Civ idea: Khitan

Pre-words:

About two weeks ago, I post my first attempt on civ crafting on Tangut. Considering the average upvotes for post about civ ideas are downvotes, I think I can safely say that 16 karma is a good start, though I have seen higher so not gonna say its really that good. The discussion was civil as well and I enjoyed that a lot, and it really helps to re-think your own design. I feel like it is easy to fall in a trap as a creator (for anything, not just a civ crafting process) to try rationalize the irrational part of your product, just to make sure that it is creative or special.

I posted my rationale on these civ crating in the previous post, so I'm not gonna repeat it here. I know some of you would consider the following one covered by Chinese or maybe Mongols, but again the term Chinese is vague and to me Khitan was an outsider that built an empire and rival against another the Chinese empire to the South, just like Tangut I have covered previously, only slowly being absorbed by Chinese culture throughout its existence. Anyway, enough talking and let's get into the real thing

Khitan (907-1218): Cavalry archer civilisation

During the early history between 6th and 9th century AD, Khitan was just a bunch of nomadic tribes living in the Northeast Asia, and was dominated by the Turkic, Uyghur and Chinese empires. However, with the collapse of the Chinese Tang Dynasty and the Kyrgyz takeover of Uyghur Khaganate, they quickly rose to power. Yelu Abaoji founded the Liao Dynasty in 907, and dominated the region, including parts of China, for two centuries. After the fall of Liao dynasty in 1125, many Khitans went westwards with Yelu Dashi, and established the Qara Khitai which lasted for another century until… wait for it, the Mongols. Their empires was so powerful that its name came to mean China in Turkic, and was spread into Medieval Europe as “Cathay”.

During my research, two army stands out and have the potential to be the unique unit: The Pishi Guard (皮室軍) and Tielin army (鐵林軍). Both has little reliable source for describing how special they were, so in the end I made the two unique unit, the Pishi Guard keep its name, while Tielin army, though arguably more well-known, become a unique upgrade to cavalry archer as "Heavy cavalry crossbow", as they were thought to be some of the only army using crossbow on horses in history.

This civ is designed to have a strong economy, with an ideal army consist of only cavalry archers. The food collection boost will always be a solid choice in all types of map, so they can really go for any strategy in early game. However, it is the cavalry archers that they are good at, with free husbandry and extra armour to begin with, and a unique upgrade to the cavalry archers in the imperial age. Their UU, Pishi Guard, acts more like a melee unit than a ranged one, since they have a decent amount of HP and armour to tank for damages. In fact, a FU Pishi Guard would have 1+4/1+7 armour and 180HP, which is insanely high and is almost OP, only balanced by a really low attack.

Their weakness might be a lack of good meat shield. Missing plate barding armour, their cavalier are actually worse than their UU in terms of absorbing damage, with only 140HP but a much lower armour. They don’t get hussars and siege rams either, so the Khitan army either need to abandon their mobility and use infantry as meat shield, or rely on their UU and the extra armour bonus. Their siege is also not great, though at least they have bombard cannons.

Civ bonus

• Villagers food collection rate +5%/+7.5%/10%/12.5%
  • The Khitan Empires were not the same nomadic nuisance that the Chinese had encountered in the past. Rather, they were a sophisticated empire with a great economy to support a long war against the Chinese Song Dynasty. There were great developments in both stockbreeding and crop-based agriculture, and there were a good systems to maintain economic activities for both the nomadic people and the agricultural Han Chinese society. All of these is reflected by a boost in their food collection across the board.
• Free husbandry in castle age
  • The Khitan people were of nomadic origin. This bonus would help their cavalry-archer-oriented army for their mobility.
• Cavalry archers +1/0 armour
  • The Tielin army from the Khitan empire was once the most powerful heavy cavalry army in East Asia. They bought the armour from the Tang people and put them onto their cavalry archer, which is reflected by the higher armour of their cavalry archer.

Team Bonus

• Cavalry archer +2 LoS
  • Just to suit the whole cavalry archer theme, not much to say about it.

Unique unit

• Pishi Guard (Short ranged cavalry archer)
  • The Pishi Guard was originally the army that protect the royal family, and only the best soldiers were chosen into the army. In the game, the Pishi Guard would be a short ranged cavalry archer with low attack but high HP and armour, being a meat shield and rams killer for the army.
    • Cost: 70W 50G
    • Elite upgrade cost: 1000F 750G
    • Upgraded by: Thumb ring, Parthian Tactics, Bloodlines, Husbandry, Blacksmith archer attack and defence upgrade, Chemistry, Ballistics
    • Armour class: 0 Archer armour, 0 Cavalry armour, 0 Cavalry archer armour, 0 Unique unit armour

* Included effects from civilization bonus.

• Heavy cavalry crossbowmen (Unique upgrade of heavy cavalry archer)
  • The Tielin army was one of the only cavalry units to use crossbow in history. As such, they have a unique upgrade to the cavalry archer line, which has 10 more HP, 1 more pierce attack, and a very slightly higher rate of fire than a normal FU cavalry archers. You can imagine it as a mix bag of Turk, Magyars and Mongols cav archer bonus into one.
    • Elite upgrade cost: 1000F 600G

* Included effects from civilization bonus.

Unique techs

• Orda system: The King become a hero unit. Wonder/Monastery with relic can shoot arrows
  • The king of Khitan does not stay in the capital for long. Rather, they go for nomadic style and move around and even follow the army in war. The Orda system was developed since the beginning of the Liao Dynasty to protect the King and the capitals. In the game the protection of the King is represented by a King that can defend himself from army with a very powerful stats, though taking the King to the battlefield is always risky and is not recommended (oh no), and is better in a castle to boost the arrow fire. In other game mode, wonder and monastery with relic can defend itself without any troops, but the wonder in King of the Hill will not be affected.
    • Cost: 300W 300G

• Peace Treaty: Every castle generate 30 gold per min (same as 1 relic)
  • A Peace Treaty was signed between the Khitan Liao Dynasty and the Chinese Song Dynasty, with Chinese agreed to pay annual tributes to the Khitan and maintain a "brotherhood" relationship with each other, an unprecedented act in Chinese history. In the game, gold is generated with the same rate of a relic for each castle standing.
    • Cost: 300F 300G

Missing units/techs:

Barrack: Halberdier, Eagles

Archery Range: Arbalest, Hand cannoneer

Stable: Hussar, Paladin, Battle elephants, Plate barding armour

Siege workshop: Siege ram, Siege Onagers, Siege Engineer

Dock: Dry dock, Fast fire ship, Elite cannon galleon

University: Bombard Tower, Treadmill crane, Heated shot, Keep

Monastery: Redemption, Fervor, Illumination

Economy: Gold shaft mining, Two-man saw, Sappers

Wonder: Pagoda of Fogong Temple

Architectural set: East Asian