How to beatChineseas Rus

When the deer are split 50/50 between Rus and Chinese, the Rus player has to be super happy with that result because once that High Trade House kicks in, you're continuously spawning in deer, meaning when both players have the same amount of deer collected, the Rus player is going to have a lot more food safely inside of their base, so they'll be pulling ahead when everything's even.

When both players go for pro scouts and a lean feudal into Castle Age, China is slightly quicker to hit Castle, but Rus is much more sustained once they age up.

Opening with spearmen and horse archers instead of knights and horse archers can be a really good buffer against early Chinese knights. You don't need many spears to get a presence, and while your numbers are still building up, you can get a lot of value out of a few spears cheaply.

You have to respect the early timing from Chinese. If Rus doesn't take a lot of damage within the first couple minutes after aging up, they pull further ahead because deer run out quickly for China, while Rus spawns more deer over time.

The 20% extra drop off from the official's supervision works in China's favor, offsetting some of the deer from the High Trade House.

The issue with China up against Rus when it comes to just massing knights against knights is that China tends to run out of food a good bit earlier.

And you're Chinese and you get more food out of every drop off thanks to the Imperial officials. So you just don't want him to steal anything from you.

We know that China slows down when they do the granary transition. That's the one moment that they are at their most vulnerable.

You got this very late farm transition from the Rus where if Chinese is able to get to that point where Rus need to transition and Chinese hasn't taken significant damage yet, then Chinese wins. Chinese typically farm transitions like 20 minutes into the game. Rus more like 25-30 minutes depending on the deer split. If you're able to take a significant larger amount of deer from Rus, like if it's a three to one deer split which is very rare, then suddenly it flips on its head and Chinese just wins straight up.

One of the options with Rus is to completely ignore pro scouts and go for a fast castle into High Trade House.

Switching into mangonels is a game-losing play against Clocktower Nest of Bees.

Once you age up with the High Trade House, you get free deer safely inside your base. Even if both players pro scout, Rus will have more food sustainability; China might last 25 minutes, Rus 30-35.

Warrior monks can be used as a meat shield against horsemen because they don't take bonus damage and they buff your cavalry archers' damage.

It is such a powerful play for the Rus because they go free Scouts; they have to do this otherwise you lose the race against Chinese.

Zhuge Nu will shred the Horse Archers; the Horse Archers' attack animation gives Zhuge Nu time to return fire, making it not a cost-efficient trade at all.

With the Imperial Academy and those Chinese villagers are going to build it faster than their Roose counterparts. So, not only do you get that faster age up, you also have a potential, hopefully, of getting that professional scouts a lot quicker.

When you look at the Rus, you have the Hunting Cabins for pro Scouts, whereas with the Chinese you have the ability to supervise the stable to mass scouts, so both civilizations are able to get very quick professional Scouts builds.

If you're playing Chinese you would be happy with the late game. It's going to be tricky for the Rus player because they're playing horse archers, and once the walls are complete, horse archers will just struggle so much to do anything.

Imperial Rus Knights with Boar's Fortitude can still take a fight against Castle Age Spearmen.

Warrior Monk is important to secure relics early to match the Chinese passive tax gold income.

With a critical mass, Horse Archers can kite Knights effectively; you might lose one to a charge but the rest can keep firing.