The Japanese are a military heavy nation that focuses on infantry. Their Barracks units get cheaper with each Age increase, provided they also have the equivalent Military research. Japan's heavy infantry unique unit line also receives this bonus, making them some of the cheapest available unique units. Their strategies often revolve around choosing an age to strike in, booming until they get near that point, and then flooding the battlefields with huge numbers of cheap infantry. This could either be an early Ancient Age rush with 5-6 Bushi (unique heavy infantry) and some Slinger support, or it could come as late as Gunpowder Age with a huge flood of Arquebusier with Samurai and Bombard support.

The Japanese are particularly effective with rare resources like Salt and Sugar, which further reduce the cost of their infantry.

Japanese players also have a great economy to work from. With cheaper, more productive Farms Japanese players are able to create plenty of Citizens to work their gather buildings while still creating an infantry-based army. Often this extra Food trickles into new Woodcutter's Camps and enhanced Timber income because Japanese players don't have a commerce limit bonus like many other nations. With that extra Timber and a good Knowledge income, Japanese players will generally try to keep their Commerce technologies a bit higher than normal.

Another technology Japanese players often utilize is plunging their Military tech line. Each Military research above their current Age stacks an additional 5% reduction in military costs onto their already cheap units.

Barracks units created 7% cheaper and 10% faster, for each Age plus Military research.


Why is it important?

This bonus allows Japanese players to field large armies, and to create them much faster than other nations.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Focus on infantry: When choosing which units you want to build, focus on infantry. If you choose to add cavalry to the mix, Light Cavalry will probably be your best bet because you should have plenty of Food, and because you'll want most of your Metal to go into your unique units which are Heavy Infantry.

Barracks units do 5% more damage vs. Buildings for each Age plus Military research.

Why is it important?

Not only do the Japanese have plenty of infantry, those infantry deal bonus damage against buildings. This allows their Heavy Infantry to function as full-fledged siege units in many situations. Archers and Light Infantry still do fairly weak damage against buildings, even with this bonus.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Use Heavy Infantry for sieging Cities or Forts: Heavy infantry already receives bonus damage when attacking buildings. The Japanese damage bonus, combined with the normal heavy infantry bonus damage, and the fact that the Japanese have a unique heavy infantry unit up through Enlightenment Age makes them particularly lethal to buildings.
  
  
• Ancient Age Rush: This bonus helps out the Japanese ancient age rush, though the bonus is minor during Ancient Age.

Ships are 10% cheaper and Aircraft Carriers created 33% faster.


Why is it important?

This is a small, but useful bonus for Japanese players on sea maps. The bonus also applies to their Fishing Ships, which is helpful for gathering resources early in the game. The bonus is fairly helpful in creating a large fleet of ships, though this bonus alone won't carry you to victory.

Building Aircraft Carriers faster is another rather small bonus with limited applications. It's still helpful to get Aircraft Carriers constructed that much quicker, but it's doubtful that the bonus will spell the difference between victory and defeat in all but the rarest of circumstances.

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Early fishing: Regardless of your nation, early fishing is a very good way to jumpstart your economy. With 10% cheaper fishing ships, you should always get Commerce 1 and build a Dock before getting your 2nd City on sea maps.
  
  
• Use sea power: Make use of your advantage on the seas, so long as there is opportunity to damage your opponent's assets on the land. If he has no important structures that can be bombarded from the sea, it might not be a good idea to make many military ships - aside from just enough ships to secure your fishing enterprises.

Farms are 50% cheaper. Farms and Fishermen produce +25% resources.

Why is it important?

This bonus significantly helps Food income throughout the game and also saves Japanese players a lot of early Timber. Farms are so cheap that it's often useful to complete extra Farms before you have the Citizens to man them, simply to get the one-time Food bonus (often helpful in researching Classical Age a little quicker).

On sea maps, Japanese players have no excuse not to get onto the seas and take advantage of their excellent fishing capabilities. Remember that fishing ships aren't very expensive and gather 2 separate resources at once. This makes them much more efficient than Citizens at harvesting resources in the early stages of the game (when squeezing efficiency out of your economy is most important).

How do I maximize this nation power?

• Early fishing: There are very few situations where you won't want to take advantage of this nation power early on a sea map. Unless you plan on attacking extremely early, you should strongly consider researching Commerce 1 before Civic 1 and start creating fishing ships.
  
  
• Build extra farms at your second city: The farms at your first city will get built only slightly ahead of schedule with the cheaper cost. The farms at your second city should be built much sooner than normal. Build 4-5 farms at the second city, even if you don't have the Commerce Limit or citizens to make use of them all immediately. The extra Food you'll get from building the farms will be helpful for affording library techs earlier than normal.
  
  
• Keep Food income close to Commerce Limit or maxed: With this bonus, you should keep close tabs on your Food income and ensure that it's always either maxed at your current commerce limit or very close to maxed.

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