What I meant that extra attack won’t make them any better than Champion in most cases.
One point you missed though. Champion needs 295 seconds to upgrade while Samurai takes 60 seconds. This is probably the main reason one should prefer Samurai over champion in some situations.
Killing UU is Samurai’s specialty. But if the UU is archer, Samurai will still struggle and if it is Cav, Halbs is probably better choice except Konnik and Chataphract. That left only infantry UU which can still be countered by arbs as long as there is no siege. If infantry UU/halb combines with siege only then Samurai is the best choice over anything Japanese has to over. I really liked Russia’s decision to go for Samurai.
Of course they have but in some very rare situation/matchup.
UUs could have their Base Cost increased according to their Need for Buffs/nerfs. Samurai could remain the Same, woads maybe increase Base Cost by 10 and have IT be affected. Berzerk could be +15food, so they are the Same Cost as they currently are once supplies IS researched.
Barely. Samurai attacks 5% faster than champions so the DPS is not that low to be a big deal. Also most of the time E.Samurai and Champions end up killing an unit in equal number of hits and Samurai actually perform better due to their faster rof.
You literally swapped the cost and did not even include the cost of Supply tech. E.Samurai cost 1825 resources while Champions cost 2155. I’m not saying that’s a lot cheaper but you should also consider the time for the techs and upgrades.
All being said -
This is actually true. Since Japanese have access to Supplies, it is hard to justify the cost of Samurai.