Disclaimer: I, in no way, claim to be a player capable of Emperor+ games. This article is meant mostly to the players playing Monarch and below.

"Bushido" is japanese and means "The Way of the Warrior". It was a codex that all samurai followed in order to have their honor intact.

"Samurai" is the name of the medieval Japanese warrior caste, and is deprived from the japanese verb, "to serve".

The impression most of us have of Tokugawa of Japanese is, to be honest, a ridiculous AI leading a rather mediocre nation. The reason to this is that the Japanese civilization has absolutely no economic traits or uniques (unless counting the rather late-game Shale Plant, which is underpowered, imo). The Japanese only have one leader, Tokugawa, who is Aggressive and Protective, a trait combo that almost any warmonger loves, especially once gunpowder units come around.

The problem for the japanese civilization is that gunpowder is not accessible early enough. Simply waiting as a rather inferior civilization until you can get your fingers on rifling doesn't sound too inspiring, and since you have no real economic skills as Japan, you might not even be the first to rifling at all!

The solution, I think most of those who play/random Japan choose, is that of the Early rush. Gaining a second capital is a very nice bonus early on, and the traits of Tokugawa makes the rush easy.

However, an early rush to put out a nearby neighboor is not always possible. You might find yourself next to Sitting Bull, your nearest neighboor to far away or in other ways have your rush made too difficult.

Or, you may rush an early opponent and find the other neightboors becoming too strong, even for your war veterans.

The solution to these problems lie in the Japanese UU: the Samurai:
The Samurai is a maceman with three major changes:
It has access to the Drill promotions (and stats with D I),
It has an innate 2 first strikes,
And it requires Iron instead of macemen, requiring only Iron or copper.

This makes Iron Working a high priority tech when playing Japanese.

When attempting to utilize Samurai in the most powerful way, one should prioritize certain techs:
Bronze Working early, in order to see if an axerush is possible.
Iron Working early, in order to localize Iron and connect it.
Machinery, since this is a required tech to train Samurai
Construction, since this is a required tech to train Catapults, the first siege weapons.
... and Civil Service, since this is also required for Samurai.

Furthermore, one should, after having the necessary techs for Samurai, emphasize on:
Feudalism, since this tech opens up the Longbowman, a solid defending unit that benefits alot from the Protective trait Tokugawa has.
Feudalism also unlocks the civics Serfdom and Vassalage.
While Serfdoms' increased worker speed may seem a little vague, this makes it possible to use fewer workers to connect your newly conquered cities/nations with your homeland, as well as improving new cities faster.
Vassalage is the real gift here though, granting +2 xp to all new units, as well as granting X free units. Both of these bonuses are very effective when waging enormeous amounts of war.
Engineering, since the tech opens up the Trebuchet, a siege unit very effective at attacking and bombarding cities, and the Pikeman, who can work as cover from horses, or a cheap medic who can handle itself.
Currency and Code of Laws, obiously for the economic potential of courthouses, money trading and traderoutes. Also, the Caste System civic is unlocked by CoL, making Specialist Economies easier to run, especially in new cities that have no slot buildings.
Alphabet, since this tech is a huge help in remaining on par with the AIs techwise, for two reasons:
1) Techtrading is possible, and
2) Cities can build "Research" when they have nothing better to do.

Promoting the Samurai:
Since Tokugawa is Aggressive, Samurai start both with Combat I, as well as the Drill I they have innate. This leaves open several paths of promoting, two of them being rather obvious:
Pure Combat is, suprisingly, Combat II, III, IV and V.
Pure Drill is Drill II, III and IV.
Now, there are a number of other promotion lines as well as precautions one can make:
If your enemy has no metal, only horses, he will be using mounted units, who ignore first strikes (apart from the Elephant unit). This render Drill ineffective (D IV provides +10% against mounted, else nothing). In that case, choosing the Combat line, maybe flanked by the Formation promotion seems best.

If your enemy has no horses, only metal, the situation is just the opposite, since your enemy will not be using mounted units (again, elephant is the exception). This makes Drill a far more reasonable choice. Since you will most likely be facing Axemen and Swordsmen, having beelined Samurai yourself, first strikes are really going to matter, since the battles against axes and swords are 8.8v5 or 8.8v4. AFAIK, a first strike from a Samurai with Combat I (which is free), can provide up to 1.96 damage. Since the Samurai has two of these innate, one can have fair odds of dispatching axes and swords on open fields with no wounds from out the box. Adding Drill II, and possibly III and IV later, makes this a ridiculously good line. Drill really shines here.

If your enemy has longbows, you should analyze whether he has metal, horses or both, and follow that strategy, except bring more siege, and perhaps a couple of CR Samurai aswell.

If your enemy has maces, you should bring some Samurai that have the Shock promotion, as well as either Drill or Combat line (Combat is best against an Agg enemy, since you will want to have a higher base strength than the enemy maceman).

If your enemy has Crossbowmen, you should bring along some yourself, and promote them with cover (since yours already start with Drill I, Cover will be available at 2 xp). Alternatively, bring a Samurai with Cover and Drill, or Cover and Combat.

If your enemy has archers only, you won't have to bring siege. Choose pure Combat or Pure Drill, perhaps with a Cover promo on top. Note that Combat effects the strenght of the Samurai itself, so when facing Archers (base strength 3), a Combat Promotion can be worth more than a Cover or CR promo, if the archer has enough modifiers (bringing it to or above modified strength 8):

Combat vs Cover (or CR II): 8 * .1 = .8 > 3 * .25 = .75.
Combat vs CR I: 8 * .1 = .8 > 3 * .2 = .6.

Please note that this math is not always true, since, per example, 9.6 vs 3 is worse than 8.8 vs 2.5. Its' effect is mainly at higher modifiers for the archer, such as: 9.6 vs 9.4 is better than 8.8 vs 8.65

Please, comment and provide feedback, and correct me if I do my math wrong or you think I am missing something.

It just seems to me that CR is the only real promotion option for samurai. The only time they should ever be involved in combat is when theyre attacking enemy cities. If they get attacked in route to the enemy cities other units should act as stack protectors. Shock Crossbows against the enemy's macemen, formation pikemen and elephants against the enemy's mounted units. If your samurai are involved in field combat, which they aren't particularly good at, you didn't bring enough stack protectors.

I don't know about that, preferably your enemy should not have macemen, and your only real trouble would be crossbows...

Samurai is a good unit, but aggressive and protective doesn't really go together, especially at early game, where a unit cannot be benefited from both traits. Protective is a bit underpowered in my opinion. Its combat bonus is not as good as aggressive and who builds wall/castle?

I like Protective alot, although in this case, it doesn't really help. It is a great asset for leaders as Wang Kon, Churchill or the Chinese, though.

(A funny detail is that both chinese are Pro and both Khans are Agg, and they were natural enemies (the Khans raided chinese villages))

It just seems to me that CR is the only real promotion option for samurai. The only time they should ever be involved in combat is when theyre attacking enemy cities. If they get attacked in route to the enemy cities other units should act as stack protectors. Shock Crossbows against the enemy's macemen, formation pikemen and elephants against the enemy's mounted units. If your samurai are involved in field combat, which they aren't particularly good at, you didn't bring enough stack protectors.

Yeah, this is basically what I do. Although, I think you can also skimp on stack protectors if you just promote a few samurai along the combat line and stick to defensible terrain.

For some humour, take a drill-IV promoted sam, and have him fight vs a knight (which ignores first strikes). Then compare the numbers of that, vs a CAVALRY (which doesn't ignore first strikes), yet is supposed to be the superior upgrade of the knight.

I feel that the Asian civilizations are a bit underpowered in this game. :crazyeye:

By that I mean, China + Japanese + Korea.

Actually, the only kind of crappy civ is Korea, but at least wang is financial.

China is a very solid nation with its UU (UB culture wars aren't bad either). IMO, Qin is pretty solid with industrious/protective, because if you get cho-ko-nu's early enough they'll crush everything (keep in mind they start with the free promos!). If you play difficulty levels below emperor and epic or slower speed, you can use CKN's exclusively and probably blow your way through 2-3 civs (hell, I've done that with swords, but xbows with collateral would make it :lol:).

Japan would be pretty decent with a better leader with an economic trait, abusing the UU then the trait to consolidate it.

I like how you leave out the Mongols, Indians, and Khmer, all of which are undeniably Asian civs and quite strong! We'll leave Russia out I guess, even though it seems like around 75% of it is in Asia (and the distinction of "Asia" and "Europe" as different continents is somewhat iffy to begin with...if you saw a landmass like that in Civ it would be a BIG continent, not considered 2!)

^^Persia, Ottomans.... All weak civs :p

But regarding the article...

IMHO samurai should be primarily CR promoted, with maybe some shock ones to defend from enemy maces. A drill II promo does not look bad as well... but formation looks like a waste ( 3 promos... ) when probably a Combat I pike would do far better regarding that issue .

The deal about cho-ku-no is that they are suitable for def yet their bonus screams attack. They are weaker than Praetorians and have much more prerequisite techs. Chinese leader are weak in relative to other leader due to their protective trait. Seriously, protective needs a buff. It's just weak atm.

Btw, Persian is one of the most powerful civilizations. Fin/Org (IMO the best trait combo) is probably the best trait combo for super fast rex and late game consolidation. Immortals are quite OP in relative to most UUs. 50% against archers makes them better than axemen at taking down archer while being cheaper and MUCH MUCH more versatile (faster). FYI, Killer Crane went over 1 mil score by using the Persians.

Hopefully if you truly beeline hard for samarai, mounted troops aren't a problem...guilds is a later tech than machinery!

As for CKN's being not as good as praetorians...that's hardly a fair comparison, as you'll be hard pressed to name UU's as good as them in general (immortal is one of the few that even comes close). Prats are the only unit I know of that has next-era strength in a previous era.

CKN's eviscerate defending stacks because of the collateral damage. Xbows are NOT defensive units!!! While typically just stack defense the CKN's come a tech EARLIER than their only viable counter in the field - knights. This is also true for Toku's XBows (though they're now quite as rigged as CKN's). Don't forget that offensive xbows can be promoted through drill and cover...negating equal promos of first strikes (and should have more vs non-protective) and providing a decent bonus versus the ONLY REMAINING UNIT THAT CAN MATCH THEM - longbows. 1 defending longbow will beat 1 defending CKN - but 5 CKN's will mop 5 longbows!

Toku should skip them on his way to engineering though, because he is also aggressive and wants to make use of his UU and trebs (and pikes to beat the knights back).

Hopefully if you truly beeline hard for samarai, mounted troops aren't a problem...guilds is a later tech than machinery!

As for CKN's being not as good as praetorians...that's hardly a fair comparison, as you'll be hard pressed to name UU's as good as them in general (immortal is one of the few that even comes close). Prats are the only unit I know of that has next-era strength in a previous era.

CKN's eviscerate defending stacks because of the collateral damage. Xbows are NOT defensive units!!! While typically just stack defense the CKN's come a tech EARLIER than their only viable counter in the field - knights. This is also true for Toku's XBows (though they're now quite as rigged as CKN's). Don't forget that offensive xbows can be promoted through drill and cover...negating equal promos of first strikes (and should have more vs non-protective) and providing a decent bonus versus the ONLY REMAINING UNIT THAT CAN MATCH THEM - longbows. 1 defending longbow will beat 1 defending CKN - but 5 CKN's will mop 5 longbows!

Toku should skip them on his way to engineering though, because he is also aggressive and wants to make use of his UU and trebs (and pikes to beat the knights back).

Yea but the Roman leaders are also better than Chinese leaders and their UB is IMO better. I would rather to have 25% more GP pts per turn than culture per turn. Also Chu-Ko-Ku also has insane production time, 5 Chu-Ko-Nu is roughly equal to 5 LB fortified on city. LB on hill there is no chance. Also LB is cheaper than Chu-Ku-No, which is completely stupid.

TheMeInTeam: Cool name lol.

I feel that the Asian civilizations are a bit underpowered in this game. :crazyeye:

By that I mean, China + Japanese + Korea.

Funny, I find these civilizations to be among my favourites, especially UU-wise. Samurai is a very good UU, Chokonu even more so, and Hwacha is devastating even against stacks from medieval age. Especially against horseless enemies, this UU really shines.

I can agree that the Chinese and to some extent Japanese traits are not optimal, but since I rather like Pro (and both chinese, japanese and korean are pro), I actually quite enjoy games playing as Wang, Toku, or Qin. Mao, I'm a bit more reserved against, even though I am beginning to like Exp alot (I am currently playing a Concurrent Succession game as Bismarck, link is in sig)...

China is a very solid nation with its UU (UB culture wars aren't bad either). IMO, Qin is pretty solid with industrious/protective, because if you get cho-ko-nu's early enough they'll crush everything (keep in mind they start with the free promos!). If you play difficulty levels below emperor and epic or slower speed, you can use CKN's exclusively and probably blow your way through 2-3 civs (hell, I've done that with swords, but xbows with collateral would make it ).I've been doing just that recently. You can get to machinery reasonably quick if you pick metal casting as free tech from the Oracle (which is cheap with industrious). Comparing the CKN's with praets is... like comparing just about any other UU with praets. :D

I've been doing just that recently. You can get to machinery reasonably quick if you pick metal casting as free tech from the Oracle (which is cheap with industrious). Comparing the CKN's with praets is... like comparing just about any other UU with praets. :D

Actually the beautiful thing is, epsecially with QSH, that you can beeline MC, go forge-nuts (Ind helps here), then pop a GE from working a normal engineer, and use him to bulb Mach, if you dont take the religious path. Other than that, PRO fits the CKN very well.

By the way I am currently playing a Monarch game as Toku and it works out very well. I have been using my samurai to their max and have vassalized HC, who had 3 island cities left, going after Boudica now I think. If anyone wanna try it, I'll attach the save.

Actually the beautiful thing is, epsecially with QSH, that you can beeline MC, go forge-nuts (Ind helps here), then pop a GE from working a normal engineer, and use him to bulb Mach, if you dont take the religious path. Other than that, PRO fits the CKN very well.:eek: It is no wonder I get beaten on emperor... I'll have to try that!

Qin is a very solid leader. Industrious + Pavillion is a strong combination for a cultural victory; the defense bonuses help there as well.
Alternatively, he is very well placed for a Metal Casting/Machinery slingshot which sets him up to go to town with CKNs (which imo is the best 'late' UU of the game).

And Tokugawa is a military monster once he gets Samurai. A sizable upgrade to the standard medieval offensive unit, 3 promotions for gunpowder troops, a rare production bonus coupled with a hidden health benefit (get rid of coal; at least once you get access to oil)... not bad at all.
Personally, I usually promote my Samurai along the Drill line since I generally favour siege over foot units for most of my attacks. Cleanup with nary a scratch is sweet.
I will, however, promote a few along the City Raider line if I expect a few tough nuts to crack.

Actually the beautiful thing is, epsecially with QSH, that you can beeline MC, go forge-nuts (Ind helps here), then pop a GE from working a normal engineer, and use him to bulb Mach, if you dont take the religious path. Other than that, PRO fits the CKN very well.

Haha yeah I love that strategy.

The Samurai is a maceman with [...] an innate 2 first strikes [...]


Innate foo, as opposed to promotions, screams "beeline" to me, since you "can't take it with you."

Bostock

@Bostock: Exactly. I have tried to let this shine through in the Techpath section, since once you have Samurai, you won't need anything stronger for attack for some time, so you can backfill with economic and civic techs.

For me, playing as Toku has always depended on my ability to manage the Japanese economy, as Toku starts with little in the way of economic bonuses. I can see Toku either running an aggressive war-machine SE or a more passive REX & tech route with cottages. I just think he needs to focus on the money/research issues early, so that when the Samurai come, he can unload.

Diamond: I too am a fan of the Combat line of promotions for certain units. A blend of Combat + Drill can really add up the firepower, since Combat is the only promotion that improves attack strength -- a key part of first strikes.

A combat II / Drill II Samurai can be had at 5xp, delivering a 9.6 strength and 3-6 (I may be off here) first strikes. This is an incredibly flexible unit useful for field battles and city assaults alike. If you want to go bananas, try making multiple GG Samurai units with the Leadership promotion and see how many XPs you can rack up. You can end up with Combat VI, CR III, Drill IV, and Tactics ... on multiple units! Too bad Toku isn't Imperialistic.

@Slobberinbear: C II D II Samurai would have 3-4 Firststrikes and 9.6 strength. That is still rahter good though, against a longbow with a total of 100% defense, its still 9.6v12 and 2-3 free rounds first. Not bad. Now think of archers or axemen instead... :evil: I love playing Toku, even if my tech is falling a bit behind early on :lol:

This thread is making me want to play a game as Japan. People complain about the Japanese economy, but I think you just have to prioritise pottery and writing a bit more so that you can get a decent start on cottages and maybe a library. Then make sure you get IW to see where it is and expand accordingly.

I'm not sure samurai would need seige engines in every case because you may want to fight a border war at first, just to get room for a few more cities. I guess that depends on the map. But, samurai by themselves should be able to do some damage.

I've tried Toku four or five times at Warlord and he really can't stand the pressure even of a relatively tame civ like Arabia. I should have leveraged Aggressive and gone on to destroy Saladin completely rather than just raze one or two cities in the way and wait until he resettled them, but with most other civs I can really race forward. (I didn't have the economy to keep the cities so I smashed them up...only to find he resettled later.)

But ... I struggled big time and have given up for the moment to concentrate on Rome (trying to play every leader/civ before I move up to Noble just so I have a feel for the game at the higher levels). At WL you really should still outpace the AI but I've found it just too hard with Toku to get anywhere fast. However the combination of aggressive traits is just too tempting...maybe I should first try unrestricted leaders with Hammurabi for Agg/Org or Ragnar with Agg/Fin to get the hang of Bushido without the economic problems?

I've tried Toku four or five times at Warlord and he really can't stand the pressure even of a relatively tame civ like Arabia. I should have leveraged Aggressive and gone on to destroy Saladin completely rather than just raze one or two cities in the way and wait until he resettled them, but with most other civs I can really race forward. (I didn't have the economy to keep the cities so I smashed them up...only to find he resettled later.)

But ... I struggled big time and have given up for the moment to concentrate on Rome (trying to play every leader/civ before I move up to Noble just so I have a feel for the game at the higher levels). At WL you really should still outpace the AI but I've found it just too hard with Toku to get anywhere fast. However the combination of aggressive traits is just too tempting...maybe I should first try unrestricted leaders with Hammurabi for Agg/Org or Ragnar with Agg/Fin to get the hang of Bushido without the economic problems?

Man if youre playing on warlord, just build 4 warriors at the start and conquer 2 civs, You won't have any problems with Japan then. ;)

Im serious by the way...

I've tried Toku four or five times at Warlord and he really can't stand the pressure even of a relatively tame civ like Arabia. I should have leveraged Aggressive and gone on to destroy Saladin completely rather than just raze one or two cities in the way and wait until he resettled them, but with most other civs I can really race forward. (I didn't have the economy to keep the cities so I smashed them up...only to find he resettled later.)

But ... I struggled big time and have given up for the moment to concentrate on Rome (trying to play every leader/civ before I move up to Noble just so I have a feel for the game at the higher levels). At WL you really should still outpace the AI but I've found it just too hard with Toku to get anywhere fast. However the combination of aggressive traits is just too tempting...maybe I should first try unrestricted leaders with Hammurabi for Agg/Org or Ragnar with Agg/Fin to get the hang of Bushido without the economic problems?

Hmmm. It might be good to try Hammurabi, but I suggest that you try to win as Tokugawa of Japan as well, before moving up.

Try to play a game and report in a thread here, many players do that (mainly above Warlord, but that doesnt matter). I'd like to see what you are doing and what could be done better. If you don't want to start a thread by yourself, just use this one. I suggest you play the first round until you have a couple of cities out and Iron Working in place.

Since I will be on vacation for something like three weeks with only a small pause in between, I wont be able to help ya out until like 19th-20th, but then I'd love to.

Man if youre playing on warlord, just build 4 warriors at the start and conquer 2 civs, You won't have any problems with Japan then. ;)

:lol: probably true. Add a protective archer rush to that and you have conquest in the BCs :lol:

Just finished a game on Prince, Normal as Japan that I started a few months back (I'm now transitioning to Emperor level :D). I was on a continent with Suleiman, Joao, and Pericles.. Peaceful guys, right?!? NOO!! I first trimmed Joao with Swords and Cats in early AD's. Suleiman then took Joao as a voluntary vassal and unloaded on me (I built almost all troops and his power was at least 50% higher than mine). I responded with about 30 Samurai with very little siege-I thought I was toast. Even with my tactical stupidity back then, the Samurai wiped out huge stacks of HA's, Axemen, Swordsmen, and Cats. The high Drill Samurai barely took any damage from siege either and Sully capitulated very quickly as I took a few cities.

At this point, I found myself facing Pericles who was ~5 techs ahead and had a huge army compared to mine, but he was Pleased. Even worse, he took Joao as a voluntary vassal. On the other continent, Lincoln and Zara devoured Huayna who capitulated to Lincoln along with his large colony Suryavarman. At this point, I stopped playing. Yesterday I continued the game, built an army, focused on Joao and vassalized him and then wiped out Pericles - it all took 15 turns!! Ended up winning a low score Diplo win a few turns later as I was preparing a force of Marines, Tanks, and Transports to invade Lincoln (I even bribed Zara to declare on him) who already completed a few Spaceship parts. Lincoln and Zara were both Pleased and I was running against the tiny Huayna who built the UN.

Japan really gets stronger as the game progresses. Samurai is also a good UU - very underestimated imo. First strikes and Drill promos in general are underestimated too.

A few comments

About Toku's early economy

1) While his traits and UB do not promote good economy, his first 2 techs do, fishing and the wheel. Tech Pottery FIRST! Settle on teh coast or along rivers and cottage away. There is no reason you cannot have a good cottage base in the capital before the first settler.

2) Get Sailing sooner than later and target the GLH. That will seriously help Toku's econom3) If you have stone, use the whip Walls trick to get extra gold.

3) Make a run at the great wall and produce an early GSpy and steal enough techs to stay competitive.

4) We know the Ais delay education, Toku needs it earlier for the universities and DO NOT trade it.

Toku's UB

1) 10% late game boost in production is not trivial

2) Toku does NOT need coal at all (assuming you have oil) which means ALOT less unhealthiness during the modern era. IronWorks suffers but the 10% boost of the UB offsets it a bit. It also means he can freely build an industrial Park in all cities with little concern for unhealthiness.

3) IMHO, the Japanese UB is much stronger than it get's credit for.

The Samuri.

1) To be honest I never sent my Samuri out into battle without other mounted units or some spears/Pikes. So not using the drill promotion benefits seam silly.

2) As with Maces I prefer to promote them up the CR line. Drill promoted Samuri are somewhat wasted when promoted as any gunpowder unit from Toku get's it anyway.

3) Promoting them up the combat line sounds like a decent plan for some of the force.

4) Samuri are excellent for STARTING the military buildup/expansion era.

So my general idea of Toku's game is to

A) Work the early economy ASAP via the ocean or cottages on rivers.
B) Beeline CS/Machinery/Education/Gunpowder
C) Expand comfortably during the Samuri/Musket era
D) expand agressively during the Infantry era, maximizing unit production and promotion.
E) If desired, Toku has the strongest production base in the game for the space race.

Sorry if I went of track and bit, but the OP seams more on Toku in general rather than the UU.

Don't forget Swordsmen! Swordsmen, when upgraded to Samurai, also receive the free Drill I promotion along with all other Samurai bonuses, and also benefit from the free Combat I promotion for the Aggressive trait.

Personally, I like to delay Engineering when playing Tokugawa. The offensive power of Samurai is so great that you won't need Trebuchets (except when they get Castles, at which point you use the Trebs for their superior bombardment). Pikemen are mostly unnecessary, too, since your offensive stack will be so strong that their army's back will be against the wall...which means that enemy Knights will be on the defensive and forfeit all defensive bonuses.