BaiyueWarrior's civ crafting 1: the Southern Chinese

Hello everybody, this is my first post in the aoe2 community on Reddit. I really love to play aoe2, that's why I decided to join this community and to share my thoughts about this game with you guys.

AOE2 is a really well-designed game; it never gets old, and it has the potential to become even better. The recent expansions added many news civs to this game. While this certainly made the game more fun to play with, I feel that many of the old civs need some rework. They are either too generic or not well-balanced. Chinese is one of the civs that is way too generic, along with Slavs, Indians, and Saracens, among others. As a Chinese myself, I feel that it could not represent the rich and complex history of China. Instead of changing the current Chinese civ in the game, I suggest to keep it as it is and rename it as Northern Chinese, to account for the fact that they have relatively strong cavalry and archers, but lack gunpowder units and some other crucial technologies such as Block Printing (though I feel that they should at least have the Bombard Cannon to better cope with enemy siege units in late game); and add a new civ called the Southern Chinese, which is another Chinese civ that has better infantry and somewhat more advanced technology, but lacks good cavalry. Historically Northern and Southern China had been divided multiple times under different polities for several centuries, and also the Northern and Southern Chinese each had assimilated different ethnic groups; the Northerners had assimilated various Mongolic and Tungusic peoples, while the Southerners had assimilated various Hmong-Mien, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic peoples. The difference between Northern and Southern China persists well into the modern era, though nowadays with high-speed rails running across the country, it is gradually diminishing. But still, I think it's completely valid to separate Northern and Southern China into two civs in the timeline covered by aoe2, which is roughly from the fall of the Western Roman Empire up to the beginning of the 17th century.

Here are my thoughts on the Southern Chinese civ

infantry and naval civ

civilization bonuses:

Start with 5 villagers but minus 100 food

Fish Traps are 30% cheaper

Chemistry and Conscription are 50% cheaper

Petards gain +20 hp and a bonus attack of +25 against cavalry units

Unique Unit 1: Zhanmadao, trained at the Castle, a heavy anti-cavalry melee infantry carrying the Chinese horse-chopping saber, sort of like a combo of Mameluke and Teutonic Knight. Stats: Cost: 75 food 50 gold HP: 75 / 95 (elite) Attack: 12, 14(elite) melee Attack Bonuses: +12, +14 (elite) vs cavalry / +2, +3 (elite) vs standard buildings Rate of Fire: 2.03 Melee Armor: 2 Pierce Armor: 1 Armor Classes: Infantry/Unique Unit Speed: 0.75 Line of Sight: 4

Unique Unique 2: Bamboo Firelancer, trained at the Siege Workshop, basically a land version of Fire Ships Stats: Cost: 60 wood 40 gold HP: 45 / 55 (elite) Attack Bonuses: +3 vs siege / +2 vs buildings / +2 vs ship (elite) Rate of Fire: 0.25 Range: 2.49 Projectile Speed: 3 Melee Armor: 0 Pierce Armor: 5 Armor Class: Infantry/Siege Speed: 1 Line of Sight: 4

Alternatively, their second UU could be a naval unit. We could give them a treasure ship or a merchant ship that functions like the trade cog, slower but much more tanky, can bring back more gold, and has the ability to defend itself. I haven't really think about the stats of such a unit.

Castle Age UT: Poisonous Admixture, Fire Ship and Bamboo Firelancers gain +2 bonus attack against infantry units

Imperial Age UT: Watertight Compartment, injured ships gain the ability to regenerate their HP (though very slowly).

Team Bonus: Haven't really think about it. I'd like to hear your suggestions. Maybe some bonus on trade carts, trade cogs, or market? Cause historically Southern China had been the largest producer of tea, silk, and porcelain, and they had been exporting these commodities to other parts of Asia, gaining huge profits in return.

What's your opinion on my first ever post on Reddit and first ever civ crafting? Opinions and advice are always welcomed.