— Sun Zi, the Art of War (Ch 5) The armour-piercing misery that your opponents may suffer when fighting Chinese Castle-Age armies continues into the Imperial Era with the Shenjinu, or "Divine Machine Crossbow". With a magazine mechanism that feeds bolts faster into their weapons, the Divine Machinist Division can rain down more ammo and pain per shot, and also can deal splash damage against unwary opponents — making it the ultimate "ranged melee weapon". Yet, the mediocre range of their weapons leaves them at the mercy of European arbalests, and so as a force, the Divine Machinists are at a high disadvantage if facing foot archers. Next, as all archers go, they are highly vulnerable against heavy cavalry. It is true that medium cavalry and even ranged cavalry might be easily seen off if pr