Japan and the new combat rules

[Gough Whitlam]

It's been announced that combat will take considerably longer to resolve in G&K and this got me thinking how it will affect Japan's UA.

IMO Japan is the toughest civilization to play against in terms of military might because it's units constantly pack a punch and I find it takes a lot more ranged units to stop them (I choose ranged units because this negates Japan's UA). However, if combat takes considerably longer to resolve, this means that units will be fighting damaged for a lot longer. I believe Japan is currently considered to be a top tier civilization, but will this change cause them to be even tougher to play against?

 

[Buccaneer]

I never had placed Japan anywhere near a top-tier civ because their tendency to be more suicidal makes them vulnerable to combat with nothing else really going for them.

 

[Gough Whitlam]

Perhaps it's an issue with Japan and higher difficulty levels then.

I find that Japan is one of the tougher civilizations to end up to on higher difficulty levels due to their tendency to attack early and the damage that their units do even when injured.

I find that at higher difficulty levels near by civilizations almost always attack early on and attack in the form of a CoD making the suicidal tendencies less of a problem.

 

[GenjiKhan]

Bushido is also applied to Naval and Air units and now that there is meele ships,then their UA can be highly valuable in Sea maps as well .

 

[flairin]

I think it would be interesting to put in a faith element into Bushido, so that if a unit dies on offense when wounded (and not when fully healthy) then faith points would be earned

 

[CYZ]

I think it would be interesting to put in a faith element into Bushido, so that if a unit dies on offense when wounded (and not when fully healthy) then faith points would be earned

That's going to be every kill, unless you are way behind in tech.

 

[nokmirt]

Perhaps it's an issue with Japan and higher difficulty levels then.

I find that Japan is one of the tougher civilizations to end up to on higher difficulty levels due to their tendency to attack early and the damage that their units do even when injured.

I find that at higher difficulty levels near by civilizations almost always attack early on and attack in the form of a CoD making the suicidal tendencies less of a problem.

Japan does that on Emperor level. The thing is that it DoWs me too early, before he gets samurai. I then try to get him stuck in his last worst city possible. The last time, this happened to be his capital, which was a fairly good city site. He fell behind in tech and really had no chance to compete with the rest of us. I don't remember even seeing a samurai for the entire game.

The devs should help these civs wage war when it is advantageous to do so. For instance, when they have their UUs available. Many times this early suicidal warrior rush strategy is a bad idea for the AI.

 

[Sobsob]

Won't the changes to the combat system make Japan unstoppable in combat?

 

[CYZ]

Nah, their bonus is strongest when they are at really low health. But that's actually the moment when you will now move away your units to heal, instead of them getting killed. So it might even backfire for them.

Although, Japan will be expert at keeping units alive and thus getting promotions.

Isn't there a thread about this btw?

 

[The_J]

Isn't there a thread about this btw?

Moderator Action: threads merged.

 

[bcaiko]

Yes, Japan will benefit from the combat change. But not by as much as those who overstate the power of Bushido would have you believe. At higher HP levels a standard unit and a Japanese unit are more or less on par.

As I believe I've stated elsewhere on the boards, the difference between a regular unit and a Japanese unit only really comes into effect when that unit is highly damaged; otherwise the combat penalty isn't all that horrible. At its most extreme, the penalty to a damaged unit is 50%. And you're rarely going to see a unit with the "almost dead and crawling on bloody stumps" penalties in combat on either side, especially since now that it will be more difficult to nearly one-shot a unit or plink it to death. Units spending more time at half their HP will only give Japan a slight numerical advantage.

In a war of attritition with similar units, Japan will win. But if you come at Japan with an overwhelming force, they'll fall just like any other Civ.