A Guide to Club Rushing and Other Alternate Japan Play
Posted: 13 Jun 2017, 13:46
One of my favourite civilizations in age of empires is Japan, and they are by far my most played civilization. They are incredibly versatile, adaptable, and most of all, strong. They are easily one of the most powerful civs on RE quick search due to their lack of map-dependency and ease in adapting. This guide will show you a few of the many ways to play Japan, with most of my focus being on the Club Rush.
[spoiler=intro]In the current meta, Japan has sort of stagnated. Everyone seems to just do Kami and Port Consulate shrine boom regardless of the map, matchup, or crate start. This has caused Japan to turn from a favorite civ for many players and viewers to one of the more boring ones. It has also caused the current EP player base to think they are weaker than they actually are.
Japan is a special civ because they have four practical cards to send first in age 1, while nearly every other civ has two at best. This, coupled with the multitude of cards to send in age two causes them to be, in my opinion, one of the most adaptable and probably the least map-dependent civ in the game. This makes them probably one of the most strong civs in RE quicksearch (arguably better than Ottoman and Iroquois). Most of these strategies I learned and worked on in quicksearch, so take everything I say regarding balance with a grain of salt.
Japan is also interesting because they have at least five boom mechanics. They can ship villagers, ship boats, shrine boom, get consulate techs, or do many market techs early. Their TP play is also not too poor (there may be very good undiscovered options with the Spanish consulate but that’s another subject), but is really only practical if the other player does stagecoach first. Most civs only have two or three boom mechanics, making Japan one of the most versatile and adaptable civs due to their multitude of options.
What has happened in the current meta is that players are ignoring Japan’s aggressive options and relying mostly on shrines to boom. This creates a very predictable play style which can be countered fairly easily. The point of this guide is to teach you about the strongest option for aggressive Japan play, the club rush, as well as other ways to play besides port consulate and kami shrine booming. The club rush is a very strong strategy because it is a large number of very strong units very early, and has an incredibly good economic follow-up.
This guide will show you only a few ways to club rush and a few other ways to play Japan, but know that there are a multitude of ways to play Japan and these strategies are just what I have found to be strong and effective, but I am excited to see people prove me wrong.[/spoiler]
Disclaimer:
Before you start to read these strategies, please know that these are only a few of the myriad ways to do the club rush and other strategies. I have seen people do club rushes without ever shipping 300 export, and that probably works as well. However, all of the club rush strategies I will detail here involve shipping 300 export. I also never talk about using the age 2 daiymo, which is because I find it hard to control and not a very good shipment until you have the shogunate wonder. Just know that, at least in my opinion, Japan is one of the most versatile civs in the game and they probably have the most card options of any civ at any point in the game. Thus, their build orders are numerous and it is quite difficult to call one build order “the best”, unlike most other civs.
[spoiler=The Basic Club Rush]The Basic Club Rush
So, contrary to the name, the basic club rush is actually most commonly and probably best used as a defensive counter-rush build. Here is the build order to the basic club rush with the variations you can make for each map when it comes to card order and crate start.
Crate Starts:
500/400f, 300w: this is your best crate start. Build two shrines with the wood. If you get like a 50 or 40 wood treasure early on, chop for a third. Trading Post start can also be quite good. In that case just chop 25 wood real quick, and depending on the map build the TP with 1 or 2 monks. 2 monks build slightly faster than a euro explorer and 1 builds slightly slower.
500/400f, 200w: this is a decent crate start. Build one shrine and if you get a wood treasure early on, chop for the second shrine. If you start with 500 food, you can chop for a seconds shrine if you want, even without a wood treasure.
500/400f, 200w, 100c: this is Japan’s worse crate start. Either build 1 shrine, or If you have at least 50 coin in treasures in your base, build a market, research the first berry tech and buy the wood for your shrine.
Ok, so now we have the crate starts in order you now have to decide what your first age 1 card is going to be. Generally, if you are doing a very aggressive build, your two options are 300 wood or 3 boats. The other variation of the club rush, which is more geared towards a later timing, 2 villagers and kami can become practical choices. If you know you aren’t going to win with this push (or if you are doing a defensive rush vs. something like india or otto), even with 300w or 3 boats, 2 vills or kami can be practical.
1) 300w (land maps or ultra-aggression) / 3 boats (any map with a water spawn point)
Age with Toshogu shrine, and put as many villagers on it as you wish. I generally put 1 or none. Leave 6 vills on food, the rest and shrines go to wood. New vills to wood. With 300w, build 3 or 4 shrines in transition, and with 3 boats build 2 or 3 (an extra shrine means a later military building, but you still get your clubs at the same time). Once you have 200 wood, lay down your consulate, this can be forward or in base. Aim to have at least 100w in bank when you hit colonial. You can build one fewer shrine in transition if you want to have an earlier push.
2) 300 export
With the aggressive build, ship 300 export first. Once your consulate is up, ally with japan and put 10 yamabushi in queue. Once the barracks is up, put ashis in queue. Villager distribution should be 1 or 2 on coin, the rest on food, shrines on coin. New villagers go where they are needed to keep this ratio.
3) 5 ashi
Once the 5 ashi come, it should be time to push if you fb’d, or push their fb if you have enough units. If you are being the aggressor, you should have 10 clubs and 15 or 20 ashi, depending on how early your barracks got up. You now also have a choice, if you want to try and end the game, train 3 more clubs as well as another 5 ashi, and also ship 5 ashi or ashi attack next. If you want to be safe, queue the military rickshaw at the consulate instead of the extra clubs.
4) 5 ashi (for prolonged aggression with 3 more clubs) / 600 wood (if you went stable rickshaw or need to transition to eco) / 600 coin (if you went stable rickshaw, have at least 70 shrine pop, and want to push soon)
So after this shipment comes, your course of action is pretty much set. If you went for 5 more ashi, you are going to want to keep pushing and doing damage. If you went for 600 wood, you will want to pull back, build a market if you do not have one already, get market ups and more shrines, train a few nagi, then get ready to push again or age.
5) 600 coin (for age-up or nagi mass) / Ashi attack (for long colonial) / 4 vills or 5 boats (eco advantage or if you have a mixed composition and an attack card would be negligible)
After this point, it is pretty much up to you. Hopefully you have either killed them already or crippled them enough that all you have to do is force a fight and you’ll win. If you decided to age, in many cases it’s not the worst to go straight to industrial, as you should have a decent standing army and your opponent should be in a fairly weak position.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Cavalry Start]The Cavalry Start
This variation is one of the best ways to absolutely destroy a Russia rush, and is a very good counter to a longbow/xbow – pike rush. As the name suggests, in this variation you start with a stable as opposed to a barracks. You will easily be able to get out at least 8 nagi, 10-13 clubs, as well as 5 yumi by the time your second shipment comes. This is a good option against xbow/pike in the right circumstances, but sometimes it can be more practical to just start yumi in that situation.
Crate Starts: See “Basic Club Rush”
So essentially, your age 1 will be the exact same as with the basic club rush. First card options are the same, except it may be more practical to do 2 villagers early if you plan on doing the 600w first variation.
1) 3 boats (any map with water) / 300w (for 300 export first) / 2 villagers (for slower build)
If you decide to do 600 wood first, you are setting yourself up for a later timing out onto their forward base, which is practical mostly against xbow/pike. In transition to colonial, build 4 shrines if you shipped 300 wood, and 3 shrines if you went 3 boats or 2 vills. If you want to do 600 wood first, it is best to build an extra shrine or two in transition and delay your consulate until the wood comes, as you won’t ally with anyone until 300 export comes. Under no circumstances is it recommended to delay your stable. Villager distribution should be about half to food and half to coin, and with shrines on coin.
2) 600 wood (for slower build and later timing, best with a TP start) / 300 export (for earlier timing and better defense against early pressure)
With the 300 export, immediately queue Japanese Isolation at the consulate and then 10 clubs. You should queue a nagi at the stable once it gets up, regardless of your first shipment. Against Russia, you can kill their initial push fairly easily, especially if you call your irregulars. After you kill their first push, you can push out onto the blockhouse and siege it quite quickly. This situation can also present itself against aggressive xbow/pike. If you push early like this, go for the 12-13 club variation so you can kill their fb even more easily. Most commonly though, you will want to wait for your next shipment, which will be 5 yumi.
3) 300 export (if you went 600 wood) / 5 yumi (if you went 300 export)
With the 600w, you should have gotten market ups, a consulate, as well as a barracks. With the 300 export you will do the same as you did if you shipped it first, though you should always go for 13 clubs, as you do not need the military rickshaw. Train mostly nagi, though if you did 600w, you can normally mix in a batch or two of yumi. If you did 300 export first, you now have that juicy 8 nagi, 10-13 club, 5 yumi push and you are in an excellent position to kill their forward base if you were able to kill most of their early units.
4) 5 yumi (for the 600 wood timing or continued pressure) / 600 wood (for shrines and market if you did 300 export) / 600 coin (for two full batches of nagi and yumi)
After your fourth shipment (third colonial one), it is pretty much up to you again. All of the options I stated for the basic club rush are viable for the cav start variation, but now you can also send yumi attack as well. Generally I am able to maintain almost entirely yumi/nagi in colonial without much trouble, as you will still get a few clubs here and there, but if your opponent is making a lot of cav, it may be good to add some ashi as nagi don’t become insane body-blocking cav until age 3.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Yumi Start]The Yumi Start
So the yumi start is very similar to the basic club rush, though is almost exclusively used as an anti-rush build. This variation is focused a little bit more on eco and makes Kami a more practical age 1 card, though I would still not start port consulate if you go 300 export first, though if you do 600 wood first it can be practical if you can time ending relations well. This build is essentially the in-between of full on yumi-wall laming, and an all-in club rush.
Crate starts: See “The Basic Club Rush” In this variation, if you know you are doing 600 wood as your first card, you can sometimes get away with starting port consulate on a 300 wood start. I have only tried it a few times, thus why I am not fully supporting it.
Age 1 is exactly the same as the previous two variations.
1) 3 boats (any map with water flag) / 300 wood (against hard aggression) / 2 villagers (eco option for low hunt/land maps) / Heavenly Kami (eco option for medium/high-hunt maps)
If you started with a market, queue the first wood cutting upgrade before you switch your villagers to wood. 6 villagers on food, shrines and remaining vills to wood. While aging, build 4 shrines if you went 300 wood or Heavenly kami, and 3 shrines if you went 2 villagers or 3 boats. If you are planning on going 600 wood first, build 1 or 2 extra shrines and delay your consulate until the 600 wood arrives. When you reach age 2, villager distribution is half to food, half to wood, shrines on wood. Make sure you hit age 2 with 200 wood in bank and immediately lay down a barracks. Be conscious of how you build your base and add a few walls if you want.
2) 300 export (against hard aggression) / 600 wood (this is the normal option)
For the 600 wood variation, immediately start building a consulate, get market ups, and train yumi. You can even lay down a stable as well. If your opponent trains pikemen in their first batch, you can push out a bit with your first 5 yumi to push them off the shrine, but if they start with crossbows or longbows, keep the yumi back and try to use their range advantage to kill some crossbowmen.
Against brits, the yumi start is good, but honestly I much prefer the stable start with an early barracks, as longbows are much better than yumi in early age 2. However, starting pikes is usually the norm for brits on EP nowadays, so starting yumi with an early stable after is equally viable. Because brits are up so early, sometimes you can even scout their first batch before you even have a military building up, so you can decide whether to start cav or yumi.
3) 600 wood (if you went 300 export first and aren’t getting pushed super hard) / 300 export (if you went 600 wood first) / 5 yumi/ashi (if you are getting pushed hard and went 300 export first)
This build is a little more open-ended than the others, so I won’t be telling you exactly what to do after this point. Essentially, with the clubs you get from the consulate and the yumi (and hopefully nagi as well) that you have trained, you either want to force an engagement in age 2 and attempt to kill their fb to allow a safe age up, or use your units purely for defense, and instead try to age and break their position in age 3. Luckily with this build you will have the same compostion in age 2 and in age 3, which means you don’t have to upgrade your ashi unless you are in a matchup where you should.[/spoiler]
Semi-ff Builds:
[spoiler=The Boat Build]to do[/spoiler]
Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions I would be more then welcome to hear them, criticisms too! I have some recorded games attached, but will be trying to add more. Not all of them are of me playing. Also, the decks I have attatched now are what I use on my quicksearch account. For my EP and non-quicksearch decks, I normally do not have 8 ashi (7 vills or 1k wood instead), and for EP decks I don't have Way of the Bow because it is pretty much useless (instead I go for either 7 vills, 1k wood, or something like 5 samurai or 8 ashi, or even the age 3 daiymo).
[spoiler=intro]In the current meta, Japan has sort of stagnated. Everyone seems to just do Kami and Port Consulate shrine boom regardless of the map, matchup, or crate start. This has caused Japan to turn from a favorite civ for many players and viewers to one of the more boring ones. It has also caused the current EP player base to think they are weaker than they actually are.
Japan is a special civ because they have four practical cards to send first in age 1, while nearly every other civ has two at best. This, coupled with the multitude of cards to send in age two causes them to be, in my opinion, one of the most adaptable and probably the least map-dependent civ in the game. This makes them probably one of the most strong civs in RE quicksearch (arguably better than Ottoman and Iroquois). Most of these strategies I learned and worked on in quicksearch, so take everything I say regarding balance with a grain of salt.
Japan is also interesting because they have at least five boom mechanics. They can ship villagers, ship boats, shrine boom, get consulate techs, or do many market techs early. Their TP play is also not too poor (there may be very good undiscovered options with the Spanish consulate but that’s another subject), but is really only practical if the other player does stagecoach first. Most civs only have two or three boom mechanics, making Japan one of the most versatile and adaptable civs due to their multitude of options.
What has happened in the current meta is that players are ignoring Japan’s aggressive options and relying mostly on shrines to boom. This creates a very predictable play style which can be countered fairly easily. The point of this guide is to teach you about the strongest option for aggressive Japan play, the club rush, as well as other ways to play besides port consulate and kami shrine booming. The club rush is a very strong strategy because it is a large number of very strong units very early, and has an incredibly good economic follow-up.
This guide will show you only a few ways to club rush and a few other ways to play Japan, but know that there are a multitude of ways to play Japan and these strategies are just what I have found to be strong and effective, but I am excited to see people prove me wrong.[/spoiler]
Disclaimer:
Before you start to read these strategies, please know that these are only a few of the myriad ways to do the club rush and other strategies. I have seen people do club rushes without ever shipping 300 export, and that probably works as well. However, all of the club rush strategies I will detail here involve shipping 300 export. I also never talk about using the age 2 daiymo, which is because I find it hard to control and not a very good shipment until you have the shogunate wonder. Just know that, at least in my opinion, Japan is one of the most versatile civs in the game and they probably have the most card options of any civ at any point in the game. Thus, their build orders are numerous and it is quite difficult to call one build order “the best”, unlike most other civs.
[spoiler=The Basic Club Rush]The Basic Club Rush
So, contrary to the name, the basic club rush is actually most commonly and probably best used as a defensive counter-rush build. Here is the build order to the basic club rush with the variations you can make for each map when it comes to card order and crate start.
Crate Starts:
500/400f, 300w: this is your best crate start. Build two shrines with the wood. If you get like a 50 or 40 wood treasure early on, chop for a third. Trading Post start can also be quite good. In that case just chop 25 wood real quick, and depending on the map build the TP with 1 or 2 monks. 2 monks build slightly faster than a euro explorer and 1 builds slightly slower.
500/400f, 200w: this is a decent crate start. Build one shrine and if you get a wood treasure early on, chop for the second shrine. If you start with 500 food, you can chop for a seconds shrine if you want, even without a wood treasure.
500/400f, 200w, 100c: this is Japan’s worse crate start. Either build 1 shrine, or If you have at least 50 coin in treasures in your base, build a market, research the first berry tech and buy the wood for your shrine.
Ok, so now we have the crate starts in order you now have to decide what your first age 1 card is going to be. Generally, if you are doing a very aggressive build, your two options are 300 wood or 3 boats. The other variation of the club rush, which is more geared towards a later timing, 2 villagers and kami can become practical choices. If you know you aren’t going to win with this push (or if you are doing a defensive rush vs. something like india or otto), even with 300w or 3 boats, 2 vills or kami can be practical.
1) 300w (land maps or ultra-aggression) / 3 boats (any map with a water spawn point)
Age with Toshogu shrine, and put as many villagers on it as you wish. I generally put 1 or none. Leave 6 vills on food, the rest and shrines go to wood. New vills to wood. With 300w, build 3 or 4 shrines in transition, and with 3 boats build 2 or 3 (an extra shrine means a later military building, but you still get your clubs at the same time). Once you have 200 wood, lay down your consulate, this can be forward or in base. Aim to have at least 100w in bank when you hit colonial. You can build one fewer shrine in transition if you want to have an earlier push.
2) 300 export
With the aggressive build, ship 300 export first. Once your consulate is up, ally with japan and put 10 yamabushi in queue. Once the barracks is up, put ashis in queue. Villager distribution should be 1 or 2 on coin, the rest on food, shrines on coin. New villagers go where they are needed to keep this ratio.
3) 5 ashi
Once the 5 ashi come, it should be time to push if you fb’d, or push their fb if you have enough units. If you are being the aggressor, you should have 10 clubs and 15 or 20 ashi, depending on how early your barracks got up. You now also have a choice, if you want to try and end the game, train 3 more clubs as well as another 5 ashi, and also ship 5 ashi or ashi attack next. If you want to be safe, queue the military rickshaw at the consulate instead of the extra clubs.
4) 5 ashi (for prolonged aggression with 3 more clubs) / 600 wood (if you went stable rickshaw or need to transition to eco) / 600 coin (if you went stable rickshaw, have at least 70 shrine pop, and want to push soon)
So after this shipment comes, your course of action is pretty much set. If you went for 5 more ashi, you are going to want to keep pushing and doing damage. If you went for 600 wood, you will want to pull back, build a market if you do not have one already, get market ups and more shrines, train a few nagi, then get ready to push again or age.
5) 600 coin (for age-up or nagi mass) / Ashi attack (for long colonial) / 4 vills or 5 boats (eco advantage or if you have a mixed composition and an attack card would be negligible)
After this point, it is pretty much up to you. Hopefully you have either killed them already or crippled them enough that all you have to do is force a fight and you’ll win. If you decided to age, in many cases it’s not the worst to go straight to industrial, as you should have a decent standing army and your opponent should be in a fairly weak position.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Cavalry Start]The Cavalry Start
This variation is one of the best ways to absolutely destroy a Russia rush, and is a very good counter to a longbow/xbow – pike rush. As the name suggests, in this variation you start with a stable as opposed to a barracks. You will easily be able to get out at least 8 nagi, 10-13 clubs, as well as 5 yumi by the time your second shipment comes. This is a good option against xbow/pike in the right circumstances, but sometimes it can be more practical to just start yumi in that situation.
Crate Starts: See “Basic Club Rush”
So essentially, your age 1 will be the exact same as with the basic club rush. First card options are the same, except it may be more practical to do 2 villagers early if you plan on doing the 600w first variation.
1) 3 boats (any map with water) / 300w (for 300 export first) / 2 villagers (for slower build)
If you decide to do 600 wood first, you are setting yourself up for a later timing out onto their forward base, which is practical mostly against xbow/pike. In transition to colonial, build 4 shrines if you shipped 300 wood, and 3 shrines if you went 3 boats or 2 vills. If you want to do 600 wood first, it is best to build an extra shrine or two in transition and delay your consulate until the wood comes, as you won’t ally with anyone until 300 export comes. Under no circumstances is it recommended to delay your stable. Villager distribution should be about half to food and half to coin, and with shrines on coin.
2) 600 wood (for slower build and later timing, best with a TP start) / 300 export (for earlier timing and better defense against early pressure)
With the 300 export, immediately queue Japanese Isolation at the consulate and then 10 clubs. You should queue a nagi at the stable once it gets up, regardless of your first shipment. Against Russia, you can kill their initial push fairly easily, especially if you call your irregulars. After you kill their first push, you can push out onto the blockhouse and siege it quite quickly. This situation can also present itself against aggressive xbow/pike. If you push early like this, go for the 12-13 club variation so you can kill their fb even more easily. Most commonly though, you will want to wait for your next shipment, which will be 5 yumi.
3) 300 export (if you went 600 wood) / 5 yumi (if you went 300 export)
With the 600w, you should have gotten market ups, a consulate, as well as a barracks. With the 300 export you will do the same as you did if you shipped it first, though you should always go for 13 clubs, as you do not need the military rickshaw. Train mostly nagi, though if you did 600w, you can normally mix in a batch or two of yumi. If you did 300 export first, you now have that juicy 8 nagi, 10-13 club, 5 yumi push and you are in an excellent position to kill their forward base if you were able to kill most of their early units.
4) 5 yumi (for the 600 wood timing or continued pressure) / 600 wood (for shrines and market if you did 300 export) / 600 coin (for two full batches of nagi and yumi)
After your fourth shipment (third colonial one), it is pretty much up to you again. All of the options I stated for the basic club rush are viable for the cav start variation, but now you can also send yumi attack as well. Generally I am able to maintain almost entirely yumi/nagi in colonial without much trouble, as you will still get a few clubs here and there, but if your opponent is making a lot of cav, it may be good to add some ashi as nagi don’t become insane body-blocking cav until age 3.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Yumi Start]The Yumi Start
So the yumi start is very similar to the basic club rush, though is almost exclusively used as an anti-rush build. This variation is focused a little bit more on eco and makes Kami a more practical age 1 card, though I would still not start port consulate if you go 300 export first, though if you do 600 wood first it can be practical if you can time ending relations well. This build is essentially the in-between of full on yumi-wall laming, and an all-in club rush.
Crate starts: See “The Basic Club Rush” In this variation, if you know you are doing 600 wood as your first card, you can sometimes get away with starting port consulate on a 300 wood start. I have only tried it a few times, thus why I am not fully supporting it.
Age 1 is exactly the same as the previous two variations.
1) 3 boats (any map with water flag) / 300 wood (against hard aggression) / 2 villagers (eco option for low hunt/land maps) / Heavenly Kami (eco option for medium/high-hunt maps)
If you started with a market, queue the first wood cutting upgrade before you switch your villagers to wood. 6 villagers on food, shrines and remaining vills to wood. While aging, build 4 shrines if you went 300 wood or Heavenly kami, and 3 shrines if you went 2 villagers or 3 boats. If you are planning on going 600 wood first, build 1 or 2 extra shrines and delay your consulate until the 600 wood arrives. When you reach age 2, villager distribution is half to food, half to wood, shrines on wood. Make sure you hit age 2 with 200 wood in bank and immediately lay down a barracks. Be conscious of how you build your base and add a few walls if you want.
2) 300 export (against hard aggression) / 600 wood (this is the normal option)
For the 600 wood variation, immediately start building a consulate, get market ups, and train yumi. You can even lay down a stable as well. If your opponent trains pikemen in their first batch, you can push out a bit with your first 5 yumi to push them off the shrine, but if they start with crossbows or longbows, keep the yumi back and try to use their range advantage to kill some crossbowmen.
Against brits, the yumi start is good, but honestly I much prefer the stable start with an early barracks, as longbows are much better than yumi in early age 2. However, starting pikes is usually the norm for brits on EP nowadays, so starting yumi with an early stable after is equally viable. Because brits are up so early, sometimes you can even scout their first batch before you even have a military building up, so you can decide whether to start cav or yumi.
3) 600 wood (if you went 300 export first and aren’t getting pushed super hard) / 300 export (if you went 600 wood first) / 5 yumi/ashi (if you are getting pushed hard and went 300 export first)
This build is a little more open-ended than the others, so I won’t be telling you exactly what to do after this point. Essentially, with the clubs you get from the consulate and the yumi (and hopefully nagi as well) that you have trained, you either want to force an engagement in age 2 and attempt to kill their fb to allow a safe age up, or use your units purely for defense, and instead try to age and break their position in age 3. Luckily with this build you will have the same compostion in age 2 and in age 3, which means you don’t have to upgrade your ashi unless you are in a matchup where you should.[/spoiler]
Semi-ff Builds:
[spoiler=The Boat Build]to do[/spoiler]
Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions I would be more then welcome to hear them, criticisms too! I have some recorded games attached, but will be trying to add more. Not all of them are of me playing. Also, the decks I have attatched now are what I use on my quicksearch account. For my EP and non-quicksearch decks, I normally do not have 8 ashi (7 vills or 1k wood instead), and for EP decks I don't have Way of the Bow because it is pretty much useless (instead I go for either 7 vills, 1k wood, or something like 5 samurai or 8 ashi, or even the age 3 daiymo).