[Renojustin]

These guys get my vote for Some Of The Toughest Sons of *****es In The Game.

I really love T'ien in every age; their military is extremely good and their magic is usually at least tied for best. But WOtFE... these guys beg for a W9 bless, F9, maybe a touch of astral thrown in for good measure, makes them pretty unstoppable. It's worth being Imprisioned over. It'd be great to see them against Vans. I think they're undervalued and underused.

They are VERY cheap, fast, two (shortsword) attacks with superlative ATK and DEF, and of course, best of all... resist resist resist (resist). Natural protection, low encumbrance, an extra point of strength. 15 base morale, they can even have huge hps when you time it right. Really I just wouldn't want to make one angry, let alone a nation of them.

They only have two weaknesses:

1) Arrers. Screen em with your Most Honorable Tower Shield Eunuchs.
2) Capitol-only combined with no survival skills makes me a sad coyote. The best you can do is pump out 10 every turn (pretty rough to afford scales-wise with a high bless) and start to laboriously ferry them to your fronts.

By the mid to late game, when their resistances really start to shine, they are hampered by the distances involved, and worse yet, your dominion is probably starting to suffer from all those points you spent on what ought to have been your pride and joy.

You'd think that with all the fighting in bamboo forests, praying in remote mountain shrines, and celibate, ascetic lifestyle in general, they'd have SOME kind of movement bonuses. I mean, if nimble warrior-monks can't move freely through a forest, what can? I hesitate to be so acerbic, but come on, haven't the devs seen any martial arts films of any kind over the last couple of dozen years?

Add forest survival!