i rolled Japan recently but i've been having serious problems starting up, though i suppose this is a problem which will be common to all out and out warmongers: how do i keep up with my trade? I've been going down to -10 GPT (on King) trying to maintain an army early in the game. Could it be that the way to go with warmongers who are no longer incentivized in the early game (e.g. Rome, Greece) is to set up a strong economy and backbone of your Civ before you go to war?
Japan in the Brave New World (and all warmongers i suppose)
- Thread starter Evie94
- Start date
Yzman
Deity
Trade with city states.
Samurai comes relatively late and Zero positively late so Japan is likely one of the least effected Warmonger Civs when handled by a player given the early game cash crunch.
I rarely see AI handle Japan well however as the Bushido trait is often squandered with damaged units being sent to die so AI never can get a highly promoted swarm of Bushido enhanced melee units.
I rarely see AI handle Japan well however as the Bushido trait is often squandered with damaged units being sent to die so AI never can get a highly promoted swarm of Bushido enhanced melee units.
I generally agree about the early game gold crunch, but as dexters pointed out, Samurai come far enough into the game that you should have a good strong trade economy and a handful of strong cities with roads and luxes sold. I find by the late Classical Age, I've got enough gold to comfortably build and maintain an army. Samurai can be rushed early in Medieval, but still you should have a strong economy by then.
If you're having difficulties, suggest making sure you've got your trade routes maxed and running to the best cities you can. I find that making one city my trade city and building the caravansary and market (and EIC, Colossus, etc if available) is the way to go. You don't need those buildings in every city which will save you a few precious hammers. I try and always trade international because the returns are better, but if you don't have access, you can always safely go to a CS.
Make sure you're selling your excess luxes. I find I can get 6GPT from them reliably, without a DOF. I avoid DOFs until research agreements become available as well, because they offer essentially no benefit, but you have to pay with spare luxes or gold when they come begging.
If you're having difficulties, suggest making sure you've got your trade routes maxed and running to the best cities you can. I find that making one city my trade city and building the caravansary and market (and EIC, Colossus, etc if available) is the way to go. You don't need those buildings in every city which will save you a few precious hammers. I try and always trade international because the returns are better, but if you don't have access, you can always safely go to a CS.
Make sure you're selling your excess luxes. I find I can get 6GPT from them reliably, without a DOF. I avoid DOFs until research agreements become available as well, because they offer essentially no benefit, but you have to pay with spare luxes or gold when they come begging.
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You don't have to give them anything when they beg. There is no penalty for refusing.
SilverDash
Chieftain
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Going to war < 100 turns has some major penalties now imo. You get denounced all over the place forever (if you wipe out another civ) and your economy and science will be hurt really badly unless the cities that you took over just happened to be really good.
If you want to play Japan as a warmonger, well, what I did (immortal, pangea): get samurai (and a few trebuchet on higher difficulty) asap and skip all other techs and then while they still walk around with spearmen and perhaps warriors you just kill like 3-4 neighbors just like that (preferably taking out the strongest or the one that has the most tech first).
Before you get the samurai up you should bank some gold and create roads to the cities that you are about to take over and perhaps also a policy that increases gold income. But if you conquer fast enough you won't have gold problems because the puppets and capitols will generate enough gold to keep warmongering at this point.
Trading with city states won't always work because they might get "peace blocked" until their ally is wiped out by you.
If you want to play Japan as a warmonger, well, what I did (immortal, pangea): get samurai (and a few trebuchet on higher difficulty) asap and skip all other techs and then while they still walk around with spearmen and perhaps warriors you just kill like 3-4 neighbors just like that (preferably taking out the strongest or the one that has the most tech first).
Before you get the samurai up you should bank some gold and create roads to the cities that you are about to take over and perhaps also a policy that increases gold income. But if you conquer fast enough you won't have gold problems because the puppets and capitols will generate enough gold to keep warmongering at this point.
Trading with city states won't always work because they might get "peace blocked" until their ally is wiped out by you.
Not my experience. Conquered the Ottomans, Poland, and Byzantium. Ofc people hated me, but as soon as the World Congress was founded, I had a bunch of friends to hate on the civs that didn't like me.
GrandAdmiral
Deity
Japanese units come in the game late and aren't that great. So they really aren't going to make up for anything. It's pretty sad when upgraded units like Jaguars->longswordsmen drastically outperform the samurai in offense, maneuverability, and survival. Japan needs to be re-balanced.
Problem with Jaguars is it's an early game unit. Unless you built a whole lot of them (unlikely) and have then all survive, you'll never be able to have that many in-game. The upkeep simply isn't worth the trouble.
Samurai's arrival is perfect and they basically form your line defence during the sweet spot period when having Samurai gives you parity for 2 generations and you'll have enough production to make lots of them, promote them in war and immediately upgrade to Rifles and WWI infantry for basically land domination for a long time, technically to the end of the game. But that medieval/renaissance/industrial era is prime-time for Japan warmongering.
The trick with Japan is to pick the right promotions to complement the free Shock I promotion you get to dig deep into the promotion tree with just barracks + armoury and have an elite core highly promoted units. They become very effective and can win you a war of attrition.
My guide to Japan
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=438476
GrandAdmiral
Deity
I haven't had any of these problems with Jaguars. And I've had success with multiple upgrade strategies. Not only can I dominate before samurais come into play, but it's an easier win.
Not for me. By the time I can build them, I don't need them. I've used your strategy successfully in the past. If you actually need samurais, there's a good chance you're behind in the game.
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