How to beat
Sengoku Daimyoas Byzantine
Matchup tips
Going for three on stone early as Byzantines against Sengoku is very nice because Sengoku's age up is slow and delayed, allowing you to quickly reach Cistern Level 5 and boost your economy.
It feels horrible to play cavalry against Sengoku because their Yari are way faster than normal horsemen; it's better to play fully infantry until Castle Age.
Getting camel riders for the debuff against mounted samurai is highly recommended.
Against Sengoku, mass spearmen get destroyed by mass cavalry; they don't even need archers to counter them.
And it makes a lot of sense when you're up against Sengoku or any civilization really with unique horsemen. You don't necessarily want to fall behind when it comes to the strength of the horsemen in the engagements early on in Feudal Age because horsemen can be a core unit in these fights. The Yari cavalry getting +2 damage and the additional attack speed with the Daimyo as well getting an additional +4 damage on your own horsemen, plus the active healing during the Triumph can help Byzantines bridge the gap and actually take some stellar engagements there as well.
Yatai don't take bonus damage.
The Yatai has 300–320 HP.
With Hippodrome's Triumph activation, if the opponent takes a fight and cannot disengage, it can end the game.
Desert Raiders might just be the answer when dealing with Yaris because they are going to make the Yaris do less damage. That completely negates what the Yari do, right? Minus 20% with the camel unease. That's huge.
Longbows are kind of a bait here against Sengoku. They don't really counter anything. Sengoku is completely cavalry-centric; having Camel Riders is a big value gain — a 20% debuff on the damage from your opponent's knights. And Sengoku often likes to go into Yumi Ashigaru, so javelin throwers would be a great answer. The better mercenary contract for Byzantines in that matchup is javelin throwers into camel riders in age three.
In this matchup, it is probably not in your best interest to play it as an eco game because on one TC without any harassment, Sengoku kind of has Byzantines on the ropes.
The Shinobi is probably the biggest game changer in the game. The damage debuff is 40%. Mounted Samurai do about 30 damage; an additional 40% on that is crazy. The slow means your opponent has a hard time escaping. Imagine you have shield wall on the Limitanei so they're already slow, and you add an additional slow on top. They're not getting away.
You can't just go one-to-one with mounted samurai against Cataphracts.
Once the painted shield upgrade comes in, Limitanei can start somewhat keeping up with mounted samurai.
Having an army composition with Limitanei, Javelin Throwers, a front line, back line, and anti-cavalry in there as well, is a more simple approach to taking fights against Sengoku. You always have something to counter the other units, not just trade evenly.
Sengoku Daimyo Unique Units
Sengoku Daimyo Landmarks
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