N3O Age Of Empires and Starcraft 2 Clan

Everyone just rushes hard when they see you're Japan. I'm aging up with Tori Gartes and wonder if the shogunate is better here. I don't think buliding naginata early is an option though as econ not good enough at that point. Particluar probems are:

Russian - they send say 23 strelets followed by 5 cossack shipment. Strelets focus fire on any ashi - late cossacks then roam free! A 5 yumi/ashi shipment is nowhere near as good as 13 strelets. Even if I can get 15 yumis/ashi built they outnumber me severly.

Germans - they send 14 xbow + 2 uhlan straight away, followed by 5 xbow and 5 uhlan a few minutes later. If they micro I have no match for the strength of that first shipment even with irregulars.

French - double rax xbow spam. Need I say any more!

Any advice before I give up altogether. I was bad with Ports, but appear even worse with Japs!

I'm no expert, but from my experience, it's surprising how far 3 or 4 nagis can take you.

Hey Ruminator, post some recs and we'll help you. I'll tell you this much that being a primarily Russia player that when I see Japan pop up in QS, I lick my chops....

I don't think buliding naginata early is an option though as econ not good enough at that point.

Why not? Ship ashi and make nagis, like trashard said, 3 nagis are enough to have a massacre.

[quote=""Sporting_Lisbon""]

I don't think buliding naginata early is an option though as econ not good enough at that point.

Why not? Ship ashi and make nagis, like trashard said, 3 nagis are enough to have a massacre.[/quote]You have no idea, I aged with togoshu shrine, made 3 nagi(all gold i had atm) he attacked with 33 strets, i attacked with 3 nagi + 4 sentries(idk....) and i killed all the strets without losing a nagi.

Age with the ranged attack boost/3 yumi wonder. Do a turtle and shrine boom and overwhelm him with your OP units once you get on your feet.

Refer to my game vs. Takuman on exactly how to do this.

Handling French Xbow spam is a pain and I lost recently to a player who did that strat..

How to handle that is beyond me.. especially with the pressure keeping me locked in town while his villie gather bonus helps him out.. Even when I couldn't do much at my base vs him I took my Nag to his base because of his added pikes but then when I got there his op villies are to strong and his pikes where on my tail.

I'll post the game if I can find it..

Edit : Found it posted in rec forum.
http://www.aoe3clan.com/index.php?name= ... 2635#12635

[quote=""BashUgood""]op villies[/quote]
Not true, they're shocking against cavalry, and they're not OP, they're unique.

So, even 3 naginata will be worth it providing they don't build musk!

Against these nations, which age up wonder is recommended? I'm wondering about golden pavilion firstly. GP would give me some instant yumi and bonus but I would then need to drop a stable to build naginata. Would I then be best to take hand or ranged damage increase from the wonder?

Finally, what about those Germans?! That 9xbow + 2 uhlan shipment is a nightmare to deal with. Those 2 uhlans can effectively block naginata from their xbows while they get spttered with ranged fire.

The Stretlet/French XBOW rush reminds me a lot of the old AOM Set slinger spam... not sure how that's relevant at all but anyway.

As Japan I charge with Nags and slip in a few Samurai, most players will target the Nags while the Samurai spin attack will devastate the clustered strets.

Against the French raiding is a must. Their economy is rocking with only half the villagers so you must keep their numbers low. Yumis are a decent counter to xbows so spam them if you must.