Latest / Start the game already! / [ENG] Civilizations #08: Japanese

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[ENG] Civilizations #08: Japanese · Start the game already!

• 0:14
  The Japanese are a civilization from the original 15
• 0:17
  civilizations in Age of Kings from 1999, and despite being in
• 0:24
  the game for more than 25 years, they have not changed too much.
• 0:29
  They've always been an infantry and arch of civilization with
• 0:32
  unique strengths on hybrid maps. Being an island nation, that is
• 0:37
  no surprise. It's safe to say that Japan is
• 0:40
  an exciting nation and civilization both in game and in
• 0:44
  reality, both historically and today.
• 0:47
  Just two months ago I got back from a three-week journey across
• 0:51
  Japan, and it also wasn't my first time being there.
• 0:54
  I'm not going to brag, but I'm actually going to brag because
• 0:56
  it's so awesome. Though honestly, it's different
• 1:00
  every time, and it kind of feels like my soul is still somewhere
• 1:03
  on a shinkansen between Fukuoka and Tokyo.
• 1:07
  Japan is an island nation, as I've already mentioned, and it
• 1:11
  has spent centuries looking inward, perfecting itself in
• 1:14
  isolation, only to explode onto the global stage with the speed
• 1:19
  that still makes historians dizzy to understand Japan today.
• 1:24
  The neon lights, the robots, the quiet politeness.
• 1:28
  You kind of have to peel back those layers.
• 1:30
  You have to go back to the beginning, before the steel
• 1:33
  skyscrapers, to the very bones of their identity, which
• 1:37
  inspired the Japanese civilization in Age of Empires
• 1:41
  2. So we're going back on a very
• 1:44
  short history trip all the way to the 7th century.
• 1:48
  We see the rise of Buddhism in Japan influencing the Yamato
• 1:52
  dynasty. By the 12th century, the real
• 1:55
  power shifted to the dirt, the blood and the blade.
• 1:59
  This is the birth of the shogunate, the military power
• 2:01
  and the feudal system. For 700 years Japan was defined
• 2:05
  by the samurai. But forget the romanticized
• 2:09
  version you see in the movies for a second.
• 2:11
  The Sengoku Jidai, or the Warrior States period was a
• 2:15
  century of total internal chaos. It was a brutal, almost arvinion
• 2:21
  free for all, where a lowly sandal bearer could rise to
• 2:25
  become a warlord. In 1543, a Portuguese trader
• 2:29
  brought rifles and gunpowder to Japan, which enabled ODA
• 2:33
  Nubunaga, a character that is represented in Age of Empires 2,
• 2:37
  to subdue central Japan. This era culminated in the year
• 2:41
  1600 at the Battle of Sakigahara, often considered to
• 2:45
  be the most important battle in Japanese history.
• 2:48
  Tokugawa Yeyasu won, he took the title of Shogun and he did
• 2:53
  something radical. He implemented a set of careful
• 2:57
  rules known as the Bakuhan system, which basically forced
• 3:01
  the daimyo and samurai to live in peace with each other under
• 3:04
  the Tokugawa shogunate. He supervised the construction
• 3:08
  of Japan's biggest castle, the Edo Castle, which established
• 3:13
  Edo as the centre of political power and the capital of Japan.
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  Despite Kyoto being the official capital.
• 3:21
  During the 1st century of Tokugawa rule, Japan's
• 3:24
  population doubled to 30 million, mostly because of
• 3:27
  agricultural growth. The population remained stable
• 3:30
  for the rest of the period. However, the Japanese were not
• 3:34
  the only one inhabiting the island.
• 3:36
  As a reaction of Portuguese and Dutch presence in Japan and the
• 3:40
  growing Catholic religion, Japan entered the Sakoku, the closed
• 3:45
  country policy. For 250 years.
• 3:48
  No one in no one out, more or less complete isolation from
• 3:52
  other nations, with a few exceptions.
• 3:55
  This is also the era of the geisha, the kabuki theatre and
• 3:59
  the haiku. Japan's cultural prowess was
• 4:03
  rising because there was no war. The samurai became bureaucrats
• 4:08
  and poets, which is actually something the community picked
• 4:11
  up on, and we'll get to that later.
• 4:14
  All in all, Japan turned into a pressure cooker of refined
• 4:18
  culture, with only the ports of Nagasaki being open to trade.
• 4:22
  But outside, the world was industrializing, steam engines
• 4:26
  were churning, and in 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the
• 4:31
  US Navy sailed ships to Adobe, threatening the Japanese open up
• 4:37
  or be opened, expecting an answer the next year when he
• 4:40
  would return. Once he did return, the two
• 4:43
  nations signed the Convention of Kanagawa, or the Japan US Treaty
• 4:48
  of Peace and Amity, which is kind of ironic as it was signed
• 4:52
  under the threat of force. Kind of reminds me of something
• 4:55
  that is going on just right now. What happened next is arguably
• 4:59
  the most incredible pivot in human history.
• 5:03
  Japan didn't just open up, it sprinted ahead during the Meiji
• 5:08
  Restoration. They dismantled the feudal
• 5:11
  system, threw away the swords, and built a modern Navy and a
• 5:14
  Telegraph system in one single generation.
• 5:17
  They went from a feudal state to a global superpower in almost 50
• 5:22
  years. But that rapid expansion led to
• 5:25
  the darkest chapters of the 20th century imperialism, the
• 5:30
  devastation of World War 2, and the haunting world altering
• 5:35
  silence of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
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  In 1945, Japan was a graveyard of scorched earth.
• 5:42
  And yet from those ashes came the economic miracle.
• 5:46
  The nation that once defined itself by the sword began to
• 5:49
  define itself by technology. They didn't just rebuild the the
• 5:54
  country, they reimagined what a nation could be.
• 5:57
  And that's what I saw when I was in Japan.
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  You can stand in the middle of Tokyo Street, where a 500 year
• 6:04
  old shrine sits in the shadow of a glass skyscraper.
• 6:08
  And that is the secret of Japanese history.
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  Nothing is ever truly discarded. It's just folded in like the
• 6:15
  steel of a Cortana, layer after layer, making the whole thing
• 6:19
  stronger, sharper, and infinitely more complex.
• 6:23
  Kind of like the Infinity Castle in Demon Slayer.
• 6:26
  In Age of Empires 2, we can experience the Japanese from the
• 6:29
  Feudal era with samurai, strong infantry and Archer units, and a
• 6:34
  respectable naval tech tree. So let us do a deep dive on the
• 6:39
  Japanese's bonuses, unique units, and unique technologies.
• 6:44
  The Japanese are one of those civilizations without any
• 6:47
  glaring weakness, but they also lack overwhelming strengths on
• 6:51
  most maps. It is primarily on hybrid maps
• 6:54
  where all their bonuses seem to converge.
• 6:57
  They have a solid economy helping them out in the early
• 7:00
  game, giving them lots of reasons to put on some early
• 7:03
  pressure. They are usually considered an
• 7:05
  above average civilization with quite a lot of variety in their
• 7:09
  tech tree, which I'll discuss in greater detail when it comes to
• 7:12
  army compositions and strategies.
• 7:14
  For now, let's focus on the civilization bonuses, of which
• 7:18
  there are four, and two of them can be considered equal bonuses,
• 7:22
  while the other two are clear military bonuses.
• 7:25
  Let's start where every game in Age of Empires 2 begins, with
• 7:29
  the economy. In the world of Age of Empires
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  2, the Japanese are the undisputed masters of the fish
• 7:36
  boom. While many civilizations have a
• 7:38
  single target bonus, the Japanese fishing ship bonus is
• 7:42
  actually a double folded bonus. It scales in speed and
• 7:47
  durability and is just an overall great package.
• 7:52
  The scaling work rate, which is 5% in Dark Age up to 20% in the
• 7:57
  Imperial Age, means the Japanese have the most efficient food
• 8:01
  gathering units in the game. Giving them Safe pond and just a
• 8:06
  couple of fishing ships will outscale any other food bonus in
• 8:09
  the game. Even a 5% boost in the Dark Age
• 8:12
  allows for a smoother fast castle or a more aggressive
• 8:16
  Feudal Age because you reach your food requirements seconds
• 8:20
  faster than your opponent without doing anything really.
• 8:23
  That bonus gets stronger in each age. 10% faster work rate in the
• 8:28
  Feudal Age, 15% in Castle Age, and in the Imperial Age at 20%
• 8:33
  faster work rate feels completely broken at times.
• 8:37
  It effectively means 5 Japanese fishing chips do the work of 6
• 8:41
  standard ones. This frees up population space,
• 8:44
  if you will, for more military units while maintaining A
• 8:47
  juggernaut economy. Remember that this bonus gets
• 8:50
  even better once the fish has been collected and you start
• 8:53
  using fish traps, placing them right next to your dock so that
• 8:57
  the ships don't need to travel and your fishing ships turn into
• 8:59
  faster farmers. The only reason why this isn't
• 9:04
  abused much in the game is that there aren't really any maps
• 9:07
  where the Japanese can safely fish boom, except for a couple
• 9:10
  of maps like Black Forest where you usually prefer civilizations
• 9:14
  with better late game compositions.
• 9:16
  Fish booming is a big investment that pays off very well when
• 9:20
  uncontested, but unlike villagers you can't move that
• 9:24
  part of the economy so it comes with a price to keep it well
• 9:27
  protected. Now I've only talked about
• 9:30
  gathering food because this is still much more common in
• 9:33
  standard and letter maps. However, we've seen that
• 9:36
  especially in recent tournaments, the maps scriptters
• 9:39
  have included oysters and even whales to the maps, which are
• 9:42
  both gold resources that can be gathered with fishing chips.
• 9:46
  Fun fact, when fishing ships gather gold from oysters, their
• 9:50
  name turns into oystering ships, and when they gather gold from
• 9:54
  Wales, they become whaling ships.
• 9:57
  Having double the amount of hit points raises their HP from 50
• 10:02
  to 100. Don't worry, I got that right
• 10:06
  because when the naval redesign had been patched into the game
• 10:08
  in February 2026, the fishing ships have had a reduction from
• 10:13
  their former 60 HP to 50. Also, the Japanese fishing ships
• 10:17
  have also lost their +2 Pierce armor, which was originally part
• 10:21
  of the Japanese civilization bonus.
• 10:23
  Anyway, that beefy 100HP turns fishing ships into tiny tanks
• 10:28
  that the pros have learned to utilize in a unique way.
• 10:31
  What they'll do is to use them to body block enemy vessels,
• 10:35
  giving your own naval military a distinctive advantage,
• 10:40
  especially with fire ships. You can place your little
• 10:42
  fishing tanks in front of your fire ships and burn down the
• 10:45
  enemy ship from behind it while the enemy is firing at the
• 10:49
  fishing ship. With non Japanese ships this is
• 10:53
  much riskier because they won't take as much damage before going
• 10:56
  down, so the X-ray HP really makes the difference.
• 11:00
  It's a frustratingly effective way to win a fight you should
• 11:03
  have lost against the Japanese raiding their fishing economy
• 11:08
  takes much longer. This is why they have so much
• 11:11
  more time to send reinforcements or hide their ships inside their
• 11:16
  docks. Because your fishing chips are
• 11:18
  so efficient, you are heavily incentivized to prioritize the
• 11:22
  dock over the barracks early on. The best thing about going for
• 11:26
  water approach with the Japanese is the synergy they get from
• 11:29
  another bonus, their economy buildings.
• 11:32
  Which means their lumber camps, mills, and mining camps cost 50%
• 11:37
  less wood, effectively saving you 50 wood per building.
• 11:41
  Making the transition to docks and getting those first fishing
• 11:44
  chips out so much more easier. Actually this is something I've
• 11:48
  struggled with a lot when I was learning how to play a water
• 11:51
  opening. Getting the bill down to get a
• 11:54
  dock up in time wasn't a problem, but constantly
• 11:58
  producing fishing ships and villages and also affording
• 12:02
  houses with no idle time in getting your fast fuel up time
• 12:07
  in order to be able to protect your fish, that is much harder
• 12:11
  than it sounds. To summarize, going for a dock
• 12:14
  and even just a little bit of a fish boom with the Japanese is
• 12:17
  viable because of their risk management.
• 12:20
  For most civilizations, losing your fishing ships to a feudal
• 12:24
  age rate is almost GG, or at least setting you significantly
• 12:27
  back. For the Japanese I can name 3
• 12:30
  reasons why the risk is lower. First, the fishing ships are
• 12:34
  harder to kill. Second, they paid for themselves
• 12:37
  faster due to the the increased working rate.
• 12:40
  And 3rd, you likely have a wood lead from your discounted
• 12:44
  buildings to replace them or transition into farms, or even
• 12:48
  have that backup economy already in place so that killing of your
• 12:52
  fish isn't as fatal. That wood discount bonus on
• 12:56
  economic buildings isn't just to make a water bonus smoother,
• 13:00
  though. In fact, what's much more
• 13:02
  important is how it shaped the early game of the Japanese on
• 13:06
  land maps. Obviously you're saving a lot of
• 13:09
  wood, which you can spend for other things.
• 13:12
  A second lumber camp, early walls.
• 13:14
  You don't need to decide whether you go for a meal or a gold
• 13:17
  mine, because you can just do both, or you can open with an
• 13:20
  early barracks. It completely opens up the early
• 13:24
  game for the Japanese and it makes them very flexible.
• 13:28
  Did you decide on a scout rush? So you went for a meal in the
• 13:31
  dark age but your opponent is fully Walden in at 8?
• 13:34
  No problem, you're the Japanese. Building a mining camp is
• 13:38
  cheaper than building a farm. So transition to arches.
• 13:41
  Did you get lame to lack food? Well, you can afford farms in
• 13:45
  dark age much easier because you will have a surplus of wood if
• 13:49
  you keep the same amount of villagers in wood as with a
• 13:51
  different civilization. All the past weeks I've had the
• 13:55
  Japanese civilization selected in case my opponent wood forest
• 13:59
  pigs civilization. So you know, to prepare for this
• 14:02
  podcast. Right off the bat, I realized
• 14:05
  that the biggest advantage you get from this woods discount is
• 14:08
  when you get a chicken generation on Arabia.
• 14:12
  To give you a little context, I hate chicken Arabia.
• 14:16
  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy that they bring more variety to
• 14:20
  Arabia and incentivize early pressure so I wouldn't want the
• 14:24
  deaths to take the chicken away. I just hate it because it messes
• 14:28
  with my bills and I'm an old player so it's really hard for
• 14:32
  me to learn new bills. And even though I should really
• 14:35
  have this down, I still get confused about when I should
• 14:39
  mill them and how many villagers I should send for how many
• 14:42
  chicken. Depending on their location, I
• 14:44
  sometimes even decide not to take them at all and maybe
• 14:48
  collect their food and feudal age once I have map control.
• 14:52
  What I'm trying to say is that Chicken Arabia forces me to
• 14:55
  accept that I'm really lazy when it comes to adapting to my
• 14:58
  builds, but when playing with the Japanese, all of these
• 15:02
  problems fade away. I would argue that Chicken
• 15:05
  Arabia is actually the best possible scenario when playing
• 15:09
  as the Japanese because it plays right into their hands.
• 15:13
  First off, I always mill the chicken with the Japanese,
• 15:16
  usually with four villagers, sometimes with two, and I will
• 15:20
  shift over those villages to berries once the chicken are
• 15:23
  gone. I get 2 mils for the price of 1,
• 15:26
  so why shouldn't I? And it's almost like shopping in
• 15:29
  Akiabara. With this I already have an
• 15:32
  advantage over my opponent who is either long distance taking
• 15:36
  the chicken or needs to invest 100 wood more when taking his
• 15:40
  berries which is huge because that's almost 2 farms I can see
• 15:44
  before my opponent does. I've seen people milling the
• 15:48
  chicken and walling up at the same time with Japanese which is
• 15:52
  also nice if you prefer to play more defensively.
• 15:55
  I on the other side prefer to play a bit more open and
• 15:58
  aggressive, so my go to strategy with the Japanese is to either
• 16:02
  build a mining camp and collect gold to open with minute arms
• 16:05
  into Archers, or to build an early barracks and drush my
• 16:10
  opponent. Having a meal at the same time
• 16:13
  when opening with these strategies is usually
• 16:16
  unthinkable, but it's possible if you're playing as the
• 16:20
  Japanese. So I wondered, why do the
• 16:23
  Japanese have these eco bonuses? One can argue that the fishing
• 16:28
  chip bonus reflects Japan's historical reliance on the sea.
• 16:33
  There are rough estimations about Japan's terrain being 70
• 16:37
  to 80% mountains, making large scale cattle ranching or a
• 16:42
  massive wheat farming physically difficult.
• 16:45
  As a result, the sea became Japan's primary bread basket
• 16:49
  very early in history. Japan has some of the most
• 16:53
  productive fishing grounds in the world, especially where the
• 16:57
  Oyashio and Kuroshio currents meet.
• 17:00
  Historically, Japanese fishing fleets weren't just small
• 17:03
  coastal row boats, they were a backbone of the economy.
• 17:07
  The double HP and armor on in the game likely symbolizes the
• 17:11
  hardiness of these coastal communities and their ability to
• 17:15
  keep working despite the raiding of seasonal storms or piracy.
• 17:20
  Yeah, that's right, Japanese pirates called Waku have been
• 17:25
  quite active between the 13th and 16th centuries, mainly
• 17:29
  raiding the coastal regions of China and Korea.
• 17:32
  Why is there no video game about Japanese pirates?
• 17:36
  I would love to play that. I, I want somebody, please, if
• 17:39
  there's any developer listening to this, please make a Japanese
• 17:42
  pirate game. I want to listen to Japanese
• 17:45
  shanties and I don't know, have a hub where they drink sake and
• 17:50
  Oh my God. OK, anyway, getting sidetracked.
• 17:54
  Relax. I've looked at a lot of
• 17:56
  reconstructions of Japanese fishing boats and there wasn't
• 17:59
  anything significantly sturdy about them that justifies that
• 18:03
  bonus, to be honest. Except maybe for one thing.
• 18:07
  In times of conflict, fishing boats were commonly pressed into
• 18:10
  service and in some cases were modified for combat, for example
• 18:15
  to carry troops or act as scouts.
• 18:18
  This was mainly done by reinforcing the boats to make
• 18:22
  them more durable. This is not something you would
• 18:25
  do when you're fish booming in a pond.
• 18:27
  So technically more accurate representation of history would
• 18:30
  be to have this be a unique technology that turns fishing
• 18:34
  boats into something else. But that would be a horrible
• 18:37
  idea. So in my opinion, I kind of like
• 18:39
  the bonus and I rate it historically inspired if not
• 18:43
  correct. The wood saving bonus was much
• 18:46
  harder to link to something specific in Japanese history,
• 18:50
  but let me on a very, very, very deep rabbit hole about Japanese
• 18:55
  craftsmanship. And I've probably watched way
• 18:58
  too many documentaries on YouTube about that.
• 19:01
  But I got to say, there's just something about watching the 70
• 19:04
  year old Japanese master of carpenting talk about his craft
• 19:08
  that's very calming. Anyway, I'm assuming that the
• 19:12
  woods discount is a tribute to Japan's world renowned
• 19:15
  traditional woodworking. Japan is an extreme country when
• 19:18
  it comes to natural disasters. Earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic
• 19:23
  activity, heavy rain, and extreme humidity are making life
• 19:26
  very difficult, especially in feudal Japan.
• 19:30
  Stone buildings crumble in earthquakes, but wood is
• 19:34
  flexible. Japanese architects perfected
• 19:37
  kigumi, an intricate system of joinery that uses no nails or
• 19:41
  glue. These buildings were essentially
• 19:44
  modular and could withstand massive tremors because they
• 19:48
  master complex interlocking joints.
• 19:50
  Japanese carpenters were famous for their ability to build
• 19:53
  structures with extreme precision and minimal waste.
• 19:58
  The game's wood discount represents this resource
• 20:01
  efficiency. I know I I really know this
• 20:05
  sounds a little far fetched. To actually call a historical
• 20:09
  inspiration. In fact, not even the history
• 20:12
  section in game mentions anything that might lead us to
• 20:15
  why the Japanese have received this wood discount.
• 20:18
  But I'm confident to say that it's for gameplay purposes
• 20:21
  rather than history, and it's an important bonus for the Japanese
• 20:25
  to have. Still, I'm trying to, you know,
• 20:29
  link whatever we have in the game to some parts of culture or
• 20:33
  history, and that is the best I could come up with.
• 20:37
  However, in the late stages of the game, this wood discount
• 20:41
  becomes less and less significant.
• 20:43
  Of course, you'll be refreshing lumber cams from time to time,
• 20:46
  and it's nice to save some wood when you do.
• 20:50
  But here's another tip that I find hard to implement in my
• 20:52
  gameplay, but I believe it's actually quite powerful in late
• 20:57
  game. We tend to place a lot of
• 20:59
  inefficient farms around meals when expanding our food economy.
• 21:03
  That's because we don't want to spend too much time in our
• 21:06
  economy while the fights are happening.
• 21:08
  So we build a mill and ought to place 20 farms around it,
• 21:12
  sometimes with farms that are so far away that the food eco would
• 21:15
  be much more efficient if we were to place some more mills in
• 21:19
  between them. If you're up to 70 farmers and
• 21:23
  have hand cart, this might not matter anymore.
• 21:25
  But if you're around 40 or 50 farms, placing an additional
• 21:29
  mill might improve your food eco because of less walking time.
• 21:33
  It's a little detail to make use of the bonus in the late game as
• 21:36
  well, and it's especially worth when the game gets to the point
• 21:41
  where optimization is required to get that little bit of
• 21:44
  advantage over your opponent in an otherwise even match.
• 21:48
  Still, it's safe to say that the wood discount is mostly
• 21:51
  significant when it comes to your openings and the early
• 21:54
  game. As I mentioned, my favorite way
• 21:57
  to make use of this is by opening with Militia, and the
• 22:01
  Japanese have another bonus that goes very well with that
• 22:05
  opening. This is where we'll start
• 22:08
  talking about the military bonuses of the Japanese.
• 22:11
  The one affecting the militia line as well as the Spearman
• 22:14
  line is this. Infantry units have a 33%
• 22:20
  increased attack speed starting in the Feudal Age.
• 22:23
  It is an incredibly potent early game military bonus because it
• 22:27
  turns one of the most awkward units in the game, the minute
• 22:31
  Arm, into a killing machine. I enjoy opening minute arms ever
• 22:36
  since the infantry rework from 2025.
• 22:39
  I'm not particularly good at it, but I know the build and usually
• 22:44
  get value from it, especially if my opponent opens scouts or
• 22:48
  isn't fast enough to scout it. When I get to play with the
• 22:51
  Japanese, it's borderline certain that I will use militia
• 22:56
  one way or another. The most effective usage of the
• 22:59
  infantry bonus is to open minute arms, because with a drush you
• 23:04
  risk losing your militia before they get to their attack speed
• 23:07
  bonus in the feudal age. However, if you're confident
• 23:11
  with your drush, you can easily start harassing your opponent
• 23:14
  with Militia and gain a, let's say, psychological victory when
• 23:18
  upgrading them to minute Arms because they will know Wow, once
• 23:22
  you hit the fuel Age, they will get stronger.
• 23:26
  There's actually quite the variety when it comes to opening
• 23:29
  with the militia, and I will discuss this in more detail when
• 23:32
  we get to the strategy part of this podcast.
• 23:35
  But for now, let's just keep in mind that all the bonuses we
• 23:39
  have mentioned so far really want you to open with militia
• 23:43
  and harass early on. Sometimes I struggle with
• 23:46
  killing villagers with my minute arms because you know, villagers
• 23:49
  can get away so easily. Especially because the minute
• 23:52
  arms tend to block one another, being able to hit them faster
• 23:56
  really improves my kill rate. Not only that, it means that you
• 24:00
  can bust through walls and houses much faster, especially
• 24:04
  if you research arson. And to add to that, this bonus
• 24:09
  is not only useful in the early game, especially when playing
• 24:12
  the Spearman line against cavalry units, having 33% faster
• 24:17
  attack also means 33% faster application of bonus damage
• 24:22
  throughout all ages. In the Feudal Age, there is an
• 24:26
  unwritten rule that you cannot fight scouts versus Spears
• 24:30
  unless you have three or more scouts against the Japanese
• 24:33
  Spearman. I'd argue that you want at least
• 24:36
  four scouts, especially if you are playing against someone who
• 24:39
  micros their Spearman while fighting scouts.
• 24:43
  In my opinion, increasing the attack speed of infantry units
• 24:46
  is maybe the strongest bonus for infantry in the game.
• 24:50
  And for that I want to digress a little and tell you a little
• 24:54
  story about a game that I just had a couple of days ago.
• 24:58
  I was playing on enclosed and my enemies Sif paid Sicilians.
• 25:03
  I assumed he was going to go FC and rush me so I had a little
• 25:07
  bit of mental preparation for what was coming, even though he
• 25:10
  actually did the exact opposite. He dungeon rushed me starting in
• 25:15
  the the dark age, actually building his first dungeon on
• 25:19
  his way to feudal age, taking me off my gold.
• 25:23
  This strategy makes a lot of sense since unenclosed you can't
• 25:27
  take berries and gold inside your your base.
• 25:31
  So dungeons should get value every time.
• 25:34
  Now I usually I would just will rush that dungeon down.
• 25:38
  I have a lot of experiencing and defending tower rushers and I
• 25:42
  wouldn't know why I shouldn't do the same with dungeons.
• 25:45
  And I would always have my will advantage because on enclosed,
• 25:49
  especially if someone sends four or five wills to to to try to
• 25:54
  dungeon rush me at my base, they will never have reinforcements
• 25:58
  in time. So I will always win the will
• 26:00
  fight and can just you know, will rush that dungeon down.
• 26:03
  But I was still experimenting with the Japanese for this
• 26:07
  podcast, so I decided on a different strategies.
• 26:11
  I was going to open minute arms anyways, and he only had five
• 26:16
  villages there. So I chose to test the strength,
• 26:20
  the power of Japanese minute arms.
• 26:23
  I escaped with a couple of villages far away from my base
• 26:26
  and started to gather golden berries on neutral resources
• 26:29
  which my enemy either did not scout or didn't care about.
• 26:33
  So I had some gold income and I also got my infantry defense
• 26:39
  upgrade and most importantly arson.
• 26:42
  And once I saw he was about to wall me in, I unleashed 10
• 26:46
  minute arms and continued producing.
• 26:49
  And even I was surprised as to how fast I was taking down those
• 26:54
  dungeons despite them firing at me and my opponent building a
• 26:58
  couple of sergeants as well, which I just took down in an
• 27:02
  instant. Japanese men at arms are no
• 27:05
  joke. And I snowballed from there
• 27:07
  because I went straight to his base to tear it down.
• 27:10
  That could have been a disaster, I admit, and I am sure not many
• 27:15
  Sifs can do this. Probably only the Romans with
• 27:18
  higher armor could have pulled off something like that.
• 27:21
  But still, it was a fun little experiment.
• 27:23
  And maybe my opponent wasn't the most experienced with these kind
• 27:27
  of rushes, even though he decided to do that.
• 27:30
  It worked to my surprise, fighting underneath 6 dungeons
• 27:36
  with 10 minute arms with armor of course in Arson.
• 27:39
  And I still cleared everything despite him even creating some
• 27:43
  sergeants, which kind of suck. Now in Feudal Age, I realized
• 27:47
  they only get stronger in Castle Age.
• 27:50
  So when trying to trace this bonus to its historical roots,
• 27:55
  at first I was actually looking at this bonus the wrong way.
• 27:59
  I thought the attack speed must stem from the warriors, since it
• 28:02
  applies to all infantry, both Spearman and militia line alike.
• 28:07
  It's also worth noting that when the Japanese have been released
• 28:09
  with Age of Kings, the original version of Age of Empires 2, the
• 28:13
  attack speed bonus wasn't standardized to 33% starting
• 28:17
  from the Feudal Age, but rather increasing throughout the ages,
• 28:21
  starting with 11% in the Dark Age and only reaching 3033% more
• 28:27
  attack speed in the Imperial Age.
• 28:29
  So I was thinking that they might have had special training,
• 28:32
  I mean the warriors or lighter armor to let them move faster,
• 28:36
  maybe some improvement when it comes to smithing.
• 28:40
  But none of that was backed by any evidence I found.
• 28:44
  Instead, their attack speed is most likely coming from their
• 28:48
  swords, especially katanas. So it's a little bit surprising
• 28:52
  that the Spearman line is also benefiting from this.
• 28:56
  The speed of a Japanese sword does not come from arm strength
• 28:59
  or muscling the swing, but rather from bio mechanics.
• 29:04
  And here's how it works. Force and acceleration are
• 29:07
  generated through the legs, hips, and the core of the
• 29:10
  fighter, with the arms acting merely as a conduit to guide the
• 29:15
  blade. Japanese warriors are famous for
• 29:18
  their drawing techniques. We've all seen the movie scenes
• 29:23
  and anime scenes where two samurai face each other, looking
• 29:26
  at each other very intensely. And in an instant, they would
• 29:30
  draw their swords and step, you know, beside each other
• 29:34
  back-to-back. And then there's a couple of
• 29:37
  seconds where you don't know who actually won.
• 29:40
  But they wouldn't look back to one another.
• 29:42
  They both know, just the viewer doesn't know.
• 29:45
  And at one point somebody says something very cool and dark and
• 29:50
  probably philosophical, and the other one goes down and you
• 29:53
  didn't even see the swing. You you just know it happened
• 29:57
  because you heard the sound, but you couldn't see it.
• 29:59
  And this is such a trope in in in Japanese, you know, samurai
• 30:05
  fighting, that it is probably something that also inspired
• 30:10
  this bonus, I guess. And of course in reality none of
• 30:14
  that happened like that. But samurai are often described
• 30:19
  as warriors who had a lightning fast draw, which was often
• 30:24
  achieved by pulling the sheath backward with the off hand,
• 30:28
  creating space while the dominant hand guides the blade
• 30:31
  forward. The single edged curvature of
• 30:34
  the Cortana allows it to be drawn and thrust in one fluid,
• 30:37
  continuous motion, minimizing friction against the interior of
• 30:42
  the sheath. In historical combat, these
• 30:45
  rapid drawing and cutting speeds meant that unarmored duels were
• 30:49
  over in a fraction of a second, just like the scenes that I have
• 30:53
  described to you now, often ending in a single decisive
• 30:57
  strike. Again, we've seen this countless
• 31:00
  times in in Japanese movies and it's probably what shaped the
• 31:04
  developer's image of Japanese infantry, soldiers and warriors
• 31:09
  is what my guess is. All right, let's move on to talk
• 31:13
  about our final Civilization bonus, which is also their most
• 31:17
  recent bonus that has been added in October 2023.
• 31:22
  Their cavalry Archers deal +2 damage against all Archer units
• 31:27
  except for skirmishes. It's a bit weird because the in
• 31:30
  game description says their bonus damage is dealt against
• 31:33
  ranged soldiers, but that term is hardly used in Age of
• 31:37
  Empires. They literally mean anything
• 31:39
  that is classified as a ranged unit, except for Skirmishers and
• 31:44
  Janitoris, which are basically mounted skirmishers.
• 31:47
  That includes unique units like the Camel Archer, the Chukunu or
• 31:52
  War Wagon, as well as some regional units like the Slinger
• 31:57
  or the Elephant Archer. And of course, don't forget
• 32:00
  about the good old hand Cannoneer.
• 32:03
  Anyway, Cav Archers are already considered to be one of the best
• 32:07
  units in the game and giving them extra attack against enemy
• 32:10
  ranged units is a strong bonus, especially since the Japanese
• 32:15
  have all upgrades for Cav Archers in the stable range and
• 32:18
  blacksmith. Here's why I think this is an
• 32:21
  awesome bonus when playing with Cav Archers.
• 32:24
  It's actually a very difficult build compared to playing
• 32:27
  crossbows because you can only start building up your mass of
• 32:31
  Cav arches once you're in the Castle Age, whereas you already
• 32:34
  start massing your arches in the Feudal Age, hitting that crucial
• 32:38
  timing of a deadly mass of crossbows right after you get to
• 32:41
  the Castle age. Also, you need more upgrades for
• 32:45
  your Cav arches compared to crossbows, so it's very tricky
• 32:48
  to play against ranged units with CA.
• 32:51
  However, with that extra attack, you hit that critical mass of
• 32:55
  Cav Archers just a little earlier, but little enough so
• 33:00
  that you stand a good fight. Also, when fighting against
• 33:04
  enemy Cav Archers, having more damage output is a great way of
• 33:08
  decimating the opponent's army. In fact, I saw a video done by
• 33:12
  Spirit of the Law where he showcased that with full
• 33:15
  upgrades on both sides, the Japanese win by a small margin
• 33:19
  against the best Cav Archer units in the game one-on-one,
• 33:23
  including Mongols, Turks and Majares.
• 33:25
  But the best thing about this bonus is that it's not locked
• 33:29
  behind the unique tech, but it's free and always there to to to
• 33:33
  use should you decide to go for cab Archers.
• 33:37
  It's just a very handy bonus to have really and increases the
• 33:42
  power of a unit that is already considered to be very strong or
• 33:46
  be it hard to get to and difficult to micro.
• 33:49
  As someone who really enjoys playing with cavarchers, I very
• 33:53
  much enjoy playing with the Japanese just because of this
• 33:56
  bonus. Even though I got to say I
• 33:58
  personally still prefer the Tatars for their better timing
• 34:02
  and also at some point when you have enough cavarchers and the
• 34:06
  enemy has has enough range units, the +2 damage output
• 34:11
  doesn't matter too much because you're most likely doing an
• 34:15
  overkill anyway. So the bonus in the late game
• 34:20
  gets a bit worse or or not worse but less useful than it is in
• 34:24
  let's say Castle Age. But you know, there's so many
• 34:27
  different cab Archer civilizations as of today so I
• 34:31
  guess it's more of a me thing and everyone's got their own
• 34:34
  style. I for one also don't really
• 34:36
  think of the Japanese when I hear cab Archers.
• 34:39
  Instead I think of let's say ninjas or a samurai.
• 34:44
  I'd say that the Koreans, the Mongols and the Huns are much
• 34:47
  more famous for their cavalry arches and reality.
• 34:50
  However, in early samurai culture, especially during the
• 34:53
  Haiyan and Kamakura periods, roughly in the years 800 till
• 34:58
  what is it 1300, warfare was defined by Cuba nomiche, the way
• 35:03
  of the bow and the horse. This was the literal precursor
• 35:07
  to what we now call Bushido, which is the way of the warrior
• 35:12
  and much more famous. Unlike the short and symmetrical
• 35:16
  composite bows used by the Mongol or Turkish horse Archers,
• 35:21
  the Japanese Yumi is massive, often over 2 meters tall.
• 35:26
  What makes it unique is it's asymmetrical design.
• 35:30
  The grip is placed about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom
• 35:34
  rather than in the center. This design was purely
• 35:37
  practical. It allowed an Archer to easily
• 35:40
  clear the bow over the neck of a horse when switching targets
• 35:44
  from left to right without getting the bottom tip caught on
• 35:47
  the saddle or the animal's back. Mounted archery was cultivated
• 35:52
  by the samurai and a popular sport among them.
• 35:55
  However, because of the mountainous terrain of Japan, it
• 36:00
  wasn't as prominent a fighting style as it was in the vast
• 36:03
  steps of the Mongol Empire. Still, I really like how the
• 36:08
  Japanese have two very different military bonuses, both of them
• 36:12
  mainly affecting different stages of the game, so it's very
• 36:16
  likely you'll find ways to utilize both.
• 36:19
  Since I've already mentioned the samurai, this might be a good
• 36:23
  time to talk about this Japanese unique unit.
• 36:27
  Despite what I just said about Cuba Nomichi, you know the way
• 36:30
  of the bow and the horse and samurais actually being Archers
• 36:34
  and not only swordsman. The samurai in the game is
• 36:37
  actually an infantry unit that you can create in the castle and
• 36:41
  has quite the unique mechanic. But before we get to that, I
• 36:45
  quickly want to mention that this is not an oversight by the
• 36:49
  developers. They were very aware of samurai
• 36:53
  fighting with both swords and bows, and we know this for a
• 36:57
  fact actually because in their initial design document, the
• 37:01
  Samurai and Age of Empires two were supposed to be a unit that
• 37:06
  were kind of like the Raza with two different modes that you can
• 37:10
  switch between. But that feature never made it
• 37:13
  into the game because it was it because it was deemed to be too
• 37:17
  complicated to use. Anyway.
• 37:20
  Now let's talk about the samurai that we do have in the game.
• 37:25
  First of all, it's a very cool looking units and ever since the
• 37:29
  elite version of unique units have been introduced into their
• 37:32
  the game, or rather their own skins, they're not just cool
• 37:36
  looking, they are absolutely bad ass.
• 37:38
  Their armor looks intimidating, they wear a mask that's straight
• 37:43
  out of secular, and they even have a big flag or banner
• 37:48
  attached to their backs. I really enjoy looking at elite
• 37:52
  Samurai and it's a shame we don't get to see them too often
• 37:56
  just by the curse of being an infantry unit that has not one
• 37:59
  but two unique specialties, making them a very powerful but
• 38:05
  kind of niche unit. Looking at their base stats,
• 38:09
  they are an infantry Malay unit fighting with their swords and
• 38:13
  they have one of the fastest attack speeds in the entire
• 38:16
  game. You can kind of compare them to
• 38:18
  the Champions, but they have a very different use case so it's
• 38:23
  probably best not to. You can train samurai pretty
• 38:26
  fast, in nine seconds each they have 70 HP and 10 base attack.
• 38:32
  But their attack speed and damage actually gets better when
• 38:35
  they start charging at the enemy, which is the first of
• 38:38
  their two unique game mechanics. This charging ability consists
• 38:43
  of two parts, the charge attack, which is the samurai charging
• 38:49
  it's attack by plus one and also the speed charge.
• 38:53
  So the charged up speed activates when it's target is
• 38:57
  within two to six or even 7 ties.
• 39:00
  For the elite version of the samurai, it's speed increases
• 39:04
  when it's charging by 25% in this distance and dissipates
• 39:09
  once impact is made. Basically this results in a
• 39:12
  samurai closing the distance to an enemy by just running up on
• 39:17
  them. It's really weird to see at
• 39:19
  first, but once you get used to it, it's kind of awesome.
• 39:23
  The second unique mechanic about the Samurai is that it is the
• 39:26
  only unit in the game that has an attack bonus against other
• 39:30
  unique units, as in general. However, this bonus is not
• 39:34
  applied to the Imperial Camel Rider, Imperial Skirmisher,
• 39:39
  Hoof, Nietzsche, Wing Tassar, Camel Scout, Legionary Savar,
• 39:44
  and the Dragon Ship, as these units are unique upgrades or
• 39:49
  precursors for generic units. The bonus is applied to units
• 39:53
  like the Slinger though. It's it's really annoying
• 39:56
  actually, and if you really want to know this by heart, I
• 39:59
  recommend learning which units the bonus does not apply against
• 40:02
  because those are way less to remember.
• 40:04
  So this bonus gives them another 10 damage they deal as bonus
• 40:08
  damage against unique units, and even 12 if you have the Elite
• 40:12
  Samurai doubling their attack, which is already pretty strong.
• 40:17
  But then you also need to combine it with their high
• 40:19
  attack speed and you have a bit of a fragile yet extremely
• 40:24
  strong unique unit. What makes them fragile is
• 40:28
  actually the fact that they are infantry units and ranged units
• 40:31
  will counter them pretty hard. I already mentioned the fear
• 40:35
  inducing looks of the elite Samurai.
• 40:37
  Its model features a distinct battle mask called Men Yoroyi
• 40:43
  and the banner on the back called Sashimono.
• 40:46
  Battle masks really existed as a means of protective wear for the
• 40:50
  face. However, it is very unclear
• 40:53
  amongst historians whether they were actually used in battle a
• 40:56
  lot by the samurai as it likely restricted the vision.
• 41:00
  The sashimono, the banner attached to the back of the
• 41:03
  samurai, that was definitely an important item in battle.
• 41:06
  Once the army size got so big that the commanders had
• 41:09
  difficulties to tell the warriors apart.
• 41:13
  That's why you would usually see these banners bearing the clan
• 41:16
  symbol of whomever they were fighting for.
• 41:19
  Funny enough, this distinction was needed not because all
• 41:22
  warriors looked alike, but the exact opposite.
• 41:26
  Japanese armor had so much variety that these banners
• 41:30
  provided some sort of uniform to the army.
• 41:33
  Though I wonder how much of A risk that actually was, because
• 41:37
  it seems kind of obvious to me that you could forge a banner or
• 41:40
  maybe steal one of a defeated warrior and then use it to get
• 41:44
  closer to the enemy commander to kill him.
• 41:47
  I guess there must have been some other form of
• 41:49
  identification and the banner was used primarily for broader
• 41:52
  visualizations of army positions, but what do I know.
• 41:56
  In any case, the banner and the mask make for my personal
• 41:59
  favorite visual change from standards to elite unique unit
• 42:04
  in the entire game. Like every Civilization and Age
• 42:08
  of Empires 2, the Japanese have two unique technologies
• 42:11
  available to them in the castlage.
• 42:14
  They can research Yasama, a very popular technology amongst
• 42:17
  casual players in particular because we all know that
• 42:21
  everyone enjoys fortifying their bases and team game players who
• 42:26
  enjoy that slow and steady tower creep in a stalemate situation.
• 42:30
  Also very much like this technology.
• 42:34
  Yasama is a great technology to upgrade your defenses as it
• 42:37
  gives towers two extra arrows. The Japanese can upgrade their
• 42:43
  towers all the way to keeps with bracer and arrow slits from the
• 42:47
  university. So you get fully upgraded towers
• 42:50
  shooting two extra arrows, almost tripling their damage
• 42:54
  output. 2 Fully upgraded Yasima keeps have almost the same
• 42:58
  damage as a castle, and even though they are easier to kill
• 43:02
  than a castle, they are also much cheaper.
• 43:05
  Yasima keeps are no joke and extremely frustrating to push
• 43:09
  into, which is why there are mainly two scenarios where you
• 43:13
  want to go for Yasama. The first is probably the more
• 43:17
  likely one, and it's where your strategy involves a tower creep.
• 43:21
  This means that you're slowly gaining ground towards your
• 43:23
  opponent's side of the map and securing every meter you've set
• 43:28
  foot on with towers so that the enemy has a hard time pushing
• 43:31
  you back. Let's take Oasis as an example.
• 43:36
  In team games especially the tower creep is quite the
• 43:39
  effective strategy because Oasis is a semi closed map with
• 43:43
  basically only two directions to push into clockwise or
• 43:47
  counterclockwise in a fall before game.
• 43:50
  This practically always means that the late game becomes a
• 43:53
  game of endurance because the defenders advantage should be
• 43:57
  quite big and everyone tries to fortify their bases.
• 44:00
  In these types of games, raiding is usually very uncommon, and by
• 44:05
  that I mean it's near impossible because in order to get into the
• 44:09
  enemy economy you would have first to get past the enemy
• 44:12
  fortifications and their military.
• 44:14
  And this is where the Yasima keep creep comes into play.
• 44:18
  Other civilizations prefer to do this with bomber towers if
• 44:21
  available, but the Japanese don't have bomber towers, so
• 44:25
  they need to stick to their keeps.
• 44:27
  Bomber towers are still stronger than Yasama keeps, granted.
• 44:30
  However, they are a lot more expensive, as each bomber tower
• 44:35
  costs 100 gold alongside the stone of course, whereas a keep
• 44:39
  is only stone and a bit of wood. Researching Yasama itself is
• 44:43
  also kind of cheap, with 300 food and wood each, so you're
• 44:47
  not spending any gold. This is important in a game of
• 44:51
  endurance, and it's much easier to build more Yasama keeps and
• 44:55
  rebuild them faster than bomber towers.
• 44:58
  The second use case is of course for defensive purposes.
• 45:02
  When playing on a map where rating is a problem, you can
• 45:05
  secure your economy with some well placed towers compared to a
• 45:09
  castle. You can easily spread your
• 45:11
  towers across your base to cover much wider area, and with Yasama
• 45:16
  the opponent is going to think twice before trying to raid you.
• 45:19
  The best thing about Yasama though, is that it's so
• 45:22
  affordable that you can easily pick it up whenever you need it.
• 45:25
  There's no need to play around the unique tech, it's just there
• 45:29
  waiting for you to research it, and you'll basically never be
• 45:32
  disappointed if you can afford it once you have your first
• 45:35
  towers up. But don't you worry, I know you
• 45:39
  need some disappointment, and I am here to give it to you as I'm
• 45:42
  going to reveal to you the reason why this unique tech is
• 45:45
  called Yasama. And the reason is Yasama means
• 45:50
  Aeroslit. Yeah, Aeroslit, just like the
• 45:54
  university technology Aeroslit, only in Japanese.
• 45:57
  So I guess the Japanese towers have more aeroslits to shoot
• 46:01
  from. Or maybe a European one and a
• 46:05
  Japanese one. Honestly it's a little tragic to
• 46:08
  give that name to unique tech, but it made me curious as to how
• 46:12
  this problem is solved when playing Age of Empires 2IN
• 46:15
  Japanese and it turns out the university tech is called Sama,
• 46:19
  so without the ya part in the beginning meaning slit.
• 46:24
  So they took away the arrow, which apparently is a common way
• 46:26
  to call Aeroslitz in Japanese. Anyway, the castle unique tech
• 46:30
  Yasama is called Yasama in the Japanese version as well, just
• 46:34
  like it is in our version. So that's kind of disappointing.
• 46:37
  But hey, there's more. We got to talk about the unique
• 46:41
  tech of the Imperial Age and X. And I can tell you this much,
• 46:44
  Cataparuto doesn't just resemble the sound you make when you say
• 46:48
  catapult, it literally means catapult just translated into
• 46:53
  Japanese characters. Like when they say girlfriendo
• 46:57
  instead of girlfriend, they say cataparuto instead of catapult
• 47:02
  for anyone interested. Well actually, if you're not
• 47:05
  interested, bad luck, I'm going to say it anyway.
• 47:08
  So the Japanese language is quite interesting and it uses a
• 47:13
  what's called a syllabary. I had to look up this word, I
• 47:16
  didn't know it existed. But basically you have syllables
• 47:19
  instead of what we have, as with letters and an alphabet in in
• 47:24
  European languages like English, we represent individual sounds
• 47:28
  with single letters like R&A or N and so on, which we combine to
• 47:33
  form numerous sounds. Their characters represent
• 47:36
  entire syllables and cannot be altered, such as ka, ke and ko.
• 47:42
  For us, these are three combinations of four letters,
• 47:45
  but for them, they are just three characters.
• 47:49
  This is a problem when facing a word like catapult.
• 47:52
  They need to force that word into their system, and the best
• 47:56
  approximation is to use the characters ka, TA, Pennsylvania,
• 48:00
  Ruto. So it's written with five
• 48:02
  characters in Japanese, each representing a syllable.
• 48:06
  They don't have an L sound like we do in our language, so they
• 48:10
  use Rs in loan words that would have LS.
• 48:13
  And it ends in Tor instead of T because all syllables in
• 48:17
  Japanese end with a vowel or an N, so they simply choose the
• 48:22
  syllable with the closest sound, in this case of the Tor.
• 48:25
  That's also why it's kataparuto and not Kataparuto.
• 48:31
  There's no single R, only rare Ritoru, so they chose the
• 48:35
  closest one and we also have the extra sound in there.
• 48:39
  Well, at least the Japanese version of Kataparuto is renamed
• 48:43
  to something meaning throwing technique I've been told, which
• 48:48
  makes a lot more sense. It's a stupid name and it gets
• 48:51
  even more stupid because now you can't go back and whenever T-90
• 48:55
  or another caster says Kataparuto, you will have to
• 48:59
  remember that some English speaking dude is saying an
• 49:02
  English word in a Japanese way and most likely butchering the
• 49:06
  pronunciation while attempting this nonsense.
• 49:09
  At least you learnt something about the Japanese language,
• 49:12
  right? If you haven't figured it out
• 49:14
  already, Kataparuto upgrades the Japanese trebuchets in quite the
• 49:19
  significant fashion. Not only do they pack and unpack
• 49:23
  much faster, giving them greater mobility, as weird as that
• 49:27
  sounds, but they also attack 33% faster, extraordinary in
• 49:31
  increasing their damage not only against buildings but also trap
• 49:35
  fights. Especially since their accuracy
• 49:37
  is so low, firing shots more often increases your chances of
• 49:41
  actually finding your target. Usually traps are such a static
• 49:46
  unit that you often times need to take precautions in order to
• 49:49
  not lose them. Against just a few enemy units
• 49:53
  you usually guard them with helps or you only attack under
• 49:56
  the protection of your own castle.
• 49:58
  Some players even wall in their traps like where they have the
• 50:02
  APM for that I have no idea, but they do that to protect them
• 50:06
  from melee units. All this is needed because traps
• 50:09
  are kind of helpless on their own.
• 50:11
  They are only good against buildings and compared to bomber
• 50:14
  cannons you cannot micro them because they can only shoot when
• 50:18
  they're unpacked and therefore glued to the ground.
• 50:21
  Just the packing time of the trap takes so long that even if
• 50:25
  you were to react to oncoming army, you most likely lose your
• 50:29
  trap before it gets packed again.
• 50:31
  Japanese trips, however, pack and unpack so fast that their
• 50:35
  survivability increases a lot just by means of escaping
• 50:39
  somewhere safe. However, you are now facing some
• 50:42
  complicated decisions to make. For starters, when is it a good
• 50:46
  time to research this technology?
• 50:49
  Kataparuto costs 550 wood and 300 gold, so it's kind of
• 50:54
  affordable. However, it is basically the
• 50:57
  cost of two trebuchets, and it also blocks the production of
• 51:00
  trips. Remember that this tech was much
• 51:03
  more expensive until 2022 when it was barely researched.
• 51:07
  Also, you never want to get an upgrade for a unit that you
• 51:10
  don't have, so I believe you should always get your tribs out
• 51:14
  first and then get Cataparuto, not the other way around.
• 51:19
  Another question is whether it is actually worth getting that
• 51:22
  tech. It is a great technology to
• 51:24
  have, especially since you don't get bombard cannons.
• 51:27
  No doubt about it. But is it better than getting
• 51:30
  two more trips? If you're looking at damage
• 51:33
  output, the answer is no. Having more trips is simply
• 51:36
  better than Cataparuto. And while gaining more mobility
• 51:39
  with them is nice, it's still not a mobile unit and you still
• 51:44
  want to protect this costly piece of siege weaponry.
• 51:47
  Which means the mobility aspect is good when you need it, but
• 51:50
  you'd rather be in a position where you don't need it in the
• 51:52
  first place. And also better to have more
• 51:55
  traps in case somebody tries to snipe them because you get to
• 51:58
  have some leftovers maybe instead of fewer traps.
• 52:02
  So that's why I've learned to withstand the temptation.
• 52:06
  Prioritize getting conscription and more traps out first and
• 52:10
  only then getting kataparuto when having at least 4 better
• 52:14
  than 5 or 6 traps out. I guess I should say I start
• 52:18
  researching Kataparuto once I'm done creating my first batch of
• 52:22
  tribuchets. So what's my verdict on these
• 52:26
  two unique texts? From a historical standpoint,
• 52:29
  they are total nonsense. Japanese arrow slits were pretty
• 52:33
  much exactly the same as anywhere else in the world, as
• 52:36
  the Japanese hardly used any siege weaponry.
• 52:39
  In fact, they didn't use stone throwing machines like the like
• 52:42
  in European warfare. Instead, if anything, they
• 52:46
  should get fire arches, since their most effective way of
• 52:49
  besieging was to light the castles on fire with fire
• 52:52
  arrows. However, what these two unique
• 52:55
  texts lack in historical relevance is, in my opinion, by
• 52:59
  far outweighed by how much fun these unique texts are.
• 53:03
  They're not the West and they are very situational, but they
• 53:07
  are both affordable and add a nice touch to the otherwise more
• 53:10
  or less generic gameplay of the Japanese late game and actually
• 53:14
  giving the opponent a hard time without being opie.
• 53:19
  They are kind of silly texts with pretty silly names, but
• 53:23
  they are fun to play with, So what the hell, who cares about
• 53:26
  history? Get your catapults, I mean
• 53:28
  cataparutos, out. And as Jordan would say, enjoy.
• 53:33
  Now all that's left is the team bonus, which gives all galleys
• 53:37
  in a team plus four line of sight.
• 53:39
  To be honest, I was not sure whether this was of any
• 53:42
  significance whatsoever. Of course it's nice to spot the
• 53:46
  enemy naval army earlier to decide whether you want to
• 53:49
  engage or not, but I'd argue you don't want to play on those kind
• 53:53
  of maps with Japanese anyway, since there are much better
• 53:57
  civilizations for water maps. But I wasn't sure since I'm kind
• 54:00
  of an old school water player and especially the new naval
• 54:03
  balance is still a little alien to me.
• 54:06
  So I asked Daniela, who is an expert on water maps, about her
• 54:09
  thoughts on the bonus and I'm actually going to quote her now.
• 54:13
  So she says the following. Yeah, it's really useful to
• 54:16
  snipe the fish. You can snipe them easier.
• 54:18
  Not as relevant as other team bonuses, but hey.
• 54:22
  I thought that was hilarious. Didn't think of that to be
• 54:25
  honest. But it does make a lot of sense
• 54:27
  since you usually don't know the enemy position and it's much
• 54:30
  easier to find the enemy eco on water.
• 54:33
  I do remember back in the day when we were playing team games
• 54:36
  on water maps, we used to take one fishing ship on a cruise to
• 54:40
  the enemy island to figure out where they've docked so our Navy
• 54:44
  wouldn't accidentally sail to Narnia.
• 54:47
  I guess this step can be skipped if you have got galleys with
• 54:51
  that big of line of sight so you're not hurting your economy,
• 54:55
  but you wouldn't pick Japanese for that bonus on a water map,
• 54:59
  team game or not, If you happen to random into them, you can use
• 55:04
  this bonus to increase your chances of finding enemy fish.
• 55:08
  With that, we are done with the civilization bonuses and unique
• 55:12
  units and unique technology, so we're moving on to talk about
• 55:16
  the Japanese tech tree. First and foremost, the Japanese
• 55:38
  are one of those few civilizations that are good at
• 55:41
  everything but excel at nothing. There is no map that the
• 55:44
  Japanese cannot be played on. However, I'd argue there is also
• 55:48
  no map that has Japanese written all over it.
• 55:52
  You're never really wrong playing as the Japanese, as they
• 55:54
  can play cavalry units, ranged units, and infantry, as well as
• 55:59
  water since their military bonuses go to their Cava,
• 56:02
  Archers and infantry. These two unit types are
• 56:05
  probably their biggest strength and cavalry units are probably
• 56:09
  their biggest weakness, missing out on the final armor upgrade
• 56:12
  and not having Hussar or Paladin.
• 56:15
  Still, the cat is not bad, it's just kind of average and they
• 56:19
  don't scale as well As for some other civilizations, so you'll
• 56:23
  be using them mainly to fight squirms or rate the opponent's
• 56:26
  economy. As I already mentioned, they
• 56:29
  have all upgrades for ranged units, cave Archers included, so
• 56:33
  either Cave Archers or Arbalists will most likely be your damage
• 56:36
  dealers, alongside Halabs or Lightcap for some trash meat
• 56:40
  shield. There is of course also the
• 56:42
  option to go for very powerful and fully upgraded champions,
• 56:46
  but usually you'd prefer to play ranged units primarily.
• 56:49
  If you want even more damage with ranged units, you can go
• 56:53
  for hand cannoneers as well. You can see they can pretty much
• 56:57
  go for anything. Their siege isn't the best
• 57:00
  though. They only get cap ramps and
• 57:02
  onages as well as heavy scorpions.
• 57:04
  No bombard cannon but traps with cataparuto if you get there.
• 57:08
  Their water attack tree is solid.
• 57:10
  When it comes to the galley line.
• 57:12
  They have amazing fish and chips and are hard to harass in the
• 57:17
  beginning. But they can't research heavy
• 57:19
  demo and they can't research siphons and incendiaries in the
• 57:23
  university to upgrade their fire ships.
• 57:25
  So once again, the opponent will pretty much know what you're
• 57:29
  going for in water. Despite not having bomber
• 57:32
  towers, they do get elite cannon galleon.
• 57:35
  Their defensive capabilities are kind of average, they get
• 57:38
  hoardings for the castles but no architecture, and they also
• 57:42
  don't get heated shots for the towers, guessing because they
• 57:45
  were busy building twice as many aeroslits.
• 57:48
  Speaking of which, with Yassima keeps their defensive capability
• 57:52
  and also offensive fortifications suddenly become
• 57:54
  much more powerful, but again, it's kind of hard to get there.
• 57:59
  Finally, their monastery texts are looking pretty good, only
• 58:03
  missing Heresy which kills off your units instead of letting
• 58:06
  them desert to the enemy in case of a conversion Heresy.
• 58:10
  It's a strong upgrade when you're involved in a monk war,
• 58:13
  but that's rarely the case with the Japanese, so it's not as
• 58:17
  important for them. The biggest weakness of the
• 58:20
  Japanese is that their variety in their tech tree comes with a
• 58:23
  price. They're just very average past
• 58:26
  the Feudal Age and especially in the late game, mostly struggling
• 58:30
  against civilizations who have something up their sleeve.
• 58:33
  It's hard to surprise anyone with the Japanese, and depending
• 58:37
  on the map it'll be quite clear what they go for.
• 58:41
  When you're playing with the Japanese, it's more about the
• 58:43
  timings and your execution, and even though you might not be
• 58:47
  able to surprise your opponent with your probably very obvious
• 58:51
  strategy, you can surprise them with your timings.
• 58:55
  The Japanese can pull off some very exciting builds and
• 58:58
  timings, and it's all based on execution and scouting when it
• 59:03
  comes to army compositions. Let's kick things off with a
• 59:06
  classic drush into Archers. Now to be honest, this has
• 59:10
  always been a bit of a second choice option for the Japanese.
• 59:14
  The main reason is that their signature infantry attack speed
• 59:17
  bonus doesn't actually kick in until the feudal age, so
• 59:21
  historically players who have always preferred faster up times
• 59:24
  instead. Plus, if you're going to invest
• 59:27
  in those militia, you really want to make sure they survive
• 59:30
  the transition into feudal. In today's fast-paced meta,
• 59:35
  that's truer than ever. That being said, don't get me
• 59:38
  wrong, the strategy absolutely still works.
• 59:41
  Nowadays you'll mainly see the Japanese thrush deployed on
• 59:43
  hybrid maps like Weight, for example, where your main goal is
• 59:47
  to aggressively deny the enemy from dropping a dock early on,
• 59:50
  or simply to disrupt them and keep them from walling up their
• 59:54
  base. There is also a very interesting
• 59:56
  variation of this by opening up with two militia as a drush.
• 1:00:02
  Which is basically a French drush.
• 1:00:04
  Then you click up and after you've clicked up you will add
• 1:00:07
  two more militia and ultimately ending up with four militia that
• 1:00:12
  you will then turn into men at arms if deemed worse.
• 1:00:16
  But it usually is, and most likely when you do the strategy
• 1:00:21
  you're also planning on trying to enter a enemy base.
• 1:00:25
  So what you will also get is arson, which is very much worth
• 1:00:30
  if you have 4 minute arms on the field already.
• 1:00:33
  Moving on to what is probably the absolute bread and butter
• 1:00:35
  for the Japanese minute arms into Archers.
• 1:00:38
  This is arguably their most popular opening because it
• 1:00:42
  beautifully synergizes all of their civilizations strengths.
• 1:00:46
  Even back in the day when the meta wasn't quite as lightning
• 1:00:49
  fast as it is now, the Japanese could comfortably pull off a 20
• 1:00:53
  population minute arms into Archer build, something almost
• 1:00:56
  no other civilization could manage at the time.
• 1:00:59
  Today, that's a piece of cake. I can do this every time, and if
• 1:01:02
  I can do it, so can you. But if you really want to
• 1:01:05
  challenge yourself, try to pull off a 18 pop minute arms into
• 1:01:10
  Archer build because it is possible, albeit very hard.
• 1:01:15
  The secret sauce here is that there you have cheaper resource
• 1:01:19
  drop off buildings, so you will really want to optimize your
• 1:01:23
  economy management in the dark age.
• 1:01:26
  You're definitely going for one lumber camp and the barracks has
• 1:01:29
  a second building. You will not build a mill only
• 1:01:32
  after you have clicked up, but with that, what you were saving,
• 1:01:37
  it's actually giving you a pretty perfect economic cushion
• 1:01:41
  to transition smoothly. Next up, let's talk about scouts
• 1:01:45
  into Archers. Now theoretically there is
• 1:01:48
  absolutely nothing stopping you from opening scouts with the
• 1:01:52
  Japanese aside from the fact that you know they have a
• 1:01:55
  massive bonus for infantry. But honestly, that's more of an
• 1:01:58
  argument for choosing men at arms over scouts, but not
• 1:02:02
  something against the scouts themselves.
• 1:02:05
  At the end of the day, as a Japanese player, you're going to
• 1:02:08
  want to transition into Archers or at least add them to your
• 1:02:12
  army composition sooner or later anyway, just because they scale
• 1:02:16
  so well. And hey, if you find yourself
• 1:02:18
  locked in a super intense drawn out Feudal age war, you can even
• 1:02:21
  safely take into scout upgrades. Why?
• 1:02:25
  Because the Japanese have no problem playing Knights in
• 1:02:27
  crossbows in the Castle Age. It's not until you hit the
• 1:02:30
  Imperial Age that the cracks in the Japanese cavalry tech tree
• 1:02:34
  finally start to show. With that being said, if you're
• 1:02:37
  not going for a heavy feudal approach and just want to get
• 1:02:41
  some map presents, you can also open scouts and skip The
• 1:02:44
  Archers. Instead go straight into Cav
• 1:02:46
  arches in the castle age. If need be you can add some
• 1:02:50
  skirms to defend against enemy Archers, but that will delay
• 1:02:54
  your castle age time. I'd prefer going arches and
• 1:02:57
  feudal age and upgrade them to crossbows.
• 1:02:59
  You can later still transition into Cav Archers, but you know
• 1:03:02
  this is depending on the moment and on the map and what your
• 1:03:05
  enemy does. And it is definitely an option
• 1:03:07
  to go for scouts into CA as the Japanese.
• 1:03:10
  Finally we have straight Archers.
• 1:03:13
  Now I know what you might be thinking.
• 1:03:16
  It almost feels like a crime, a total waste not to open minute
• 1:03:19
  arms when you're playing with the Japanese and if you want to
• 1:03:22
  transition into to Archers. But look at it this way, if you
• 1:03:27
  scout your opponent and realize that they are going straight
• 1:03:30
  arches themselves on a super fast uptime, it might actually
• 1:03:33
  be worth skipping the minute arms all together.
• 1:03:35
  Or maybe you lost your scout to ATC and you have no scouting
• 1:03:39
  information. Might have happened to me in a
• 1:03:42
  couple of games, can't quite remember.
• 1:03:45
  In any case, if your opponent is going for straight arches, which
• 1:03:49
  isn't that unlikely considering the considering they are
• 1:03:52
  expecting minute hours from you, match them stride for stride and
• 1:03:56
  go straight into Archers yourself.
• 1:03:58
  The Japanese excel at this mostly because of that Wood
• 1:04:01
  Savings allows them to drop a second Archer range incredibly
• 1:04:05
  fast to ramp up military production, or immediately drop
• 1:04:09
  a blacksmith to click fletching right away.
• 1:04:12
  And because you're aren't spending food on early infantry,
• 1:04:15
  you'll have plenty of wills on food to afford that Fletching
• 1:04:17
  tech instantly. As you can see, when it comes to
• 1:04:20
  openings, there is a lot of flexibility for the Japanese and
• 1:04:24
  they can quickly move on from one unit to another without
• 1:04:27
  sacrificing much of their equal. If you're doing what everyone
• 1:04:31
  expects, which is minute arms into Archers, surprise the enemy
• 1:04:34
  with a well executed 18 pop timing.
• 1:04:37
  If you're going for a different kind of surprise, use your what
• 1:04:40
  to do all kinds of shenanigans or to get fast up times.
• 1:04:45
  When looking at the mid and late game, there is once again quite
• 1:04:49
  the variety to choose from as the Japanese, though not as much
• 1:04:53
  as in the early game. Let's look at the classic arches
• 1:04:57
  and spearmint combo now. This is a staple for many
• 1:05:00
  civilizations, but it works exceptionally well for the
• 1:05:04
  Japanese because of that faster infantry tack speed.
• 1:05:07
  The spearmints slice through enemy cavalry in the blink of an
• 1:05:10
  eye and are much better at protecting the the Arbalists.
• 1:05:13
  On top of that, that robust early game wood economy we
• 1:05:16
  talked about earlier translates beautifully into building up a
• 1:05:19
  massive, terrifying ball of arches that end up being fully
• 1:05:23
  upgraded Obelisks alongside fully upgraded helps with 33%
• 1:05:27
  faster attack speed. And all of that without your
• 1:05:30
  economy breaking a sweat. Should we lose our arbs for some
• 1:05:34
  reason, we can substitute these for Hand Cannoneers.
• 1:05:38
  If you find yourself going up against a heavy cavalry
• 1:05:42
  civilization in the post Imperial age, ticking into hand
• 1:05:45
  cannoneers while shielding them with a frontline of Halbederes
• 1:05:48
  is fantastic. Hand cannoneers and halves are
• 1:05:51
  always a super potent composition.
• 1:05:54
  Just keep in mind that this setup of ranged units, ranged
• 1:05:58
  gold unit to be more precise and helps is designed to support
• 1:06:02
  slow methodical pushes alongside your siege weapons.
• 1:06:06
  It's a bit rigid and slow, and it's going to mean that you're
• 1:06:09
  going to have a hard time using it to raid or do direct damage
• 1:06:13
  to the enemy's economy, but for holding the line and pushing the
• 1:06:17
  front, it's rock solid. This army composition is hard
• 1:06:22
  counted by full squirms though, so just don't forget about it
• 1:06:26
  and have some precautions. Maybe if you have a good enough
• 1:06:30
  food economy you can also add some light caps to take care of
• 1:06:32
  the squirms and also raid the enemy economy.
• 1:06:36
  It's a very powerful but hard to play composition overall.
• 1:06:40
  Of course, I kind of want to mention an army composition that
• 1:06:43
  involves champions, so I'm going for champions and skirmishes.
• 1:06:48
  the Champions are your frontline damage dealers and the skirms
• 1:06:51
  protect them against range units from behind.
• 1:06:54
  You're mainly going for this composition on land maps, where
• 1:06:57
  you have enough space to make sure not to be flattened by
• 1:07:00
  siege weapons, and the Champions are incredibly fast at taking
• 1:07:04
  down enemy buildings, and they deal extra damage with their
• 1:07:07
  fast, faster attack speed. Just be aware that cavalry units
• 1:07:11
  tend to counter this composition, so you might want
• 1:07:14
  to add in some helps or at least have them ready in case you need
• 1:07:17
  them. Finally, let's talk about a
• 1:07:20
  composition that completely flipped the script for this
• 1:07:23
  civilization. Cavalry Archers and light calf.
• 1:07:27
  So for the longest time the Japanese were pigeon holed as a
• 1:07:30
  civilization that lacked any real mobility.
• 1:07:34
  Man did that change. With the resurgence of The Cave
• 1:07:37
  Archer matter and the buff that gave Japanese cave Archers bones
• 1:07:41
  damage against ranged units, everything shifted towards The
• 1:07:44
  Cave Archers. Suddenly the Japanese are
• 1:07:47
  recognized as a genuinely good cave Archer sieve.
• 1:07:50
  When you pair them up with a solid meat shield of light calf,
• 1:07:53
  this composition gives you maximum mobility.
• 1:07:56
  It's the perfect tool for keeping your opponent under
• 1:07:59
  constant pressure, shutting down their attempts to expand across
• 1:08:02
  the map, and securing absolute map control.
• 1:08:06
  There is an even more powerful composition with Knights instead
• 1:08:10
  of lightcap, but that is usually for when you are planning to
• 1:08:13
  kill in the Castle age. This is such a strong and
• 1:08:17
  expensive double gold army comp that requires you to really
• 1:08:21
  watch your units and make use of the mobility and if used
• 1:08:26
  correctly will almost force your opponents to also stay in castle
• 1:08:29
  age. But if you're not pressuring
• 1:08:31
  enough you might be stuck in castle age forever and your
• 1:08:34
  opponent will out take you an imp.
• 1:08:37
  So this is something to be aware of.
• 1:08:39
  We've just recently seen how strong this is with the Japanese
• 1:08:43
  in the semi finals of Warlords 5 when ACCM played as the Japanese
• 1:08:48
  against Sebastians with the guitars and it gave ACCM the win
• 1:08:52
  and it made total sense since the guitar would probably
• 1:08:54
  destroy the Japanese in the Imperial age.
• 1:08:58
  And you probably noticed I haven't mentioned Samurai at all
• 1:09:01
  and that is because sadly they are hardly part of a preset army
• 1:09:05
  composition. They are mostly a situational
• 1:09:08
  unit to take down enemy unique units, especially when they are
• 1:09:12
  of the infantry type. Now let's pivot over to team
• 1:09:16
  games. In a typical team game set up,
• 1:09:19
  the Japanese are almost always going to slot right into the
• 1:09:22
  Archer roll, and honestly they kind of have to since they lack
• 1:09:27
  the final armor upgrade for the cavalry.
• 1:09:29
  They really can't contribute much on the front line once you
• 1:09:32
  hit the Imperial Age anyway, so they just don't scale that well.
• 1:09:36
  Cavalry is only ever a good choice if you know you're not
• 1:09:40
  going beyond the Castle age, or you know if you're a teammate
• 1:09:44
  and you played random civilizations and your teammates
• 1:09:47
  got a better arpsive or rather a worse calf sieve.
• 1:09:52
  But when it comes to the Archer line, they have absolutely
• 1:09:55
  everything you could want for the brutal demands of a team
• 1:09:58
  game meta. Thanks to those cheaper resource
• 1:10:01
  drop off buildings we keep coming back to, a Japanese
• 1:10:04
  player can put that surplus of wood into a second early range
• 1:10:08
  and the blacksmiths to flood the map with massive number of
• 1:10:11
  upgraded Archers incredibly early on. 2 ranges is the meta
• 1:10:16
  in team games. Opening with two ranges and then
• 1:10:19
  you want to squeeze in blacksmith with fletching as
• 1:10:22
  fast as you can, sometimes even buying it.
• 1:10:24
  But for the Japanese this is much easier done, so you should
• 1:10:30
  have a better timing on your fletching.
• 1:10:32
  This also makes the Japanese a remarkably solid pick for the
• 1:10:35
  flank position, especially on hybrid maps.
• 1:10:38
  It's the perfect playground for them because they get to do the
• 1:10:42
  double dip on their bonuses, reaping the rewards of that
• 1:10:45
  tight land economy while simultaneously capitalizing
• 1:10:49
  their more efficient, tankier fishing ships to secure some
• 1:10:52
  water and some extra eco. All right, let's wrap this
• 1:10:56
  strategy section up by looking at maps and where you actually
• 1:11:00
  want to be picking the Japanese. If you look at their overall
• 1:11:04
  design, they have one undeniable clear cut comfort zone hybrid
• 1:11:10
  maps. This is where they can flex
• 1:11:12
  every single one of their civilization bonuses At the same
• 1:11:15
  time, thanks to those cheaper resource buildings, you can
• 1:11:18
  transition to water incredibly early.
• 1:11:21
  You need less bills on wood and have more on food which equals
• 1:11:24
  in faster up times and still the same amount of fish.
• 1:11:27
  And once those fishing ships are out they work significantly
• 1:11:31
  faster than those of other sieves.
• 1:11:33
  That wood saving keeps paying dividends to helping you
• 1:11:38
  maintain ships production while simultaneously transitioning
• 1:11:41
  into your first land military units.
• 1:11:43
  The strong fish boom translates directly to faster up times and
• 1:11:47
  more resources for upgrades. Very similar logic applies to
• 1:11:51
  Nomad maps. Thanks to those early economic
• 1:11:54
  and water advantages, the Japanese easily rank among the
• 1:11:58
  better civilizations on those settings.
• 1:12:00
  Now to be fair, if you compare them to the absolute Tier 1
• 1:12:04
  nomads, they do lack access to dominant to a dominant unique
• 1:12:09
  unit or a highly mobile power unit.
• 1:12:12
  However, do not underestimate the impact of their Yasama
• 1:12:16
  towers here. Having keeps that shoot extra
• 1:12:18
  errors can be massive defensive or offensively.
• 1:12:22
  They are an asset on these chaotic maps if used correctly,
• 1:12:26
  but you need to get there first. Now you might think those water
• 1:12:31
  bonuses mean they dominate on pure water maps, but that
• 1:12:34
  strength doesn't quite carry over.
• 1:12:37
  On maps like islands, you're pretty much only benefiting from
• 1:12:40
  the faster fishing ships. Military On the sea you don't
• 1:12:44
  really have a long term bonus aside from maybe hitting a
• 1:12:47
  slightly faster initial timing in the pure naval war that just
• 1:12:52
  isn't as impactful as it is on hybrid variants.
• 1:12:56
  So while the Japanese are certainly decent on water, they
• 1:12:59
  aren't quite top tier. I already talked a lot about
• 1:13:04
  open maps like Arabia, which is where the Japanese excel early
• 1:13:07
  on. They're absolutely brilliant
• 1:13:09
  with their minute arms pressure and those smooth Archer
• 1:13:12
  follow-ups we discussed. The problem though is longevity.
• 1:13:17
  As the match drags into the later stages of the game, their
• 1:13:20
  economic bonus starts to fall off compared to other heavy
• 1:13:24
  hitters, and they don't really have a jaw-dropping unstoppable
• 1:13:28
  late game army composition to compensate.
• 1:13:31
  Finally, we have closed maps, which are without a doubt the
• 1:13:35
  absolute Achilles heel for the Japanese.
• 1:13:38
  On maps like Arena they have almost nothing going for them
• 1:13:42
  because they lack a massive late game eco boom bonus and don't
• 1:13:46
  possess a true power unit to smash through choke points.
• 1:13:50
  The Japanese unfortunately rank amongst the worst civilizations
• 1:13:55
  in the game. Unclosed settings.
• 1:13:58
  As a general rule of thumb, I'd say the closer you are and the
• 1:14:02
  more hybrid the map is, the better for the Japanese.
• 1:14:06
  And this is something I've picked up from watching
• 1:14:08
  countless pro games and tournaments.
• 1:14:11
  The pros are the ones shaping the meta.
• 1:14:13
  They are capable of taking civilizations to the limit and
• 1:14:16
  come up with the best ideas for new maps.
• 1:14:19
  It seems like the Japanese are a go to civilization for them
• 1:14:23
  whenever men at arms seem viable.
• 1:14:25
  So let's step back from the specific army comps and
• 1:14:28
  strategies for a second and look at the bigger picture.
• 1:14:32
  If you've been playing or watching Age of Empires 2 for as
• 1:14:34
  long as I have, you know that some civilizations completely
• 1:14:38
  reinvented themselves every few patch cycles.
• 1:14:42
  They get new economic bonuses, a unique unit gets overhauled, and
• 1:14:47
  suddenly they play entirely differently.
• 1:14:50
  But the Japanese, the Japanese are like the bedrock of AOE 2.
• 1:14:54
  They are one of the original Age of King civilizations from way
• 1:14:59
  back in 1999, and their core identity has remained remarkably
• 1:15:04
  consistent for almost 2 decades. If you picked the Japanese, you
• 1:15:09
  knew exactly what you were getting.
• 1:15:11
  Incredible infantry attack speed, fantastic fishing chips,
• 1:15:14
  and cheaper resource drop off buildings.
• 1:15:17
  They were the textbook definition of an honest,
• 1:15:21
  fundamentally sound civilization.
• 1:15:23
  But consistent doesn't mean static.
• 1:15:26
  Over the last years, a few subtle balance tweaks combined
• 1:15:30
  with shifting meta trends have transformed how the pros view
• 1:15:34
  the civilization. For a long time, the book on the
• 1:15:37
  Japanese and the professional scene was simple.
• 1:15:40
  Great early game, fantastic on hybrid maps, but a complete lack
• 1:15:43
  of late game mobility. The pro player got caught in a
• 1:15:47
  wide open Imperial age landscape with the Japanese.
• 1:15:51
  They were often outmaneuvered by heavy cavalry or dynamic raiding
• 1:15:55
  civilizations. But before those come into play
• 1:15:58
  there is actually 1 minor change that only got significant much
• 1:16:01
  later and that's Bloodlines. They didn't have bloodlines in
• 1:16:07
  Age of Conquerors and only got that tech with the HD version of
• 1:16:11
  the Forgotten Empires in 2013. It didn't really improve much
• 1:16:15
  for the Japanese at the time, but at least their cavalry was
• 1:16:18
  getting some usage. But it was only 10 years later
• 1:16:22
  when they got their Cav Archer bonus that this tech really paid
• 1:16:27
  off. And then there's the constant
• 1:16:29
  tweaking of the Samurai trying to make them viable, the latest
• 1:16:33
  of which is the charge attack mechanic that was introduced in
• 1:16:36
  2024. However, Samurai will always
• 1:16:40
  suffer from being an infantry unique unit with a very unique
• 1:16:43
  use case, and they will also always be rivalled by the
• 1:16:46
  incredibly strong champions of the Japanese.
• 1:16:50
  So the two major changes that change how the Japanese are
• 1:16:55
  perceived. First, the developers reworked
• 1:16:58
  the infantry. This made their militia line
• 1:17:01
  significantly more viable throughout all ages.
• 1:17:05
  It's not like Japanese infantry units were bad, they were
• 1:17:08
  amongst the best even before the infantry rework.
• 1:17:12
  It's just that infantry in itself was bad.
• 1:17:15
  They were counted by a Singer skirmisher.
• 1:17:18
  Now that that has changed, suddenly infantry is viable and
• 1:17:22
  that makes infantry that is very good or above average even
• 1:17:27
  better. And that's why the Japanese are
• 1:17:30
  more popular. And then of course there is the
• 1:17:33
  second real and probably the real game changer in these
• 1:17:37
  changes, which is to buff their cavalry arches.
• 1:17:41
  Historically, if you wanted to play Cav arches, you pick the
• 1:17:44
  Huns, the Mongols, or the Tatars.
• 1:17:47
  You didn't pick a generic infantry sieve like the
• 1:17:50
  Japanese. But suddenly the balance team
• 1:17:52
  handed them this incredibly specific anti Archer bonus
• 1:17:56
  because the Japanese get every single upgrade for them.
• 1:17:59
  Their heavy cab Archers suddenly became very strong in late game
• 1:18:02
  range battles, giving them mobility.
• 1:18:05
  It flipped the script. It solved their age-old mobility
• 1:18:09
  issue. Suddenly the pros weren't just
• 1:18:11
  trapped into making slow grinding infantry pushes or
• 1:18:14
  relying on weak late game cavalry, they had a fast, high
• 1:18:18
  DPS power unit that could completely dictate map control.
• 1:18:23
  The Japanese are rarely the civilization you build an entire
• 1:18:26
  tournament strategy around, but they're consistently the
• 1:18:29
  civilization you use to completely shut down your
• 1:18:32
  opponent's comfort zone. If you look at major St.
• 1:18:35
  tournament drafts, you'll notice a fascinating trend with how
• 1:18:40
  players like the Viper Hera O'Leary treat the Japanese.
• 1:18:44
  There are almost never a first ban or a first pick on standard
• 1:18:48
  open maps like Arabia or actually any map.
• 1:18:51
  Instead they are the ultimate map dependence sniper pick.
• 1:18:56
  Where Japan goes from solid to downright terrifying is after
• 1:19:00
  all on hybrid settings, which is present in most tournament
• 1:19:04
  formats. Tournaments like Warlords with
• 1:19:07
  mixed map pools. When maps like for example 4
• 1:19:10
  Lakes, Kabazan, Immersion, Evacuation or Morass show up,
• 1:19:15
  the Japanese immediately come to mind.
• 1:19:18
  In the hands of a top tier player, that's tiny.
• 1:19:21
  Micro economic advantage translates into faster feudal
• 1:19:25
  age timings, which translates into early naval dominance or
• 1:19:29
  faster minute arms which ultimately wins the game before
• 1:19:33
  the castle age even begins. In the modern professional meta,
• 1:19:37
  executing a perfect 18 population minute arms opening
• 1:19:41
  can completely dismantle an opponent's early game plans
• 1:19:45
  because the Japanese save so much wood on their starting
• 1:19:47
  buildings. Top tier players can execute
• 1:19:49
  this rush with flawless efficiency, keeping the enemy
• 1:19:52
  pinned inside their base while seamlessly transitioning into
• 1:19:56
  their own ranges behind it. However, their win rates are not
• 1:20:00
  over the top and usually the Japanese will get picked less
• 1:20:03
  throughout the tournament once the element of surprise is gone
• 1:20:07
  and people know how to react to the Japanese pressure.
• 1:20:10
  Also, in some cases and on maps that reward early aggression
• 1:20:13
  with infantry, Sicilians are sometimes preferred over the
• 1:20:18
  Japanese. At the end of the day, that's
• 1:20:21
  what makes the Japanese such a fascinating civilization to
• 1:20:24
  analyse. They represent the perfect
• 1:20:27
  bridge between old school Age of Empires 2 design and modern E
• 1:20:31
  sport balance. They didn't need a massive
• 1:20:34
  flashy rework to become relevant to the modern era.
• 1:20:37
  All it took was a couple of targeted tuning adjustments to
• 1:20:41
  their range choices and the classic reliable infantry
• 1:20:45
  civilization suddenly found its wings in the fast-paced, high
• 1:20:49
  mobility world of professional E sports, being what many pros
• 1:20:52
  would call a solid and versatile pick in most tournament
• 1:20:55
  settings. But what if you're not a
• 1:20:58
  tournament player? What if you're not interested in
• 1:21:00
  E sports, but you just want to have fun with them?
• 1:21:03
  You know, casual style. The petals fall and the cranes
• 1:21:09
  soar. The Shogun is weak and Japan is
• 1:21:13
  divided. The clans vie for power and war
• 1:21:16
  has come to the land. Your clan is one of many, but
• 1:21:20
  it's claims on the shogunate are truer than most.
• 1:21:25
  It is your destiny to overcome the clans.
• 1:21:27
  Unite Japan and Wu. Only one crane will soar higher
• 1:21:33
  than the others. Well, I'm afraid the Japanese
• 1:21:36
  have no campaign dedicated to them, but they do have official
• 1:21:40
  scenarios that you can enjoy. There are two in the Victors and
• 1:21:44
  Vanquish DLC, as well as two historical battles.
• 1:21:48
  Three of these scenarios are set in the 16th century only.
• 1:21:52
  Kurikara is a historical battle from the year 1183.
• 1:21:57
  So let's start with Kurikara. This scenario has been
• 1:22:00
  introduced with the HD version in 2013 and it can be played in
• 1:22:05
  A1 player version or the Co-op version.
• 1:22:08
  Samurai need to deliver goods to the besieged Kurikara.
• 1:22:12
  You take over the city and start attacking the Taira army, which
• 1:22:15
  has five commanders surrounding Kurikura.
• 1:22:18
  Once you broke free from the siege, you then start besieging
• 1:22:21
  Kyoto yourself. Kyoto is a very beautifully
• 1:22:25
  built city and it's quite fun to flatten it with traps.
• 1:22:29
  It's not a hard mission at all, and it also has a weird side
• 1:22:33
  objective that seems completely irrelevant.
• 1:22:36
  There is a lighthouse in the north that you need to take over
• 1:22:39
  in order to be able to send your ships along the sea.
• 1:22:41
  However, there is really no point in doing so because you
• 1:22:44
  don't have cannon galleons in this scenario and the enemy is
• 1:22:47
  not really attacking you from the sea.
• 1:22:50
  This particular historical battle is one for the scenery
• 1:22:54
  and for history fans, but not for those that seek a challenge.
• 1:22:58
  Also, if you want all achievements in the game, you
• 1:23:01
  need to win this without forming an alliance with the Hojo clan
• 1:23:05
  in single player. The other historical battle
• 1:23:08
  takes place in Kyoto in 1582, set in the Sengoku period where
• 1:23:13
  daimyos waged their wars against each other to gain power.
• 1:23:17
  You play as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and wants to rescue ODA Nobunaga
• 1:23:23
  who wants to end the wars by uniting Japan.
• 1:23:26
  Nobunaga is one of the most famous Japanese warlords in
• 1:23:29
  history, so it's only fitting to have historical battle set in
• 1:23:32
  that period. Nobunaga died in the battle that
• 1:23:35
  we play, but Hideyoshi carried out his legacy to unite Japan.
• 1:23:41
  You start by capturing Osaka and build up your economy as well as
• 1:23:44
  an army to take out Kyoto's castles.
• 1:23:48
  Kyoto will also build up a sizable Navy that makes it
• 1:23:51
  harder to kill off. Kyoto can also win by relic
• 1:23:54
  victory if you let them collect all relics, so this is a fun
• 1:23:57
  detail to consider and might have happened to me.
• 1:24:01
  Taking out the 1st 2 castles isn't very hard though, but the
• 1:24:05
  last one is accompanied by a sheer endless stream of enemy
• 1:24:08
  units, so it boils down to a somewhat epic fight.
• 1:24:12
  The Victors and Vanquished DLC added 20 scenarios to the game
• 1:24:16
  and as I mentioned, to take place in Japan.
• 1:24:19
  The first one tells the story of the Shimazu clan in 1545, where
• 1:24:23
  you have to conquer 7 rival clans on Kyushu Island in the
• 1:24:27
  southwest of Japan and defeat the Shogun who's invading
• 1:24:31
  Kyushu. It's a tricky scenario and in my
• 1:24:33
  opinion one of the hardest of all the victors in Vanquished
• 1:24:36
  campaigns because there's lots of distractions and weird game
• 1:24:40
  mechanics that kind of twisted my mind.
• 1:24:42
  For example, for every kill you get some gold deducted, so you
• 1:24:47
  need to have a constant flow of gold income, which is hard since
• 1:24:52
  especially in the beginning there's hardly any gold.
• 1:24:55
  And by kill I mean when you kill an enemy unit.
• 1:24:59
  Also sea trade becomes quite important, but the enemies are
• 1:25:03
  very aggressive on on the sea, both on land and water actually,
• 1:25:07
  and you can hardly upgrade any of your ships in contrast to
• 1:25:10
  your enemies due to some, you know, scripting restrictions.
• 1:25:15
  To conquer the clans of on on Kyushu you need to take down
• 1:25:18
  their castles, but your only means are capped Rams despite
• 1:25:22
  getting to the imperial age. To make things more complicated,
• 1:25:25
  your tag tree on land is cut down significantly because you
• 1:25:29
  can't build arches or skirmishes or militia or cavalry.
• 1:25:33
  Is that you have custom units like ratten arches, mounted
• 1:25:36
  samurai and ninjas which instantly kill enemy hero units
• 1:25:40
  but are are otherwise not very strong.
• 1:25:43
  Also your Spearman are actually more like swordsman in this
• 1:25:46
  scenario, so there's a lot to get used to.
• 1:25:50
  I went with a mix of heavy calf Archers and mounted samurai and
• 1:25:53
  a lot of cab Rams. There's also a hidden timer in
• 1:25:57
  the background that only is revealed when the mission is
• 1:26:00
  completed. And if you manage to subdue all
• 1:26:03
  clans and defeat the Shogun invasion before the year 1600,
• 1:26:08
  you are awarded with an achievement.
• 1:26:11
  I finished just in time in the year 1589, but let me tell you
• 1:26:16
  this much, it wasn't my first try.
• 1:26:18
  Once you have accomplished all main objectives, you get to play
• 1:26:21
  on in free play or research the victory in the town centre,
• 1:26:25
  which is kind of a nice feature I think.
• 1:26:28
  The second scenario is called Nobunaga and takes place in
• 1:26:31
  1551. It serves as a precursor
• 1:26:34
  scenario for the historical Battle of Kyoto.
• 1:26:37
  It's set in a period where different clans are fighting for
• 1:26:40
  power to rule as the Shogun. You start the scenario by
• 1:26:43
  selecting one clan. The Order are an infantry focus
• 1:26:46
  clan just to the southeast of Kyoto.
• 1:26:49
  The Takeda focus on cavalry and have a coastal base in the
• 1:26:52
  southeast of the largest island of Honshu.
• 1:26:55
  The Uesugi are samurai focused in the northeast of Honshu.
• 1:27:00
  The Mori are specialized in sabotage and espionage and have
• 1:27:04
  a good Navy. Located in the northwest, the
• 1:27:07
  Autumn MO are on the island of Kyushu in the western end of the
• 1:27:11
  map and use gunpowder units. And finally, Trusso Cabe,
• 1:27:16
  focusing on arts as an economy with a colony in the South of
• 1:27:20
  Honshu and their main base on the island of Shikuku, West of
• 1:27:23
  the colony. Each clan has their custom
• 1:27:26
  unique technologies and once you made your decision in 90
• 1:27:30
  minutes, timer will start. With this many clans, the idea
• 1:27:34
  of the chaotic single period really comes to life, especially
• 1:27:38
  with the fragile diplomacy scripted into the scenario.
• 1:27:41
  I did enjoy this, but I was also overwhelmed a little by how
• 1:27:46
  different the clans were compared to your standard
• 1:27:48
  Japanese civilization. So what I did was actually start
• 1:27:51
  over a couple of times just to get a feel for the different
• 1:27:54
  clans until making an ultimate decision.
• 1:27:58
  However, campaign players will probably enjoy the replayability
• 1:28:01
  of this scenario as every faction or clan plays out very
• 1:28:05
  differently. There is also an achievement to
• 1:28:07
  be earned if you win the scenario and heart difficulty
• 1:28:10
  and it doesn't matter what clan you choose.
• 1:28:14
  When a civilization doesn't have a dedicated campaign made by the
• 1:28:17
  devs, you know the community is going to step up and make custom
• 1:28:20
  campaigns. The Shimazu scenario from The
• 1:28:23
  Victors in Lancaster TLC was, by the way, originally made by
• 1:28:26
  Philadelphia as a custom scenario in 2021.
• 1:28:31
  The same author created another custom scenario called Haiku of
• 1:28:34
  the Ronin in 2020, emphasizing storytelling over big battles.
• 1:28:40
  The writing is exceptional as it combines original writings with
• 1:28:44
  famous Japanese poetry. If you enjoy Japanese culture
• 1:28:48
  and history and don't mind reading a little while seeing
• 1:28:51
  beautiful and inspiring landscapes within the realm of
• 1:28:54
  Age of Empires, of course this mod is a must for you.
• 1:28:57
  I don't want to spoil what's happening in the campaign
• 1:29:00
  because the narrative is kind of what you play for, so I'll keep
• 1:29:03
  it short and simple. You play as a Ronan, a
• 1:29:06
  masterless samurai called Matsuo Basho and who's a real figure
• 1:29:11
  and live. Between 1644 and 1694 he was the
• 1:29:15
  most famous poet of the period and Banjo Basho made a living as
• 1:29:20
  a teacher, but renouncing the urban knife, wandered throughout
• 1:29:23
  Japan to gain inspiration for his writing.
• 1:29:26
  His poetry was influenced by his first hand experiences of the
• 1:29:29
  world around him, encapsulating the feeling of a scene in a few
• 1:29:33
  simple elements. And to make things perfect, he's
• 1:29:37
  an elite samurai, so you'll get to play the whole scenario
• 1:29:42
  looking absolutely freaking awesome.
• 1:29:45
  Then there's the custom scenario called The Struggle for Japan,
• 1:29:48
  which was created by Hamster in 2020, and it's very similar to
• 1:29:54
  the Nobunaga scenario from the game.
• 1:29:58
  It's set in the 16th century, where Japan has once again
• 1:30:01
  fallen into chaos and every clan is trying to rise to power.
• 1:30:04
  At the same time, there are foreigners who have set foot in
• 1:30:07
  the Japanese island. And as the player, you can, you
• 1:30:11
  know, pick your clan, You've got ODA Uesugi, Mori, Takeda and
• 1:30:15
  Hojo. Then there's also the Shogun.
• 1:30:18
  And in order to gain power, you need diplomatic skills and to
• 1:30:22
  make use of some pretty unique gameplay mechanics.
• 1:30:24
  So this is where it it feels very different from the Nobunaga
• 1:30:28
  scenario. The other factions react to your
• 1:30:31
  actions, becoming allies or enemies depending on how you
• 1:30:34
  interact with them and what decisions you make.
• 1:30:37
  There is an interesting focus on trade.
• 1:30:41
  To make progress you have to procure 3 different new luxury
• 1:30:44
  goods, which are silk, handicrafts and incense that can
• 1:30:49
  be found in the map or imported from abroad.
• 1:30:51
  For example by sending trade corks to foreign trade posts on
• 1:30:54
  the map. Which by the way, is as big as
• 1:30:57
  it gets in ludicrous size. There is honestly a lot to
• 1:31:01
  explore. You can get food and wood by
• 1:31:03
  controlling provinces, which you do by placing military units in
• 1:31:07
  specific places. You can secretly sabotage the
• 1:31:10
  efforts of other factions by using a ninja, which you'll have
• 1:31:13
  to place next to a Saket in where you then can select a
• 1:31:17
  mission for the ninja, for example setting your opponents
• 1:31:20
  buildings on fire. This is pretty cool, but will
• 1:31:23
  also worsen your relationship with other factions, which is
• 1:31:26
  always displayed on the screen by the way.
• 1:31:28
  How your relationships are going, there's a hidden
• 1:31:32
  smugglers cave, you can fight pirates and warlords, and most
• 1:31:35
  importantly it's just fun to reveal that beautiful and huge
• 1:31:39
  map and all its secrets. Although this is Japan so most
• 1:31:44
  of the map is just pure water. Also, the creator has done a
• 1:31:48
  great job of introducing the new mechanics and even added voice
• 1:31:51
  lines to explain them. If you want to play it, which I
• 1:31:55
  highly recommend, search for Struggle for Japan in the mod
• 1:31:58
  section and by subscribing to it you'll be able to select it from
• 1:32:02
  the campaign menu when looking under custom campaigns.
• 1:32:05
  And this is also of course true for the other mod I just
• 1:32:08
  mentioned, the Haiku of the Ronin.
• 1:32:12
  Last but not least, I want to mention that there is a whole
• 1:32:15
  campaign consisting of five scenarios about the Imjin War,
• 1:32:19
  which was the Japanese invasion of Korea at the end of the 16th
• 1:32:23
  century. This is an extremely important
• 1:32:25
  part of history, especially for the Koreans, and I have visited
• 1:32:28
  many museums in Korea telling the story of this seven-year
• 1:32:31
  long conflict. However, when I was in Japan, I
• 1:32:34
  realized that the story is totally different from their
• 1:32:37
  perspective. Funnily enough, there are two
• 1:32:41
  custom campaigns about the engine war, so you can play both
• 1:32:44
  sides. You can experience the history
• 1:32:47
  from the Korean version and the Japanese version.
• 1:32:50
  I haven't played them yet so I can't say much about them, but I
• 1:32:53
  thought it was very fitting to have two campaigns telling two
• 1:32:56
  different versions of the same war.
• 1:33:00
  And That's my Friends is the story of the Japanese and Age of
• 1:33:04
  Empires 2. From their humble beginnings
• 1:33:06
  back in 1999 as a pure, honest infantry civilization, to their
• 1:33:12
  modern identity as a high skill cap, flexible E sports
• 1:33:16
  powerhouse that can transition from a devastating man at arms
• 1:33:19
  rush right into high mobility anti Archer cavalry arches.
• 1:33:25
  They are the ultimate testament to the brilliant game design of
• 1:33:28
  Age of Empires 2, proving that you don't need flashy reworks or
• 1:33:33
  overpowered gimmicks to stay relevant.
• 1:33:36
  All you need is a rock solid fundamental, A devastatingly
• 1:33:39
  efficient early game economy, and infantry that swings just a
• 1:33:43
  little bit faster than everyone else's.
• 1:33:46
  Spirit of the Law calls them his favorite civilization because of
• 1:33:50
  their versatility, and that is really coming from a perspective
• 1:33:53
  of someone who has a deep understanding of the concept of
• 1:33:56
  a civilization rather than someone who is looking for the
• 1:34:00
  best civil or the strongest civil, which the Japanese never
• 1:34:03
  will be. Bros have consistently put the
• 1:34:06
  Japanese into the midfield of their Arabia tier lists, and
• 1:34:11
  that is for good reason. The Japanese are a bit like a
• 1:34:14
  good wine. They aged well, but you'll only
• 1:34:17
  notice if you actually know what you're doing.
• 1:34:20
  I for one had my fill of the Japanese over the past few weeks
• 1:34:23
  and I'm kind of looking forward to going back to selecting the
• 1:34:26
  Tatars again. However, if you want me to talk
• 1:34:29
  about a specific civilization in the next episode, please let me
• 1:34:34
  know via Discord, which you'll find in the show notes, or by
• 1:34:38
  writing in to my e-mail address, which is ageofcast@gmail.com.
• 1:34:43
  That's ageofcast@gmail.com. Let me know what civilization I
• 1:34:48
  should talk about next time. Thank you everyone for
• 1:34:52
  listening. Or let me de rust my Japanese a
• 1:34:55
  little sore. De vamina sang Kite kurete
• 1:34:58
  arigato. Bye bye.