I cant win with Japan

[GrizzGolf]

Anyone whos been main them since they came out can you give me tips on a build order or what I should be doing?

[Kapı deliği polat]

bot

[76561199569197429]

you prob just need more practice with the civ. play around, test out several things until u get the hang out of it


also use the aoe4 wiki to read about the different aspects/units

[Bubs]

upgrade tcs with the thing that gets more bannermen, add them to units. i find that japan is hard right now, for me, because no castles until age 4 and i thought they had no crossbows, but their 'crossbows' are those mounted guys from the archery range.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Thoughts on Japan:

#1 - Shinobi are awful. Take the Kora Storehouse for the free farms and save a bit on wood.

#2 - If you upgrade TCs, they get an aura around them buffing farm harvesting. Just a heads up, as this is an easy fact to miss, and it's a decent buff. Even on just that first unique upgrade, it's a good boost to farms, which isn't absolutely vital early on (sheep, deer, berries may cover your early food), but it can help later on if you leave the area around the TC open for farms to be built.

#3 - The unique melee upgrade affects villagers. Villagers can become a decent amount stronger after 2 upgrades or so, allowing you to fend off weaker units (like archers) a bit better than usual with just massed villagers if in a pinch.

#4 - The Shinto unique relic can be placed in a lot of stuff. But if you pick the Shinto landmark, be ready to micro a bit more. Which leads to...

#5 - A lot of sound-cues occur for Japan. Shinto relic appearing, Storehouse dropping a new farm, etc. etc. Use the sound cues to help with the micro.

#6 - Samurai getting that free dodge on a first attack that would hit is a big deal. Massed samurai with bannermen can do a good job of tanking for you as that free dodge IIRC works on everything. It can do a lot of good in a spot where a mangonel otherwise would have hit a bunch of samurai at once.

#7 - Maximize the econ buildings. Since you often will need multiple mines if the game goes long, use all of them to upgrade at once. Use houses to both raise pop as well as work berries or deer.

# 8 - The final landmarks are both pretty wild. The Takegashima Gunmaker allows you to build a unit for free with each supply it has, meaning you can get the unique siege-handcannon unit entirely free if/when supply regens. The Crow Castle, on the other hand, can spawn a unique trader that will come in and drop off a hefty amount of resources every so often. That Crow Castle is good if you need defense, but get the other landmark if you want to go on the offensive.



Overall thoughts:

Japan is a micro-fest. You will have either Shinobi to micro for sabotage, or the Storehouse to micro with working the farms as they appear. You will have to bring Shinto relics over to buildings every so often, or use supply points in the T4 landmark to pop out handcannons. You will have multiple places to use to tech or upgrade (use the forges to upgrade multiple things at once to speed stuff up). You have Samurai that should be pulled from battle for 10 seconds-ish to get back that free deflective armor charge.

The key to Japan is hot-keys and ctrl groups. Which is the key to every RTS, but especially here. There's a lot happening with them and to maximize their effectiveness, you have to quickly jump from one place to another.

Samurai, though, used well, go a long, long ways. Upgrade them, and if the game goes long, get them the University unique upgrade for better torches, and finish things off.

But you can be flexible... the unique siege handcannon is pretty powerful, too, and the Onna Bushi units are quite fast to help cover all your econ drop off sites.

Basically, just be ready to micro a whole lot, I guess.

[Bubs]

very helpful, Aluminum Elite Master, ty