The New Jomon?

[legowarrior]

So, I've been away from the game for a while, because it drains my time like there is no tomorrow, and I've been trying out the new Jomon Units. When I first started playing it, it was widely declared to be a weak side because of 3 factors, a lack of shield units, high Resource requirements and a lack of battle mages. Also, national summons are way to hard to get.

After tinkering in SP only, and looking at all the guides I could get my hands on, I've made a short strategy for the Jomon as they presently stand. Beware, this has not been tried out in multiplayer and I'm throwing this out not as the end all be all guide, but as a means to start a discussion over how to play the new Jomon.

I've tried an Imprisoned Oracle as my chasis, and paired it with 9 Astral, 4 Fire and 4 Death and 7 Domain.
3 Turmoil, 3 Productivity, 3 Luck and 1 Magic starts me out with enough resources to build my army, and enough gems to cast spells from the path of Astral and Death.

With 9 Astral, I can use my Sacred units to do one thing well, block and stop arrows. I've switch Fire and Death for Wind and Water so that the units can do that job better, but hey.

With high enough construction and conjuration, I can bootstrap my way up and summon all the national summons.

Anway, I'm out of time, and have to get back to work, but I thought I'd start a thread on this.

[Slobby]

Only comment I have is that Jomon should aim to get a sea province asap (something you omit).

Ryujin and the shark warriors may be the best thing that Jomon has going for it.

Easiest way into the sea is an awake Wyrm. I just made one dom10 neutral scales E3, but A3 is likewise doable and then you have your guaranteened arrow fend/mist caster and with a little finesse storm caster who can cloud trapeze around to support your armies. The Wyrm will also aid in expansion.

[legowarrior]

Yeah, my current build would be slow to get under the sea. That's why I originally tried 4 Air and 4 Water, for Sea Trolls, but with the awesome Fear Not Bless of the Monks, 4 Air seemed like a waste. With 6 Astro, you can get your mages to 4 Air without too much trouble. 1 Air Magic becomes two with the Ring. That allows them to summon a Dai Tengo, getting them up to 3, plus the ring makes it 4, which allows you to create the helmet and other booster goodies. Of course you need Conjuration 6 and Construction 6 to do that.

[Rookierookie]

A bless, if any, should be targeted with the sacred summons in mind rather than the recruitables.

[kianduatha]

Slobby, I'd love to hear why you like Shark Warriors so much--I'm having trouble justifying their cost.

[legowarrior]

The whole Court of the Dragon Kings makes you wonder if something will come of it down the line. I'd love to see a middle era side based around the dragon kings and spirits. Shark Warriors and Shrimp Soldiers, along side Jomon warriors, all lead by Dragon Kings or dragons.

[kianduatha]

I've been tempted more than once to make a mod where Jomon just plain starts in the water and gets a Dragon King pretender--then they can retake the land and free the people from bondage to the Bakemono. That comes after a general rebalance, though.

Jomon has most all of the tools it needs to survive--it just doesn't all mesh together nicely. You can do a ton of things--but not all of them, and not as well as other nations. They're more than adequate for single player, but tend to be a penny short in MP games if that makes sense.

As far as your build goes...I tend to shy away from Turmoil-Luck for Jomon if just because I know how incredibly money-hungry the nation can get. Sure, all your mages are cheap--if you discount your 500(!) gold Ryujin, which is your only mobile mage-support. They even do that super-duper well(in a current MP game I crushed EA Ulm by essentially having a floating pool of 7 Ryujin giving unexpected mage support in every battle I needed them for, usually bouncing 3 or even 4 provinces every turn). Ideally you want a dozen of them raiding and laying down heavy artillery, but those guys don't come cheap.

[legowarrior]

I like your idea, although I fear that the sea is overcrowded as is. I would suggest that the Jomon go the same route as the late era Atlantis or early era Agatha, start on land but with a mix of amphibious units and normal units.
Human, Tengu and the Dragon Court.

As to your SP points, the Jomon are spread out a lot. It seems that you can only reliable get 2 Astral, 2 Nature, or 2 Earth from the units you can purchase on land. Everything else takes a strong effort and quite a bit of planning.

It seems that one of the biggest downsides is the lack of pretenders that you can use. There just aren't enough Chassis to take advantage of all the abilities the Jomon could bring to bare.

[rdonj]

The sea isn't that crowded in LA... only R'lyeh starts underwater.

[legowarrior]

Talking about MA.