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Jomon1.2
Compatible with CMB 1.92
Jomon, Courts of the Ryu, a Middle Era Nation
By Shatner and Legowarrior
Rationale
The goal of this mod is to create a nation similar to LA Jomon, with its unique summons and units, in the Middle Era. However, achieving this goal requires more than just taking Late Era Jomon and putting it in the Middle Era. This nation should be distinct from all other nations, so we are drawing inspiration from not only late era Jomon but from Heian Period of Japan.
Introduction:
During the time of the Oni, many humans fled the mountains and surrounding areas and traveled to the coast seeking protection. The Ryujin came upon these humans and offered them succor in exchange for treasure and allegiance. Although wary of exchanging one master for another, the Joman saw no other choice and agreed. With the fall of the Oni, a new empire was formed around the worship of the Dragon King and the lesser kami of the land. A strict hierarchy was formed with the Emperor on top and the peasant classes at the bottom. The Ryujin played the human clans against each other, tyring to gain prestige and fortune at the expanse of other Ryujin. With the coming of the New God, the Ryujin have ceased their petty squabbling and united with the Jomonese to conquer new territory and find new riches for themselves.
Race: Humans and Ryu Court
Military: Ligth Infantry, Medium Infantry, Samurai Archers and Cavalry, Ninjas Assassins,
Magic: Average Earth, Nature, Water and Air, weak Fire and Astral, unique elemental priest magic
Priests: Weak
Breakdown of Commanders
Capital Only:
Saigu (350gp, sacred) – Average priestess who automatically reduces unrest in the province she is in by 4/turn. 1 Earth, 1 Air, 1 Nature, 2 Holy, +2 FAWEN. She has the ability to cast most national summons and is a capable (if slow to move around the map) combat caster who can improve her skill in all paths, including holy, with the Teaching Sign spell. Expensive, valuable and fragile, though her omamori protects her from ranged attacks as well as a typical shield would.
Ryujin (500gp, sacred) – Sacred, magically powerful dragon taken directly from LA Jomon. They are recruitable anywhere underwater as well as directly from the capital. They are gifted forgers, ritual casters as well as powerful combat casters. Use their superior mobility to move them directly from the lab to the battle.
Land Castle:
Ninja (40 gp) – Same as later era Ninja. A good assassin equipped with poisoned shuriken.
Jito (23 gp) – Administrators of a region, they are equipped like Ashigaru but have a patrol bonus.
Wokou Captain (40 gp) – Pirate captain that has a slight chance at both Air and/or Water Magic. Has 2 movement and sailing, so they make great raiders. Does not require a lab to recruit.
Gokenin (25 gp) – Exactly the same as the later era, except they start without heavy samurai armor, but gain the Long Bow.
Mounted Gokenin (30) – Exactly the same as the later era, except without heavy samurai armor.
Land Temple:
Monk of the Fivefold Path (100 gp, sacred) - The same as later eras. Does not need a lab to produce, despite having access to a random pick in FAWEN. These are your most cost-efficient researchers and each is capable of casting one of the five sign spells unique to MA and LA Jomon.
Land Laboratory:
Shugenja (90 gp) – Practitioners of Jomese Magic. Exactly the same as later eras. Since there are no Master Shugenjas in the Middle Era, these mages have the best chance of all your recruit-anywhere commanders of E2.
Onmyo-ji (160 gp) – Everything you remember from the LA Jomon is back, though with slightly better fortune telling abilities. The only mage with access to Astral in the Jomon Nation.
Lab and Temple:
Envoy of the Ryu (150 gp, sacred) – Priests and ambassadors of the Ryujin, they are amphibious and can bring 10 size-2 soldiers with them underwater. Each is a W1H1 + 1xFAWEN mage-priest, meaning every one of them can cast one or more of Jomon's unique sign spells. With their innate skill in water magic and their ability to bring troops underwater, they provide an excellent way for MA Jomon to get access to water provinces. They also offer your best chance of getting W2, without recruiting the substantially more expensive Ryujin. Each one is capable of casting one or more of the five sign spells unique to MA and LA Jomon.
Underwater Castles:
Crab General (30 gp) – The Same units as the LA Jomon.
Lab and Temple:
Envoy of the Ryu (150 gp, sacred) – This priest is available to be recruited on land or in the sea.
Ryujin (500 gp, sacred) – Though expensive, these powerful dragon mages are recruitable from any underwater castle with both a lab and a temple.
Units:
Capital Only:
Miko (20 gp, sacred)- These sacred archers wield enchanted long bows which, aside from being magical and more accurate than mundane long bows, deal triple damage to undead and demons. Like all the women soldiers of MA Jomon, they have omamori to offer them moderate protection from ranged attacks, fire and cold. They are inexpensive, elite archers who are also are real terror to any demons or undead you face in combat. Just be sure to protect them from melee combat.
Capital and Underwater
Shark Warriors (45 gp) - These expansive brutes are useful for taking the fight under the sea, just like in later eras. Being size-4, they also make excellent decoys as well as being more resistant to trampling than your size-2 human infantry.
Land Castle:
Ashigaru (8 gp) – Same as LA Jomonese. Yari and some armor. Chaff, though better outfitted than the chaff of most nations.
Ashigaru Bowmen (10 gp) – Like the Shinuyama's Bandits, but without the stealth. They are the easiest archers to recruit in large numbers and benefit extremely well from the spells wind guide and flaming arrows. Though not as robust in melee as the ashigaru, they can defend themselves surprisingly well with their wakazashis.
Wokou (9 go) – Pirate shock troops. Wokou are faster than all non-cavalry (because of a combination of higher AP and lighter armor), have higher than average moral and better than average attack. Combined with their harpoon and wakazashi, they are well equipped to entangle powerful units before swarming them in melee. They also have the lowest resource cost of all your units, making them easy to hire quickly in bulk.
Bushi (Naginata) (10 gp) – Your standard medium infantry. Inexpensive and good for taking on high protection units. Like most Jomon troops, it is vulnerable to arrows.
Bushi (No-Dachi) (10 gp) – Identical to the Naginata Bushi except that you pay a few extra resources for a high attack, high defense two-handed sword.
Samurai Archer (14 gp) – Your first Samurai. More skilled in melee and more accurate at range than the samurai archers of later eras, they are powerful and versatile units. If set to hold-and-attack, they will launch two volleys of arrows against the enemy before advancing. Furthermore, they are good at protecting your Miko and Ashigaru bowmen because any units which make it to your archers will have to face down elite katana-wielding samurai instead of the usual flimsy archers. Expensive.
Samurai Cavalry (35 gp) – Same as in later eras, but without the heavy Samurai armor.
Land Temple :
Onna-Bushi (15 gp) – Powerful, inexpensive, recruit-anywhere sacred maidens that wield demon/undead slaying naginatas. Their omamori offers mild protection against fire, cold and ranged attacks and they have exceptionally high defense, outstanding moral, and recuperation. Furthermore, they excel at castle defense and patrolling. The down side to all this is that they lose 50% of their health for each turn they spend outside their home province (so they will die after two turns abroad) and that health loss has a good chance of causing afflictions. For their price they are an exceptional recruit-anywhere sacred but, unlike most recruit-anywhere sacreds, they are extremely ill-suited for offensive use.
Underwater Units:
Shrimp Soldiers (10 gp) – Love em or hate em, they are exactly like there LA counterparts. Deal with it. Unlike the shark soldier, they cannot leave the sea.
Overview – Unlike LA Jomon or MA Shinuyama, MA Jomon has a stronger emphasis on its capital-only recruits. The Miko makes a fine addition to any force and, like the Onna Bushi, has very low upkeep because of its sacred status. The Saigu is an expensive caster who makes an excellent site-searcher (both manually and via rituals), and comes into her own later as a gifted forger, combat mage and ritual caster... once you have the research to back that up. However, despite being sacred, neither the Saigu nor the Ryujin make cost-effective researchers. For your research, you'll want to use monks, shugenja and/or onmyo-ji. Because all of your mages have one or more picks from a large range of random paths, you'll likely need to recruit many to get all the path-combinations you want. You have access to a diverse range of unique summons which can help expand your pool of casters, give you many thug-worthy commanders as well as offer new tactical options in combat. Note that some of these kami can only be summoned in specific terrain (forests, swamps, mountains or underwater).
Most of your troops are medium-cost and high-resource so MA Jomon really benefits from production scales. The majority of your troops are vulnerable to missile fire so careful use of arrow decoys is needed to limit casualties while expanding. You have a strong incentive to move into the water, which the Shark Warriors and Envoys of Ryu will facilitate. While almost useless for offense, Onna Bushi are excellent defenders and should help protect your land-based forts from invasion, especially from undead or demons. All of your recruit-anywhere priests have only holy-1 so a high dominion score is recommended to prevent your lands from being overrun with black candles. However, all of your priests are capable of casting one or more of the unique sign spells which you should keep in mind when scripting them for battle.
With access to the Saigu, Jito and Onna Bushi, this nation is better capable than most of maintaining tax rates higher than 100%. Positive growth scales will help mitigate the population loss inherent to over-taxation.
In many ways this is still a work in progress, we are open to comments suggestions, oh and better artwork. I'd love to have some talented artists redo more than a few of the pictures.
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