It's kind of obvious when you're up against Japanese that it's going to be mounted samurai. And instead of making spearman against the mounted samurai play, we saw archers coming in. That's that just doesn't work, unfortunately.

The problem is Japan has so many cards. They get to go for a feudal aggression, make mass Yumi into your base, they can go fast castle. And you, Mr. Rus, you're not going to have time to go for all your horse archers; they're going to have enough units to handle it, especially with those Yumis.

Once Mounted Samurai arrive, Horse Archers do not make the cut, especially not with that shield.