Now when it comes to late game, I would say that these two late game titans, old school titans are actually very evenly matched when it comes to that. China has really good siege, but so does Rus. China has amazing hand cannoneers, but so does Rus. And Rus also has great horsemen besides it. I would pick Chinese hand cannoneers over Streltsy any day. But then again, Rus does have the better cavalry.

But this matchup, from what we've seen recently, it essentially comes down to can China flood enough knights into Rus's base and do enough damage to offset that horse archer mass before it gets out of control? If the answer is yes, Rus tends to die. If they do not, China tends to die.

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.