I thought a lot about Japan/Sengoku and there is no doubt, that their potential to go fast castle combined with the fact that they have the strongest heavy cav out of the box (as an infantry civ…) makes it very hard to play against them.
Historically Japan had inferior and less steel than europe, so they went mainly with leather/paper armor. Their lighter weapon would bent hitting a longsword. This means they were more agile but less protected. The moving speed of their Samurai should at least match a man at arms in full steelarmor and their mounted samurai should lose a head on fight vs any knight of a cavalry civ, by having either less hp or less melee armor or both.
Devs please consider looking into an option to limit the strength of the mounted samurai, according to the civ description, the historical background and for the sake of win- and pickrates.
I have checked the internet and felt there might not be real heavy calvary, or at least not as common as French knight in Japan/Sengoku irl. Most common calvary should be riding mountain horse which is of smaller size but good maneuverability. They should be of medium armor, and mostly equipped with Yari.
There might also be some very high level and wealthy Samurai or Daimyo, which have better armor or even with imported plate armor, but they are like only elite among elite, and should not be massively trained like in the game.
So I think if to make it closer to history, the calvary of Japan/Sengoku should be like (some are same as currently in the game):
Banner man, Daimyo, or some Horo-shu should be the only heavy calvary they have and providing buff aura (yep, no more “mounted samurai” unit cause everyone fighting on the horse is basically a mounted Samurai). Horo-shu is like Daimyo’s elite among elite warrior and wearing a Horo (some cloth bag with bamboo frame to deflect arrow). The number of Banner man or Horo-shu is limited by Daimyo estate or Shogunate Castle
The yari calvary should be the main calvary force, and have some higher armor, base damage, but need gold to product (they are still some lower-level Samurai)
The yari calvary should have higher hp than normal horseman, but their heavy calvary (Banner man, Horo-shu) might have lower HP than normal knight or lancer. The heavy calvary might have higher damage and attack speed cause they should be good at martial art. Both yari calvary and heavy calvary can have higher movement speed (through technology or whatever like currently we have)
Japanese Mounted Samurai Deflective Armor: Suggested Change
Let’s be honest, the reason this unit is so broken in Castle Age (III) is due to 2things:
First, it’s a very Broken ability, “Deflective Armor” for a Castle Age (III) knight unit.
Secondly, considering they already get +10% Attack with the “Uma Bannerman” (+15% before).
More balanced version is the Sengoku Variant Mounted Samurai, which lacks the reflective shield, and doesn’t obtain it unless you reach Tier 3 of the Takeda clan, and that’s fine: becuase you have to expend 1750 resources for them in manor.
My suggested change:
With the Japanese, they could remove the Reflective shield in Age III Mounted Samurai. They could gain it with a technology in IV age, to represent that in the sengoku period, their cavalry improves its armor:
The “Do-maru Armor” technology could grant the Reflective Shield in Imperial age (IV), in addition to its normal +10% speed bonus.
This would make the technology’s name more meaningful: “An armor that grants the Reflective Shield”.
