Chinese (Tale of the Dragon)

This article is about the civilization in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. For the civilization in Age of Mythology: Retold - Immortal Pillars, see Chinese (Immortal Pillars). For other appearances of the Chinese in the series, see Chinese.

Civilization	Technology tree	Strategy

“	Chinese scout the map with their two Scout Cavalry units. Chinese soldiers are initially trained at the War Academy and Stable. A lot of their units have counter-intuitive counters, such as Cataphracts (cavalry) countering Infantry units. Their later units from the Castle can be used to create powerful combinations. Generals can be trained to boost the morale of a whole army, while nimble-footed Fire Lancers^[sic] shoot primitive rockets at hostile fortifications. Chinese Heroes come in many shapes and sizes: right from the start they can train Immortals, which switch between ranged and melee attack, depending on their opponents. Monks can be trained to convert enemy human units, but can also heal your own troops. The Chinese gain Favor by building Gardens.	”
—In-game description

The Chinese are a civilization based on Chinese mythology that are introduced to Age of Mythology: Extended Edition in the Tale of the Dragon expansion. A reimagined Chinese civilization will be added to Age of Mythology: Retold in the Immortal Pillars expansion.

Overview[]

Civilian unit: Peasant.
Resource drop-off site: Storage Pit - all.
Favor can be obtained only through Gardens, which can also be set to produce any other resource.
Start with two Scout Cavalry and four Peasants.
Start with 175 food, 300 wood, 100 gold.

Major gods[]

Tale of the dragon — The Chinese major gods: Shennong, Fu Xi, and Nü Wa on the expansion cover art

Fu Xi[]

Can use Blessed Construction to speed up building construction.
Buildings cost 20% less wood.
All eight Immortals can be trained from the Archaic Age.
Unit line upgrades 20% cheaper.

Nü Wa[]

Gardens generate favor 20% faster and provide +1 population.
All human soldiers are 10% cheaper.
Markets can be built in the Classical Age.

Shennong[]

Monks can convert myth units and heal faster.
Siege weapons deal more damage.
Wall upgrades are 50% cheaper.

Minor gods[]

Classical Age[]

Huang Di (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Economy
Sun Wukong (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Halberdiers and navy
Chang'e (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Archers

Heroic Age[]

Dabo Gong (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Economy
Zhong Kui (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Immortals
He Bo (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Buildings and navy

Mythic Age[]

Chongli (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Cavalry and navy
Ao Kuang (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Human soldiers and navy
Xi Wangmu (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Castle units

Units[]

The generic units unique to all Chinese are:

Aom tale of the dragon chinese village-1024x576 — A Chinese village, showcasing some of their units

Human soldiers[]

War Academy
- Halberdier: Classical Age infantry, good against cavalry.
- Chu Ko Nu: Classical Age archer, good against infantry.
Stable
- Scout Cavalry: Classical Age cavalry, good at exploration but weak in combat.
- Cataphract: Heroic Age cavalry, good only against infantry.
- Mounted Archer: Heroic Age mounted archer, good only against cavalry.
Castle
- General: Heroic Age cavalry that boosts morale with a battle-cry ability.
- War Chariot: Mythic Age cavalry, good against archers.

Siege weapons[]

Castle
- Fire Lance: Heroic Age siege unit good against archers and buildings.
- Sitting Tiger: Mythic Age siege weapon good against buildings.

Heroes[]

Town Center
- Immortal: Hero which can be trained from the Archaic Age (normally +2 per Age) once a Temple is constructed, switches between melee and ranged mode based on the target. Can collect Relics.
Temple
- Monk: Heroic Age hero unit which can heal and is good against myth units. Can collect Relics.

Myth units[]

Titan: The Chinese Titan is Pangu, the first living being in Chinese mythology, who separated the yin and yang which led to the creation of the world.

Ships[]

Junk: Has more hit points but is slower than other archer ships.
Fire Ship: Ranged close-combat ship, replacing the hammer ship. Identical to Atlantean Fire Ships.
Siege Junk: Same as Greek and Norse siege ships.

Buildings[]

The generic buildings unique to all Chinese (and not just cosmetically unique) are:

Economic[]

Garden: Archaic Age building which produces a trickle of the selected resource. It is also the only way for the Chinese to gain favor.

Defensive[]

Earthen Wall: Unique upgrade of the Wooden Wall available in the Archaic Age, upgrades to the Stone Wall.
Great Wall: Unique upgrade of the Fortified Wall available in the Mythic Age.

Favor[]

The Chinese gain favor by building Gardens, with Nü Wa offering faster generation rate. The more Gardens a player controls, the more favor they earn. The first Garden built costs 35 food, 35 wood, 35 gold, the second costs 50 food, 50 wood, 50 gold and every garden built afterwards costs 75 food, 75 wood, 75 gold even if the first two built are destroyed. Fu Xi's gardens cost -20% wood, Nü Wa get +20% favor generation bonuses, and minor god Dabo Gong's myth technology House Altars also gives +20% generation rate for all resources, including favor.

Each Garden provides a continuous trickle of 2.85 favor per minute. The Gardens can also gather other resources. However, all of them must produce the same resource - changing the resource trickle on one Garden will change the production on all Gardens.

Starting conditions[]

The Chinese start out with a Town Center, two Scout Cavalry, and four Peasants. Scout Cavalry act similarly to the Greek Kataskopos in the early game, scouting around the map and capturing nearby herdable animals, while also being used for early rushes after a few upgrades to make them combat-worthy.

Resource gathering[]

Peasants, the Chinese workers, gather at the same rate as Greek Villagers. Their Storage Pit can be used to stockpile any resource, acting as a drop-off point for food, wood, and gold, similar to the Norse Ox Cart (which is also mobile). In addition, the above-mentioned Gardens can be set to provide a trickle of any resource at 30 per minute, though they cannot be set to provide a certain resource individually; all Gardens are coordinated to generate the same resource, similar to the Japanese Shrines in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties.

In-game dialogue[]

The Chinese units in Tale of the Dragon speak Mandarin Chinese:

Common

Select 1 - 有什么吩咐？/有什麼吩咐？ - Yóu shěn me fēn fù? ("Your orders?")
Select 2 - 什么事？/什麼事？- Shěn me shì ("What is it?")
Select 3 - 准备好了/準備好了 - Zhŭn bèi hăo le (Ready)
Move 1 - 好的 - Hăo de ("Okay")
Move 2 - 出发/出發 - Chū fā ("I'm going")
Move 3 - 遵命 - Zūn mìng ("Understood")
Attack 1 - 作战!/作戰! - Zuòzhàn ("Fight!")

Villager-exclusive

Move - 是的 - Shì de. ("Yes")
Build - 工匠 - Gōng jiàng ("Builder")
Farm - 农夫/農夫 - Nóng fū ("Farmer")
Mine - 矿工/礦工 - Kuàng gōng ("Mineral worker"; miner)
Hunt - 猎人/獵人 - Liè rén ("Hunter")
Repair - 修理工 - Xiūlǐgōng ("Repairer")
Forage - 采集工/採集工 - Cǎi jí gōng ("Farming work"; gatherer)
Chop - 樵夫 - Qiáo fū ("Felling trees work"; timber worker)

Military-exclusive

Select 1 - 是的 - Shì de. ("Yes")
Attack 2 - 准备就绪。/準備就緖。 - Zhŭn bèi jiù xù.. ("Move out when ready")
Attack 3 - 攻击！/攻擊！ - Gōng jī! ("Attack!")
Attack 4 - 开战！/開戰！- Kāi zhàn! ("Start fighting!")

Terracotta Warrior-exclusive

Select - 请下命令/請下命令 - Qǐng xià mìnglìng ("Please command")

Notes[]

The use of Mandarin Chinese is anachronistic, as it was not present until the Ming dynasty. During China's mythological age the Chinese language was not even written down, not to mention being transcribed phonetically; Old Chinese (spoken at the earliest during the time of the Shang) is still a language undergoing reconstruction, which widely varies between linguists.

AI player names[]

Anyang (安阳/安陽) - An ancient city of China and one of the four main historical capitals, being the location of Yin, final capital of the Shang dynasty (14th century BC).
Beijing (北京) - A major city and the capital of many Chinese dynasties, albeit the name Beijing was created by the Ming dynasty in 1403 AD.
Chengdu (成都) - A city in China which has had the same name since 260 BC, currently the capital of Sichuan province.
Kaifeng (开封/開封) - A city in China that dated back to 364 BC, when it was known as Daliang as the capital of Wei during the Warring States Period.
Luoyang (洛阳/洛陽) - One of the four main historical capitals.
Nanjing (南京) - One of the four main historical capitals, with archaeological evidence dating back to 500,000 years ago.
Puyang (濮阳) - A city in China attested to as early as the Classics of Poetry (roughly 11th to 7th century BC)
Xi'an (西安) - One of the four main historical capitals.
Xing (邢) - A vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty.
Yangcheng (羊城) - The site of the first capital of the Shang Dynasty, located in current Dengfeng, Henan Province.
Yin (殷) - Another location of Yin, final capital of the Shang Dynasty.
Zongzhou (宗州) - The capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Trivia[]

The Chinese in Tale of the Dragon are based on periods and dynasties in Chinese history, rather than mythical pre-history:
- The Halberdier and War Chariot reminisce of the late Shang, Zhou, Qin and early Han armies;
  - War Chariots & halberds were gradually phased out during the Eastern Han period & completely disappeared by Sui-Tang time;
- Chu Ko Nu shooters were deployed since the Warring States period, though very limited, until Republican era.
- The Sitting Tiger represents traction trebuchets, used by Chinese armies since at least Warring States up to late Song period; named after the Song-period traction trebuchet Crouching Tiger Trebuchet (虎蹲砲 hú dūn pào).
- The Mounted Archer, represented the adoption of lightly armored cavalry archers from Xiongnu and Hu people (胡服騎射 húfúqíshè "Hu clothings; mounted shooting"), first by Zhao state.
  - One may presume Scout Cavalry were the Mounted Archers' logical melee counterparts.
- Cataphracts represented the adoption of the use of heavily-armored cavalry from Xianbei peoples.
- The three Wonders used for the Chinese were built much later than the setting of the game: the Temple of Heaven, Shennong's Wonder, was built during the Ming Dynasty; and the other two, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace (for Fu Xi and Nü Wa) were built during the Qing Dynasty.
Some Chinese units have quirks not seen in normal gameplay before:
- The War Salamander and Azure Dragon are the first and only amphibious units (i.e. they can move over land and water).
- The history sections of the Chinese myth units do not use fictional scientific names, instead opting for their traditional Chinese names.
Some units turn the countering system upside down: Cataphract are strong against infantry and Mounted Archers are good against cavalry and the Norse Huskarl, which is an infantry unit strong against (other) archers.
The Chinese re-use a few removed concepts from the development stages of Age of Mythology. Some of these concepts include the Inferno, Geyser, and Uproot (known originally as Bramble) god powers, Chariots, Hades' Cataphracts, and "Priests" being able to convert soldiers.
The Chinese are the only civilization to lack a myth unit with an instant kill special attack.
Counting the Shang in the original Age of Empires, the Chinese are the only civilization to have made an appearance in all five titles of the Age of Empires series, including their respective expansion packs.
Before the release of Tales of the Dragon, the Chinese major god statues were colored white. This was changed to a brown color in the final release.
The Chinese reuse various assets from Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, including sounds, unit animations, technologies, and icons.
Also, even though most of the Chinese gods are from ancient mythology, one exception would be the monkey king Sun Wukong (孙悟空孫悟空). He made his first appearance in the story 'journey to the west' (西游记西游記), which was written in the 16th century in the Ming (明) dynasty. It was loosely based on a couple of different folk tales of the same story, which were based on a real historical event of a monk who traveled from Chang'an in China all the way to India to study Buddhism, and went back to China after many years of study to share his knowledge; that happened in the 6th century in the Tang (唐) dynasty.
Unlike the other four civilizations, the Chinese lack an "evil" major god in the campaign portrayal (i.e., Poseidon, Set, Loki, and Kronos); Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong are all seen as benevolent deities, and the antagonists of the Tale of the Dragon campaign are the vaguely defined "forces of chaos" as well as various bandits and Danzhu. A better antagonist god would be Chiyou, the Chief of the Jiuli Clan; however, he is not considered as great as the three August ones.
The Chinese were not included in the launch of Retold. A reworked take on the civilization, however, was confirmed to be included in the remake's first expansion.^[1]

Cut content[]

Rocket Artillery: Experimental gunpowder unit, good against buildings; trait transferred to the Fire Lance.
Guandao Pikemen: Infantry, good vs cavalry; trait transferred to the Halberdier.
Meteor Hammer: Cavalry, good against myth units and siege weapons.
Great Waran: Amphibian unit that fights on land as well as on water; trait transferred to the War Salamander.
Fenghuang: Flying unit that unleashes small tornadoes to attack; trait transferred to the Vermilion Bird.
Yinglong: Chinese dragon that breathes fire.