Space samurai

[Fins]

I'm going to play a game with only Space victory enabled, while not ever using any land combat units except Samurai (and units which upgrade to Samurai - Warriors and Axemen). And since Samurai serve their Emperor - it's gonna be a game in Emperor difficulty.

This seems to be lots more fun than it seems on the 1st glance, you see. The more i poked this idea this and that way, the more i liked it!

Spoiler Details :

- Samurai have one unique feature in compare to all other units: it's the only unit in the game which, with enough experience, can have a whopping 7-10 First Strikes. From: 2 First Strikes natively, 3-6 from four Drill promotions, and 2 from three Hillsman promotions. However, in any normal game, we rarely get to bring Samurai to pick up enough XP to get all those promotions, even if it's some GG Samurai units. Especially since getting some other promotions 1st - is usually preferable (Combat IV, Commando, possibly Amphibious and/or March). And when upgrading Samurai unit to anything else - 2 native First Strikes of the Samurai are lost. But in this game, few most lucky and cared-for Samurai - will most likely realize this potential. Mighty curious what these guys will then be able to defeat, yep;

- having only Space victory enabled means that it's required to go through all eras, and so my Samurai will have to fight late-game units like tanks and mech infantry at some point. In Emperor difficulty, AIs won't lag behind any oh so much, in tech. If at all. But with only 8 base strength, going against units with 4...5 times higher strength - will sure be challenging for Samurai, even with those pretty First Strikes;

- no land siege units means that collateral damage will only become available once Bombers become available, and Bombers can't reduce enemy units more than to 50% of their health. Meaning even harder times for Samurai fighting any modern / future era units, in compare to usual situation where Artillery / Mobile Artillery is capable to criple enemies down to 20% of their health. Still further, Stealth Bombers (and Jet Fighters) will remain not available until very final push in tech and space ship parts building, because researching technologies which allow to build those - requires some prerequisite technologies which obsolete Samurai unit, making it impossible to build any more Samurai once those are researched. This means, regular Bombers and Fighters in this game will become far more important (and numerous) than in any normal game, where those are made in very limited numbers at best, seen as short-term "temporary" air force for a short period when Jet and Stealth ones are being researched;

- once final tech push begins, by researching Rifling and technologies which require Rifling researched, it will become impossible to build any more Samurai. And so, by-then existing Samurai army - will have to endure all the remaining combat against AIs. Who will most likely try to attack, to prevent completion of the space ship. Will the brave Samurai manage to hold the line? How many will end up surviving? Something unusual to see unfolding this late-game, yep. Which is pretty good;

- guided missiles, one more unit usually not used (any much), once unlocked during the final tech push - will become massively important in softening enemies for Samurai armies to finish off, and will probably become one key factor in winning this game (if i'd win it at all);

- Missile Cruisers and Stealth Destroyers will remain not available for a long time; only unlocked much after Rifling, once they become available - there won't be any much hammers available to build them, as most of the effort will by then be aimed to build space ship parts, guided missiles and better airforce. But Transports and Battleships will be available without and far before obsoleting Samurai unit. This creates another unique situation where "mid-20th century" kind of a fleet (Battleships, regular Destroyers) will likely fight future era counterparts. Unique in the sense that such an "outdated" fleet, despite technological inferiority, can yet be superior in its numbers and combat XP (unlike a typical situation where, if there is any technologically weaker player's fleet - then usually it is a consequence of generally-weaker-than-AIs general player's development, which usually does not allow to field away large enough number of ships);

- delaying research of Military Science and Rifling (two technologies which each obsolete Samurai unit) does not prevent researching majority of modern and future era technologies. It's entirely possible to get some Future Tech, most of "civilian" modern / future era technologies, etc - while still producing Samurai for the army. Funny, ain't it?

- Samurai in this game will not be able to get Commando promotion (which is disabled before researching Military Science, which will be delayed extremely much). So, for almost whole game, the entirety of land army will remain limited to 1 tile per turn movement in enemy territory. However, Samurai can (and some of them will) get Amphibious. Meaning, 1st in Galleons, and later in Transports, armies of Samurai will proceed to terrorize coastal cities of AIs, using high mobility of sea travel to compensate for their slow land speed. Medic transports and all, too. The usual "marine" stuff - yet being done by 3 times lower base combat strength unit. And this will make naval combat that much more important, overall, too - those transports will need protection, of course. Carriers (which are also available without obsoleting Samurai unit) - will provide air support, yet until very last push, all the carriers will only bring regular Fighters (not Jet Fighters).

And that is how this seemingly simple "only Samurai for land combat units" - creates whole set of unusual yet very doable changes to mid and late game strategies, unit composition, and correspondedly - even optimal cities configuration and development / tile improvement preferences. It's almost as if someone in Firaxis, when designing the tech tree of the game, one day decided to shape the tree in such a way that Samurai would indeed have a chance to end up being able to win a space race, you know? Wicked, if so.

But, before i start this Space Samurai game, i hope that you guys will give me advice about few particular settings for this game. Should i enable / disable them?

I'll play it on Earth2 map, normal speed, normal size, everything default, except (possibly) these:

- it'll be "unrestricted leaders". I want a leader best-fitting this challenge, for Japan. But, which leader would do best for this game? And why?

- it'll possibly be "no technology brokering" option enabled. I'll have to delay Military Science and Rifling for a long, long time (to not obsolete Samurai before i'd go for final tech push to space ship parts), so with no tech trading - at least each AI will be slowed down mid-late game by having to research everything on their own, right?

- and i think it'll do good to manually select AI nations so that none of them would have Mysticism as one of their starting techs. Japan doesn't have it, and i'd very much like to get an early holy city for this game. On Emperor, if any AI starts with Mysticism while i don't - it'd be pretty unlikely i'd get any single of the three early religions holy cities.

Also, if you guys can propose any other non-default game setting which would up my odds to win this game - then please do. Thanks!


P.S. I'm putting my Evergreen game on pause (reached 2025 AD, and things are totally superb there) to play this one, if you wonder. So, my Evergreen game will proceed further after i (hopefully) manage to send all 'em Samurai to space.