General tactical discussion

Hi

I'd have several questions regarding "general" things, and I thought (if others have some too) we could either create a tactical thread, or use this one to see all the questions, and answers in one place. It's insanely useful to see both the q and a that are related to you as well, but probably didn't come to your mind yet.

Well anyway here are some qeustions (hihi come bot teach me how to spell) that came to my mind:

1,Is xbow/pike rush a usable strategy in TAD? I don't see any high level player doing it- they are much more likely to do either a semi or a complete naked ff 2,How hard is japan to play at a 1st liet level? Currently I'm trying to find the new civ I play in tad (i dont feel like going back to otto from years ago) and since i'm still re-learning things it would be great to find an easier civ. 3,Almost everygame I can find on youtube players opt for booming a bit early game (5 settlers card 2nd almost always, market upgrades done asap etc.) but since their opponent is doing it too, it's not risky at all. Now if I were to do it at my level (i think i'm master sergeant/2nd liet in tad not sure, i recently switched from nilla)I'd have to face all-in rushes. How do you deal with it? Delaying the settler card? Aging up earlier? 5, how much do you micro in fights?

Thanks!