[st.patrik]

I noticed on JimMorrison’s list that Jomon is rated pretty low in almost every category. This got me wondering if Jomon was as bad as everyone says. So I started trying to figure out how to make Jomon shine. Maybe they won’t blow everyone away, but here are some ideas to help Jomon’s strengths and mitigate their weaknesses.

Without a doubt, Jomon has some serious weaknesses:
No Shields!
None of your troops have shields. This means they get torn up by missile fire. Furthermore they are not particularly fast, so they will have to take several rounds of withering missile fire before they reach melee.
Resource-intensive Troops
All your troops cost a lot of resources, so in order to keep up with other nations you’ll have to invest in productivity scale, otherwise your troops will be outnumbered.
Weak, Old Priests
Your Kannushi is your only priest. They aren’t very powerful priests, and they die like flies due to old age.
Weak Mages
The Master Shugenja comes with 1E1N + 2?, which practically speaking means you’ll get a lot of mages with 1 pick in 4 different paths. Sometimes you’ll get 2W, 2A, or 2F, but this is pretty rare. What is more common is 2E or 2N, and occasionally you’ll get a 3E or 3N. The Onmyo-ji isn’t much better: 2S + 2?, but astral isn’t an option for the randoms, so you’ll get the same odds as the Master Shugenja for double paths.
Inaccessible Summons
All the troops from earlier ages that you can summon can’t be summoned by your national mages. There are some other summons which you can summon, but the whole branch of Oni summons will require pretender magic.

However, Jomon does have some strengths also:
Cheap, Dangerous Troops
So none of your troops have shields, and they cost a lot of resources, but they are not very expensive in gold. This means if you can solve the resource problem you can field a lot of them, while saving a portion of your money for other things. Furthermore, once your troops get into melee they can hold their own pretty well. Here is a summary:
Ashigaru - Chaff. Never recruit them. With the right scales you'll get a bunch volunteering anyway.
Samurai Archer - Your only archer. Useful in early game, but too expensive in resources to be effective against other archers as the game progresses. Use selectively to augment your armies.
Samurai (Naginata) - Cheapest in resources of the Samurai types at 21, but you lose defense and attack. Not worth it, even though the Naginata does a lot of damage. Hire Go-Hatamotos instead.
Samurai (Katana) - Ok but you can get much better troops (Aka-Oni Samurai) for not that much more.
O-Ban - These cost the most resources of any of the footsoldiers, but have a lot going for them too: better attack and defence than regular Samurai, and heavier armour. Mapmove 1 is a pain, however.
Go-Hatamoto - Slow and expensive in resources like the O-Ban, they carry a heavier sword (No-Dashi) and so can do a lot of damage. Good for opponents with thick armour.
Aka-Oni Samurai - These guys have a the best attack and defense of the bunch, and have mapmove 2. They are a little more expensive, but still fairly cheap. They don't have the heavy armour though. These are the guys I recruit the most.
Samurai Cavalry - Decent, but not overwhelmingly great cavalry. Use in small numbers to surprise your opponent or outflank.
Sohei - Your first sacred Samurai type. They are not as good in attack or defence as the Aka-Oni, but are able to be blessed. Not really worth it.
Yamabushi - Second sacred Samurai type. They have a Naginata, so have a lower attack and defence score than the Sohei. However they are also correspondingly lower in resources. Sometimes I recruit them early, but in general not worth it.
Cheap, Diverse Mages Recruitable Anywhere
So your mages are weak, but they are also cheap: 160 gold is the most you’ll spend on a mage, and they are recruitable anywhere. Finally they are diverse, which means that (with a little planning) you can do a lot with them.
Ninjas
Ninjas are far from being the best assassin out there, but at least you have an assassin, and one that is pretty cheap for all that.
Good Summons
Even without counting the death summons you’ll have a hard time summoning without crafting your pretender to do so, you have some good summons at your disposal:
Kappa - The Kappa is an easy way into the sea. Yes it takes awhile to amass them, and you’ll have to find a source of water gems before you can start summoning, but the fact remains: you have an easy summon which can get you into the water. If you pick up Ryutaro the Son of the Dragon King you’ll have a commander to lead them into the deeps (otherwise you’ll have to rely on rings of water-breathing etc.).
Tengu - The Tengu comes in various flavours, and most of them are great at offense, but pretty fragile. This means you have to be pretty careful how you use them. However, you have deadly flyers who can ‘attack rear’ to take out enemy mages, or get past that blockaded siege gate, or jump around the map into whichever combat they’re needed in. Furthermore, they can fly during a storm, so if someone is trying to protect themselves from flyers that way it won’t work. Alternately you can throw up your own storm, if the enemy has flyers, which means you can fly and he can’t (with a few exceptions).
Dai Tengu - There’s a lot to like about this guy: 3A, so he can cast various helpful spells normally more difficult to cast; he’s a priest in a land where the only other priests are old guys; he brings a retinue of Tengus with him, some armoured. He can hop around the map causing all kinds of trouble. Unfortunately there’s a big price tag: 55 Air gems. Ouch!
Kitsune - The Kitsune is a fun summon, though probably overpriced. She is the only spy at your disposal, and is very stealthy (+30). She also has 3N + ?. I can’t figure out exactly how many randoms she gets - I’ve seen ones with one random, and ones with 3 randoms. If only she was an assassin also, so that she could try to charm commanders, but no. With some gems she could make a nuisance of herself by casting Howl, etc. when your enemy least expects it.
Nushi - The Nushi is Jomon’s version of the Naiad. The difference is that she’s a little easier to summon (2W 1N vs. 3W) and has slightly different picks (one nature is replaced with one death). The importance for you is that she is a step up the water ladder to higher summons, etc.

There are some strategies that just won’t work with Jomon:
Archers
Everyone seems to love the Samurai Archers, and I’ll admit they have their strong points. However, they have horrible synergy with your other troops, and they are incredibly expensive in resources. So expensive that there’s no way you can win a face-off against another nation with good archers. Think about Longbows - your average Longbow costs 12 gold 6 resources, compared to 11 gold 27 resources for the Samurai Archer. At that rate the longbows will outshoot your samurai almost 5 to 1. You will lose.
Bless Strategy
The main problem here is unexceptional troops, combined with weak priests. Besides, you need some good scales to produce your troops, so you can’t support a really powerful blessing without shooting yourself in the foot.
The Ulm Approach
What I mean by this is fielding as many Samurai as you can and running towards your opponent. Unless you’re fighting an opponent who doesn’t have access to missiles, your troops will die in droves.

So how do you make a strong showing with Jomon?
Well, your biggest problem, at least in the early and middle game, is your vulnerability to missile fire. You need a solution as fast as you can get one. Early game you can abuse decoying to minimize losses, but once you start fighting a real enemy it will become more of a problem. At this point you may be tempted to stack up an Air bless, but don’t do it. It won’t work.
The best solution is going to be Arrow Fend, but this is not an easy spell to get or cast (since you have no 3A mages). Storm will do you some good, but is not as effective as Arrow Fend, though easier to use (through the Staff of Storms). To get a solution you will need fast research and plenty of gems.
Thus the early game is particularly crucial: you need to expand fast, and you need to build additional fortresses fast, so you can get your research kicked into high gear early.
This will also help you produce large numbers of cheap but resource-intensive troops. I find that an army of 10 Archers, 10-15 Samurai, and an Ashigaru or two to decoy can take out most indies pretty easily. For the tough indies, like Knights, you can throw some Ninjas their way (once you have a second castle, and so can afford to not recruit a mage for a couple of turns) and hopefully avoid the fight with the army altogether.
Once you have two or three castles you should be able to kick your research up fairly quickly, and produce lots of troops.
You are also going to need a strong gem economy, and you are well placed to get it, with mages capable of getting two picks in Air, Water, Fire, Nature, Earth and Astral. You don’t have a water or Astral income at first however, so you’ll have to get lucky in order to get much going in those areas. Accordingly, you’ll want to get Thaumaturgy 2 fairly early on.
The easiest/cheapest route to reproducible missile protection is a 2A Master Shugenja/Onmyo-Ji improved with a Bag of Winds, and a stack of gems, casting Arrow Fend. This will require Construction 4 and Enchantment 6, which is a lot. You can get Storm (through the Staff of Storms) sooner: Construction 6, but it isn’t going to be as effective. Eventually your Dai Tengus can cast Arrow Fend without boosters, but this will cost Conjuration 6 and Enchantment 6, and 55 Air gems for the summon. The period of time it takes you to get missile protection is your period of greatest vulnerability.
Once you have achieve missile protection you can go on the offensive, and start developing heavy weapons support, in the form of Evocations. Your weak mages can throw around a surprisingly diverse range of dangerous artillery, such as Magma Eruption (with Summon Earth Power), Falling Fires (with Pheonix Power), Astral Fires (with an Astral booster), Blade Wind, etc. Later on they can cast Pillar of Fire and Ice Strike, and your 2A mages can cast Thunder Strike during a Storm. The best thing about most of your mages is that they have 1N, so they can all also cast Eagle Eye, to give you precisely targetted spells.
As you develop these attacks you can field an army which is large, deadly, almost immune to missiles, and is backed by powerful elemental attacks. In other words, able to hold its own.
Developing Conjuration is a must for the late game. Your best shot for SCs is Elemental Royalty. With the right pretender design you will be able to summon just about all of them. Your best shot for a strong late game is a strong early and middle game, so that you have a strong gem economy and strong research.

Don’t forget...
Jomon is multi-talented. It doesn’t just do one thing. Switch up your tactics by sometimes having a Storm up, and sometimes not, and having a squad of archers to make your enemy regret it. Don’t forget your Ninjas - give them a deadly missile weapon and leave them in your enemies’ path, then cut down his commanders. Summon Kitsunes and start causing unrest in his troop production facilities. Summon Kappas and get a foothold in the water. Have an assault team of Tengus ready to jump into a combat situation and change the variables, or make short work of taking that fortress (flying units get a bonus during sieges). Part of your strength is the ability to throw something at your opponent they don’t expect. If you play it in a predictable way you won’t be able to stand.

So with all this in mind, what about pretender design?
There are three things you need in a pretender: first, you need enough paths to help your mages become more powerful by forging boosters, etc. especially for the late game. Secondly, you need good scales, so that you can produce a lot of troops, and so that you can give your magic a boost. Thirdly, and perhaps less importantly, it would be nice to have a combat chassis to help with expansion, etc.
Magic
The minimum you can get away with is 4 Air 3 Earth. This will enable you to forge Air boosters, and Earth Boots. It will also enable you to forge a Staff of Elemental Mastery, which will be a very useful item.
Scales
You can afford to take Turmoil, since you don’t need a lot of money. I always take Luck, so that I get lots of extra gems and windfalls of money. Often having Luck 3 and Turmoil 3 will give you just as much money, just a little more unpredictably, than Order 3. In addition you need to take Production, and at least a point of Magic. Unfortunately after this there isn’t much left over.
Chassis
Take a Celestial General. He isn’t an SC right out of the box, but he can be outfitted to hold his own. You can just afford to take him awake, with a Dominion of 4, which is kinda low. However, I don’t like to use him in expansion before making sure he is kitted out effectively - it’s too easy to lose him. If you make Construction a research priority you can give him a Frost/Fire brand, Vine Shield, Ring of Regeneration, Pendant of Luck, etc. early in the second year. I usually use Boots of the Messenger instead of Earth Boots, because you need reinvigoration. Later on he can do a lot of damage to conventional armies by casting Rain of Stones repeatedly, until everyone is dead.
Of course, by early in the second year dormant pretenders are awake anyway, so maybe you should give yourself 150 design points and get Magic 3 rather than 1 (although that’s a lot for a single point more research) and more Dominion. But I tend to prefer him awake - that way I can get more research early, or site-search manually (you really need those gems).

Finally, some thoughts about Research Priorities:
Construction 4
Pretender Equipment
Air boosters
Equipment for your Ninjas
Thaumaturgy 2
Site Searching Spells
Alteration 3
Mistform
Mirror Image
Stoneskin/Ironskin
Enchantment 6
Arrow Fend
Construction 6
Staff of Elemental Mastery
Staff of Storms
Starshine Skullcap
Banner of the Northern Star
Evocation
Arcane Probing
Battlefield Magic
Conjuration
Summon Earthpower
Voice of Apsu
Summons

Of course, all this is fluid, depending on the specific situation. If my expansion is rapid enough early I will skip Alteration until needed; if I am in combat early against a missile-heavy foe I will forego Enchantment until I have the Staff of Storms; if things are especially peaceful (i.e. everyone is killing each other) I may put less into Evocation and more into Conjuration. You don’t want to put off Conjuration too long, lest your opponents get all the Elemental Royalty before you get there.