Chinese (Age of Empires III)

For the Age of Empires II civilization, see here.

The Chinese civilization is one of the three new Asian civilizations available in the 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. They are similar to the Russians, in that they utilize lots of cheap, weak units.

Civilization Bonuses.
Better units: Iron Flail, Flamethrower.
 * Their explorer is a Shaolin Monk, which trains Disciples, receives special upgrades in the Monastery and have special abilities.
 * Villages replace houses, admit more habitants, train and fatten livestock, can garrison villagers inside for extra protection and provide special technology to increase the population cap., but they are expensive and very limited to build.
 * The War Academy creates Banner Armies, which consists in a group of two types of military units (infantry, cavalry or artillery).
 * They can build a Consulate to request foreign intervention (costs exports)  (shared Asian civilizations bonus).
 * They can advance to the next age building Wonders  (shared Asian civilizations bonus).
 * They can train repentant mercenaries at the Monastery (shared Asian civilizations bonus).

Advantages & Unique Units
The Chinese has the largest number of unique units in the game, 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 Colonial Age. Also, instead of a separate barracks and stable, the Chinese train their troops in the joint War Academy.

The Chinese army has various units not seen in other civilizations, such as the 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 weak version of the Halbedier, 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.

Banner Armies
A unique ability of the Chinese is that it does not train units individually. Instead the civilization recruits Banner Armies, which train a preset 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, they cannot train any units without having enough for the banner army. 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 hit point naval vessel (5125 hp) in the game, after a significant card investment by the Spanish player), being able to defeat an frigate in single combat.

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 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 favorite 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 slightly high price.

Wonders
Like other Asian civilizations, the Chinese age up by building Wonders. The following is a list of wonders available to the Chinese and the bonuses they provide The Confucian Academy produces Flying Crows over time, a weaker version of the Heavy Cannons. Ships Chu-ko-nu or Arquebusier when completed. The Porcelain Tower provides a different trickle of resources to your stockpile, including exports. Ships crates of food when completed. The Summer Palace produces Banner Armies over time for free but at a long time. Ships Steppe Riders or Iron Flails when completed. This special wonders have the "Transcendency" active ability, which heals simultanously all the chinese units in the map. Enables to the Shaolin Monk to heal units like a Priest. Ships villagers when completed. The White Pagoda has the "Sacred Vault" passive ability, which increase the hitpoints and the damage of the Shaolin Monks and Disciples and the build limit of Disciples for the Shaolin Monk. Ships Disciples when completed.
 * Confucian Academy
 * Porcelain Tower
 * Summer Palace
 * Temple of Heaven
 * White Pagoda

Home City Card

 * 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 their walls (campaign only) and increases their hitpoints by 100%, but they are 500% slower to build.

Units
Chinese are the Age of Empires III civilization with more unique units.
 * Shaolin Monk
 * Disciple
 * Qiang Pikeman
 * Chu Ko Nu
 * Steppe Rider
 * Keshik
 * Changdao Swordsman
 * Arquebusier
 * Iron Flail
 * Meteor Hammer
 * Hand Mortar
 * Flamethrower
 * Flying Crow
 * Fishing Boat
 * War Junk
 * Fire Ship
 * Fuchuan
 * Monitor

Buildings

 * Town Center
 * Village
 * Market
 * Monastery
 * War Academy
 * Castle
 * Rice Paddy
 * Consulate
 * Dock

In-game dialogue language
General dialogue:
 * hao de (好的) (okay; literally "well")
 * zhun bei jiu xu (準備就緒）(ready)
 * zhun bei hao le (準備好了) (ready)
 * shen me? (什么) (what?)
 * shen me liao? (什么了) (what?)
 * yang zhi gong (養殖工) (livestock breeder)
 * fa mu gong   (伐木工) (lumberjack)
 * chu fa (出發) (embarking)
 * shi de (是的) (yes; literally "It is so")
 * nong fu (農夫) (farmer)
 * jian zhu gong (建築工) (builder)
 * lie ren (獵人) (hunter)
 * kan jian! (看劍!) (attack! literally "watch [my] sword!")
 * qing xia ming ling (請下命令) (Please command)
 * gong ji! (攻擊!) (attack!)

Monk: (My wounds are severe, and it looks like reincarnation is not far from me.) (I have recovered, and can continue to enlighten the people)
 * Wo de shang shi chen zhong, kan lai lun hui li wo bu yuan le / 我的傷勢沉重，看來輪迴離我不遠了.
 * Wo yi jing fu yuan, ke yi ji xu jiao hua ren min / 我已經復原，可以繼續教化人民.

All the Chinese units speak Mandarin, but some of them have regional or ethnic influences. The Shaolin Monk, his disciples, Qiang pikemen, Rattan Shields, Flying Crow, Flamethrower, Chu Ko Nu, Arquebusier, and Iron Troop speak with the proper pronunciations of modern-day standardised Mandarin. The villagers speak with a "regional" Han Chinese accent which transposes some intonations (Mandarin being a 4-tonal language) but does not otherwise alter syllables. The Steppe Rider, Meteor Hammer, Iron Flail, Changdao Swordsmen, Keshik horse archer, Hand Mortar, speak with Mongol or Manchu accents. The Manchu mercenary horse archer speaks the Manchu language, which differs from the language spoken by Han Chinese.