AOE3 Forums

Ath_elite:

ive never used the japanese in a rush game and i was wondering if they were any good at it, and if so what are some good strats

they are the most easiest civilization.

you dont need no strats they so easy.

Also bit of suprise strategy that isn't as foolproof would be going pretty basic age1, aging up with the toshogu shrine,put all but the villagers that keep getting food for new villagers on gold mine, and send one or two making forward consulate, when your up shipthe 300 export shipment, after it has arrived go isolution and make 13 konsha yamabushi or 8 stealth archer guys. Then you ship the 11 merc pikemans shipment twice, and attack enemy with either 22 pikemans+13 konsha yamabushi for huge siege troop or 8 archer for stealth raiding and taking out HI/minutemans.

Good thing about that rush is, that after the 1000 gold and 200 wood are free for your use, and proceed to either shrineboom like hell or buil (or use consulate tech) for barracks and start pumping ashigarus to beat your crippled enemy. 

Many japanese strategies can be found here

http://www.gamereplays.org/community/index.php?showtopic=303161

Elite Penguin:

Also bit of suprise strategy that isn't as foolproof would be going pretty basic age1, aging up with the toshogu shrine,put all but the villagers that keep getting food for new villagers on gold mine, and send one or two making forward consulate, when your up shipthe 300 export shipment, after it has arrived go isolution and make 13 konsha yamabushi or 8 stealth archer guys. Then you ship the 11 merc pikemans shipment twice, and attack enemy with either 22 pikemans+13 konsha yamabushi for huge siege troop or 8 archer for stealth raiding and taking out HI/minutemans.

 

Good thing about that rush is, that after the 1000 gold and 200 wood are free for your use, and proceed to either shrineboom like hell or buil (or use consulate tech) for barracks and start pumping ashigarus to beat your crippled enemy. 

full pike??

just make ashis + consulate units (anti inf or anti cav/building).
 

Totalitarian:

Good job on saving Age Community's bandwith a quarter of a byte by using the term, "Jap" instead of whatever Japs are actually called.

Well actually, the pros say that Japan is the most OP civ in the game atm, and that they can do anything:

 -Shirne boom

-JAM

-Yumi + Ashi spam

-FF

-Merc ownage (I actually find the Sohei allies better than the pikes, they burn better and are stronger, have more hits, and don't count for pop)

Japan can do anything? I don't know about that, I mean they are a strong civ, but that's an exaggeration.

- Their shrine boom is really effective especially with a lot of practice, but, it has a curve, like it will give you an awesome economy a little later in colonial but leave you vulnerable in the beginning, a strong early rush done well  (aztecs, iroquois, india can all do it) will kill you.

- The ashi rush can be really effective sometimes, usually if your opponent is not expecting you to and thinks you have more time. But it is not as strong or quick rush as the native civs can pull off and won't always work.

-Yumi+Ashi spam is very effective in general but, like I said in the first point, the japanese economy won't be able to support that right away.

-I've tried Sohei and they are only useful situationally, when you're facing a lot of cavalry, sure you can get 22, at the cost of 2 shipments and 1000 gold... i'd rather ship 10 ashi and use all that villager time to gather enough resources to make another 10 ashi. But that's just me...

As to a japanese rush, i find rushing is all about speed so my favorite strat is 300 wood discovery, use it all on shrines asap, you should have 4-5 by the time you age up, age asap, with 6 villies on tori gates, the others on food and gold, 2-1, as soon as age up send the barracks cart forward with the samurai, usually near where his second or third hunt patch is, send 5 ashi card and make 5 ashi, also send forward both monks, you can be at his base with a samurai, 10 ashi and the monks by 6min, ealier on a resource rich map, it's a nice punch that early on.

2nd card 5 ashi, make 5 more, so when he is tired of those 10 ashi he gets 10 more. I've tried to go with shrine and use the export to get 4 shinobi+10 ashi, but it takes longer, first strat has worked better specially against civs who like to FF.

I was playing this lieuntenant colonel the other day, he was playing the spanish, ready to unleash a fast FF on the slow rushing japanese. 5:45, he was just gathering his gold shipment and surprise! 10 ashi, 1 sam and monks killing his villies on his second hunt. He goes to his TC calls militia, they get owned, when his TC is finally getting the best of the ashi, 10 more! then another 5 and his TC was down. He was pissed.