Chinese (Age of Empires III)

For other uses of Chinese, see the disambiguation page.

The Chinese civilization is one of the three new Asian civilizations available in the Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties expansion. They are widely considered to be an offensive civilization due to their strength early in the game and are a popular faction to utilize. The Chinese are based on army of the Da Qing Di Guo, or Great Qing Empire during the reign of Kangxi di, in the "Pacification of China" period and prior to the modern era.

Advantages
Along with a higher population cap, many Chinese wonders spawn free units, giving the Chinese a numerical advantage. In addition, the Chinese also train units relatively fast, although these units, like the Russians, are slightly weaker than ordinary units. Nevertheless, not all of the Chinese units are weak. The Flying Crow, a form of ballistic rocket, can be spawned with the Confucian Academy wonder. The flamethrower, a devastating anti-infantry unit, can be trained from the castle from The Fortress Age. Also, instead of a separate barracks and stable, the Chinese train their troops in the joint War Academy.

Unique Units
The Chinese army has various units not seen in other civilizations, such as the Chinese Chu Ko Nu, a crossbow unit with an enhanced firing rate and easy to mass, but with low hit points, or the Changdao Swordsman, a cheap hand infantry unit, like a very weak version of the samurai , that can serve as an anti-cavalry troop in numbers. The Chinese also have interesting cavalry units such as the Iron flail, a heavy horseman, the steppe rider, a raiding unit, the Keshik , a cheap mounted archer, and Meteor hammer, which specializes in wrecking artillery.

Economy
The Chinese have access to unique Migration cards which replace the Villager shipments. These cards spawn one villager at every village and town center. It also has cards to spawn a goat and a buffalo in the same way. Instead of the house, the Chinese build villages, which are a combination of an outpost, a house and a livestock pen. Villagers are even able to garrison in it, and with cards, it can even fire upon enemies. Villages provide 20 pop. slots but this number can be upgraded to a maximum of 35.

The Chinese are a favourite among many players due to their impressive card deck. There is a card that ships an additional Shaolin master. Another card spawns a fully fattened goat and a villager at every village and town center. One card allows the irregular, the Asian militia, to be trained at all villages. The "Confucius' Gift" card allows technology to be researched very quickly. The Chinese can also send special banner armies from the home city such as Iron Cap Prince's army or Ever Victorious army, but at a high price.

Banner Armies
A unique ability of the Chinese is that it those not train units individually. Instead the civilisation recruits Banner Armies, which train a pre-set combination of different units. It is useful for players that lack the time or skill to micromanage production, or those whose strategies suit the set combination of a banner army. The Banner armies allow specific sets of soldiers to be massed en masse, however, it is not without drawbacks. For example, if the enemy masses large numbers of cavalry, the Chinese are not able to counter this by specifically recruiting anti-cavalry units. Also, cheap units such as Arquebusiers are often mixed with expensive units such as artillery, negating the advantage of low costs.

List of units
The following is a list of Banner Armies available for recruitment either in the Castle or the War Academy :


 * The Old Han Army: 3 Chu Ko Nu, 3 Qiang Pikeman 255 Food, 180 Wood, available in the Colonial Age.
 * Standard Army: 3 Chu Ko Nu, 2 Steppe Rider 255 Food, 170 Gold, available in the Colonial Age.
 * Ming Army: 2 Qiang Pikeman, 3 Keshik 345 Food, 120 Wood, available in the Colonial Age.
 * Territorial Army: 3 Changdao, 3 Arquebusier 285 Food, 255 Gold, available in the Fortress age.
 * Forbidden Army: 2 Iron Flail, 2 Meteor Hammer 480 Food, 350 Gold, available in the Fortress Age.
 * Imperial Army: 3 Arquebusier, 2 Iron Flail 480 Food, 255 Gold, available in the Fortress Age.
 * Mongolian Army: 3 Keshik, 3 Hand Mortar 495 Food, 270 Gold, available in the Fortress Age.
 * Black Flag Army: 3 Arquebusier, 1 Flamethrower 170 Wood, 425 Gold, available in the Fortress Age.

Navy
The Chinese possesses a strong navy to complement its large land forces, although their ships are somewhat costly or wasteful. The following is a list of unique Chinese ships available for recruitment at the dock:
 * The War Junk - The equivalent of the caravel, it is good at exploring, can attack, and in peace time, it can fish.
 * The Fire Ship - A floating pile of flaming timber; it is used to steer into enemy ships to make both of them explode like the demolition ship from Age of Empires II.
 * The Fuchuan - A cross between a frigate, an ironclad and a Galleon. It is able to recruit units like the Atakabune and the Galleon, but it is far more powerful (when sent to a Spanish player by way of the TEAM 1 Fuchuan card it becomes the highest hitpoint naval vessel (5125hp) in the game, after a significant card investment by the Spanish player), being able to defeat an ironclad in single combat.

Wonders
Like other Asian civilisations, the Chinese age up by building Wonders. The following is a list of wonders available to the Chinese and the bonuses they provide. This Wonder auto-spawns the Flying Crow unit. Similar to the factory in European civilisations, the tower provides a small trickle rate of resources or XP, depending on the players choice. Like the Japanese Dojo, this Wonder spawns a Banner Army of the player's choice. This enables an aura which causes all Chinese units on the map to auto-heal. It also gives the Shaolin master the ability to heal units not engaged in combat. Increases the attack and hit points of the Shaolin master and his Disciples. Also, it increases the number cap for Disciples.
 * Confucian AcademyChina_-_confusian_temple.jpg
 * Porcelain Tower
 * Summer Palace
 * Temple of Heaven
 * White Pagoda

Home City Wonder

 * Great Wall of China - Unlocked at a Level 10 Chinese Home City and can be sent in the Fortress Age. While not officially a wonder by the games definition, it is considered one in the real world. It changes the appearance of Chinese walls, increases their hitpoints by 100% but they are 500% slower to build.