Jomon Analysis: 3.21

[KissBlade]

So KO asked me to hold off a guide so I decided to do a nation analysis instead. This may develop into a guide as it'll discuss a few potential strategies, tips, builds, etc. A little about myself, I played MP dom II for a good amount and won my share of MP's/blitzes. My abilities in dom III are most likely deteriorated but I still like to think I have a good enough eye for capabilities of nations as well as how to play the game.

Since I searched the strategy index to see if anything's written about Jomon beforehand, I'd like to direct something similarly written by st.Patrik who's guide I agreed with most parts in. However on other points, you will find my views differ.

Jomon's a nation of samurais and folk mages. It's not quite Nobunaga's conquest but has a nice Legend of Five Ring feel to it. (Save no blood - maho magic!)

With that said, let's move on the troops!

Ashigaru: You toss these on front of arrows. Your initial squad gives you ten decoys. You probably won't be building more but they do have movement 2 =)
Samurai Archer: What will compose the bulk of your army out of nationals. They're flexible as both melee and archer roles. If you just leave them in one big screen or block formation, they'll pepper your opponents with arrows and then have a swath of katanas to greet the troops that do make it to your line. Their downside? Like all other Jomon troops, they cost a ton of resources.
Samurai: They come in two varieties, katanas and naginatas. They both suck so you don't need to care anymore about them. For some reason, the first four troops of Jomon only have 9 hp instead of 10 like normal humans. No idea why since Jomoon troops are already pretty crappy even if they had 10 hp.
O-ban: I never build these, Go-Hatamato seems better for less resource and 2 more gold. Not saying much cause 1 mapmove and slow AP with no shields means their 11 hp won't save them.
Go-Hatamato: Better than the previous but they're not exactly great either. Check the later Aka-Oni's for alternative infantry.
Aka-Oni: These guys are pretty decent because of their 14 morale, 11 hp and decent movement means they actually get to the front line and do some damage. Still expensive on the resource side but usable if you want some diversities in your troop mix.
Samurai Cavalry: These guys are way better in cbm due to the extra hoof and cheaper cost. Unfortunately in base, they remain part of Jomon's crap troop line.
Sohei: These aren't terrible to splash into your army if you have the priests to bless them. I know it sounds kinda odd to hear that because Jomon is NOT a bless nation but the extra +3 morale boosts their already impressive morale to 18. Not shabby =) You'll take lots of losses but they can win you that key battle where lesser troops would've routed.
Yamabushi: They're soheis without anything that would make them not suck. In other words, they suck.

Commanders:

Ninjas: They're assassins. You can use them to throw shurikens against commanders and hopefully get some extra provinces that way. Usually I just use them as scouts that can hopefully gib a mage when I need it.
Various commanders: They suck, no standards and the most expensive one doesn't even have a lance. LoL
Kannushi: Your only priest, slow, old and crappy.
Shugenja: I see no reason to make these unless you take magic 3 (which you shouldn't) and want cheap researchers.
Master Shugenja: Feasible troop buffers. Crappy mapmovements leave them much to be desired.
Onmoyi-ji: Your workhorse mage. S2 with a variety of elemental/nature possibility is a double edged sword. You get great versatility but you end up being master of nothing. You'll often have random pathed onmoyi-ji's you have no idea what to do with. They have a minor fortune teller ability which is nice since you'll have a ton of them. They come with hawks in battle which are both eth and sacred. Not shabby for harrassment. Their most glaring flaw is obvious. Your army moves at 2 map and your mages move at 1. They are also not sacred so your upkeep will add up while you look for that mage pick you want. Get the ones you don't want up to the battle lines as communion slaves or stellar cascade spammers.

Jomon has a lot of throwback summons from previous ages in the form of Onis. You can't summon any of them without your pretender which is fine because you won't want to anyway save the Dai Oni. That one actually has some nice picks and when you get enough death income, you may consider using them as SC chassis.
Regarding the tengu tree, there are better uses for your air gems. You will want to splash into the Dai Tengu just for the increase to a3 if you don't have it on your pretender. your a2/s2 mages can form the tome of higher planes which will give you A4 for better boosters off your dai tengu.
Kappas are good of taking the waves but you have no commanders that can go underwater so meh. Ambush of tiger is lol spell.
The nature commanders are mostly nothing special save Mori-No-Kami which can give you n3 so you don't have to roll the dice for it.
Yama-no-kami's aren't a good use of earth gems. a2e3n2 gives you nothing special. Their only redeeming trait is they let you get into dai tengu's if you didn't take the path on your pretender (which you should cause earth and air are good buffs). You can give them earthboots + tome of gaia to get e5 for forge too but good luck getting to the spell first =).
The Gozu-Mezu's are great but a bit too high on the tree to make them worth your while. And you need death which none of your mages have.
Ujigami's are nice commanders due to standard and the bless they can give to your soheis so if you plan on soheis, I suggest one of these guys to command them for a ghetto berserker force. =)
Kenzoku's would be ok as thugs if their armor wasn't so frigging heavy. Weaksauce.

Pretender suggestion:
IMO the Ghost King is your best bet. He gives you access to death and is also an extremely good SC chassis.

A dormant dom 9 you get a d3, f1, a2, e1 GK. lets you get Order 3, Prod 2, Cold 3, Misfortune 1, Magic 1. Alternatively you can try Turmoil 3, Prod 1, Luck 3, Magic 1 as well since your troops are cheap enough for it and the extra gems off luck might help out. I prefer Order for consistency .

Your first order of business should be getting alteration to 3 for ironskin, mistform, mirror image to be scripted for your GK to take those indie provinces that will give your sammie archers too much trouble. (aka heavy cavs)
Your army should be mostly sammie archers with your gold excess going towards merc screens. Build your second castle on a crossbow province ASAP. Crossbow/samurai archer armies are wonderful as your samurai archers protect archers against melee and can shoot up soft targets while your xbows blow up the heavier ones.
Your next order of business would be sending out a nice pack of mages to site search while researching up to construction 4. kitted with a rainwbow armor, firebrand (or frost), faithful, regen ammie, your GK becomes a real force of nature. Flying shoes make you truly golden. Use that time of reprieve to deter nations from coming after you.
From there on, I advise getting the site search spells and then concentrating on either evocation for stellar cascades or if you got some nice draws, alteration (Wind guide!!) for troop buffs. Construction would be a luxury since there are lots of nice tools in it to power your mages but Jomon is a bit weak so you'll want to have some firepower on your mages when your ghost king starts getting a bit manageable for your opponents to handle. If you're not playing with water nations I advise relegating him to indie water provinces at this point while your mages start to earn their keep. Summon earthpower communions are very strong so line those omoyi-ji's. Don't be tempted by all the national summons, most of them are not worth the effort. Samurai archers are feasible through the entire game if you just toss some luck/protection/etc their way. =) Good luck!