Noob's guide to Aoe 3: Japan

Japan

The civ with OP infantry. The civ that is arguably the most difficult to raid. The civ with mobile barracks. Japan is a really difficult civ to master but is one of the civs I really have fun with.

Japan is different from the other civs in that villagers can't gather food from animals, shrines/houses cost more wood and generate resources, have unique units called Daimyos who boost unit attack and train troops, and the Shogun who boosts unit hp and trains troops as well, and is different in other ways being an asian civ.

Depending on your wood crates, starting strategy varies. But you always build a consulate and ally with the Portuguese even before building any shrines so that buildings and aging up is cheaper. Gather wood first. Make sure you can get atleast 306 starting wood (including crates) before even beginning to gather food from the orchard (crates are fine). Begin gathering food after that and age up with toshugo shrine (don' forget to place it next to a large herd). Send heavenly kami for the first shipment. Age with 12 villagers.

While one villager is building the wonder, send all but 3 villagers to wood. Build a market then and upgrade wood first and food next followed by the all resource upgrade. Keep making villagers and send them to wood. Right now, shrines should cost about 75 wood. Start making as many shrines as possible. Split monks and have one monk shrine as many herds next to the enemy, and the other monk shrine anywhere convenient (don't shrine ally herds).

You'll have 2 shipments after aging. Send 4 villagers twice for a total of 8. If think you're gonna get rushed (intuition or from the LOS you get from shrines), send a Daimyo instead of another 4 villagers. From here on, it depends on how you want to play. Your eco is really good at this point if you've made at least 15 shrines, so you have the upper hand here.

• Full on attack

Build 2 barracks, send the 8 villagers from the shipment to gold and upgrade gold gathering in the market. Shift villagers from wood to food if necessary. Then, end relations with port and choose japan in the consulate. Send the bushido shipment, make yumi in one barracks and musk in the other. You can make a lot of troops since you have a really good eco at this point. Harass villagers and win the game. Send a daimyo for the next shipment if necessary.

• Prolong the game and boom

Don't end relations with port. Send the 8 shipment villagers to gold. Shift all your available villagers between food and gold after upgrading their gathering rates in the market. Age up with pavilion for the third age and build three town centers. You should ideally have a daimyo by now. After building three town centers, build a couple of barracks, end relations with port and ally with japan in the consulate, send bushido, upgrade your musk (you can make do without yumi at this stage). Make more villagers and troops and win the game.

If you're gonna prolong the game beyond this, I'd suggest building the buddha next and the shogunate after, since you'll get more xp from the shogunate then. Also, don't forget to upgrade your shrine after reaching age 4.

As long as you're really good with controlling your troops, it is really easy to win the game from here. Make sure you upgrade naganita riders as well if you're facing skrimisher heavy civs like dutch.