Why is Japan such popular nation in the game?

[British Coffee]

Personally, I think they are the weakest nation in pretty much every age. Their bonus of attacking town centre is merely a nuisance, peace treaty bonus is laughable unless you spend minimum time on this game and since heavy infantry are pretty much only good for destroying leftover buildings, samurai aren't as good as something like longbows or chevaliers. On the contrary, Looking at the trade goods stolen, I always seem to have excess silk lying around in my trading post and I do think that I mostly bump into Japanese towns to attack when I'm raiding. Any thoughts on this trend?

 

[Veldan]

They're actually a good starting nation, because early on you don't have many towers yet, so the effective +1 tower with high HP that the Town Center becomes really makes a difference. I remember avoiding Japanese nations when I was classical / medieval because of that. So I can understand why people choose Japanese when starting the game.

But yeah, in Enlightenment Age and higher the defense bonus is laughable, and the unique unit is pretty much the worst of all.

 

[helix900]

At about over 2000 medals its almost impossible to find Japanese bases to attack and get silk from.

 

[Unsymmetrical Trashcan]

I only see their defense bonus as "a building which calvary will ignore" but really, the nation's bonuses are not appealing, because
1. I play constantly, so peace treaties are not needed.
2. The town center does so little damage (someone correct me on that if I am wrong)
3.Their unique unit is considered weak, when compared to nation's like Roman and German (in my opinion)

What I might do to improve
Unique unit should have increase speed, runs faster than normal infantry for obvious reason.

Abolish the whole peace treaty thing and change it to something similar to faster spawn time for garrisons and stables.

 

[Parmenion]

If the TC actually hit planes it would help a little in later ages. The Japanese nation does indeed need a few buffs to make it a viable choice from EA and onwards.

 

[Quovatis]

Yeah, it's really strong in early ages, but worthless in later ages. The unique unit got a big buff recently, but you can get the same troop as German with much better perks.

 

[hot dog champion]

I was one of the players who chose Japanese at the early stages for the TC tower reason. Soon after, I discovered a process of using the peace treaties and their 25% extra length to eliminate being attacked for 21 days at a time.

Now, with the combination of 25% PT length, the Eiffel Tower, and now dock PTs, I can go almost the entire time without worry of being attacked. Unfortunately, you do need some crowns to pay for the paid PTs, but that is about the only downside. The only other downside is the lack of a good special unit like you guys stated. But now I can play the game however I like, focusing on whatever I wish, without losing a ton of loot to attacks or medals at all. This play style obviously isn't for everyone, but it works for me.

If you're curious to know the pattern of PTs I use, I'd gladly share. Just let me know.

 

[Big Daddy]

I played Japanese since starting the game. Yes they appear to be the weakest nation, they definitely could use a boost in the later eras. But I do like the extra challenge. I start my grandchildren playing British nation since it take a less of an effort on the attackers part to be a win minimal stars each attack. Basically guaranteeing them a win with ever attack playing their account through the Industrial era. I have taken my account up as high 2753 medals until hitting a wall having mostly well established Global players to choose from for resources. I normally got the bulk of the resources, but loosing the bulk of the troops and using to many tactic on one attack with to long retaining time. But I mostly saw it as a short coming in my strategy, unless game crashed during my attack. Now playing K1 medal range, getting knocked down not playing through the 10 day Turkeyday family time. Still playing industrial era at XP level 156, with no intehntion of going Global till more Uneversity research is completed, now that Atomic era has been released. In my oppinion Infantry can be more statigicly used than just taking out left over buildings. First they make a great distraction for the mortars attacking a single Infantry opposed to attacking the main army without using a tactic on the mortar. Two use them to take out the buildings that distract the shooters and artilery, keeping the main army focusing on attacking the buildings I want them to take out and keep moving the direction I want them to go. Having mostly completing tier one of CtG research in the Uni. through level 7, I can now drop 6/8 Infantry attacking a single level 10 tower behind level 10/11 walls, breaking through the wall and taking out the tower only losing 3/5 of those Infantry troops. Also I like the option of using the longer peace treaty durations now 22 hours, should be 24 in a couple days for being 4/5 stared. Giving me extra time to reload on defensive and offensive blessings without using any crowns. Plus extra time needed for harvesting trees and mines stockpiling more cider and metal for tactical blessing that I will surely be needed for my next round of attacks. Drawback being this technique doesn't does not aid you climbing in medal count.