had to spend a long time, before they were almost equal. Over time, 4 positive differences accumulated, and no negative ones:
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French
– Melee attack technologies of blacksmith are free. (+)
– Keeps are 10% cheaper (+)
– Keeps have a influence bonus with Stables and Archery range units, discount 20% of their cost. (+)
– Villagers are produced very fast. (+) -
Shared
– Trader economic mechanic
– Economic technologies discount -
JoanDArc
– Has an hero, and every other mechanic is around her, including: unit discount, improves construction, etc. (+++)
Like you can see, every bonus is different, and not a better version of another. Now compare ZhuXi with China civs:
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Zhu Xi
– Better early bonus (Tang Dinasty) with cheaper Landmarks (+)
– Has Early Palace Guard (II) (+)
– Dont neet to unlock units from Song Dinasty (Zhuge Nu), and Unique Tech. (++)
– Has better early Grenadier with Unique Tech (++)
– Can unlock Shaolin Monks (++)
– Can unlock 2 cavalry unique units in imperial age. (++)
– Can have 6 officials with a Landmark technology (++)
– Can unlock their own version of fire lancer with spearmans and horsemans (++)
– OP landmarks (=)
– Nest of Bees and Grenadier with better range (+1) for Temple of the Sun (IV) (++) -
Shared:
– Naval bonus: 10% speed in ship construction
– Construction bonus
– Free chemistry, but without extra 20% normal attack, dont have any use in early ages. (-/+) -
China
– Need to wait to Castle Age to get Palace Guard (III) (-)
– Need two landmarcks to unlock Zhuge Nu (IV), without any Unique Technology (- -)
– Need two landmarcks to unlock Grenadier (IV), and without any Unique Technology (- -)
– Don´t have any new unit unlocked by Imperial Age (–).
– Nest of Bees with unique technology. (+)
– Fire Lancer (III), optional unlocking. (+)
– Handcannoner has unique tech (+)
– OP landmarks (=)
– Have archers… (–)
Discussion: As we can see, the only positive differences between China over Zhu Xi are in gunpowder units, but its not enough because Zhu Xi has is own parallel bonus for that (+1 range gunpowder units, Temple of the Sun).
In any case, everything has a solution, and it is not nerfs, since it is not that Zhu Xi is broken, but that her parent variant needs some bonus.