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Wow… really love this civ, seems.to be really cool and funny! Love the artwork and the design of this civ as well. I can see naginata spear for cavalry… thats the way!!!
Not that Giovanna with bazooka. (Lol)
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How fast, The didn’t even let me make a Post to promotion this Civ, and worse, I have to work tonight. Well I gonna check this at the night, but well: ALL NEW CIVS WERE REVEALED!
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My most anticipated civ
“Onna-Musha” is literally just “Female Warrior” in Japanese, that’s it and nothing more. “Yabusame”(a type of Japanese mounted archery) or “Yabusame Archer” should be a better name and used in AoE3. But I guess the devs really wanted a female UU for some reason
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How is this an issue for you?
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Some people have nothing better to do than to make “culture war” nonsense a talking point.
“Onna-musha” describes a range of historical female warriors, boiling that down to a unit type is tricky (as they occupied a bunch of roles, and there’s evidence to suggest they actually were in more battles than we have records for).
Which means a unit of all-women mounted archers is entirely possible. They also occupied other roles, but it seems nomatter the UU the devs chose, that poster would object to them 
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Female villagers fighting back must really trigger them.
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I agree! They can’t find anything to complain about and they do this. 
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I agree it doesn’t change much and there is no need to complain.
But I also admit Yabusame would have still been a better name i think as it is more specific. It could have still been a female skin even if the name is Yabusame.
That being said.
THIS CIV IS SOOO COOL.
Can’t wait to play it 
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Well, such a unit is like saying that in Japanese history, regular troops of mounted archers were female. But even though the rate of Japanese women’s direct participation in combat was higher than that of other civs in the world, mounted archers, like other military roles, have been almost exclusively held by men throughout history.
There is nothing wrong with having women as military units in the game, but I would think that giving each military unit a certain chance of having a female skin is definitely a better decision than directly introducing Onna-musha as a unit. It would be a pity too if this civ only has female mounted archers and no male mounted archers.
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At this point it’s probably just best to recognize that there is an intentional push inside the development team specifically to add a female presence in historical warfare. Gaming, especially triple A games owned by large corporations, have been trending this way for a long time. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t representative of real life, because representing history accurately isn’t the goal with those decisions. In order to do this, they kind of have to warp history a bit, because in reality this only occurred in very isolated instances. But overinflating the presence of women in combat is far from the only historical liberty this game makes, so it isn’t a big deal.
Whatever, throw the people who care a bone. Doesn’t impact the quality of the game to any relevant extent. Additionally, it’s not being done to a noticeably odd degree, except maybe with the Mongols.
As for me, this was my most anticipated civ, and I’m very excited to play them. They look fantastic.
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Honestly, exaggerating the presence of women in combat isn’t a problem, it’s just that the problem isn’t the gender itself but the other iconic things that could be taken away from them because of these decisions. Mounted archery is the most iconic skill of medieval Japanese samurai, so in the game, mounted samurai archers will definitely be highly anticipated. But it seems that only women are mounted archers, which is really a pity.
If the presence of women really had to be so exaggerated, the developers could still have the Onna-Musha as a mounted archer (or other types of units) unlocked by a landmark, or as a unique unit that can only be trained in a landmark, while the male mounted archer ( or other types of units) as regular units in stables (or other types of buildings).
But when they still make cavalry use naginata and round shields, the Japanese civilization in AoE4 is just another mess to me. The closer your culture is to Japanese culture, the more disappointed you may be, like many Western players can’t accept Joan using a hand cannon, while it may just be a funny design in the eyes of Asian players.
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While I totally get the sentiment, I think ultimately it isn’t gonna matter to you that much in game. For example, the fact that women make up 50% of the Mongol units is bizarre in theory, but in game you don’t really even notice it. I would guess the same is true with Japanese, but it’ll be even less noticeable. Don’t let it sour the game for you. Japan still looks awesome, unlike a lot of the variants.
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I believe they have designed the units of Mongols to all have a chance to be in female skins to reflect the fact that nomadic women also have to learn combat skills in order to survive on the steppes and in tribal conflicts. As much as 50% might be an exaggeration, but I also said it’s not a problem, as they don’t make the most famous unit of the Mongols all female. Imagine making Mangudai or Keshiks all women, would you think that would be less noticeable?
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Imagine calling Longbowman a “Male Soldier” when there is definitely a better name to represent their culture and the position in an army
Could have just named it “Yabusame Archer” and randomly in male/female skins
This is exactly me, as an East Asian.
And I agree with all of what you said, couldn’t have said it better myself.
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We live in the era of social justice…
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Yeah the onna musha is kinda like displaying one tree because it is different at the expense of rest of the forest.
And the round shield on the lancers could probably be taken away as the naguinata and the katana they will use in melee are enough of a visual indicator to differentiate them form the classic horseman.
In the end I still think it looks great overall, really fan of the fact that they display a bit of a gunpowder specialty at age 4 as they spreaded quickly in the country after their contact with the portuguese.
To me the only thing missing millitarily speaking are the warrior monks though it seems that the age 3 buddhist monks may be just that. These monks were so prevalent that some monasteries rivaled the powers of important daimyos, not having them in the game would be a big miss and look a bit sad, like not having them but shaolin monks would be worth a few eye rolls 
.
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The naginata they holding should become yari at least in the age 4, if age 4 means the sengoku period.
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Fair enough as long as they make it looks different than the horseman spear.
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