What would you name the Chinese UU then?

[monkspider]

Much has been made about the bland name of the Chinese unit.
"The Rider". I do agree that it's rather unimaginative, but it has grown on me somewhat. At least much more so than that "Attack of the Clones" thing (what was Lucas thinking???).

What would be BETTER names for Chinese UU if you were the developer?

[Harlan]

You probably know I don't think they should have a cavalry unit at all. Perhaps they could have an infantry unit and call it the Walker, cos it walks around. Or a crossbowman, and call it the Shooter, cos it shoots stuff.

Sorry, but I can't resist mocking the Rider name.

Its a good question though. Maybe if we come up with something really good they'll change it, just like how they changed the skin tone of Cleopatra. Cavalry for some reason is one military branch that seems to lack descriptive names. Civ2 had to resort to calling a late cavalry unit "Cavalry", probably cos they couldn't think of anything better. Unfortunately, so much of the time, cavalry is just called cavalry, or if you want to get really descriptive, light and heavy cavalry.

Any ideas, anyone, please? Anything is better than Rider! Monkspider, would you be happy with Attack of the Chinese Guys on Horses?

[monkspider]

"Any ideas, anyone, please? Anything is better than Rider! Monkspider, would you be happy with Attack of the Chinese Guys on Horses?"
LOL

I think the inherent problem with China is that it doesn't really lend itself to a unique military unit as most of the other civs do. So to me, a cavalry based UU seems as good as any. But I can't think of anything to name it that would give it that little bit of chinese flavor. In a way, I appreciate the name "Rider", as it seems to have a bit of "bad assedness" to it (probably because it reminds me of Ghost Rider for some reason). But in any event, I think there is definitely room for quite a bit improvement, although I can think of nothing better personally.

[mactbone]

Maybe the Chinese UU sould be all those Stone statues of individual soldiers?
Seriously, maybe it should be a Junker (isn't that what their war ship was called)? Or maybe, just some random infantryman, I mean they had millions of them when most nations were using considerably less. Thta might be too much like the Immortal though...

[Harlan]

I think there are lots of good Chinese unit possiblities (and yes, the Junk is one of them), but let's not worry about that here. Let's assume for this thread that the unit stays with the "Rider" heavy cavalry concept, but we need to find a better name for it. I think if we put our collective heads together, we can come up with a better name, can't we?

[Inverse Icarus]

The Terra Cotta Warriors of Xi'an (Shee-ann) ?

that would be funny.

[Inverse Icarus]

Cooler words for calvary (from Thesaurus.com)

combatant; disputant, controversialist, polemic, litigant, belligerent; competitor, rival, corrival; fighter, assailant; champion, Paladin; mosstrooper, swashbuckler, fire eater, duelist, bully, bludgeon man, rough.

janissary; myrmidon; Mama, Mameluke; spahee, spahi, Cossack, Croat, Pandoz; irregular, franctireur, tirailleur, bash-bazouk, guerilla, condottiere.

mercenary; bushwhacker, free lance, companion; Hessian.

private, private soldier; Tommy Atkins, rank and file, peon, trooper, sepoy, legionnaire, legionary, food for powder; officer (commander) [more]; subaltern, ensign, standard bearer; spearman, pikeman; halberdier, lancer; musketeer, carabineer, rifleman, jager, sharpshooter, yager, skirmisher; grenadier, fusileer; archer, bowmann.

horse and foot; horse soldier, foot soldier; cavalry, horse, artillery, horse artillery, infantry, light horse, voltigeur, uhlan, mounted rifles, dragoon, hussar; light dragoon, heavy dragoon; heavy; cuirassier; Foot Guards, Horse Guards; gunner, cannoneer, bombardier, artilleryman, matross; sapper, sapper and miner; engineer; light infantry, rifles,chasseur, zouave; military train, coolie.

i think they just lumped in a ton of war words

[yin26]

Here is a great rundown of China and the horse: http://www.imh.org/imh/china/ed/History.html

Looking through there, I came up with: The Wudi Raider.

During the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) ... under Emperor Wudi, the Chinese expended vast amounts in their efforts to import better horses from the West.

Notice I said RAIDER and not RIDER. I wonder if Firaxis just made a spelling error?

[yin26]

Hey, I like the sound of it!

"The Wudi Raider"...sounds like it would kick some butt.

[korn469]

even just Raider sounds more intimidating and less generic than Rider...so a few civs will get really unique names such as the F-15, immortals, legions, panzers and a few will get really bland names such as the bowmen, warchariots, riders

[monkspider]

Originally posted by yin26
Hey, I like the sound of it!

"The Wudi Raider"...sounds like it would kick some butt.

I like it!!!!
It isn't quite as reminiscent of Ghost Rider sadly, but definitely a marked improvement. "Raider" is far better than rider and Wudi gives it some much needed Chinese flavor!

[Harlan]

Wudi Raider sounds too much like the Woad Raider unit in AOK. Anyways, raiding was extremely atypical of Chinese cavalries.

I like this comment from the General forum:

"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 think a Chinese name would be good, and while at first strange, people would come to know and love it, a la the Woad Raider (who knows what the heck Woad means?). What's the Chinese word for cavalry, for starters??

I did a little digging in a couple resources I have. I could not find what the Chinese call heavy cavalry; however, their name for their horse archers was "lou-fan". Also, the Chinese categorized their armies as having ordinary forces and extraordinary forces. The extraordinary forces were called "ch'i". Sun Tzu himself says on the subject: "use the ordinary forces to engage; use the extraordinary to win." Sounds like a special unit to me!

So, lacking anything better for now, howabout Ch'i Horsemen? Or give em a bow and call them Lou-Fan or just Horse Archers. Horse Archers should be in the game as somebody's special unit, in any caase.

[Melios]

Originally posted by UberKruX
Mama

That would be quite an imteresting name for a military unit.

Although, were it not for the fact the Rider doesn't seem to be a Cavalry Archer, it could be called Mangudai. Unless you don't like the idea of a Mongalian horse archer as the unique Chinese unit.

Maurader is another idea.

[Red Khan]

Originally posted by Harlan
I think a Chinese name would be good, and while at first strange, people would come to know and love it, a la the Woad Raider (who knows what the heck Woad means?).

Woad is a plant that grows in Scotland. Did you watch Braveheart? The blue paint comes from this plant. Scotish warriors useed to paint thier faces to be more scary and/or for disguise.

On topic. How about just calling it cavalry or raider in Chinese? It will surely sound Chinese. Again a parallel with AOK. Chinese UU there is Cho-Ki-Nu. I never heard of it before, but now I know that it's a crossbow that automatically recharges itself. (Kind of that appears in Gladiator, in the scene with warchariots) And who cares that the crossbow was called like that, not the troops that used them, since it sounds Chinese. Anybody knows Chinese here?

[Melios]

It was a crossbow that could fire several bolts in a row. I think it basically had some sort of mechanism that loaded the next bolt as it fired one. So you could get it to fire 6 or 7 shots in a row. However, it probably depended more on a "spreadfire pattern" that wasn't accurate individually rathar than the precision of European Crossbows (but even those were probably required less training than average bows),