Talk:Chinese (Age of Empires II)/@comment-70.95.3.247-20170313191854/@comment-31256631-20170320150604

Balance wise: probably because the designers don't really understand China.

Historically speaking, China was an economic powerhouse with a very lackluster military (disregarding a few militant monarchs and outsider dynasties). They relied a great deal on massed, conscripted archers and spears (the early invention of the crossbow made training easy and heavy armor obsolete). In AOE2, their cavalry is appropriate mediocre and their archers are good, but they should be limited to chainmail inf/cav armor and either 2H or long swordsmen -- to reflect their quantity over quality approach. However, as an economic powerhouse then, they could afford to build walled cities everywhere, which in turn made their siege engineers some of the best in the world. They should also have the worst monks, because the Chinese were never zealous about religion, and their Buddhism branches were not only pacifist, but steered clear of politics/war.

As AOE2 youtuber [Spirit of the Law] best puts it, the Chinese are a "thinking-man's civilization". Their greatest strength is their adaptability and their ability to switch army composition at far lower costs. Which means to get the most from them, you need to play strategically and psychologically -- always stay on top of the army composition game.