Can someone proficient with China lend me some pointers?

[mwhit6]

I'm browsing around on ESOC and AOE3Heaven forums for gameplay tips on China, for one reason or another I picked China to get a lvl 40 HC so I can make lvl 40 Asian HCs (thanks, BigHuge :/ ).

China seems to have a pretty solid Age II eco and military, and thereafter I'm having a hard time keeping up vs other civs, particularly Japan and France--no surprise. China seems to have a hard time putting up counter-cavalry, and they seem to follow the Russian doctrine of quantity-over-quality in their military lineup (weaker units but large unit mass, 220 pop and cheaper weaker banner army units). I can't get Old Han reforms until lvl 40 (I'm at HC lvl 32 at the time of this post) so Qiangs and Changdaos don't put up much of a fight vs endless Cuirassier spam, and I can't send consulate Doppels until lvl 40 as well.

If anyone knows of some guides I've overlooked (MusketJR etc) I'd greatly appreciate anything you can shoot my way.

Anybody by chance able to live-tutor? <3

~Godspeed

[deleted_user]

In general you don't actually want to stay colonial with china except for certain arguable rare scenarios. Almost no civs scale as well as china does in mid fortress, but many scale much better than china in colonial due to their reliance on a bad unit (pike) and completely underwhelming hand cav.

Read H2O's standard china ff build order (viewtopic.php?t=928). Really this should build (or something similar) should be done in like 90% of your MUs.

[fei123456]

FF is boring, so you can try age 2 start in may cases.
Vs Japan: this is where your colonial play really works (and FF isn't that good vs Japan). You can train standard army, use 8 ckn to idle his vills, pikes to siege his shrines, and attack after you ally with brit. Use steppe riders to kill yumis, so don't lose them before the final battle.
Vs french: FF is usually better, but if you guess he will do greedy boom (TPboom etc) you can send 9 pikes to kill his TP, which will slow him down a lot. He has to get his TP back, while you can age up safely after that.

[forgrin]

Why would you go Brit as colonial china? Isn't Russia for the Cossack much better, especially vs Japan (who you know will make yumi)?

[deleted_user]

Why would you go Brit as colonial china? Isn't Russia for the Cossack much better, especially vs Japan (who you know will make yumi)?

probably

it's situational but generally the redcoats are the better "deal" i think but ofc coss > musk vs yumi

[fei123456]

1. you won't have cossack without sending 300e
2. brit 10% hp is quite vital, as chinese age 2 units are relative weak
3. consulate cossack has 0.1 resistance, while russian cossack has 0.3 (a bug, dunno if it is fixed in ep)

[wardyb1]

I can't help you with learning china, but I will recommend using the xp mod. It will save you having to grind all your civs. Just grab someone from the forum or discord or even a friend. It'll save you a lot of time and effort.

[pecelot]

I'm browsing around on ESOC and AOE3Heaven forums for gameplay tips on China, for one reason or another I picked China to get a lvl 40 HC so I can make lvl 40 Asian HCs (thanks, BigHuge :/ ).

I can't help you with learning china, but I will recommend using the xp mod. It will save you having to grind all your civs. Just grab someone from the forum or discord or even a friend. It'll save you a lot of time and effort.

Indeed, I can help you out with the XP mod — hit me up when I'm online (ideally on Discord), everyday in the evening GMT time

FF is boring, so you can try age 2 start in may cases.

It certainly doesn't mean it's not good, though

[n0el]

Colonial china is the only china @deleted_user4