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This article is about the Chinese in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. For other appearances of the faction in the series, see Chinese.
Civilization Technology tree Strategy

Chinese scout the map with their two Scout Cavalry units. Chinese soldiers are initially trained at the War Academy and Stable. A lot of their units have counter-intuitive counters, such as Cataphracts (cavalry) countering Infantry units. Their later units from the Castle can be used to create powerful combinations. Generals can be trained to boost the morale of a whole army, while nimble-footed Fire Lancers[sic] shoot primitive rockets at hostile fortifications. Chinese Heroes come in many shapes and sizes: right from the start they can train Immortals, which switch between ranged and melee attack, depending on their opponents. Monks can be trained to convert enemy human units, but can also heal your own troops. The Chinese gain Favor by building Gardens.
—In-game description

The Chinese are a civilization introduced in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon. They are based on Chinese mythology.

Overview[]

Major gods[]

Tale of the dragon

The Chinese major gods: Shennong, Fu Xi, and Nü Wa on the expansion cover art

  • FuXiPortrait Fu Xi: Can use "Blessed Construction" to speed up building construction. All buildings cost 20% less wood. All eight Immortals can trained from the Archaic Age. Benefits buildings and heroes.
  • NuWaPortrait Nü Wa: Gardens generate favor faster and provide +1 population. Markets and Caravans can be builts in the Classical Age. Benefits economy and human soldiers.
  • ShennongPortrait Shennong: Monks can convert myth units and heal faster. Siege weapons deal more damage. Wall upgrades are cheaper. Benefits monks and siege units.

Minor gods[]

The minor gods available to the civilization, their focuses, and the major gods through which they can be accessed are:

Classical Age[]

  • HuangDiIcon Huang Di (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Economy
  • SunWukongIcon Sun Wukong (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Halberdiers and navy
  • ChangEIcon Chang'e (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Archers

Heroic Age[]

  • DaboGongIcon Dabo Gong (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Economy
  • ZhongKuiIcon Zhong Kui (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Immortals
  • HeBoIcon He Bo (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Buildings and navy

Mythic Age[]

  • ChongliIcon Chongli (Fu Xi and Nü Wa) - Cavalry and navy
  • AoKuangIcon Ao Kuang (Fu Xi and Shennong) - Human soldiers and navy
  • XiWangmuIcon Xi Wangmu (Nü Wa and Shennong) - Castle units

Units[]

The generic units unique to all Chinese are:

Aom tale of the dragon chinese village-1024x576

A Chinese village, showcasing some of their units

Human soldiers[]

Siege weapons[]

Heroes[]

  • TownCenterAOMChinese Town Center
    • Immortal Icon Immortal: Hero which can be trained from the Archaic Age (normally +2 per Age), switches between melee and ranged mode based on the target. Can collect Relics.
  • TempleAOMIcon Temple
    • AoM Monk Icon Monk: Heroic Age hero unit which can heal and is good against myth units. Can collect Relics.

Myth units[]

Main article: Myth unit#Chinese

Ships[]

  • Junk Icon Junk: Has more hit points than other arrow ships.
  • Fire Ship Chinese Icon Fire Ship: Ranged fireship, replacing the hammer ship. Identical to Atlantean Fireships.
  • Siege Junk Icon Siege Junk: Same as Greek and Norse siege ships.

Titan[]

Pangu

The Chinese TitanChineseIcon Titan

The Chinese Titan is Pangu, the first living being in Chinese mythology.

Buildings[]

The generic buildings unique to all Chinese (and not just cosmetically unique) are:

Economic[]

  • GardenIcon Garden: Archaic Age building which produces a trickle of the selected resource. It is also the only way for the Chinese to gain favor.

Defensive[]

Favor[]

Like the Egyptians, the Chinese must construct a building in order to gather favor, in their case the Garden, with each one providing a continuous trickle. Peasants can construct up to ten Gardens, each new one increasing the generation of favor. The first two Gardens are cheaper to construct, but only the first time they are built, not if rebuilt.

Starting conditions[]

Each of the five civilizations in Age of Mythology has different starting conditions in a normal game. The Chinese start out with a Town Center, two Scout Cavalry, and four Peasants. Scout Cavalry act similarly to the Greek Kataskopos in the early game, scouting around the map, while also capturing nearby herdable animals.

Resource gathering[]

Peasants, the Chinese workers, gather at the same rate as Greek Villagers. Their Storage Pit can be used to stockpile any resource, acting as a drop-off point for food, wood, and gold, not unlike the Norse Ox Cart. In addition, the above-mentioned Gardens can be set to provide a trickle of any resource, though they cannot be set to provide a certain resource individually; all Gardens are coordinated to generate the same resource, similar to the Japanese Shrines in Age of Empires III.

In-game dialogue[]

The Chinese units in Tale of the Dragon speak Mandarin Chinese:

Common
  • Select 1 - 有什么吩咐?/有什麼吩咐? - Yóu shěn me fēn fù? ("Your orders?")
  • Select 2 - 什么事?/什麼事?- Shěn me shì ("What is it?")
  • Select 3 - 准备好了/準備好了 - Zhŭn bèi hăo le (Ready)
  • Move 1 - 好的 - Hăo de ("Okay")
  • Move 2 - 出发/出發 - Chū fā ("I'm going")
  • Move 3 - 遵命 - Zūn mìng ("Understood")
  • Attack 1 - 作战!/作戰! - Zuòzhàn ("Fight!")
Villager-exclusive
  • Move - 是的 - Shì de. ("Yes")
  • Build - 工匠 - Gōng jiàng ("Builder")
  • Farm - 农夫/農夫 - Nóng fū ("Farmer")
  • Mine - 矿工/礦工 - Kuàng gōng ("Mineral worker"; miner)
  • Hunt - 猎人/獵人 - Liè rén ("Hunter")
  • Repair - 修理工 - Xiūlǐgōng ("Repairer")
  • Forage - 采集工/採集工 - Cǎi jí gōng ("Farming work"; gatherer)
  • Chop - 樵夫 - Qiáo fū ("Felling trees work"; timber worker)
Military-exclusive
  • Select 1 - 是的 - Shì de. ("Yes")
  • Attack 2 - 准备就绪。/準備就緖。 - Zhŭn bèi jiù xù.. ("Move out when ready")
  • Attack 3 - 攻击!/攻擊! - Gōng jī! ("Attack!")
  • Attack 4 - 开战!/開戰!- Kāi zhàn! ("Start fighting!")
Terracotta Warrior-exclusive
  • Select - 请下命令/請下命令 - Qǐng xià mìnglìng ("Please command")

Notes[]

The use of Mandarin Chinese is anachronistic, as it was not present until the Northern Song dynasty. During China's mythological age the Chinese language was not even written down, least transcribed phonetically; and Old Chinese (spoken at the earliest during the time of the Shang) is still a reconstructed language. Nevertheless, a good substitute for Old Chinese would be Min Chinese, as those varieties phonologically approximate Old Chinese.

AI player names[]

  • Anyang (安阳/安陽) - An ancient city of China and one of the four main historical capitals, being the location of Yin, capital of the Shang dynasty (14th Century BC).
  • Beijing (北京) - A major city and the capital of many Chinese dynasties, albeit the name Beijing was created by the Ming dynasty in 1403 AD.
  • Chengdu (成都) - A city in China which has had the same name since 260 BC, currently the capital of Sichuan province.
  • Kaifeng (开封/開封)
  • Luoyang (洛阳/洛陽) - One of the four main historical capitals.
  • Nanjing (南京) - One of the four main historical capitals, with archaeological evidence dating back to 500,000 years ago.
  • Puyang (濮阳)
  • Xi'an (西安) - One of the four main historical capitals.
  • Xing (邢)
  • Yangcheng (羊城)
  • Yin (殷)
  • Zongzhou (宗州)

Trivia[]

  • The Chinese in Age of Mythology are based on periods and dynasties in Chinese history, rather than mythical pre-history:
  • Some Chinese units have quirks not seen in normal gameplay before:
    • The War Salamander and Azure Dragon are the first and only amphibious units (i.e. they can move over land and water).
    • The history sections of the Chinese myth units do not use fictional scientific names, instead opting for their traditional Chinese names.
  • Some units turn the countering system upside down: Cataphract are strong against infantry and Mounted Archers are good against cavalry and the Norse Huskarl, which is an infantry unit strong against (other) archers.
  • The Chinese re-use a few removed concepts from the development stages of Age of Mythology. Some of these concepts include the Inferno, Geyser, and Uproot (known originally as Bramble) god powers, Chariots, Hades' Cataphracts, and "Priests" being able to convert soldiers.
  • The Chinese are the only civilization to lack a myth unit with an instant kill special attack.
  • Counting the Shang in the original Age of Empires, the Chinese are the only civilization to have made an appearance in all five titles of the Age of Empires series, including their respective expansion packs.
  • Before the release of Tales of the Dragon, the Chinese major god statues were colored white. This was changed to a brown color in the final release.
  • The Chinese reuse various assets from Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties, including sounds, unit animations, technologies, and icons.
  • Also, even though most of the Chinese gods are from ancient mythology, one exception would be the monkey king Sun Wukong (孙悟空 孫悟空). He made his first appearance in the story 'journey to the west' (西游记 西游記), which was written in the 16th century in the Ming (明) dynasty. It was loosely based on a couple of different folk tales of the same story, which were based on a real historical event of a monk who traveled from Chang'an China all the way to India to study Buddhism, and went back to China after many years of study to share his knowledge; that happened in the 6th century in the Tang (唐) dynasty.
  • Unlike the other four civilizations, the Chinese lack an "evil" major god (i.e., Poseidon, Set, Loki, and Kronos); Fuxi, Nuwa, and Shennong are all seen as benevolent deities, and the antagonists of the Tale of the Dragon campaign are the vaguely defined "forces of chaos" as well as various bandits and Danzhu. A better antagonist god would be Chiyou, the Chief of the Jiuli Clan; however, he is not considered as great as the three August ones.

Gallery[]

Civilizations in Age of Mythology
Aom original icon Age of Mythology AoM The Titans icon The Titans AoM Extended icon Tale of the Dragon
Greeks
Greeks
Egyptians
Egyptians
NorsePortrait
Norse
AtlanteanPortrait
Atlanteans
Chinese
Chinese
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