Tibetans/Strategic Overview

Faction Overview	/Strategic Overview/	History
*Strengths: Low cost of buildings means faster booming, especially given that buildings are very cheap in New World Empires. Stronger defences also allow for higher city survivability rates. Good cavalry.
*Weaknesses: No economic production bonuses. Mediocre ranged units, weak navy and infantry selection.
In Swords of the Prophets. Tibet is depicted as having a powerful, land-based melee component, reflective of the old Empire's proximity to three major factions — Tang China, the Turkic khaganates, the Indians and the Sogdian confederacy (who were allies and clients of the Turks). As a result, the proximity of Tibet to such factions means that not only do they have powerful melee-based regular and mercenary troops, but also some sophisticated armour designs that aid their units well, that is, their Midak armoured cavalry, and their Sde Dpon heavy horse archers. In addition to these, Tibet also raises a slew of interesting units &mash; War Dogs, who can sniff out hidden units and tear light infanty apart in seconds; as well as high-tier Palace Gamekeeper and Cataphract cavalry, as befitting a powerful land empire who could interfere with Chinese attempts to expand beyond the Ferghana Valley into the western half of Central Asia. This is aided by Tibet's propensity at land defence — structures don't need units to garrison buildings to make them attack, and these structures too can be built tougher and faster.
There are several problems with Tibet, though: the first is its lack of good foot missile units, who usually have better range. The unit with the best range for Tibet would be Slingers — yet these units often have atrocious aim, and unlike archers are nearly worthless at countering towers and buildings, in addition to horse archers or war elephants. In addition, Tibet also lacks access to crossbows in any form, so as a result, they are at a glaring disadvantage fighting other factions. Even the lowly Saxons and Britons can, with some ingenuity, beat back a Tibetan army simply by using foot archers and crossbows, backed up by good heavy infantry to fend off heavy cavalry attacks. And finally, Tibet also has one glaring disadvantage owing to its historic position as a landlocked mountain kingdom — it has not got a proper navy. As with the Turks, the Tibetans may build only War Canoes and Fire Rafts to defend against enemies at sea, leaving them fairly vulnerable to being blockaded on water maps by other civs capable of exploiting and defending marine territory.
As a result, Tibet is best used on maps with little to no water, especially maps with very few resources where its steep discounts on construction costs can provide some early game booming leverage. If the map is small, then infantry — in particular its own variant of Rise of Kings’ Spear Sergeants, the Zimchongpa — will provide Tibet the ability to lay a great deal of pressure with the ability to create fairly decent heavy infantry, backed up by light units. With open maps, Tibet's vast repertoire of cavalry units and foreign mercenaries do well in developing all manner of strategies for countering its opponents using expansive or offensive strategies — either recruit cheap Turkish mercenaries for rush jobs, or tech up and boom to create Sde Dpon and Cataphract detachments backed up by War Elephants. Ultimately, factions with good archers and ships are Tibet's best allies — so that means if you are a Tibetan player, try to get a Japanese, Tang, British, Norse, or Indian partners as soon as possible.
Category:Tibetans
Category:Spoiler