JAPAN TOO WEAK? ECO AND MILITARY

[SeiKz]

when playing as japanese you are forced to pick all the cards for eco and military upgrade, no space for shipment for "free units and eco", just to stay equal to other civilizations.

if you want to have the same eco as european civilizations you need to use all the cards for eco upgrades while european don't need it and have full power from start.

for military if you want your units to kill you are forced to pick all the cards to upgrad them and have all the daimyos and shogun near it, otherwise they will be wiped hard

so in the end japan is good only if you pick everything from cards, so you are forced to turtle the game to 30-40min and forget rushs.

how is that fair? turn into playing japan very boring

[Satekoi]

Japan is on rusher or special civ. You can make tons units fast, using only Daimyo's, those are your's secret weapons. And you get villagers and units from shipments two times. That gives japan to rusher. And japan has strongest musketeers in the late game.

[SeiKz]

Satekoi の投稿を引用：

Japan is on rusher or special civ. You can make tons units fast, using only Daimyo's, those are your's secret weapons. And you get villagers and units from shipments two times. That gives japan to rusher. And japan has strongest musketeers in the late game.

you don't have space on the deck for two shipments cards because if you use them you can't upgrade your eco since the BASE eco is half the power of any other civ, daimyo's make units slower than buildings, then you are forced to pick the card upgrade wasting another slot of the deck limit.

japan is only good at end game with all the upgrades, if you play base you can't do nothing

[Larry Craft]

give me japan strats

[Chrinchy]

SeiKz の投稿を引用：

Satekoi の投稿を引用：

Japan is on rusher or special civ. You can make tons units fast, using only Daimyo's, those are your's secret weapons. And you get villagers and units from shipments two times. That gives japan to rusher. And japan has strongest musketeers in the late game.

you don't have space on the deck for two shipments cards because if you use them you can't upgrade your eco since the BASE eco is half the power of any other civ, daimyo's make units slower than buildings, then you are forced to pick the card upgrade wasting another slot of the deck limit.

japan is only good at end game with all the upgrades, if you play base you can't do nothing

I think you should take some time to watch some pro AoE 3 tournaments on Youtube and Pros playing as Japan. You will find them to be very competitive and you will see what cards you should be using and why.

[AZTEC]

ask your team mate to send you 60 sheeps for your shrines and come back.

[filibuster]

^ really taking advantage of shrines is huge for japan. only build on hunts if possible. dont worry if a few get destroyed when civs start moving more troops around the map.

[Katitoff]

Are you spamming shrines literally everywhere possible and upgrading them later?

Its kind of mandatory if you want healthy eco as japan from my experience so far.

[enricofermi2]

I think japans eco is deceptivly bad. The shrine income, just balances out for not being able to hunt early game. Though it probally won't even do that. Late game, shrines are weaker than the double factory, european civs can send. On top there villager shipments give 1 less than standard.

And without some kind of eco advantage it's hard 2 win.

[Nightmare]

Japan is just too weak early game... rush defence is almost impossible

[Larry Craft]

Nightmare の投稿を引用：

Japan is just too weak early game... rush defence is almost impossible

this i have noticed, i have tried so many times to learn Japan, but it seems, this civ is not meant for new players. I have switched to french and i kinda like it. THE IMPERIAL GENDARME slays everything on its way

[Earl Greyman]

Focus your cards and military enchantment for musketeer and flaming arrow, they're your best unit, samurai is just a bunch of jokers while battle in massive quantity, they're just a melee version of grenadier which can deal heavy area damage against cavalry but siege at default range. After fully enhanced your musketeer will have 60 damage per shot each, combined with flaming arrow will provide very good damage against everything on their way.

at early stage you must secure your eco with castles and wall, or rush some musketeer asap, make sure your shrine produce wood and get at least 2 villager for gold digging while your hero search for more animals around, if enemy wanna rush your shrine, just let them, they're wasting their time if not able to kill your villager, and they cant do anything soon if your castles and wall is well built around your base.

Rush your age and build some musketeer while keep building castle and walls, trade food with your ally for animals if your food production is more than enough, let shrine produce any resources depend on your need, I would suggest you produce wood for base development or upgrades at early stage, exp can get thru mass produce and killing later. If you rush your age to fortress age successfully, you better build your second or third town center for max out villagers asap and build more musketeer, you can "trade" with enemy for more exp if you think you can keep the production line work stably, or keep on rushing for industrial age for flaming arrow card which can build them at cheaper price, but make sure your unit is like almost fully use your population if enemy didn't attack your base for long time, you may face massive forces anytime. its not a bad idea if you send a few unit walking around the map for information, this is the only thing that some Japanese cavalry become useful lol

[Satekoi]

Japan gets bank from consulate. That gives 2,4 coins per second.

[Inkognito]

Japan is a really strong nation already.. I main it and its really ez to transform into a ashigaru flaming arrow boom after a successful buddha + daimyo + kav rush. No need for extra ressource shipments at all.

[Jackkel Dragon]

Not sure how Japan holds up in multiplayer, but in single-player skirmishes on hard AI or lower Japan is one of my favorite civilizations to play as. Economy gets a slow start, but having mini factories from Age 1 makes it really easy to shuffle around which resources you're gathering without as much villager walk time as juggling all three resources at once. Plus, the AI prioritizes shrines it finds in the wild over actual attacks on your base, which gives an early warning of AI military strength.

Another big thing for Japan is using the Age 2 shipments for shrines and cherry groves instead of getting normal resource cards. Cherry groves are gathered from just as fast as the early game fruit bushes, and the shrine shipment is like a 500 wood shipment that also pays resources over time. And each can be sent twice, unlike most resource cards.

Can't speak much to the military strategy for PvP, but archers feel really good as an early defense army and ashigaru are good all-rounder filler troops for armies. With ashigaru as the shock troops and flame arrows/mortars as the main event, you can blitz through enemy defenses. And as others have said, if you ship a daimyo or build the Shogunate to get a daimyo, they work as a mobile Barracks/Stable for quick deployments.