China Strategy Help

Carl5872

Prince
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
807
Location
Mentor, Ohio
Can anyone recommend some strategies on how to play China? I was thinking they have a well rounded set of attributes, so I am having trouble in trying out a specific strategy.
 
Really depends on what difficulty you are playing..

Everything below Prince:
kill them, KILL THEM with your OP crossbowmen.
:)
 
China is possibly the best civ out there for medieval conquest in a pangea-like map. +30% boost from generals + chu-ko-nu is quite fearsome. Papermaker will give you the edge to mantain a decent army at medieval. You can either turtle up and go science until medieval, or you can go with composite rush, and get later range 3 chu-ko-nus.

To me the second best option is going for diplomatic victory, thanks to the extra money you will need to purchase CSs.

On policies, papermakers works quite well with piety (+25% gold on cities) and commerce (many gold-oriented benefits).

Anyways you can go with any victory type, as some medieval conquest is helpful with any victory.
 
There is no such thing as best, it depends on your goal, VC, and skill. Liberty works for fast expand so you can focus on building CB for to upgrade for conquest but requires a bit of skill to pull off on deity quickly. If you want to learn how to play deity, start by learning basics such as worker stealing, worker baiting, selecting tiles to work, and learning how to tech correctly.
 
Expand/conquer a lot of cities to get lots of papermakers out?

In the first minutes of that video, Acken comments that the Papermaker does not have much of an advantage over the Library that it replaces. On the other hand, the Unique Unit is very strong. Combined with the ability with Great Generals, this points to China being primarily a Domination-orientated civ -- and it points to Domination in a particular phase of the game. So the strategy to make the most of China is probably one that gets to the Unique Unit as fast as possible, and uses it to conquer as much as possible before it is superseded by more modern units (typically gunpowder units). Liberty is good for early Domination pushes, but is tricky to play well (I certainly can't do it). Tradition is easier, and with decent science output one should be able to tech to Machinery early enough to wreak a bit of havoc among the neighbours.
 
Do you think Liberty is best for China? Expand/conquer a lot of cities to get lots of papermakers out?

Papermakers don't really affect how you play in any meaningful way; you should already be prioritizing libraries as one of the first buildings you construct in any given city. With papermakers you do the same.... the only difference is that you'll find that it's a little easier to maintain a positive revenue stream. (I suppose that has the effect that you can slightly deprioritize the financial buildings.)

As mbbcam said, China's real strength is in their ability to go to war, especially during the late medieval period. Tradition, Liberty, and Honor are all viable, so which one you pick depends on the map & your preferred long-term goals. Choosing Honor kinda locks you into a Domination victory, while both Tradition and Liberty can easily transition to another victory type after you've finished your medieval-renaissance conquering spree.
 
Papermakers don't really affect how you play in any meaningful way; you should already be prioritizing libraries as one of the first buildings you construct in any given city. With papermakers you do the same.... the only difference is that you'll find that it's a little easier to maintain a positive revenue stream. (I suppose that has the effect that you can slightly deprioritize the financial buildings.)

As mbbcam said, China's real strength is in their ability to go to war, especially during the late medieval period. Tradition, Liberty, and Honor are all viable, so which one you pick depends on the map & your preferred long-term goals. Choosing Honor kinda locks you into a Domination victory, while both Tradition and Liberty can easily transition to another victory type after you've finished your medieval-renaissance conquering spree.

For a conquest victory would you recommend both liberty and honor, or just go with honor?
 
For a conquest victory would you recommend both liberty and honor, or just go with honor?

Whichever one you pick, go all in. Mixing the early policy trees is almost always sub-optimal.

For Tradition, you want to finish it ASAP for the awesome finisher: free aqueducts & inherent +growth bonus.

For Liberty, you want to finish it ASAP for the finisher as well. On the lower difficulty levels, I usually chose the Great Engineer to get an instant wonder, so I often didn't rush Liberty. (What's the point of rushing to complete the tree if your GE just sits around until you research the tech with the Wonder you really want?) On deity, however, the earlier you get that GP the better. Some strats suggest that you choose a GE & use him to instantly build the National College. (This approach lets you found 4 or even 5 cities super early & buy a library in the last city you found.) Personally, I prefer to only found 2 or 3 cities, manually build the National College, and instead select a Great Scientist. The early science boost he gives is pretty fantastic.

For Honor, the main attraction are the final policies themselves. +exp for your units is pretty amazing... especially for your cho-ko-nu, who get 2 attacks/turn. And the cheaper upgrade costs is a must-have to upgrade all those Composite Bowmen you built while waiting for Machinery to research. (or even better, all those archers you built while waiting for Construction to research). The finisher is nice, but it's only useful when you're at war, and there's a good chance you will still be at peace when you finish the tree.
 
Whichever one you pick, go all in. Mixing the early policy trees is almost always sub-optimal.

For Tradition, you want to finish it ASAP for the awesome finisher: free aqueducts & inherent +growth bonus.

For Liberty, you want to finish it ASAP for the finisher as well. On the lower difficulty levels, I usually chose the Great Engineer to get an instant wonder, so I often didn't rush Liberty. (What's the point of rushing to complete the tree if your GE just sits around until you research the tech with the Wonder you really want?) On deity, however, the earlier you get that GP the better. Some strats suggest that you choose a GE & use him to instantly build the National College. (This approach lets you found 4 or even 5 cities super early & buy a library in the last city you found.) Personally, I prefer to only found 2 or 3 cities, manually build the National College, and instead select a Great Scientist. The early science boost he gives is pretty fantastic.

For Honor, the main attraction are the final policies themselves. +exp for your units is pretty amazing... especially for your cho-ko-nu, who get 2 attacks/turn. And the cheaper upgrade costs is a must-have to upgrade all those Composite Bowmen you built while waiting for Machinery to research. (or even better, all those archers you built while waiting for Construction to research). The finisher is nice, but it's only useful when you're at war, and there's a good chance you will still be at peace when you finish the tree.

Thanks, I found that really helpful for both my question and Civ as a whole. I think I will try Liberty and go for a science victory with a planned war when I get my Cho-Ko Nu. If an opportunity for military win presents itself then I will shift to conquest.
 
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