Apolyton Archive  |  Preserved copy of the Apolyton Civilization Site and its forums as they stood in September 2005. Read-only; nothing here can be posted to or replied to.  |  Forum index |  About this archive |  The 1998–2001 UBB forums
Today on Apolyton WARDELL INTERVIEW PROMO A.C.S. HISTORY CHAPTER 4 GET CIV4 /w FREE PLUS! A.C.S. PHOTO GALLERY GET A.O.M. V1.1
Apolyton Civilization Forums
main| civ2| civ3| civ4| smac| ctp2| ron| moo3| galciv| galciv2| alt| about|
ApolytonPLUS | register | search | faq | new posts | pm (-/-) | upload | members
hall of fame new! | civgroups | civgroups news | interviews | the column | radio | chat | directory | news | store | PLUS
Apolyton Civilization Forums : Powered by vBulletin version 2.0.3 Apolyton Civilization Forums > Miscellaneous > Archive > Civ3-General-Archive > Anyone disappointed in the Chinese special unit?
Show a Printable Version | Email This Page to Someone! | Receive updates to this thread | Report this to Apolyton news!

bottom of page
  
Author
Thread    < Last Thread     Next Thread > Post New Thread     Post A Reply
El hidalgo is offline El hidalgo
Warlord

Jan 1970
time: 23:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 01:00
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#1 Report this post to a moderator
Anyone disappointed in the Chinese special unit? Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

For those who know about Chinese history, was there really a "rider" unit? Anyone else besides me wish they had gone with the Boxer (pic: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_h...umbnail257.html) or some other unit instead? Even though the Boxer could hardly have been said to usher in a golden age....

Gramphos is offline Gramphos
ACS Civ III Files Manager, Prince of Development
Chalmers, Sweden
Apr 2001
time: 06:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 01:04
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#2 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

You are in the wrong Forum. This is Civ3-General, you should have posted this in Civ3-Civilizations. I bet Mark will move this.

I think that Firaxis knows what they are doing, I trust them.

Admiral PJ is offline Admiral PJ
Prince
Southeast England , UK
Dec 2000
time: 05:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 01:26
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#3 Report this post to a moderator
Increase the size of your Attachments

Riders a good unit i just don't like the name, maybe it will grow on me.. maybe they'll change the name.
If the mongols aren't in their horsepower can be shown through the chinese(who were influenced by mongols and are basically the same) in their rider unit, (super knight) , the eastern horse cavalry were powerful and conquered a large empire (Mongol Hordes) and the chinese had this too.
The boxer rebellion was at a time when china was overrun by the european powers so i don't see how this would relate it to a golden age, boxers sound far less interesting than Super Knights (knights have been my favourite early unit for a long time)
PJ

The Mad Viking is offline The Mad Viking
King
of the Great White North
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
Arrow  Old Post 06-09-2001 01:43
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#4 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton

Riders suck. The name is stupid, and the unit is stupid. The Chinese had no special military unit. Now for some reason they get the world's best knights?

Persians had better knights. Turks had better knights. Maybe they could have gone with "Horse Archers", again not a typically Chinese unit, but at least a historically significant one.

Chinese already had great civ attributes, now a killer unit.
Faster and with enough defense to withstand a counterattack.

Black Riders = Nazgul. Three movies coming soon...

The Mad Viking is offline The Mad Viking
King
of the Great White North
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 01:44
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#5 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Chinese special unit could have been an inexpensive worker unit that excelled at building huge fortifications...

Provost Harrison is offline Provost Harrison
Emperor
The farce is strong with this one.
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
Arrow  Old Post 06-09-2001 02:25
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#6 Report this post to a moderator
Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Who knows and who cares? It is a game, for Christs sake, lets make it fun and stop nitpicking little things. We will not know how it works until we see the whole game working in unison...you can't just an oilpainting from a square milimetre of canvas now, can you? It's whinge, whinge, whinge with some of you, and for no good reason either

RobC is offline RobC
Warlord

Aug 2001
time: 21:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 02:27 Visit RobC's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#7 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote:
Originally posted by The Mad Viking
Chinese special unit could have been an inexpensive worker unit...


...which would virtually guarantee that China could never have a golden age (when was the last time you saw a settler/worker win a battle?)

Rhysie is offline Rhysie
Warlord
England
Jul 2001
time: 05:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 02:36
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#8 Report this post to a moderator
Put an end to popups!

quote:
Originally posted by RobC


...which would virtually guarantee that China could never have a golden age (when was the last time you saw a settler/worker win a battle?)


In my last civ2 game one of my settlers building a fort in a mountain fended off three aggressive barbarian horsemen... So it's not impossible.

Skanky Burns is offline Skanky Burns
Deity
Skanky Bastard Quartermaster
Aug 2001
time: 14:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 04:02
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#9 Report this post to a moderator
Suffering from ads?

quote:
Originally posted by Rhysie
In my last civ2 game one of my settlers building a fort in a mountain fended off three aggressive barbarian horsemen... So it's not impossible.


But dont workers in Civ 3 have 0 defence??

Inverse Icarus is offline Inverse Icarus
Emperor
flying too low to the ground
May 2001
time: 00:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 04:13 Visit Inverse Icarus's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#10 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

well, the boxers werent really an elite group of soldiers, they were chinese citizens who wanted to expel "the white man", and used martial arts to beat the sh*t out of them.

stupid white men said they were boxing.

El hidalgo is offline El hidalgo
Warlord

Jan 1970
time: 23:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 04:14
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#11 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote:
Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Who knows and who cares? It is a game, for Christs sake, lets make it fun and stop nitpicking little things. We will not know how it works until we see the whole game working in unison...you can't just an oilpainting from a square milimetre of canvas now, can you? It's whinge, whinge, whinge with some of you, and for no good reason either


OK, how would you feel if instead of archers we had the clown unit, who hurls coconut cream pies at the enemy? Is it unthinkable that a phony unit could mar your enjoyment of the game even a little? (And no, the rider, if it is indeed a phony unit as I suspect, won't put me off that much, not as much as a clown).

If the rider is a phony unit, that is; it doesn't ring true to me, but then I admit to my ignorance of Chinese military history.

Not whinging, just discussing. If anyone knows more about the subject, I'd be glad to hear. But it sounds to me, and forgive me if it seems rude to say so, that you are just whining about whining. If you really don't care, why bother to reply to this thread at all?

Provost Harrison is offline Provost Harrison
Emperor
The farce is strong with this one.
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
Wink  Old Post 06-09-2001 04:25
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#12 Report this post to a moderator
Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Ooooh, get you

yin26 is offline yin26
Emperor
This space reserved for Darkstar.
Apr 1999
time: 14:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 05:34
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#13 Report this post to a moderator
Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

I will give it my best shot in the Civs section...

[EDIT: The thread is here.]

Last edited by yin26 on 06-09-2001 at 05:54

Urban Ranger is offline Urban Ranger
Apolyton Duke of Off-Topic

Donate to the Red Cross
The City State of Noosphere, CPA special envoy
May 1999
time: 13:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 08:00
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#14 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Not the Boxer

They were just a bunch of rebels with no real discipline and organisation. They thought they had supernatural powers that in fact did not exist.

Lung is offline Lung
King
of my princess Anastasia!
Mar 1999
time: 15:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 08:37 Visit Lung's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#15 Report this post to a moderator
Tired of ads?

quote:
Originally posted by El hidalgo


OK, how would you feel if instead of archers we had the clown unit, who hurls coconut cream pies at the enemy?




So, who's going to make the "Clown Civ" scenario, huh? You know, King Bozo of the Circus Clowns. The special unit could be the "pie-chucker", which, instead of having bonuses in attack, defence, or movement, instead lowers opposing units' defence ratings! Think of the endless possibilities!!!

Sounds;
----------
Whoopie-cushions
nose-horns
water squirts

Graphics
-----------
movement with big floppy feet
attack with cream pies
etc

Buildings
-----------
pie factory (in lieu factory)
circus (in lieu colliseum)

Just think of the diplomacy! You know - you go to speak to King Bozo, and he arrives to stupid clown music. When you actually speak to him, he squirts you with water from a flower on his chest, then shakes you hand in apology, only to find he's got a buzzer in his hand

The possiblities are endless!!!

monkspider is offline monkspider
King
banned
Aug 2001
time: 23:15
  Old Post 06-09-2001 08:42
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#16 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote:
Originally posted by Lung




So, who's going to make the "Clown Civ" scenario, huh? You know, King Bozo of the Circus Clowns. The special unit could be the "pie-chucker", which, instead of having bonuses in attack, defence, or movement, instead lowers opposing units' defence ratings! Think of the endless possibilities!!!

Sounds;
----------
Whoopie-cushions
nose-horns
water squirts

Graphics
-----------
movement with big floppy feet
attack with cream pies
etc

Buildings
-----------
pie factory (in lieu factory)
circus (in lieu colliseum)

Just think of the diplomacy! You know - you go to speak to King Bozo, and he arrives to stupid clown music. When you actually speak to him, he squirts you with water from a flower on his chest, then shakes you hand in apology, only to find he's got a buzzer in his hand

The possiblities are endless!!!


Edward is offline Edward
Warlord

Apr 2000
time: 00:15
  Old Post 07-09-2001 21:36
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#17 Report this post to a moderator
Suffering from ads?

Since the Mongols are gone, a mounted special unit seems ok for the Chinese. As an ignorant pop-culture-raised American, I would have liked the "rider" to have a cool Asian-sounding name (however inaccurate), be wielding a bow, and have multicolored samurai-esque armor.

I'd love to have a super worker be my special unit, even if I don't get a Golden Age. My Civ2 settlers and engineers can never work quickly enough.

Provost Harrison is offline Provost Harrison
Emperor
The farce is strong with this one.
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
Arrow  Old Post 07-09-2001 21:40
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#18 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Lung:

isaac brock is offline isaac brock
Warlord
Amherstburg, Ontario
Aug 2001
time: 00:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 00:58
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#19 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Since the mongols are out of the game, and the team is working on only 16 civilizations, how about they try harder to make an accurate yet fun game, instead of some "samurai" unit that for some reason is associated with the chinese civ. Leave the fugging units to firaxis, and don't assume something is historically inaccurate simply because of your ignorance of other cultures.

And provost, that's a nice signature. What a good idea...

YefeiPi is offline YefeiPi
Chieftain
Canada
Jul 2001
time: 00:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 05:28 Visit YefeiPi's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#20 Report this post to a moderator
Increase the size of your Attachments

Hell ya, I'm disappointed. There are better suited units out there for China than riders. However, China is the earliest nation to excel at horse riding, so I mean even if Firaxis made a mistake, it's not too much of one.

hell, besides, maybe I will enjoy kicking other civ's asses with my riders!

YefeiPi is offline YefeiPi
Chieftain
Canada
Jul 2001
time: 00:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 05:31 Visit YefeiPi's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#21 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote:
If the mongols aren't in their horsepower can be shown through the chinese(who were influenced by mongols and are basically the same) in their rider unit, (super knight) , the eastern horse cavalry were powerful and conquered a large empire (Mongol Hordes) and the chinese had this too.


Mongols are the same as Chinese? Ok...
China was one of the, if not THE earliest nation to excel at horseback riding, I'm sure way before mongols even existed.

PGM is offline PGM
Prince
Lisboa, Portugal
Aug 2001
time: 05:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 06:51
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#22 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

I like the unit, although a special worker could be a great idea now that peaceful GAs are possible.
What I don't like is the name. Rider. I wish Firaxis would change this. They could name it whatever they wanted, as long as it sounded chinese.

ancient is offline ancient
Prince
Life Goes On
May 2001
time: 00:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 07:27
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#23 Report this post to a moderator
Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

hmm chinese had horses, and they did ride them.. and got pretty good at it too..

i dont know if they were actually faster or stronger than other horse riding peoples but it is accurate other than that, often they used swords or bow and arrows..

PGM is offline PGM
Prince
Lisboa, Portugal
Aug 2001
time: 05:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 07:30
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#24 Report this post to a moderator
Tired of ads?

One more thing, the Rider (4/4/3), despite the terrible name, is extremely powerful and surprisingly fast, which fits well the Chinese civ which is now Militaristic. From the movie we've all just seen, the Modern Armor also has a movement factor of 3, so this shows how important this knight can be in its proper period of time.
As someone pointed out, it can step out of a city where it was fortified, attack, and enter again. And let's not forget that the movement factor of 3 will be 9 (!) on road, so imagine the possibilities, as a couple of these babies patrol your borders.

Dida is offline Dida
Prince

Jan 2000
time: 05:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 09:48 Visit Dida's homepage!
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#25 Report this post to a moderator
Enter the AD-FREE zone

Chinese mounted troops and other type of troops are powerful. The reason they were not famous is because China is more famous for something else, not for its military might. But remember, Han Empire existed about the same time as Roman Empire, and was bigger in size and more culturely advanced. Also notice the Huns, who after being defeated by the Chinese migrate across Central Aisan and conquer much of the the eastern Europe. China being able to defeat such powerful mounted enemy means it's good on horse back too.

LaRusso is offline LaRusso
King
appendix of Europe
May 2001
time: 06:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 20:43
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#26 Report this post to a moderator
Re: Anyone disappointed in the Chinese special unit? Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

quote:
Originally posted by El hidalgo
For those who know about Chinese history, was there really a "rider" unit? Anyone else besides me wish they had gone with the Boxer (pic: http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_h...umbnail257.html) or some other unit instead? Even though the Boxer could hardly have been said to usher in a golden age....


Well I expected party members waving Mao red books. That was a force to be reckoned with.

Chow Yun Fat is offline Chow Yun Fat
Warlord
Hong Kong, China
Feb 2000
time: 05:15
  Old Post 08-09-2001 21:52
Edit/Delete Message Reply w/Quote
#27 Report this post to a moderator
Get a bigger avatar today!

I will be posting some educated guess, not well-researched materials. So please take it with a BIG grain of salt.
And please make correction to my pinyin. I learnt my history in Chinese.

In the Chinese language, China means 'Central Empire'. The central part of China at pre-modern time is the 'pocket' of the Yellow River, (If I remember correctly, it's a flooding plain.) The land is good for farming but not very good for massive horse-breeding. Horses do not travel with ease in that area without roads.

The followings were depicted in quite a number of Chinese operas and novels, (but not in history books. Chinese official history did not usually record details of a battle). There were a lot of extraneous information added as favors. But I am quite certain that I had not quoted lores. (Nothing like Hercules, Merlin ,Siegfried, or people who can leap to the roof and fly [Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon] )

1. Horses in Central part of China were usually used by the rich (as carriage to faraway places, for short travel, they use sedans), by the officials (as couriers), and by the generals (riding a horse is a kind of privledge). A small group of elites would also ride the horses to the battle but the effect was usually rather small.
Some may argue that in ancient China, war wagons were used often. But the number of infantry support far exceeded war wagons. In the "warring state" period, it were claimed that a certain general had buried 400,000 captives. At that time, a big state would have 1000 wagons (There should be some quote about this in the Sun Tzu or Wu Tzu. The learned please confirm)

2. Infantry with swords, scimitars, and polearm-like weapon were usually seen. (I had not recalled seeing Chinese battling with lance in any novels and operas.)

3. Bows were used but it had usually been used as cover fire (I'm not very sure of this). There were two famous (yet unofficial) description of use of bows and x-bows. Both in the 3 Kingdom period and with ZhugeLiang. (Borrowing arrows using straw boats [there're more than 100,000 arrows involved]) (The making of Chukonu [x-bow that fired multiple arrows]) There was a Chinese saying that 'Shoot the horse before shoot a man, Capture the leader before capture all the bandits'.

4. Pikes, not cavalry, were used as defensive weapons against barbarians cavalry charges (South Sung period, Vs the Liu empire and Kam empire)

5. Battle vs the 'barbarians' in the western deserts were also made mainly by infantry. (not even camels, try to see the movie Wulan made by Disney. )

All these long-winded paragraphs were to illustrate that
"Chinese was not famous in using horses in combat"

If I were to devise some kind of special units for Chinese, I will choose 'Yan-Hoi' (literally 'Man-Sea', translation probably being 'hordes of human'). Huge number of HP, so-so attack and defense, slow movement, requires 1 pop point to create.

  < Last Thread     Next Thread > Post New Thread     Post A Reply
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:15.
Apolyton Time is 00:15.
    top of page
Rate This Thread:
archivepost
Forum Jump:
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
 




Contact Us - Apolyton Civilization Site - Support Us!

Building a better Apolyton through better information. Click here and take our poll!
Non-US visitors, click here!

Powered by: vBulletin Version 2.0.3
Copyright ©2000, 2001, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited.

Page generated in 0.0496 seconds (92.35% PHP - 7.65% MySQL) with 31 queries
Page Loading Time:

Support Apolyton: Amazon USA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR |
Support Apolyton and get FREE PLUS, Buy from Chips&Bits: Galactic Civilizations | Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition | Call to Power 2 | Civilization: The Boardgame | GURPS/ Alpha Centauri | Alpha Centauri | Civilization IV | Civilization III: Complete |


Front Page | Civilization IV | Civilization III | Civilization II | Call to Power II | Alpha Centauri | Master of Orion III
Rise of Nations | Galactic Civilizations | Galactic Civilizations II | Misc
Alt.Civs | Civ I | C:CtP I | About | News | Directory | Apolyton Store | Forums | Chat | Columns | Interviews | Newsletter
Scenario League | CSC | Clash of Civs | Spanish Site | CtP Maps | Cradle of Civ | WesW's Ctp1/2 Site | Civ3 Haven

apolyton.net | apolyton.com | civilization2.net | civilization3.net | civilization4.net | civilizationiv.info | calltopower.net | galciv.net | galciv2.net | moo3.net