Spanish FF into yabusame

Japan is considered a poor FF civ. However, thanks to the exploratory work of players in recent years, some builds have been found, usually involving consulate units. The build presented here is part of the effort to find serviceable FF builds for Japan. It counters any sort of FF/FI with artillery backed by musket infantry. It is extremely vulnerable to rushes however.

Note : you need a trade route for the build to work. If you don't have a trade route, replace trade empire with holy refuge (monastery rickshaw).

Game plan :

Ally quickly with the Spanish and use their consulate upgrades to boost your crates and catapult you to age 3. Then mass produce yabusame : long range dragoons that are difficult to counter when massed.

Age I :

Consulate opening. Gather all the crates except the coin one. Leave it on the floor untouched (it is not the end of the world if you collect it, collecting the crate later gets you an extra 25 coin). Build a consulate with one villagers. If you see a wood treasure that can be taken quickly, send all villagers (bar the one building the consulate) to berries. Othervise, chop 25 wood with two villagers before sending everyone to berries.

Ally with the spanish once the consulate is done. Send Trade empire (TP wagon) as your first shipment. We need XP later on for the build to work, so we will not send two villagers. Your monks should now focus on food (faster age 2) and coin (faster age 3) treasures.

Age up at 13/20 population (it is ok to idle) with the toshogu shrine. Build it with 4 villagers. The others stay on food. 

Transition :

If you don't have 125c in bank from treasures, swap the shrines to coin generation. Your second shipment should be Good Faith Agreement. You will receive it before hitting age 2 and you should have your 3rd shipment ready when you reach age 2. Keep your focus on food and coin treasures.

Age II :

Shift your villagers building the wonder back to berries (lest they collect the coin crate on the ground). Research Nanban trade and merchant navy at the consulate. Ship 600c as soon as you can. Once Nanban trade is researched, you can collect the coin crates. Your 600c crates will bring you a total of 750 coin. Add 125 from the initial crate and you only need 125c (treasures or shrines) to get what you need to age up.

Stop producing villagers when you are at 19/40 population. Age up with the shogunate with 6 villagers.

Transition :

Ship 600w (750w in reality). XP treasures help this shipment arrive quicker to give you time to build infrastructure. Build one stable and 4 shrines. Maintain villager production during transition and try to get at least 300c in the bank when the age up is complete. Once you have 300c, shift all your villagers and your shrines on food.

Age III :

You have to do a lot of things quickly.

1. Ship 1000c (1250c in reality).
2. Start producing yabusame from both the stable and the daimio.
3. Once the coin crates arrive gather them with 7 or 8 villagers.
4. Finish your two batches of yabusame. Put your villagers back on food. The timing is very tight. The XP you will gain from training these yabusame will be enough to grant you another shipment. Re-send 1000c and re start the production queue from both daimio and stable.
5. Repeat the operation with the second coin shipment. This time gather with 6 villagers and complete the two batches.
6. Once the second pair of batches is complete, re organise your economy : half villagers on coin, the other half on food.

If the operation is done correctly, you should have 20 yabusame by 9'15. Start poking around. Your next shipment is diplomatic intrigues to pay for bullionism which will net you two shipments for the cost of one. Break relations with the Spanish and pursue isolation policy. Your 8th shipment is 1000w for more shrines (you ar elikely pop capped), market and unit upgrades.

Follow up :

You have map control and a mass of unit that is difficult to shift. You plan is to asphyxiate your enemy and take good trades. Your yabusame fear 3 types of units and the deck has shipments to counter these :

• Fast heavy infantry like rodeleros are the bane of yabusame. Ship samurai to put a frontline in front of your yabusame.
• A large mass of skirmishers can focus fire your yabusame. Intervention (Garrochista if you are still allied with the spanish) and the flaming arrows can help. If is also very easy to produce naginata from your stable.
• Super dragoons like the hakkapelits can rush your yabusame and melee them, bypassing their awesome ranged resistance. Yumi archers and intervention (Yamabushi if you are in isolation) can help you.

If you want to go age 4, ship the food crates. Your economy is very tilted toward coin so getting 1200c is much easier than 2000f, especially since you are restricted to berries.

Anti water variant :

Replace the shipments market with "W" with 2 fune and 2 atakebune.