Maybe this is true to Swedes to some extent. But I really have a hard time connecting with this argument of being “too easy to play” when its comes to Japan.
Whenever I’m playing with Japan I suffer pressure on the earlier stages of the game, and because of this I don’t think they are super easy to play like people try to describe them.
I’m not saying that they are the most APM intensive civilization ever designed in human history, but saying that is super easy to play a civilization that more often then not is fighting to survive on the early stages of the game is quite a stretch.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that some civilizations you can kind of play like a “bot” (Example: Russian 5 Musketeers + 5 Cossacks rush). This is almost never true with Japan, because you need to react to the specifics threats that your opponent is making on that particular game.
Again, I’m not saying that Japan needs a 300+ IQ to play with it. But I honetly can say that I’m very rarely play on the “automatic pilot” mode when I am using Japan, like I do with other civilizations. So when I see this types of arguments I cannot help but seem as exaggeration.
Also, the argument that they are too “forgiving” is very vague.
On this game there are plenty of civilizations that are slow on the beginning, and shines at the late game, Japan is only one of those.
There are also civilizations that have a lot of tempo on the early game, and starts falling behind as the game goes on.
This is due to the asymmetric design of the game, that inevitable will produce this different playstyles for different civilizations. And I honestly think that this is what makes this game good, you can just switch a civilization and almost feel like a new game.
And the thing is: If the civilizations that are slower and suffers early pressure (As the case of Japan) does not have any tricks that makes they somewhat resilient, they would be just a objectively bad civilization, since they would always lose to the aggressive civilizations.
This is was kind of what happened to the US when they first came out. It’s was in theory one of this types of civilizations that are kind of weak on the early game, and gets stronger as the game goes. But they couldn’t handle early pressure well, and where considered just a underwhelming civilization.
So yes, Japan (And all the other tutling-type of civilizations, for that matter) is “forgiving” because more often than not they need to handle early pressure on the early game due to characteristics of the civilization itself, and if they don’t have ways to deal with the attacks, they would just be a bad civilization in general.
And the game you are refering to is the 3° game between Mitoe and Knusch? Because I sincerely can see a Dutch or a Portuguese player holding off that initial Old Han push, as I held Old Han rushes myself with those civs in the past. So I think its quite a stretch to say that only Swedes is capable of doing that.
The Old Han Rush against Dutch is hard because of the early Skirmishers + Hussar composition. This happens because Skirmishers out ranges Chu Ko Nu, and can pick off Pikemans, and the constant threat off Hussars getting on top off the Chu Ko Nu forces the China player to keep on his Pikeman close to the Chu Ko Nu, that tends to get kitted by the Skirmishers of the Dutch player.
And the China player cannot chase the Skirmishers with the Chu Ko Nus, because even something simple as the 3 Hussars for the shipment with Skirmishers shooting at the back do so much damage to the Chu Ko Nu mass, that China cannot afford the risk of not having the Pikemans nearby.
On the Portuguese match-up, there is the Colonial Militia factor (That is also present on the Dutch one to some extent) because that is very hard to run away from the Minuteman as China when your opponent have cavalry, because your Pikeman would always have to step forward to scare away the incoming cavalry from the the Chu Ko Nus, and this gives you a opportunity to shoot the Pikeman with your Minutemans, so you actually almost always get good value from your pops.
Also, is not rare or inconvenient for Portugal to make some Hussars, since is pretty common from they to do some Hussars anyway to harass you opponent a little bit and not let him go full aggro on you.
They are very good to give you a breathing room to continue your boom.
So yeah, just because Swedes held off a Old Han rush in a specific game, its not a definitive proof of the civilization being overpowered, as there are other civilizations that can hold off that rush effectively as well.
Also, keep in mind that I just mention two civilization of them that I have some degree of affinity and know a little about, so I can actually have some empirically based arguments. It could be more civilizations that I not particular aware of that can beat the Old Han Rush convincingly, that I not necessarily aware of.
If anything that game proves either that China have such a spectacular ecosystem that afford to fail in a rush, lose the forward base and still wins the game. Or that Mitoe is a fukking beast.
I honestly think is probably a combination of both of these factors.
(Although, again, I do think Swedes overperforms other civilizations a bit. And maybe one of the reasons is because they are very resilient and have a super strong Fast Industrial timing with the Mamelukes. But this is just a in progress theory of mine).
