Japan is a complicated civ, 8 or 80, it is either very strong or very weak, with no middle ground.
It’s the biggest problem of all, I think it’s the damios and the various cards needed for civ to work.
First of all, daimyo/shogun should not train units, they should replace monk explorers with shoguns, the unit would change to a hero unit like the Ethiopian explorers,Hausa and Lakota, however you would gain a daimyo per age up totaling a maximum of 4 as is already possible through decks.
They shouldn’t receive provisions on the unit either, just keep the aura buff.
Another point that would be important would be the condense of some cards involving units for exemple
the card way of the bow and yumi archer attack should be one
Ashigaro musketeer atck and Close combat should be one
Naginata rider hitponts and Bloody harvest should be one
Yabusame archer atck and In-Yo rush should be one
remove the ridiculous samurai card with grenade attack.
I like the idea of a rework for Japan, but I would like to propose some more radical changes for this civilization.
Removing the two scout priests and changing them for a mounted daimyo, this would come with the complete elimination of the daimyo and shogun cards. (could be good free skins)
Completely eliminate the shrines and change them to more traditional houses, this would come with a new ally for the consulate, preferably one that guarantees one or two factories, obviously in (Age 4).
The total elimination of wonders, I think a political system like Europeans, but with the 2-card system of Africans/Americans would be much better.
Eliminate the ninja units. The daimyo from age 4 can choose 2 enemy units as spies, these units will share their vision for the rest of the game unless they die or the daimyo chooses 2 other units. (Perhaps the spies could detect and override or kill the Japanese spies.)
Taking the samurai’s katana and giving him a Naginata, the card that allows them to have hand mortars, should reduce their siege by -50%
Finally, improve the export system so that it is as useful as the African influence system.
Since the civ needs starting heroes to build the shrine, the starting hero should be neither mounted nor only 1 person, probably.
The daimyo is a feudal lord, and there is only one in a territory, so you shouldn’t have more than two in the game basically.
Daimyo as the starting hero doesn’t work well mechanically, nor does it fit thematically.
He can be changed to a hero unit and have a custom skin, but he should be accessed after building the Shogunate. Since he beome a hero, the Shogunate would be used to ransom him when he is knocked down.
I guess this would make the effect from one card too strong.
Having a unit that works as a tower receiving professions and being able to train units is the most cancerous and problematic mechanic in this game.
Once the shogun disappears from the fight and you hear the horn playing at his base, it’s too late, his base has already been nuked by samurai with grenade launchers and morutaru
Just have samurai adventurers instead of buddhist monks.
In the 18th century, low-ranking samurai explored the north and drew maps of Ezochi (today’s Hokkaido) and Karafuto (today’s Sakhalin Island). These samurai cartographers were the pioneers of Japanese colonization.
Or earlier, some low-ranking samurai became ronin and established bases and Japanese villages in Southeast Asia, the most famous of which was in Siam.
Having 2 samurai adventurers (or cartographers) with bows or muskets makes the job easier. Even if they build shrines, it will not violate the theme.
This is fundamentally changing the civ, and I don’t think it should happen.
A compromise is to split resource production and population space into two buildings.
The house building is introduced and provides population space, named in some terms like yashiki or ie.
The new shrine no longer provides population, but visually expands the area by adding courtyards, walls, and a torii gate, so it can feed 8 animals, which makes it as efficient as 2 old shrines, and the build limit reduce to 5.
2 Yashiki and 1 new shrine should cost about as much as 2 old shrines.
New shrines can be built by villagers or the samurai adventurers who are the starting heroes, and the hero Daimyo is still provided by an age up option (whether it is Shogunate or a replacement).
There’s a reason I said my proposal was more radical.
Although that question was not for you, your proposal seems interesting, but I maintain that they must be horse-mounted units to be able to reuse the aspects of the Daimyo and shoguns. (The work of developers is not something I want to throw away)
I don’t like shrines, I prefer that villagers can build normal houses.
Japan has rice plantations, which saves wood and allows it to reorganize its resources much more easily than other civilizations, I think that is enough benefit to its economy, they do not need the sanctuaries, in any case give them 2 factories through the consulate.
No, I prefer to remove shrines and wonders entirely. (I don’t like how Asian civilizations are designed)
It has been like that for 15ys, you cant do these kind of redesigns and keep calling the game DE.
Merging cards for an already strong army would break the balance too much, right now they have to choose what to boost and thats fine. Its not like the units are useless without cards, they get arsenal and golden pavillion without spending XP or main resources.
Its not like trashy units having 2 cards like camels or the ridicoulous otontin card in age IV. Or the 5 cards for faster training in indians.
And yes, grenade siege for sams was unneeded and nobody asked for a samurai buff.
I wouldn’t remove the training aspect of Daimyo - it’s a feature that has been in the game for many, many years.
The main problem of a unit training other units is when they are churning them out right outside your base (or in!).
My suggestion would be to make unit training only available when in the vicinity of your or ally buildings (not including Walls). Whether this is visualised by way of a ‘training aura’ radius or just simply inactive training buttons that become useable within a short distance of a building, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that your Daimyo has to be near a friendly structure to pop out an army.
Thematically it makes sense - your Daimyo is enlisting forces within his territory/local friendly towns rather than from his backside whilst loitering by an enemy settlement.
Mechanically you still get a walking Barracks with the same training abilities, however you are now limited to training nearby any friendly building. You can still pop an army right outside an enemy base however, it requires investment - i.e you/your ally need to bring villagers/wagons nearby or even capture a nearby Tradepost and build something for your Daimyo to train nearby.
that sounds unnecessarily complicated, just give the Japanese scouts or daimyos the ability to construct forward bases and remove this dumb feature that was dumb when the expansion was released.
All I want is for him to be actual military and not a fucking monk that would realistically oppose said shogun. Not to mention pretty much everyone I saw talk about the daimyo/shogun system hate it. That’d be two birds with one stone.
Why would they need to be dismounted? There’s mounted explorers since TWC and they’re not unable to build things.
Speed. It can just run to your closest hunt and lock the animals within few minutes.
I think the shrine mechanic make it necessary for them to have two footmen as starting heroes.
For Indians, since there is no similar demand, they can be changed to 1 hero who rides an elephant and uses a musket.
Clearly I’m against removing the shrine mechanic. There can be the compromise but not outright removal. Without the shrines, they must be able to hunt. Such changes will make them almost a new civilization instead of the AoE3 Japanese.
I said Daimio, but ok, maybe it is not the most orthodox thing, what would you propose as a replacement for the Japanese explorers?.