I was playing as the Chinese today, and I noticed that I couldn’t train either the Hand Cannoneer or the Bombard Cannon even after researching Chemistry. I checked their tech tree and found out that they can’t train either of these units. Considering the Chinese were the very people who invented cannons, that seems weird to me. Is there a balance reason for denying them cannons, or is that something that should be rectified in a future update?
(BTW, this is a Chinese hand cannon from the Yuan Dynasty, in case you were wondering whether they would have had hand cannons.)
It’s balance. The Chinese are already very strong in other areas, so giving them gunpowder would put them over the top. I’m guessing Bombard Towers were a compromise.
BBCs in particular would make the Chinese nigh-uncounterable, because mass archers’ main weakness, the onager, would be completely null in the late game.
People have been talking about for over 20 years.
The Chinese have a very good techtree with lots of different technologies available so they are very flexible.
Giving them gunpowder on top would make them OP.
Taking anything else away in return would destroy their current identity (that they had for over 20 years).
They are representing the Song dynasty and not the Ming.
They were named Song in the beta like the Shang in AoE1.
If we really want Chinese gunpowder users, the Jurchens are a good choice. As it stands, I don’t see the point of splitting the existing Chinese, because the different dynasties were still the same unified people, just different rulers. AoE2 doesn’t do dynasties, but people groups.
I am agree with that. As a compromise, the developers should have to weaken the Chinese in other areas a little, but that would certainly work.
That is right and it concerns the special units.
Dawn of the Dukes DLC:
For me, the Poles and Lithuanians are in particular a little too strong for their conditions, they should be scaled back a little.
Dynasties of India DLC:
I think also, that the strength values of the Bengals, Gurjaras and Dravidians should be lowered a little, to be more historically correct.
Chinese have Cannon Galleon, that’s the only cannon unit avaliable for them.
Because its almost complete tech tree and their civ bonus, Chinese are quite dominating vs other civs. And that’s why Chinese don’t get Handcannon and/or Bombard.
Historical accuracy aside, I think the 3 new Indian civs are a little too strong, the same are the fact for the Poles and Lithuanians. All these civs are unbalancing the game and should be weakened.
Then Bengalis would get Hand Cannoneer, Bombard Cannon and Bombard Tower. Gurjaras would get Paladin and HCA. Dravidians would get Elite Battle Elephant, Husbandry, Bloodlines, Cavalier and Plate Barding Armor for history accuracy.
Only way to give Chinese gunpowder is to nerf them somewhere else. You’d have to do something drastic like remove Arbalest or Camels from their tech tree or something. Otherwise they would be ridiculously OP
Remember the Chinese already do have a bonus for two gunpowder units. Their Great Wall unique tech gives them extra HP for their Bombard Towers. And they have a civ bonus that their Demolition Ship line has extra HP.
As much as people complaint about chinese lacking gunpowder units… the truth is that medieval China didn’t really use much in the way of bombards or Hand Cannons, those were actually developed more somewhere between Hindustan & the Middle East.
Yes the chinese invented gunpowder weapons, but what they used was more along the lines of rockets, bombs, grenades and whatnot. The arquebus was very much more of an european development.
Like the hand cannon in the OP is from the Yuan Dynasty, which is the one the Mongols founded.
