bcaiko
Emperor
For once I agree with @Victoria. Japan's +5 coastal combat is easily underestimated. It's easy to use successfully early in the game when scouting and clearing barbarians. Also, it does strengthen Japan's navy quite a bit. The thing that keeps it back is coastal cities still aren't as important or prolific as interior cities, and naval combat is thus fairly unimportant in this game.
But, that's not Hojo's main ability: For some reason folks often overlook that he gets a massive discount on Encampments (YES); Theatres (Good in late game, or if you're going culture up front); and Holy Sites (bleggk). Because Domination is the easiest victory in the game, Japan lends itself to this victory type incredibly well.
Meji Restoration is great if you live in Magical Christmas Land, but it reality it's usually fairly impractical. Getting your cities settled in such a way so as your terrain, housing/water and districts line up perfectly is a near impossibility. You're most likely to get some small bonuses out of your early districts being adjacent to your city center, and that's pretty good on its own. Yes, Japan can somewhat successfully settle crappy areas, but those areas still need production to get districts built. And coastal tiles are still near useless. Even Japan is way better off founding a good city far away.
Samurai can be insanely powerful up front if you rush to them. They are very strong. I've had them easily oneshot cities. The Bushido bonus is largely non-important, though, and it won't carry over when the unit is (somewhat quickly) outclassed. @ShakaKhan properly pointed out the unit's pitfalls. But, hey, no iron is good.
The Electronics Factory is amazing, and you should beeline for the appropriate techs. Used to be better until the Factory bonus nerf.
Japan under Hojo is a somewhat versatile Civ (I don't think that's helpful, personally, but that's the way most in game Civs were done in this game), but tends toward Domination, IMHO. It gets combat bonuses, production bonuses, a powerful (if short lived) mid-game unit, and can get out Encampments quickly.
But, that's not Hojo's main ability: For some reason folks often overlook that he gets a massive discount on Encampments (YES); Theatres (Good in late game, or if you're going culture up front); and Holy Sites (bleggk). Because Domination is the easiest victory in the game, Japan lends itself to this victory type incredibly well.
Meji Restoration is great if you live in Magical Christmas Land, but it reality it's usually fairly impractical. Getting your cities settled in such a way so as your terrain, housing/water and districts line up perfectly is a near impossibility. You're most likely to get some small bonuses out of your early districts being adjacent to your city center, and that's pretty good on its own. Yes, Japan can somewhat successfully settle crappy areas, but those areas still need production to get districts built. And coastal tiles are still near useless. Even Japan is way better off founding a good city far away.
Samurai can be insanely powerful up front if you rush to them. They are very strong. I've had them easily oneshot cities. The Bushido bonus is largely non-important, though, and it won't carry over when the unit is (somewhat quickly) outclassed. @ShakaKhan properly pointed out the unit's pitfalls. But, hey, no iron is good.
The Electronics Factory is amazing, and you should beeline for the appropriate techs. Used to be better until the Factory bonus nerf.
Japan under Hojo is a somewhat versatile Civ (I don't think that's helpful, personally, but that's the way most in game Civs were done in this game), but tends toward Domination, IMHO. It gets combat bonuses, production bonuses, a powerful (if short lived) mid-game unit, and can get out Encampments quickly.
