A better UU for the Chinese?

[SpencerH]

How about a beaurocrat UU that increases corruption

[Lord Merciless]

Originally posted by SpencerH
How about a beaurocrat UU that increases corruption

That would mean we need to make "Arthur Anderson" the American UU.

[SpencerH]

It would destroy the economy I'm only laughing to hide the pain of my financial losses. How about my spelling of bureaucrat ?

[Smogdog]

Originally posted by Lord Merciless
The current Chinese UU is good in my opinion, except that its name sucks. The word "Tieqi", or Iron Knight in English, has always been used to describe elite cavalry in Chinese history. I would replace Rider with Tieqi.

Lord,

I think the correct pronunciation of that Chinese term - iron knight - shall be "Tie Ji" but not "Tie Qi". Maybe Sid shall employ someone who knows Chinese language better. Well, anyway "Tie Qi" is a common mis-pron because it is a same character in Chinese but has different prons for different meanings. I agree with you that rider will be a better replacement.

Glory days of riders in Chinese history is in Han dynasty (200 B.C. - A.D. 200) when Chinese battled against nomadic invaders from Siberia and Central Asia desert (Xiong Nu). Within 20 years, Emperor Liu Che sent more than 100,000 Chinese cavalries to defeated the nomadic warriors and drove them away to the Black Sea and Near East.

Waht is more, in the same period, Chinese engineers invented fast shooting crossbow (Su She Nu) which could shoot 6 arrows consecutively in a short moment. Another weapon was called "bed crossbow" (Chuang Nu) - a manchine crossbow used to destory military defense facilities such as walls.

In 12th Century, gunpowders appeared in Song's royal armies. Mongolian barbarians lost a few battles in Central China when Chinese armies equiped with gunpowder weapons stopped Mongolia's further invasions into China's rich Jiang Nan area (area South to Yangtz River, with rice fields and big trading ports). It took Ghagis Han and his sons more than 50 years to conqure China completely. Meng Ge, the second king of Mongol was shot to death by Chinese soilders when he commanded more than 20,000 Mongolian riders to siege a small castle named Diao Yu Cheng (Fishing Flat) in Song's Si Chuan prvince. Mongolians withdrawed after their leader died, but later more and more Chinese traitors were appointed as generals and commanders by Hubilie Khan (the third King of Mongol). By then Chinese soilders in Jiang Nan had to face armies of the same ethnic Chinese who knew how to use gunpowders and were skillful in battleships fighting. In A.D. 1276, the last fight between Song's Royal Navy and traiting fleets was broken in Ya Shan (Cliff Hill) bay near today's Hong Kong. More than 1,000 vessels used primary gunpowder weapons to destory each other. Mongolian General Zhang Hong-fan, who was an ethnic Chinese but choosed to serve his nation's enemy, defeated Chinese fleets. Chinese emperor and his ministers refused to cooperate with barbarians and all commited suicide. A few people fled to Japan to organize opposition army. For Chinese this defeat means the starting of a-hundred-year merciless rule of Mongilian invaders.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by Coracle
No, martial arts can be found in various Far Eastern countires.

Tae Kwon Do is Korean; Kung Fu Chinese, Aikido is Japanese, etc.

The Rider is likely the best choice for a Chinese unit and would be typical of T'ang Dynasty military in the 8th Century.

Are you suggesting we replace the "Rider" with "Kung Fu Fighter"?
imagine the song "Kung Fu Fighting" playing in the background

[Lord Merciless]

The state of the cavalry symbolized the strength and weakness of every Chinese dynasty. If its cavalry was strong, the country would expand and be respected by all its neighbors. If its cavalry was weak, the country would be constantly harassed by its neighbors. Song Dynasty, the militarily weakest of all, had almost no cavalry to speak of.

[Optimizer]

Maybe one should call the Riders "Iron Knights" to avoid confusion.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Originally posted by Optimizer
Maybe one should call the Riders "Iron Knights" to avoid confusion.

Ewwww, I'm getting really bad images in my head of the cooking show "Iron Chef".....