How to beat
Knights Templaras Japanese
Matchup tips
You can't just torch down the landmarks and call it a day because the fortresses count as landmarks.
The KT harbor is way more expensive, but also way tanky, which might influence Japanese to not open for the dark age, which is something you often expect from them even on water maps.
Knights Templar have so much wood income that they can keep up in archer count against the Yumi archers from the Japanese, which are cheap and easily massable. Keeping up in mass with a more expensive and robust archer unit means prolonged Feudal age might not be in Japan's best interest.
If Knights Templar go Knights Hospitaller, their villagers get bonus health and movement speed, making it harder for Japanese to get kills with raids.
Genoese Crossbowmen are a strong counter to Japanese infantry units, doing a lot of damage to them.
This is something Japanese have struggled with in the past, right? Knights in the feudal age. They can be better now than ever before, I would say, in contesting in that feudal age up against even knight civs thanks to the cheaper cost of the Yumi, such a strong archer when you reach critical numbers, especially aided by the Yumi Bannerman for additional damage. And the longer-lasting food of Japanese courtesy of the Kura Storehouse and the good berry gathering rate with the upgrade means they can really put up a fight in feudal ages even though they might have a composition disadvantage against these knight civs in particular.
Knights Templar are surprisingly efficient with the barracks drop on the merchant camp because you can just leave the villager out there gathering wood, which shrinks the gap of the advantage that Japanese have with their cheaper 75 wood barracks. But Japanese have a unique edge themselves: they can build the house and then drop sheep off to keep the villager out there, so they don't have to walk all the way back to base, which is a big deal when you start with six villagers.
Chevalier versus Samurai: Chevalier will win, but not as much as you'd think, because the Samurai's deflective armor offsets the Chevalier's best hit, the initial lance charge.
Knights Templar are phenomenal at wood gathering: they don't need lumber camps and get food along the way, while Japan's edge is their unit discount.
Knights Templar Unique Units
Knights Templar Landmarks
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