Civ idea: Tibetan

Tibetan might be some of last potential civ for an actual expansion, as it is not really covered by any civ we currently have (some might say they are covered by Burmese, I would say they are covered by Kante) and it is well-known enough for most of us. However, it might probably be one of my least favourite among all the civ I have drafted, with a very defensive gameplay and an average unique unit. Believe it or not, I spent most of my time actually searching for a suitable unique units for them, but the reality is that a strong empire is not built around any fancy units, and so in the end I just let them have a pointy boy on horse.

Anyway, hope you like it!

Tibetan (614-842): Defensive civilizations

Before the 6th century, various kingdoms and tribes scattered on the Tibetan plateau, until Namri Songtsen, the King of Yarlung Dynasty, started to conquer the neighbouring region, laying the cornerstone for a unified Tibetan kingdom for his son, Songtsen Gampo who set up the political system for a strong Imperial Tibetan empire. During the reign of Songtsen Gampo, science, medicine and calendar from China and Buddhism from India were introduced. It was also during his reign when the Tibetan alphabet was created based on the Indian script. The empire reached its height during the reign of Trisong Detsen, and even once conquered Chang’an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. However, the empire quickly disintegrated 40 years later, when the anti-Buddhist king Langdarma was assassinated, and the Tibetan plateau fell into fragments again until the Mongols came in (as always).

Historically, Tibetan empire was very aggressive and had waged wars against enemy’s from all directions, including the Chinese in the East, Indian in the South, Saracens in the West and Uyghur in the North. This is largely thanks to their impenetrable terrain which helped them a lot in both aggressive and defensive position. In the game however, they are designed to be a defensive civilisations with a focus on heavily armoured melee units. In the early game, they rely on their armoured scouts and man-at-arm to compensate for their weak economy and fight for hill control, which is essential to the Tibetan. In late game, their main offensive power would come from their unique units, which is basically a Kamayuk on horse; and their powerful siege onagers.

There are a couple of weakness. They don’t have the best trash units, missing halberdier and hussars (although they do have one more armour), and their elite skirmishers aren’t great without Bracers. Speaking of that, they also have a horrible archery range and navy. Finally, their economy was not the greatest, with no economy bonus and missing quite a lot of late game economy techs. All in all, they are like Slavs and Teutons when it comes to a limited tech tree of powerful units, with worse economy but more powerful defence.

They are average on all of the different common land maps. They could be great on Arena with the full monk tech tree and strong late game option, but 100W discount on monastery is really not that great compared to a lot of other bonus from other civs. On Arabia, 1v1 they lack the economy to be top tier, but at least there are hills around for them to defend and their M@A rush or scout rush would both be a good option; and in teamgame, they can be a good pocket player thanks to having +1 armour on knights, and the unique units can also be a good paladin substitute, but again not having any economy means they are probably not top tier.

Civ bonus

• Hill bonus become 35% when fighting downhills
  • The Tibetan people are well adapted in the area with very high elevations and rugged terrain. This bonus helps them to magnify the hill bonus when they are fighting downhills, dealing 35% more damage to and receiving 35% less damage from the enemy. They still get the normal hill bonus when fighting uphill, so it’s not like they don’t need to fight for the hill, but they will secure the hill firmly after conquering it.
• Town centre elevation +1
  • Needless to say, their origin was in a mountain, so they starts on a higher ground. It doesn’t mean that when they build a TC it will alter the terrain, but when calculating damage, the elevation would be considered as +1. This is supposed to be a defensive bonus to help kill the enemy’s units surrounding the TC, but of course if you are brave enough, you can always do a Tibetan douche ……
• Monastery and University cost -100W
  • Buddhism were actually not yet the mainstream religion during the Tibetan empire, and it was in heavy conflict with Bon, a local Tibetan religion, since the day they were introduced to Tibet. The fight between the two religions also directly caused the fall of Tibetan empire. Nevertheless, we still give them the cheaper monastery for the numerous temples built in the region, and it would help them a lot in a monk rush.
  • On the other hand, they were also very eager to learn from other culture, especially from the Chinese and the Indian, during the reign of Songtsen Gampo. A cheaper university reflects that, and would help in defence and getting techs like ballistics and chemistry.
• Barrack and stable units +1 melee armour starting in feudal age
  • I’m just gonna state here: the origin of the bonus comes from here which says they wear chain mail armour. It sounds lame to me since I found no other sources supporting the claim, and a lot of civilisations do so as well, but whatever, I’m gonna make this bonus happen. In the game, instead of giving them a free chain mail armour, I decided to let them receive one extra melee armour on top of everything, making them being able to field some of the best infantry and cavalry units throughout the game.

Team Bonus

• Free herbal medicine
  • Due its unique environment, Tibetan medicine use a variety of unique local herbs. This bonus is definitely the most useful team bonus ever in the game, with the same level of OPness as the Incan farm bonus. /s

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Unique unit

• Tibetan Lancer
  • Sorry if you are expecting Dalai Lama: they did not exist in the middle age. It also means I took most of the time searching for a good unique units, and then in the end, I made something very generic and disappointing. The Tibetan Lancer is a heavy cavalry unit with one range melee attack like the Kamayuk, and can be very powerful en masse in melee combat.
    • Cost: 70F 70G
    • Elite upgrade cost: 900F 600G
    • Upgraded by: Cavalry armour and attack, Bloodlines, Husbandry
    • Armour class: 0 Cavalry Armour, 0 Unique unit armour

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Unique techs:

• Tibetan medicine: Garrisoned units heals 1HP/s
  • Tibetan medicine is one of the most well developed branch of medical science along with Western and Chinese medicine. In the game, units heal significantly faster in the castle, and making use of the bonus with the heavily armoured troops will be the key to success.
    • Cost: 400G
• Dzong: Castles and towers +1 elevation
  • Dzong was a distinctive type of fortress architecture found in the Tibetan Plateau region. Again the castle will not appear to be elevated in the game, but only be considered elevated when calculating bonus damage. It would be a very powerful techs on maps with no elevation like Arena, since all of your castle would be considered as elevated everywhere, and is basically a +35% damage buff and +35% HP combined.
    • Cost: 200W 200S

Missing units/techs:

• Barrack: Halberdier, Squires, Eagles
• Archery Range: Arbalest, Bracer, Hand cannoneer
• Stable: Hussar, Paladin, Battle Elephant
• Siege workshop: Siege ram, Bombard cannon
• Dock: Heavy demo ships, fast fire ships, shipwright, dry dock
• University: Bombard tower, Architecture
• Monastery:
• Economy: Stone shaft mining, Crop rotation, Two man saw

Wonder: Potala Palace

Architecture set: Indian or SE Asian