Guiding Jomon

[PvK]

Seems to me that arrow fodder with shields are available to everyone from independents. Just put them in front of the Samurai, and the "big" problem of enemy archers gets reduced pretty quickly.

I also find the sacred samurai pretty good with a light bless. I usually end up with enough gold that they seem worth recruiting as much as resources allow. They are not to base one's whole strategy on unless playing against the AI or a very small map, but still, I think they're worth it if you think Aka-Oni samurai are worth it, which I do.

Mage power players won't think so, of course.

[Tifone]

Nice guide! This nation is surely challenging to play... maybe a little frustrating if things don't go well in early game.

Would you please be more specific on how would you kit a Ninja for an assassination attempt, to help a n00bie?

[Sombre]

My personal experience suggests you should just be building armies of longbow samurai and ignoring all the rest 90% of the time.

[Aezeal]

my personal experience with dominions in general is that guides that say you don't need much money are wrong.. always ways to spend it... if only to build more castles to build more troops and mages.

saying others can field more (5 on 1) archers than you cus yours are 21 resource is just wrong.. that is why you take production (while others might have sloth) and when you have your 3th castle (which you need with any nation to pump mages more races usually can't use all that combined production anyway... then you can just pump all those archers from 3 castle (or more)

While I can't say that this guide is wrong in which troops you should use (I never played Jomon, never appealed to me) the reasoning/logic behind choices is at least flawed somewhat. (and I just believe Sombre in he says archers are what one should use.. but that is one of my weak points )

PS I wonder what general idea about kitting assasins is too. I haven't played much nations which have them as recruitables but I use the merc sometime. I don't the assasins I've used effective so I dont'kit them out (loosing stuff) then again.. they PROBABLY aren't effective because I haven't kitted them.

The tip to use bows seems very good (I was thinking melee weapons and armor most of the time) might try that. A strong bow should help against most mages.

PS I like your clear research priorities, can all those spells be cast out of the box by mages or are boosters needed?

[Ming]

Good guide. You may want to mention that Jomon's Master mage has a 42% chance of being able to make fetish. If you can find 2 water boosters, they can make clams 42% of the time too.

I haven't played Jomon yet but this guide certainly stirred my interest.

Not sure if A4 is absolutely essential since indie inf can shield your shieldless inf.

Not sure about samurai longbow vs. other troops but suspect you'll need both rather than either extreme.

[Tichy]

It's always nice, and in MP perhaps essential, to be able to make air boosters and storm staves (not to mention all the nice air armors). I have a hard time not taking at least A4 on my pretender if I don't have an easy way to get it otherwise.

[Ming]

Tichy,

Thank you for your comment.

I agree that A4 is nice, maybe even essential. It is just that I am not sure at this stage (not having played this nation) if it is. I may come around to thinking that A4 is essential after I have tried playing Jomon.

The point is that E4S4 on your pretender will get you to A4 eventually through your A3 national summon. So the real question is how soon would you need the capability that A4 provides and if you need an SC chasis for your Pretender. I simply do not know the answer at this stage, but wished to point out that using indie inf with shields does allow you to go without A4 for a while.

[st.patrik]

Hmmm, let me clear up a few misconceptions...

PvK - Decoying using small groups of independant shield-wielding infantry is fine up to a point. Especially early in the game this works fine. However, once your 100+ strong army is facing down another one, and it comes to protracted melee, your small shield squad is probably going to be either overrun or right next to your unshielded samurai, at which point you will start taking heavy losses. So decoying will work in the early game, and with smaller fights, but for larger battles as the game progresses it will (in my experience) be insufficient on its own.

Tifone - I wouldn't want to spend much on kit for assassins: you have other priorities for your gems. However, an ethereal crossbow or a bow of war can be pretty deadly with a prec. of 14, and both of them are only 5 gems (3 with a dwarven hammer). Of course both of these are Construction 6. Before that your best bet is probably Longbow of Accuracy.

Sombre - I think the 'hordes of longbow samurai' strategy is why this nation is rated as low as it is by most people. I think it can do better.

Aezeal - I didn't say you didn't need money. Everyone needs money. In fact (as I think I said) you can get almost as much money from good events as from an Order scale. What I said is that your troops and mages aren't that expensive, which is true. Compare, for example, to Pangaea: most expensive mage 330 gold, 35-75 gold for elite troops; or Abysia: 330 gold again for most expensive mage, 30 and 55 for top elite troops; or Patala: 450 for most expensive mage and 20 - 45 gold for your better troops.
Compared to these (which are just a sampling) you are paying a lot less with Jomon to buy as many of your best troops as you can, plus your best mage. Using the build I describe I rarely run out of cash, even with aggressive castle-building.

Aezeal - no offense, but I think your logic is flawed wrong re. archers. So they can take sloth while you have to take production - you don't think that's a disadvantage for you? that's 240 design points difference! If you have 3 castles pumping out archers what's to stop them from having 3 castles also? then you are still outgunned 5 to 1. The point is that your Samurai's melee skills and good melee weapon are largely irrelevant if you're in a shooting war, and you are paying 27 resources for that equipment.

Ming - good point about fetishes and clams. The only problem with clams is you don't start with a water income - but the hope is you'll find one quickly enough. Two water boosters should be easy enough. I agree that longbows have their place - but I'm going against the prevailing wisdom, which is that all you need is longbows.

[Aezeal]

What is stopping them doing so is CASH!!! Other nations usually spend most cash if they train a few mages and then buy loads of low resource troops in either the capitol (some good cap only troop) or the castle closest to the front.. and then cash is gone.

Since you have about the same cash you can just train those archers in 3 castles (getting less per castle due to high resources, but in the end same amount to cash is spend)

BTW on the cash issue.. the fact their mages are more expensive probably means you need MORE of yours to field the same power (and it's the power that is needed, more low powerspells to offset their highpower spells) which means more castles to train more mages/turn (which also is more cash)
If you THINK you have to much cash: more castles and more mages is always a good idea