Civilization 5 China - Leader: Wu Zetian

Civ Bonuses, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Civilization Name:  China

Civ Leader: Wu Zetian

Civ Bonus: Art of War:
Effectiveness and spawn rate of Great Generals increased.

Unique Unit: Chu-Ko-Nu:
Requires Machinery Tech, Upgrades to Gatling Gun, Obsolete with Rifling
This unit is exactly the same as the Crossbowman it replaces, but can fire twice in a turn. Awesome at defense due to this ability, but great on the offensive as well. They upgrade from Archers and Composite Bowmen and, when upgraded to Gatling Guns later, keep their ability to attack twice in a turn.

Unique Building: Paper Maker:
Requires Writing Tech
Replaces the Library. The Paper Maker apparently sells paper, because it gives +2 gold to the empire as opposed to costing you maintenance like the Library. Each one of these in various cities adds up quite a lot, and gives you more incentive to get them built early.

Strategies/Ideas:
The Chu-Ko-Nu is a very fun unit. Firing twice they can really deal some damage. Keep them alive as they'll be seriously rocking after upgrading to Gatling Guns, as they do keep their ability to attack twice in a turn. You should really try to shine as a military when they first become available. Unless Diplomatic pressures prevent it, it might not be a bad idea to take out a couple of neighboring cities while their power is accessible to you. The Paper Maker is a nice help, and can aid in supporting your Chu-Ko-Nu! The Paper Maker doesn't seem all that impressive but keep in mind that a simple Bank and Market will boost the output of that to nearly double. While other Civs are paying for their Libraries, your Paper Maker makes money for your Civ allowing you to support a larger Military.

A smart tactic for maximizing your time with the Chu-Ko-Nu is to produce plenty of archers/composite bowmen in the early game and perhaps even behave militaristically, but save money to upgrade units later. You can upgrade your units for gold as soon as the Chu-Ko-Nu become available and go on a warpath. The Medieval is your era to shine. Throughout your career, keep about two or three Great Generals and use the rest for Citadels to steal land from an opposing Civ. The general is important to China -- they'll see 30% increases to combat strength when their fighting units are nearby. Keep a Great General safe when sieging a City by stacking it with a strong Melee unit. You'll need a melee unit to take over a City anyway, as ranged units like the Chu-Ko-Nu cannot walk in and finish the job.

Remember when expanding very rapidly that your Happiness will degrade fast as you take Cities. Look for targets with access to Luxury units, and occasionally accept Surrender terms when you are given terms you deserve. The offers get better as you kill off their mliitary, assuming your foe has anything left to offer. This can give you a little breather to build infrastructure and grab happiness improvements. After about 10 turns, you can go back to War and finish the job. Remember, you only need to capture a Capital in order to win the Domination victory in Civ 5. Some nations aren't worth wiping out because you will be labeled a Warmonger by other Civs the more cities you take. They can hold on to their poor cities for the rest of the game, while you surpass them in technology and cease to fear them as a foe.

The Chinese are one of the best suited for a Domination victory overall, because they can grow very strong after a Medieval-era land grab and move on to another style of play. Diplomatic is also plausible -- with enough expansion they can get a lot of resources and win over votes with all the City States. Cultural and Scientific Victories are also doable if you make a transition and avoid totally neglecting your Science. You can always cease Wars and lead your people to peace and prosperity after you milk the Chu-Ko-Nu for all it is worth. You can grow very large during the Medieval era by taking Cities, then boom Culture or Science afterward.

Tweet

Are you sure you want to report it?

Share Tips and FAQs (5)

Our Sims Forum is the place to go for faster answers to questions and discussions about the game. Use the form below to share your own experiences and provide helpful tips to other readers.

Redmond Jennings says...

The CKN (and super powered gatling and machine guns) are so much fun. On King, which is where I can win now if I get the early game right, I cleared my continent before Astronomy and was way ahead of the other continents until I was ready to do them in.

Only problem is happiness; I have to remember to raze more cities instead of puppet them.

Admin:

Yep, razing is important. In the end, you did GREAT though, especially given it's King. It's sure nice to take over a whole continent then shift to another Victory type, else go for the rest of the world. Very well done. I haven't achieved that myself in a while. I'm still improving my Immortal play, and it's kind of harder to do that before the World Congress is founded. I like to avoid the Warmonger penalties..

Reply

Flag

4

4th July 2014 4:49am

Redmond Jennings says...

Thanks! I know people have been saying this for years, but it's very clear that Sid Meier and Friends have worked to penalize warmongering compared to the first four games. The difficulty of moving troops around, the severe diplomatic repercussions and the way happiness works all incentivize trying something else now. So do the importance of trade and the ability of cities to defend themselves. In Civ1-4 military aggression was the dominant strategy: it successfully preempted any other victory pursuit.

Reply

Flag

4

7th July 2014 3:41am

Redmond Jennings says...

Now that I'm playing as other civs and trying to get my ranged units to multiple high tier promotions (range, blitz) I really appreciate just how great it is for England and China's UU's to come with those natively.

Reply

Flag

2

8th August 2014 2:44am

Michael says...

Just wanted to throw out a thanks for making these guides. I've been reading up on strategies for some of the civs I haven't tried (like China) and the write-ups here are making me want to give them a shot. I love the idea of double-shot MG's.

As an aside, I've been finding Emperor a little too easy and Immortal a little too hard. In the former case I can stay at the cutting edge of science, but in the latter I start behind and stay behind, meaning no Wonders and little chance of Science or Cultural victories.

Admin:

On Immortal: Rush Universities and work those Specialists right away. You can keep Cities growing by focusing on food while they are working those specialists. Next, you need Public Schools for the immediate increase in Science. You should start catching up or passing them in the Renaissance so long as you have enough Cities (3-4). You will want to adopt Rationalism and get the top left Policy there to increase Science from Specialists, then go down the right side for increased Science from Universities.

Reply

Flag

1

13th July 2014 1:58pm

Michael says...

Yes, that's pretty much what I do on Emperor. It's usually in the Renaissance when my tech catches up as my population begins to surpass the AI. The food trade route method is crucial for this.

On Immortal I seem to still lag behind. Perhaps I'm not aggressive enough. I generally go Tall with only 2-4 cities, and I generally only build enough military to defend myself. I'm sure there are still plenty of little things that I'm not good enough at yet.

Anyway, thank for the tips. I did try China (on Emperor) just because of this guide and really enjoyed them. I never really needed those double-shot MG's, but the CKN is still one of my favorite UU.

Reply

Flag

1

19th July 2014 11:33am

Page 1 of 1

Join In

[cancel]

Name:

Email:

Share:

Captcha:

 

Enter code:

 

Remember my name and email for future contributions.