HRE could just kind of go for like a dark age rush. A lot of civs don't like doing this against Sengoku's Yatai because they're stupidly tanky. But HRE has a better economy to do so and the spearmen move faster. So, it's easier for them to just run down your Yatai and kill them. Just maybe two to four spearmen maximum.

Sometimes you're hesitant because you don't really want to encourage Yumi play, but I think HRE is one of the exceptions because the archers are basically just better versions of Yumi. And the price difference not as high as it once was.

If we get Meinwerk actually, you can kind of compete with the mounted samurai. Still not great because of that attack speed from the Daimyo, but the armor at least allows you to kind of brawl.