Just thought I would post this because the only China strategy in the TAD strategy section is some esoteric boxer rebellion strategy.
So here we go.
Basic Chinese Discovery Age:
ESO had to make things difficult and give China not villager cards, but cards that spawn a villager from every village and TC you have. This can be great to use later on when you have many villages and several TCs, but we also need an early game boost. The only time I would not use this build order is if I was going for a super fast rush,which isn't very good with China because banner armies limit the
amount of one type of unit you can mass, so super fast xbow or pike spams are just not possible. It is best to wait a little and get a more balanced army.
The trickiest part about discovery age with China is getting two villages built before your villager card comes, without delaying the villager card and without greatly slowing your colonial time. This effectively gets you the equivalent of a 3 villager card.
3 vills to the nearest hunt. No need to herd on asian maps, as the primary hunt doesn't run. 3 vills to gathering crates, food first, then wood. Queue up the first villager as soon as you get 100 food.
Monk goes to getting treasure, the key with the Chinese monk is to stun the guardian, and kill the other one first. Wood treasures FIRST, this is imperative and will greatly speed up aging time.
The three villagers that were gathering the crates now build a village, then go to wood. At this point you should have 100 wood left over.
The first villager to come out of the TC goes to food, so you have now 4 on food to continue constant villager production. Then set your TC waypoint to wood, and keep sending villagers to wood until you have 200 wood from them gathering or from treasures. If you see an easily
obtainable treasure that gives a lot of wood, switch the vills back to food a lot sooner.
As soon as you get 200 wood, build a 2nd village, then put all villagers on food. You should have already sent the first shipment by now, which would be the villager spawning card.
Age up when you have 16-17 villagers and 800 food. You might have some idle TC time because of the wood gathering, but thats ok.
Age up with the Summer Palace, and put 4 villagers building it.
From here, you must make a choice: Make Pikes and Chu Ko Nus with the Old Han Army, or make Steppe Riders and Chu Ko Nus with the Standard Army. Personally I would go with the Standard Army because Pikes and CKNs are too easily beaten by masses of light infantry. If you're facing hordes of Yumi Archers and you need to counter them, you are at
a major disadvantage when half of your army is forced to be arrow fodder. The only thing that can solidly beat the Standard Army is pure cavalry, or just better micro. Plus, you can send the Mongolian Scourge card which makes Steppe Riders more powerful against villagers and buildings, making them excellent raiders. Nice that they have an extra bonus vs buildings too, so you can raid Jap shrines.
Old Han Colonial: Qiang Pikes and Chu Ko Nus
A solid strategy that is good for sieging and basic fighting. Pikes and CKNs is a very balanced combo. Would definitely recommend it against Sioux or Germans maybe, as they can get a lot of cav. Russia can get lots of Cossacks too, but Cossacks are weak enough to be countered by Steppe Riders and you NEED Steppe Riders against Strelets. So I would go Standard Army against Russia.
Transition from Basic Chinese Discovery Age:
4 villagers on food, 4 on building wonder, the rest on wood. Remember to make villagers during age up! No need to save any food for armies in colonial, use it all to queue up vills.
Colonial:
When you hit colonial, take three vills from the wonder to gather the 400 food you get from ageup, and take 1 vill from the wonder to build a barracks.
If you do it right, you can queue up two Old Han armies as soon as you get the barracks up. Also make sure to switch Summer Palace over to making the Old Han army, it automatically makes Standard Armies for
some reason.
1st shipment is 8 CKNs, second is 7 Steppe Riders, 3rd is whatever resource crate you need most.
Keep constant villager production, and make sure to herd and make more villages as you need population. You want to have 10-11 on wood, and the rest on food till you get about 17-20 on food. Old Han armies are 255 food, 180 wood.
OR
Standard Army Colonial: Steppe Riders and Chu Ko Nus
Arguably the best colonial combo for China, it can really only be beaten by pure cavalry if the skill of the two players is equal. I would recommend using the Old Han Colonial against civs like Sioux and Germany, but the Standard Army is good for about everyone else.
Transition from the Basic Chinese Discovery Age:
4 villagers on a wonder, 4 on food, 3 on wood, 5 on gold. Remember to make villagers as you age up, and send them to gold, or send them to wood if you can't find any wood treasures. LOOK FOR WOOD TREASURES. If you find any big ones, you can get away with having only 1-2 villagers on wood, move them to food or gold. But you must have 200 wood by Colonial, for a Barracks.
Colonial:
Of the four villagers building the wonder, take three and use them to gather the 400 food from the Summer Palace. Take the last one and have him build a barracks.
If you do things right, you should be able to queue up 2 Standard Armies immediately after the barracks is built, and 1 more after the 2nd one spawns.
Keep making villagers, and send them to food first, keeping 5-6 on gold. Then alternate between sending them to food and gold. Ideally you want about 12 on food, and 8-9 on gold for constant military and villager production. Then maybe send some to wood to build a consulate and a market and villages.
1st shipment is always 8 CKNs for early raid prevention, then 7 Steppe Riders. If you have the upper hand, send Mongolian Scourge as your 3rd card to help with raiding, but if you are losing battles then send 700 food to help you get more units and villager out.
Required/Highly Recommended Cards for All Strategies
Age 1 Villager Spawn Card
Boxer Rebellion
700 Food
700 Wood
700 Coin
8 CKNs
7 Steppe Riders
9 Qiang Pikes
Mandarin Duck Squad
Mongolian Scourge
Decreased Banner Army Training Time Card
Refrigeration Plant
Royal Mint
Acupuncture (decreases train time of all units)
Old Han Armies
Rushing With France
the french ar general an bad civ. bcause they know what the enemy can do!
as an french u must luck that u have more crossbows then pikes. pikes ar only for buildings or cav. the deck should have in 3 hussars. thats the way to winning! a nother good card is 700 wood and 700 food. have fun by capture the enemy -Loessli
So here we go.
ESO had to make things difficult and give China not villager cards, but cards that spawn a villager from every village and TC you have. This can be great to use later on when you have many villages and several TCs, but we also need an early game boost. The only time I would not use this build order is if I was going for a super fast rush,which isn't very good with China because banner armies limit the
amount of one type of unit you can mass, so super fast xbow or pike spams are just not possible. It is best to wait a little and get a more balanced army.
The trickiest part about discovery age with China is getting two villages built before your villager card comes, without delaying the villager card and without greatly slowing your colonial time. This effectively gets you the equivalent of a 3 villager card.
3 vills to the nearest hunt. No need to herd on asian maps, as the primary hunt doesn't run. 3 vills to gathering crates, food first, then wood. Queue up the first villager as soon as you get 100 food.
Monk goes to getting treasure, the key with the Chinese monk is to stun the guardian, and kill the other one first. Wood treasures FIRST, this is imperative and will greatly speed up aging time.
The three villagers that were gathering the crates now build a village, then go to wood. At this point you should have 100 wood left over.
The first villager to come out of the TC goes to food, so you have now 4 on food to continue constant villager production. Then set your TC waypoint to wood, and keep sending villagers to wood until you have 200 wood from them gathering or from treasures. If you see an easily
obtainable treasure that gives a lot of wood, switch the vills back to food a lot sooner.
As soon as you get 200 wood, build a 2nd village, then put all villagers on food. You should have already sent the first shipment by now, which would be the villager spawning card.
Age up when you have 16-17 villagers and 800 food. You might have some idle TC time because of the wood gathering, but thats ok.
Age up with the Summer Palace, and put 4 villagers building it.
From here, you must make a choice: Make Pikes and Chu Ko Nus with the Old Han Army, or make Steppe Riders and Chu Ko Nus with the Standard Army. Personally I would go with the Standard Army because Pikes and CKNs are too easily beaten by masses of light infantry. If you're facing hordes of Yumi Archers and you need to counter them, you are at
a major disadvantage when half of your army is forced to be arrow fodder. The only thing that can solidly beat the Standard Army is pure cavalry, or just better micro. Plus, you can send the Mongolian Scourge card which makes Steppe Riders more powerful against villagers and buildings, making them excellent raiders. Nice that they have an extra bonus vs buildings too, so you can raid Jap shrines.
A solid strategy that is good for sieging and basic fighting. Pikes and CKNs is a very balanced combo. Would definitely recommend it against Sioux or Germans maybe, as they can get a lot of cav. Russia can get lots of Cossacks too, but Cossacks are weak enough to be countered by Steppe Riders and you NEED Steppe Riders against Strelets. So I would go Standard Army against Russia.
4 villagers on food, 4 on building wonder, the rest on wood. Remember to make villagers during age up! No need to save any food for armies in colonial, use it all to queue up vills.
When you hit colonial, take three vills from the wonder to gather the 400 food you get from ageup, and take 1 vill from the wonder to build a barracks.
If you do it right, you can queue up two Old Han armies as soon as you get the barracks up. Also make sure to switch Summer Palace over to making the Old Han army, it automatically makes Standard Armies for
some reason.
1st shipment is 8 CKNs, second is 7 Steppe Riders, 3rd is whatever resource crate you need most.
Keep constant villager production, and make sure to herd and make more villages as you need population. You want to have 10-11 on wood, and the rest on food till you get about 17-20 on food. Old Han armies are 255 food, 180 wood.
OR
Arguably the best colonial combo for China, it can really only be beaten by pure cavalry if the skill of the two players is equal. I would recommend using the Old Han Colonial against civs like Sioux and Germany, but the Standard Army is good for about everyone else.
4 villagers on a wonder, 4 on food, 3 on wood, 5 on gold. Remember to make villagers as you age up, and send them to gold, or send them to wood if you can't find any wood treasures. LOOK FOR WOOD TREASURES. If you find any big ones, you can get away with having only 1-2 villagers on wood, move them to food or gold. But you must have 200 wood by Colonial, for a Barracks.
Of the four villagers building the wonder, take three and use them to gather the 400 food from the Summer Palace. Take the last one and have him build a barracks.
If you do things right, you should be able to queue up 2 Standard Armies immediately after the barracks is built, and 1 more after the 2nd one spawns.
Keep making villagers, and send them to food first, keeping 5-6 on gold. Then alternate between sending them to food and gold. Ideally you want about 12 on food, and 8-9 on gold for constant military and villager production. Then maybe send some to wood to build a consulate and a market and villages.
1st shipment is always 8 CKNs for early raid prevention, then 7 Steppe Riders. If you have the upper hand, send Mongolian Scourge as your 3rd card to help with raiding, but if you are losing battles then send 700 food to help you get more units and villager out.
Age 1 Villager Spawn Card
Boxer Rebellion
700 Food
700 Wood
700 Coin
8 CKNs
7 Steppe Riders
9 Qiang Pikes
Mandarin Duck Squad
Mongolian Scourge
Decreased Banner Army Training Time Card
Refrigeration Plant
Royal Mint
Acupuncture (decreases train time of all units)
Old Han Armies
Rushing With France
the french ar general an bad civ. bcause they know what the enemy can do!
as an french u must luck that u have more crossbows then pikes. pikes ar only for buildings or cav. the deck should have in 3 hussars. thats the way to winning! a nother good card is 700 wood and 700 food. have fun by capture the enemy -Loessli
[This message has been edited by Simia (edited 09-12-2008 @ 09:59 PM).]