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Eyecandy Only the horseman is accurate though. Other soldiers are dressed in armour from other period. This is a concept art for a WIP Skyrim (and Mount and Blade, I think) mod called Cangloong City, but could serves as useful reference for standard Song Dynasty soldier load out. The left guy would be a Advanced level unit, the middle guy is a Elite level unit (or Champion), and the right guy is a Hero unit. Basic unit would be unarmored, but otherwise identical to the left guy. Note the felt hat, scarf and waist cloth, especially that felt hat, which is one of the most distinct equipment of Song troops. An animated feature film base on the Northern Song painted scroll 《清明上河圖》 or "Along the River During the Qingming Festival". It is a very good reference on the urban life during the Song Dynasty, and contains many reference on Song period architecture, civilian clothing, civilian boat design, city walls, and miscellaneous things like umbrellas or lanterns.

About CC buildable by heroes: i think this concept should be reconsidered. From my a16 experience, virtually noone bothers to train a hero to build a CC. People either don't know about this feature or happy with colonies protected by fortresses (and i suspect the latter is true). Maybe a CC should be simply available in city phase or not available at all. Or maybe players will be more willing to build a CC if fortresses will become weaker (iirc there were plans to do so).

Detailed Faction Proposals: PTOLEMIES (EGYPTIANS) CIV CENTER (Core regions such as Alexandria - Only buildable by Heroes) WomanMacedonian Settler PikemanThracian Settler Skirmisher*Macedonian Settler Cavalry Spearman*(LEVY) BARRACKS (Subject People Recruits) Judean Slinger - tier 1Nabataean Camel Archer - tier 2Machimos Pikeman Champion (After Reform)MILITARY SETTLEMENT (Military Settler Colonies) Macedonian Settler PikemanThracian Settler SkirmisherGalatian Settler SwordsmanMacedonian Settler Cavalry SpearmanMERCENARY CAMP (Limited to 1 for all but Carthage) Aetolian Cavalry SkirmisherCretan ArcherCarian Axeman (Sword class)Hellenic Thyreophoros (Spearman or Skirmisher)FORTRESS (Champions) Royal Guard (Agema) CavalryWar ElephantREFORMS Machimoi Reform (Early): Unlocks the slightly weak, but cheap and fast to train Machimos Pikeman Champion.Romanization Reform (Late): New Thorakites Sword Champion replaces Macedonian Settler Pikeman and Machimos Thyreophoros (non-Champion) replaces Machimos Pikeman.TECHS/BONUSES/COMMENTS Farming (The Nile)Naval or Naval/Siege (Great Engineering and Fleets)Mercenaries (Focused on them - Related with their agents recruiting from Greece?)Forts (Focused on Garrisons)SELEUCIDS CIV CENTER (Core regions such as Antioch - Only buildable by Heroes) WomanMacedonian Settler PikemanSyrian Archer*Thessalian Settler Cavalry Spearman*(LEVY) BARRACKS (Subject People Recruits) Syrian Archer - tier 1Median Cavalry Skirmisher - tier 2Arabian Skirmisher - tier 2Scythed Chariot (as one-rank non-champion) - tier 2/3Dahae Horse Archer (Could be cut out to reduce troop types and dublicates) - tier 2/3MILITARY SETTLEMENT (Military Settler Colonies) Macedonian Settler PikemanThracian Settler Rhomphaophoros (Peltast would be a more common but dublicate class)Thessalian Settler Cavalry SpearmanSilver Shield Pikeman ChampionThorakites Sword Champion (After Reform)Cataphract Champion (After Reform)MERCENARY CAMP(Limited to 1 for all but Carthage) Galatian Cavalry Swordsman (most troops types possible actually)Cretan ArcherJudean Thyreophoros Spearman or SlingerFORTRESS (Champions) Hetairos (Companion Cavalry)Armored War ElephantREFORMS Cavalry Reform (Early): Cataphracts Replace Thessalian HorsemenRomanization Reform (Late): New Thorakites Sword Champion AvailableTECHS/BONUSES/COMMENTS Their economy not handicaped in any way, as they controlled wealthy farming and trade regions, but they also faced constant warfare and rebellions could work, along with their focus being a strong all around military civ with many choices.MACEDONIANS CIV CENTER WomanMacedonian PikemanAgrianian Skirmisher*Macedonian Settler Cavalry Spearman*BARRACKS (Native and Closely related Subjects/Allies) Macedonian Pikeman - tier 1Agrianian Skirmisher - tier 1Thessalian Cavalry Spearman - tier 2Odryssian Cavalry Skirmisher - tier 2MERCENARY CAMP(Limited to 1 for all but Carthage) Rhodian SlingerCretan ArcherThracian Rhompaiophoros SwordsmanGalatians and Greek Thyreophoroi were also very common after 280bc if we lack some class. (After Reform)FORTRESS (Champions) Hetairos (Companion Cavalry)Hypaspist/SilvershieldHetairos Aspidophoros (After Reform) - Resilient cavalry skirmisher.Royal Peltast (After Reform) - Could be anything from pikeman/skirmisher/swordsman.Kestros Slinger (After Reform) - High attack slinger, or turned into a slinger tech.War Elephant (Possible with Import elephants tech or with full metal cost at the mercenary camp)REFORMS Early Antigonid Reform: Hetairos Aspidophoros replaces Hetairos. Royal Peltast replaces Hypaspist. Adds extra mercenary units.Late Antigonid Reform: Increases Pikeman hack armor and train speed. Adds Kestros Slinger Champion unit or tech.TECHS/BONUSES/COMMENTS Starting having Alexander's army rooster, then envolving into early and late era Antigonid Macedon with reforms.Give them Penteres (Heavy Warship). Could be with the early reform if not by default.*(If my recruitment ideas are rejected)

It is too late (I think) to make a groundbreaking change but it would be worth investigating... How about a group training mechanism like you see in Age of Empires 3 with the Chinese faction? This means you could train those armies (border army, provincial army etc.). They would consist of a specific combination of units and would be trainable from different buildings. (the provincial army could be trainable in the farmstead and such ideas)

Like the soldiers sleeping Enjoy the Choice

@wolflance I admit. The op that I wrote ain't very accurate and a lot of this comes from the Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms period. Thanks for the corrections. However, if I'm correct that part 1 is to be set between 500-1000 AD would it be a good idea to just call this faction "China" and base it on the Sui-Tang and ending at the Five Dynasties & Ten Kingdoms at late game? This will allow it to incorporate some cool units that occurred not long after the fall of the Tang but would be too "outdated" to be saved for part 2, such as the "Dragon Ship" which some people reckon was the first use of the Chinese flamethrower in warfare (Battle of Lanshanjiang 919). It would also justify the firelance as they were in use by 950 AD at the latest. On another note. Should the Chinese faction from part 2 start from the Song and end with early Ming? The Song fell by 1279, which leaves out 221 years worth of interesting potential units. Like Zheng He's treasure fleet for example (1371-1433). I am thinking of completely overhauling this faction proposal based on this notion, with more historically accurate units.

-The civ centre should produce women and a native melee unit (for gathering resources). Maybe also a scout unit (limited to 1), with auto-scout function (cfr. Rise of Nations). Barracks should be the main unit recruitment center. - I don't like the current 'embassies' for carthage: you can build all three buildings which don't fit the general feel of the Carthaginian building set. I rather have 1 embassy/mercenary building in carthaginian style. Then you can select (like a tech) to send envoys to Italy/Iberia/Gaul (only one of the three). When researched, the building has details of that culture (weapons, shields, ...). You can only build one embassy, but you can cancel your treaty with one nation, and research another place again. For example: you build the embassy, you select 'treaty with Iberia'. After 60 seconds, your embassy building gets Iberian details (to be defined). Now you can recruit some Iberian units and techs. You can cancel your treaty with Iberia, and after a cooldown get a treaty with Italy etc...

I'm mostly laying down generic concepts here. They are too many to go in detail and some of them would need more thought, especially for the macedonians (see how almost all of my proposals can be tied into the reforms - which isn't bad, they are an all-around civ already with no need for major changes from a gameplay point of view). Most of my ideas are subject to renaming even if i had the direct authority to implement them as I desired. On this example they could be merged into one (they happened over some decades). If not, I'd rather have both of them available. I notice that every time a play them. Imo Civ center/Barracks/Military Settlement/Embassy/Mercenary camp units for most factions need a reorganization. In short something along the lines of: Civ Center: Native melee unit (Plus archer for Persians and Mauryans who would have weak core melee units and had developed early archer warfare) Barracks (Not Seleucids/Ptolemies): Tier1: Native melee unit + Native ranged unit Tier2: Extra native melee/ranged infantry units, Native Cavalry Tier3: On some cases champions (Levy) Barracks (Seleucids/Ptolemies): Tier1: Subject people's melee unit + Subject people's ranged unit Tier2: Extra Subject people's melee/ranged infantry units, Subject people's Cavalry Tier3: On some cases champions Military Settlement (Seleucids/Ptolemies): Settler (Greek/Macedonian/Galatian/Thracian etc) units Mercenary Camp (limited to 1 for all but Carthage - Ptolemies and maybe others could have minor bonuses here): Mercenary units Forts, siege workshops etc stay more or less the same.

Just to show you I didn't forget :

With recent games such as Red Dead Redemption, Left 4 Dead 2, and The Last of Us being hugely successful, we have decided to change the overall direction of 0 A.D. so that it can appeal to a wider audience. We have many gameplay changes planned, such as removing the Roman faction and replacing it with an AI controlled horde of zombies. This transformation will probably take a few weeks to complete. The name Apocalypse of the Dead works well with our current title 0 A.D. because it means we don’t have to purchase new domain names. The ‘0’ therefore signifies the start of the apocalypse. Note: All comments in this topic may be moderated.