Russia vs Japan

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United States of America CurassierAndCurassier
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Russia vs Japan

Post by CurassierAndCurassier »

Hey all, so I decided to try my hand at a strategy write up, but seeing how my PR is hardly impressive, I'm directing this one specifically towards newer players, around the Lance Corporal to Master Serg range. Any 2nd Lieuts and up feel free to correct what I say.

So, if you're starting out in the world of AOE3 multiplayer, there's one civ you are going to see a lot. Japan.

Now, Japan has fallen out of favor a bit by stronger players because, its boom is incredible, it's also pretty easily countered if you know what you're doing. But lower level players will use Japan very often, because very often their competition will not know how to fight Japan and so a Japan player will most likely be allowed to shrine boom at will.

Japan was/is definitely a thorn in my side. I struggled as France. I was hopeless as Britain. Sick of losing all the time despite ostensibly knowing how to beat them, I went digging for strategies and what follows is my new go to against Japan: I've lost using it once, when I picked the wrong deck. Otherwise, I've not yet lost with it.

Civ: Russia

Build Order: Distributism-5 Cossacks-700c-13 Strelets-17 Strelets-Suvorov Reforms (sometimes skipping one of the strelet shipments.)

The Suvorov Reforms card, for those of you who don't know, turn all your weak, spammable strelets into Musketeers. It's the ONLY unit transformation card in the game that turns units of one type into another. You go from anti-infantry to anti-cavalry. That's pretty important to why this strategy works for me.

Age I

This is pretty fluid, you're gonna want to send distributism for one. I always age up with 17 vills as well, since Japan will almost never try to pressure you early and you'll want to be a little greedy. I don't build TPs, since you'll need that wood for Blockhouses and Strelets, and I prioritize wood and coin treasures. If you start with coin, build a house and a market. With no coin, 2 houses and add in the market later. Make sure you scout out all the hunts. Age up with the Quartermaster.

Age II

In transition, move 9-10 villagers to wood, and when you near 250, send a villager to build a somewhat forward Blockhouse. Somewhat is the key word here. You want to corner the Japan player and make them feel defensive, but you also don't want to force them to attack it. Because this is a bluff. Yes, you will use the Blockhouse aggressively, but not now. You wait til Age 3. This will probably surprise a PR 14-20 Japan player, as they'll probably be someone who has a good grasp of civs basic strategies. But not anything more. They will respond defensively, and when you send 5 Cossacks to raid/harass him he will probably become more convinced that you're setting up for an age 2 battle. But you're not. Send 700 coin and age up. In the meantime keep about a third of your villagers on wood, building houses and Strelet batches constantly. When the 700c comes, collect with 2 vills and move everyone else to food. Age up with The Adventurer.

Optional: If you like, go full Aizamk and build a church and get two spies out to further delay his shrine boom by killing his monks.

Age III

This is the critical moment. As soon as you age up, Japan is going to pressure you. They'll be caught off guard, perhaps, but they will press your blockhouses, or at least poke at it. If he saw your Strelet batches, there will probably be lots of Naginata. Do NOT let your Strelets die to them. Kite, don't engage in a brawl, leave the BHs for dead if you have to. You have to buy the time for Suvorov Reforms. As the card is coming, research Veteran Musketeers.

There is an incredible timing around 10-13 minutes into this game where Japan decides to press, and at first you'll be playing defense. And then Suvorov Reforms kicks in and it's a massacre. Remember, this is the only card that changes the type of unit. Those Naginata will suddenly be useless. You'll have a mass of ~50 upgraded heavy infantry against light cav and unupgraded infantry. When the trap is sprung, you counter attack and, ideally, take out his army in one move. At that point, the game is yours.
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United States of America rickytickitembo
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Re: Russia vs Japan

Post by rickytickitembo »

Sioux have a transformation card as well, that turns axe riders into Rifle riders. It's available in age two (I think it's called Evening star).
My favorite donut is chocolate Aiz.
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United States of America CurassierAndCurassier
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Re: Russia vs Japan

Post by CurassierAndCurassier »

rickytickitembo wrote:Sioux have a transformation card as well, that turns axe riders into Rifle riders. It's available in age two (I think it's called Evening star).

You're right. I was thinking that I might've missed something from the Warchief civs.
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China fei123456
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Re: Russia vs Japan

Post by fei123456 »

i really don't think this would work vs a 1st lt up japan.
if he starts stable, you won't have the chance to age up at all. you just lose fb and gg.
and even if he doesnt do anything, do you realise how bad your eco is? you won't have the eco to train strelets at all.
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United States of America CurassierAndCurassier
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Re: Russia vs Japan

Post by CurassierAndCurassier »

In my experience eco is fine as long as you can get steel traps. I get pretty regular batches of 20 Strelets.

But as I said, this is specifically for mid range players. Someone with a more nuanced grasp of the game will probably sniff out the bluff

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