With Guild Hall, against Japanese you don't mind playing late because your Arbalétrier are better than Japanese crossbows.

Japanese cannot follow their typical fast castle into mass mounted samurai plan against French because they must respect French strong crossbows and feudal knights.

Arbalétrier with Pavise gives +5 ranged armor, making them very effective against Yumi archers.

Japanese dark age spear pressure on French gold can delay knight production, preventing French from scaling knights in feudal.

You get a couple of Shinobi on a knight, and that knight gets evaporated. Shinobi have huge bonus damage against melee.