If you have the Gathering Storm expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.

Note: This guide requires the Rise and Fall expansion.

Content from DLC packs (Poland, Vikings, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia) is marked as such.

I must rid myself of my fear if I am to face the unstoppable force from over the seas. They have land, allies and armanents we are ill-prepared for. But we are not to give in to their threats and watch sunset fall upon our ancient realm. Let our faith guide us through this moment, and triumph over even the most impossible of foes. We shall outlast them.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is (assuming they have one at all).
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) are inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but rather a general indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these should be given more consideration than they would be for other civs but are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, culture, gold, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Describes bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories and Stadiums (which by default offer production and happiness respectively to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - The strategy of obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that deviation (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost.

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders. Unlike unique units, buildings, districts and improvements, civ abilites do not have to be built.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together. This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, maximise the number of copies of the same district in the same area, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out. This is useful if you want to ensure cities have plenty of room for both districts and tile improvements. Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader, which like civ abilities do not have to be built. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit on top of the standard one every civ has.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam's program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders. If a civilization is not listed as having a start bias there, it does not have one, even if you feel like you keep spawning in the same terrain when playing as that civ.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others, and are hence particularly unique. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district and offers some unique advantages on top. In some cases, there may be minor disadvantages as well, but these are always outweighed by the positive features. All unique districts cost half as much to construct relative to the regular districts they replace.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. Unlike unique buildings or districts, these do not replace a regular improvement. Some require a technology to unlock, and many have their yields improved with later technologies. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be built by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader. These usually replace an existing unit and offer extra advantages (and occasionally minor disadvantages as well in exchange for bigger advantages).

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Japan has no start bias.

• Campus, Commercial Hub, Harbour, Holy Site, Industrial Zone and Theatre Square districts receive +1 of their respective yields for every adjacent district, instead of for every two.

• All land and naval units gain +5 strength in land tiles adjacent to the sea, lake tiles and coastal (shallow water) tiles
  
  • This bonus is applied based on where the defending unit is at the start of combat.
    
  • This bonus does not apply in land tiles that are adjacent to a lake but not the sea.
    
  • This bonus does apply to religious units.
    
  • This bonus has no effect on air units.
• -50% production cost for Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts

A medieval-era melee infantry unit which does not replace anything

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you lack access to nitre, you may continue to build Samurai even beyond the Gunpowder technology.


Notable features

• Does not require resources to build
  
• Has 48 strength, 12 more than classical-era Swordsmen and 7 less than renaissance-era Musketmen
  
• Does not lose strength when injured

An industrial-era Industrial Zone building which replaces the Factory


*Cities cannot benefit from the production of more than one Electronics Factory unless they have Governor Magnus (the Steward) present with the Vertical Integration promotion.

Positive changes

• 4 production to all cities within six tiles, up from 3
  
  • Cities cannot benefit from the production of more than one Electronics Factory unless they have Governor Magnus (the Steward) present with the Vertical Integration promotion.
• Provides 4 culture with the modern-era Electricity technology
  
  • Unlike the producton bonus, this does not extend to all cities within a six-tile radius.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Culture isn't a bad route to go down as Japan. Cheap Theatre Squares really help when it comes to generating GWAMs for the Great Works and therefore tourism. Bonus culture from Theatre Square adjacency and Electronics Factories can also help a bit with civic accumulation. A bit more production from Electronics Factories combines nicely with Magnus (the Steward)'s Vertical Integration to help with building wonders.

Domination is the best path. Samurai are devastatingly powerful if you can unlock them quickly, and getting extra science from Campus districts adjacent to other districts will help you get there fast. Cheap Encampments means you can get the juicy +1 production bonus and +25% XP gain from Barracks quickly ready to spam Samurai. There's also the matter of extra production from Industrial Zone adjacency and Electronics Factories to help you train more units throughout the game, and extra gold from Commerical Hub adjacency to help you maintain them.

Religion is a fine path to take. Cheap Holy Sites give you an edge to founding a religion that even some more purely-focused religious civs that can struggle with. Extra faith adjacency for Holy Sites adjacent to other districts isn't as powerful as the faith potential of, say, Russia, but it's still a reasonable bonus. Furthermore, Hojo Tokimune's strength bonus will help you out with theological combat in coastal regions, though that's a bonus that's harder to use for religious units than it is for military units.

Science is possibly Japan's second-best victory path owing to the way Japan's bonuses can be exploited for some powerful science and production boosts. Commercial Hubs adjacent to other districts can provide high gold adjacency, which can be added to science with the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication. Later on, Electronics Factories provide a little more production, which is especially effective in conjunction with Magnus (the Steward)'s Vertical Integration promotion. Furthermore, the Heartbeat of Steam Golden Age dedication lets your strong Campuses produce lots of production to help with relative late eurekas.

Not only do I get a powerful Commercial Hub, but I'll make both those Campuses produce an extra point of science.


Six districts in the game (Campus, Commercial Hub, Harbour, Holy Site, Industrial Zone and Theatre Square districts) normally receive +1 of their respective yields (science, gold, gold again, faith, production and culture respectively) for every two adjacent districts of any kind. For Japan, they get a +1 adjacency bonus for every single adjacent district - a flexible and powerful bonus that aids any victory route and remains useful throughout the game.

It's easy to assume that this bonus simply equates to a doubling of the normal yield you get from district adjacency, but it's actually even better than that if you have a district adjacent to an odd number of other districts. A Campus next to three other districts by default just produces a +1 science bonus, but for Japan, it's +3.


To maximise the number of districts in close proximity, settle your cities as close together as possible. That being said, at first, you won't have many districts so it's a good idea for look for terrain-based adjacency bonuses as a starting point. As the game develops, however, terrain can mostly be ignored in favour of creating blobs of districts between the cities.

When placing your Government Plaza, try to position it in a way you'll be boosting as many other districts as possible. For Japan, it provides an impressive +2 boost to those districts, which makes getting a strong early Campus without mountains, Theatre Square without wonders and so forth easy.

High adjacency bonuses will make it easier to use economic policy cards that boost the yields of buildings within districts. Free Market, Rationalism, Simultaneum and Grand Opera respectively boost the primary yields of buildings within Commercial Hubs, Campuses, Holy Sites and Theatre Squares by 50% if their district adjacency is 3 or higher (4 or higher for Commercial Hubs). You can get another 50% bonus from those policy cards once the cities are size 10 or higher, so don't forget to use your trade routes and good sources of housing like Granaries to get more cities there sooner, considering closely-packed cities leave less room for farms.

Finally, pillaged districts still contribute towards adjacency bonuses, so if you get raided by Barbarians or suchlike the districts left standing are still good.

Now, let's consider how each district type is affected...




You'll need plenty of science if you want to unlock Samurai early and take them on the offensive, so Campuses should be some of the first districts you build.

There's two ways you can go about building your first Campuses - either build a cluster of them near a mountain range, or surround a Government Plaza with a mixture of them and other districts (Commercial Hubs are a good idea as they can themselves provide science with the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication if you achieve a classical or medieval-era Golden Age).

For all but religious players, maximising Campus adjacency will continue to be a key priority throughout the game. Don't be afraid to replace rainforests adjacent to Campuses with districts - the latter will provide a better adjacency bonus.

With an industrial or modern-era Golden Age, you may take the Heartbeat of Steam dedication to make Campuses contribute their adjacency bonus to production as well. That's really helpful for building up Electronics Factories.

You can double Campus adjacency bonuses with the Natural Philosophy economic civic card, which requires the classical-era Recorded History civic. This gets replaced in the modern era with Five-Year Plan, which requires the modern-era Class Struggle civic and also doubles industrial zone adjacency yields.




Considering Hojo Tokimune's leader ability makes Holy Sites half-price, Japan has a decent head start at the Great Prophet race, which can make founding a religion easier than it would be for most civs. Combined with the Holy Site yield bonus on offer here, you could make a decent stab at religious victory. Nonetheless, it's worth remembering that natural wonder adjacency still provides more faith than any specific district except for Government Plazas.

A challenge with going down that road is a greater need for city growth (for district capacity) and production (to build districts) than is typical for religious victories from other civs. Getting plenty of Industrial Zones won't be a bad idea, and some Commercial Hubs for trade routes for city growth and production will help as well.

An advantage with Japan's approach to the religious game is that if a religious victory turns out to be unviable, the infrastructure can still be good towards alternative victory paths. Faith can buy land units via the Grand Master's Chapel, or Naturalists (which create National Parks, a great source of tourism for cultural victories).

You can double Holy Site adjacency bonuses with the Scripture economic civic card, requiring the classical-era Theology civic.




Because cities can only provide trade route capacity from a Market or Lighthouse, you'll usually need to choose between building a Commercial Hub or Harbour in a city. That's a pretty tough choice for Japan, considering Hojo Tokimune's maritime bonuses encourage you to use Harbours, but you can usually get more districts adjacent to Commercial Hubs.

If you can achieve a Golden Age in the classical or medieval game eras, you can use the Free Inquiry dedication to gain science out of Commercial Hub or Harbour district adjacency. Considering how easy it is to get good adjacency yields with either district (two examples: Harbours next to a city centre start with a +3 gold yield for Japan; Commercial Hubs next to a river and a Government Plaza start with +4), building at least a few early on in case you can grab that Golden Age dedication isn't a bad idea.

Settling a city adjacent to a one-tile lake isn't great if you want to build up a navy, but place a Harbour in that lake and surround it with districts, and you'll be getting some very good adjacency bonuses (potentially up to +8, or +9 if one of the districts is a Government Plaza). Build a Shipyard in the city (requiring the renaissance-era Mass Production technology) and that strong adjacency bonus also grants production!

You can double Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses with the Town Charters economic civic card, available with the medieval-era Guilds civic. You can double Harbour adjacency bonuses with the Naval Infrastructure economic civic card, available with the medieval-era Naval Tradition civic. The modern-era Suffrage civic combines the two into a single card - Economic Union.

Considering Theatre Squares are the hardest district type to get adjacency bonuses for, the increased contribution is a very welcome bonus. Cutting the price in half means new cities can afford to get them up and running. What stops Japan using their Theatre Squares as extensively as Greece uses Acropoles is the lack of other culture bonuses helping you to get to Drama and Poetry quickly, and that you'll want to focus heavily on science and production to get Samurai armies up and running. If you can get to Drama and Poetry early, a well-placed Theatre Square can help you reach Feudalism and the important Feudal Contract military civic card (which makes you build Samurai faster) sooner. This isn't something you can necessarily do every game, however. You will have to judge for yourself whether or not building a Theatre Square prior to the arrival of Samurai is worth your time.

From the modern era, Electronics Factories will provide a decent source of culture, so subsequent Theatre Squares should largely be with the intention of either providing stronger adjacency bonuses to other districts, or maximising your tourism output.

You can double Theatre Square adjacency bonuses with the Aesthetics economic civic card, available with the medieval-era Medieval Faires civic. With the atomic-era Professional Sports civic, this is replaced with Sports Media which has the added bonus of adding +1 amenity to all Stadiums.




Once you've researched Military Tactics for Samurai, Apprenticeship is a good technology to head for next. Although the production bonus isn't quite on a par with Germany's Hansa, production will be important for any victory route as Japan, so any bonus is welcome. Getting a bigger adjacency bonus from Industrial Zones makes them worth building in most, if not all, your cities, even before taking account the culture bonus of Electronics Factories (which unlike the production bonus applies only in the city that's built it, meaning the more cities with an Industrial Zone, the more you can get out of your UB).

If you place Industrial Zones near the centre of a cluster of districts, you can not only take advantage of lots of production from adjacency bonuses, but you'll also keep the negative appeal Industrial Zones create away from potential Neighbourhood spots.

You can double Industrial Zone adjacency bonuses with the Craftsman economic civic card, available with the medieval-era Guilds civic. This gets replaced in the modern era with Five-Year Plan, which requires the Class Struggle civic and also doubles Campus adjacency yields.




With the notable exception of Government Plazas, districts that don't gain adjacency bonuses from adjacent districts (City Centres, Aerodromes, Aquaducts, Encampments, Entertainment Complexes, Neighbourhoods, Spaceports and Water Parks) are best-positioned on the edge of your main district clusters. That way, the central part of the district cluster with the biggest adjacency bonuses is dedicated to districts that can actually make use of it. Government Plazas, as mentioned earlier, should be in the middle of a cluster of districts due to the bonus adjacency yields they offer.

You'll probably want to minimise your use of building Entertainment Complexes, Water Parks and Aerodomes in particular as they use up part of your district capacity but don't synergise well with Japan's uniques. Fewer Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks mean you will need to be careful with amenities; don't over-extend, make sure you have a good diversity of luxury goods and look for civic cards that offer more amenities. Cutting back on Aerodomes shouldn't cause too much trouble if you make good use of Carriers.

• Exploit the +2 adjacency bonus Government Plazas offer to create strong early districts.
  
• Eventually, districts should form clusters between two or more cities - aside from Government Plazas, districts that don't gain adjacency bonuses themselves should be around the edge of the clusters.
  
• Commercial Hubs and Harbours can produce science if you get a classical or medieval era Golden Age, so be sure to build some early.
  
• Minimise your use of Entertainment Complexes, Water Parks and Aerodromes so you can build more of the other districts.

There's two distinct parts to Hojo Tokimune's leader ability: the coastal strength bonus and the faster construction of three different districts. The two parts have relatively little overlap with each other, so they can largely be treated as two separate bonuses.




The coastal regions of the world are where Hojo Tokimune's units are at their strongest. Though not quite as versatile a strength bonus as, say, Tomyris' +5 boost against wounded units, it still nonetheless has some very useful applications, including:

• Fighting coastal Barbarians
  
• Defending against coastal invasions
  
• Attacking coastal cities
  
• Coastal theological combat

All of these are explained in more depth later in this leader ability section.

Keep in mind that the strength bonus only applies to land military, naval military and religious units which are engaged in combat on:

• A coast (shallow water) tile, regardless of how far it is from land
  
• A land tile that is adjacent to coast (shallow water) - tiles that are only adjacent to lakes don't count!
  
• A lake tile.

This is based on where the defending unit/city is, not where the attacker is. A Battleship on an ocean tile attacking a city adjacent to the sea will still receive the +5 strength boost.

With that out of the way, let's explore in more detail the uses for this bonus...

Fighting Coastal Barbarians

Barbarian encampments will appear near the sea fairly often, and cannot relocate once they're there. As such, they're ripe targets for your land military units. Dedicating a few units early on to clearing Barbarian encampments will be a good source of era score prior to the renaissance game era, as well as gold at any time.

Once you have access to Privateers, Submarines or Nuclear Submarines, you no longer need land units to clear coastal Barbarian encampments. You can simply destroy the units occupying them from a two-tile distance, then move adjacent to the encampment and destroy it in a coastal raid. Coastal raiders aren't usually especially strong against land units compared to naval ranged units, but the +5 strength bonus will make this strategy more effective. As such, just a small force of naval raider units can help you earn a bit of extra cash and keep the seas safe.

Repelling Coastal Invasions

Japan's Samurai UU requires production and science to be spent away from naval research, which can leave Japan with a relatively weak navy in the early renaissance era.

Strong navies can be a significant threat for a maritime empire with a weak navy, as until air units come available, you have only three options against them - build up city defences and hope the ranged attack can stop them, attack them with regular land ranged units and suffer a -17 attack penalty, or use siege units which suffer from poor mobility.

Hojo Tokimune can use the latter two strategies much more effectively than most other civs. Regular ranged units won't be quite so weak against naval units, and the poor mobility of siege units will be partially addressed by them being able to defend better when stationed on the coast, meaning they can stay out longer before needing to retreat.

If the enemy intends to disembark an army onto your coast, you can place a line of melee infantry units (Samurai are great at this) along the shore as a powerful barrier against the would-be attackers. Pay attention to where cliffs are located so you can minimise the number of land units you might need to dedicate to this, seeing as only promoted melee infantry units can embark on them. If you're going for a cultural victory, you can do something similar later in the game to protect your seaside resorts.

Attacking Coastal Cities


I won't be able to take this city with the one Caravel alone, but I can nonetheless put pressure on it.

Attacking coastal cities is perhaps the best use of Hojo Tokimune's strength bonus. Coastal cities can sometimes be tricky targets as they're much harder to put under siege than inland ones. With a +5 strength boost, you can deal more damage and take them out sooner. Don't forget that embarked land units as well as naval units are useful for the purpose - you can stack both together to maximise the amount of damage you can deal to cities each turn.

Theological Combat

As with many other unique strength bonuses, Hojo Tokimune's leader ability can apply in theological combat, making your religious units stronger by the coast. Because religious units often have to travel inland to convert the cities of others, this can be a tricky ability to reliably make use of.

Perhaps the most reliable use of this bonus in theological warfare is defensive. As one example, injured religious units can temporarily retreat to coastal tiles before they move back to a friendly Holy Site or city with Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) promoted with Laying on of Hands present. As another, you can surround your coastal cities with Inquisitors to keep rival religious units at bay.



If you have fewer copies of a district than the average of all civs, you get a 40% discount to that type. Combined with this ability, it stacks multiplicatively to become a 70% discount.

Hojo Tokimune allows you to build three different district types at half the cost, much like a unique district. How useful this bonus is varies depending on your favoured victory route - cultural and religious players will gain the most. All players may find cheap districts useful for maximising the adjacency yields of other, higher-priority ones, particularly once cities grow and have significantly more district capacity.

Cheap Holy Sites give you a better shot at founding a religion - so long as you act fast. The Divine Spark pantheon will help. Keep in mind, however, that getting Holy Sites early means delaying Campuses, Commericial Hubs or other such useful districts. That's a trade-off that can't easily be ignored if you're not going for a religious victory.

Cheap Encampments are helpful if you want a Great General in time for Samurai. Samurai with Oligarchy, its legacy card and a Great General have 61 strength - just one point shy of Cavalry! If you have enough spare production, you can also try and go for Barracks as well so those Samurai can gain experience faster.

Cheap Theatre Squares can help you get to Feudalism and the important Feudal Contract civic card (which helps you build Samurai faster) at a reasonable speed. For cultural players, cheap Theatre Squares are great for maximising GWAM points along with Great Work and artefact slots, which together can be great for maximising your tourism output.

• The coastal combat bonus is mainly useful against coastal Barbarians, enemy naval units and enemy coastal cities.
  
• Half-price Holy Sites, Theatre Squares and Encampments vary in usefulness depending on your intended victory route, but building them is eventually useful for anyone for maximising adjacency bonuses.

No matter your intended victory path, you shouldn't ignore the potential of Samurai. With Oligarchy and the Oligarchic Legacy wildcard, they have 56 strength, which makes them almost unrivalled for strength in the medieval era. Though you have to train them from scratch, they're pretty cost-effective units relative to others available around the same time.


The sooner you can unlock Samurai, the stronger they'll be. Military Tactics is a fairly easy technology to research fairly early, especially as you'll be unlocking a couple of key technologies (Writing and Currency) along the way.

That being said, you should generally take a detour to Bronze Working rather than simply beelining Military Tactics from the start - the technology cost will pay for itself if you kill a unit with a Spearman triggering the Military Tactics eureka, and it also lets you build Encampments for a shot at a Great General, and clear rainforest tiles (which may be useful for allowing more good district spots).

The trickiest boost en route to Military Tactics is the one for Mathematics (build three different district types). A good combination to go for is a Government Complex, a Campus and an Encampment. If you're going for a religious victory, you may want to substitute the Encampment for a Holy Site - ensuring you can found a religion is much more important than the bonuses a Great General can offer.

If your enemies are likely to have a lot of walled cities, research Masonry or work towards Construction after Military Tactics so you can build Battering Rams or Siege Towers respectively. Siege Towers are a bit more effective in the role of taking down cities, but they take longer to research and build. Crossbowmen can also be nice to have around, but don't hold off starting a war in anticipation of them - you can bring them in later.


With 48 strength, Samurai are as strong as Knights to begin with. Oligarchy and its legacy card puts them on a +8 advantage over them, and on tiles adjacent to the coast, a massive +13 advantage. Additionally, the ability to fight at full strength even when injured allows the units to gain an advantage in a battle of attritrion.

Units usually lose strength when injured at a rate of 1 strength per 10% of health lost, rounded up. A unit at 90-99 health will lose 1 strength, a unit at 80-89 health will lose 2, and so forth. At 30-39 health, Samurai are equally powerful to a Musketman of that same level of health, although you probably don't want to risk them in combat at that point. Having persistently high strength means you don't need many Samurai to deal massive amounts of damage to civs behind in military technology, and just a couple plus a Battering Ram or Siege Tower can deal surprising amounts of damage to cities. You can also wait longer before you need to retreat Samurai (or hold off pillaging farms for health for longer).

When you're launching amphibious attacks (from sea to land), escort embarked Samurai (preferably with the Amphibious promotion) with the strongest naval units you can build. The embarked Samurai can keep attacking land-based targets such as cities while the naval units they're stacked with keep them safe from counter-attacks. This allows you to keep attacking with embarked Samurai until they're at very low health without the risk of them being easily killed, helping you maximise their damage output.

The Elite Guard promotion takes some time to reach, but makes melee units able to attack twice, making them more dangerous. For most units, the second attack will be weaker than the first due to them losing health from the first round of combat, but Samurai fight just as well both times.

Samurai will remain effective until Musketmen become commonplace, and even then can hold their own reasonably well for a time - they're only seven points of strength weaker at the most, and cost a third less to train. That means you can put off researching Gunpowder to focus on other important technologies like Industrialisation and Electricity.

Electronics Factories arrive pretty late, and the main bonus arrives even later. While you get a welcome +1 production right away relative to normal Factories when you build an Electronics Factory, as the name suggests, you'll need the modern-era Electricity technology for the full effect - though thankfully that's an easy technology to beeline after Industrialisation. To make things trickier, while you only need to build a few Factories to spread its production bonus to all your cities, the culture from Electronics Factories has no such advantage; to reach their full potential you'll need one in every city.

Though on its own the production bonus isn't huge, it really does add up if you station Governor Magnus (the Steward) in a centrally-located city and give him the Vertical Integration promotion. That allows one city to get an incredibly strong production yield. If you can manage to have 10 Electronics Factories in range of your Magnus city, that city will be gaining 40 production (10 of which is only achieved thanks to this UB). You can make that even stronger with the industrial-era Great Engineer James Watt, who boosts the production yield of all Electronics Factories by 2, Toronto's suzerain bonus if they're in your game (it increases the range of AoE buildings by 3, letting you get more Electronics Factories in range of your Magnus city), or the modern-era Great Engineer Nikola Tesla who can provide a similar boost to a single Industrial Zone.

If you've been neglecting culture throughout the game thus far to focus on warmongering and science, Electronics Factories will aid in making up for that. 4 culture per city is more than you'd usually get from an unimproved Theatre Square for the cost of a building you'll be building in plenty of cities anyway. With the advent of Replaceable Parts' huge bonus to food from farms, and Urbanisation offering Neighbourhood districts, cities can get much larger at this point in the game and handle many more districts than before. As such, if you held off building Theatre Squares before, you'll usually be able to build some around this point without sacrificing more immediately relevant districts. The combination of Electronic Factory culture and more Theatre Squares can zoom you through the late-game civics.

Being an Industrial Zone building, Electronics Factories are prone to sabotage by Spies - this can pillage them even in peace-time! To avoid this, make sure you don't neglect to train new Spies, and have them ready for counterespionage. Japan's civ ability encourages you to cluster districts together, and Spies protect the district they're assigned to and all surrounding ones in a one-tile radius, so thankfully you'll be able to cover lots of your key districts easily.

• Use Governor Magnus (the Steward) with the Vertical Integration promotion so a city can make the most of Electronics Factory production.
  
• The culture bonus is mostly useful for playstyles that have neglected culture up to this point.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.


Tier One

Oligarchy is typically the best choice early on. The +4 strength bonus to Samurai (+8 with Oligarchic Legacy) makes them even harder for unprepared civs to deal with them while there's a good mix of policy cards on offer.

Complement it with the Warlord's Throne so you get production bonuses every time you capture a city.

Tier Two

If you're after a religious victory, you'll want Theocracy, but otherwise Merchant Republic is ideal for its district construction bonus.

The Intelligence Agency is typically your best option for a tier two government building as you can keep more Electronics Factories safe from being sabotaged. The Grand Master's Chapel also isn't bad for a domination-focused Japan - you can use your cheap Holy Sites to provide faith you can then use to purchase units with.

Tier Three

Fascism is often the best option if you're pushing for a domination victory, although sometimes having four military slots can be overkill. Democracy is a reliable choice for those not going down that path, as your incentive to build a lot of districts will pay off with production and housing bonuses.

Your choice of tier three government building depends on your victory route - use the National History Museum for cultural games, Royal Society for scientific games (you can use Builders to rush space projects with it) or the War Department otherwise (the health-on-kills works for both military and religious units).


Ancient Era

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Useful for when you start Samurai conquests. Japan's bonuses to an array of district types do not include Entertainment Complexes, so you can be prone to being short on amenities. Add to that the relatively slow movement speed of Samurai, and maintaining loyalty in captured cities could be quite a challenge. This policy card will help with that.

Classical Era

Natural Philosophy (Economic, requires Recorded History) - Doubles Campus adjacency bonuses. One of the best adjacency bonus boosts to pick up, especially considering you should be maximising Campus adjacency bonuses anyway early on to get Samurai sooner.

Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - Useful if you really need more loyalty during Samurai wars.

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Doubles Holy Site adjacency bonuses.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Makes setting up a developed Encampment district lightning-fast. Building Samurai in cities with a Barracks makes them earn experience faster, allowing them to achieve their full potential sooner.

Medieval Era

Aesthetics (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - Doubles Theatre Square adjacency bonuses.

Craftsmen (Economic, requires Guilds) - Doubles Industrial Zone adjacency bonuses. Considering the importance of production, this is one of the better double-adjacency cards to get.

Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - Speeds up construction of Samurai. Considering you can't upgrade them from earlier units to save time, this is an important policy card to get.

Naval Infrastructure (Economic, requires Naval Tradition) - Doubles Harbour adjacency bonuses. Rather effective if you have plenty of Shipyards as it will also double the production output they offer, or if you have the Free Inquiry classical/medieval Golden Age dedication as it will double their science output.

Town Charters (Economic, requires Guilds) - Doubles Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses. Also combines well with the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication for bonus science.

Renaissance Era

Free Market (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - Japan's civ ability makes maximising Commercial Hub adjacency easier, allowing you to get more out of this bonus.

Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - A valuable source of amenities allowing you to put off building Entertainment Complexes in favour of more districts with adjacency bonuses.

Machiavellianism (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Electronics Factories are vulnerable to enemy Spies, so you'll want to train your own Spies to stop them. This policy card cuts the time needed to do so.

Rationalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - Japan's civ ability makes maximising Campus adjacency easier so you can more easily get more science out of this policy card.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Boosts Holy Site building faith so long as the adjacency bonus is 3 or higher - something that's easier to achieve thanks to Japan's civ ability.

Industrial Era

Grand Opera (Economic, requires Opera and Ballet) - Japan can use this policy card more easily than most civs to squeeze even more culture out of Theatre Squares, though with the culture from Electronics Factories, you may need to ask yourself if you really need that much culture at the cost of other policy card bonuses.

Modern Era

Economic Union (Economic, requires Suffrage) - Combines the effects of Naval Infrastructure and Town Charters.

Five-Year Plan (Economic, requires Class Struggle) - Combines the effects of Natural Philosophy and Craftsmen. A very useful policy card worth keeping to the end of the game.

Martial Law (Military, requires Totalitarianism) - Keeps your war weariness down while also helping keep your loyalty up, letting you conquer more effectively without having to use up district capacity building Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks.

New Deal (Economic, requires Suffrage) - Although it's quite costly to run, getting +2 amenities in every city means you can focus on districts that offer adjacency bonuses instead of buiilding Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks.

Police State (Diplomatic, requires Ideology) - Desperate to protect your Electronics Factories? Use this policy card to help your counter-spies out, at the cost of a loyalty penalty. This is not recommended if you're actively taking cities as you'll need all the loyalty you can get.

Propaganda (Military, requires Mass Media) - Helps keep war weariness down, saving you valuable amenities.

Atomic Era

Cryptography (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - Unlike Police State, this doesn't lower your loyalty in cities, but it still offers a helpful bonus to Spies used defensively.

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - A late game replacement for Aesthetics. Offers the same bonus with +1 amenity for Stadiums on top.

Information Era

Communications Office (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - A boost to loyalty which will help you with very late-game conquests.

Note that:

• Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.
  
• Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) may appear to be useful at first glance, but you won't have enough wildcard policy slots to take both that and Oligarchic Legacy at the same time; the latter is almost always better for Japan.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Although not quite as potentially powerful as the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication, it's still extremely strong in Japan's hands. The Holy Site requirement is easy to achieve thanks to Hojo Tokimune getting them for half-price so your good Campus adjacency yields can be boosted even further.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Japan's incentive to build a lot of districts makes this a good dedication to choose when you're trying to gain era score.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Well-positioned Commercial Hubs next to a Government Plaza, a river and some other districts can produce large amounts of gold, which can be added to science with this powerful Golden Age dedication. If that wasn't enough, it also makes eureka boosts more effective.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A good choice if you're coming out a classical-era Dark Age into a medieval-era Heroic Age, as the culture boost can make up for lost time from the Monasticism Dark Age wildcard. Gaining culture based on your number of districts works well considering Japan's incentive to build a lot of them.

Heartbeat of Steam (Dedication, Industrial to Modern eras) - Your UB is industrial-era, and this dedication gives you era score for building industrial-era or later buildings. As such, you can get a reasonable amount of era score from this.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Modern eras) - Your strong Campuses will now provide a good amount of production on top.

To Arms! (Golden Age, Industrial to Information eras) - Reducing the warmonger penalties from a war also reduces the amount of war weariness it creates. As such, this Golden Age dedication is very useful for late-game warfare without you needing to use up district capacity for Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks.

Collectivism (Dark Age, Modern to Information eras) - If you don't need any more Great People, then this Dark Age wildcard can be a good way of growing your compact cities while also making them a fair bit more productive.

City Patron Goddess - Makes setting up your first district in each city faster, which can get you stronger adjacency bonuses sooner.

Divine Spark - Combined with lots of early Campus districts, you can get a great early edge to science.

God of Healing - Being able to build Holy Sites cheaply means you can use them as reasonably effective spots for your units to heal.

God of the Sea - Japan's strong coastal defence makes this pantheon easier to use.

Goddess of the Harvest - Japan's incentive to dedicate a huge proportion of land to tightly-packed districts means you may need to clear a few resources. This pantheon gives you extra yields from doing so.

River Goddess - Japan's civ ability means you can position Holy Sites next to rivers and still get adjacency bonuses akin to them being near mountains, making the amenity bonus easier to use. The amenities will be useful for avoiding having to build Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks, which lack the same synergy with Japan's unique bonuses.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Burial Grounds (Enhancer) - Japan's low-cost Holy Sites makes this belief rather good if you need more land (whether neutral land or that owned by another civ).

Stewardship (Founder) - Makes your strong Campus and Commercial Hub districts slightly stronger.

Stupa (Worship) - A source of amenities without needing to build Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Cheap Holy Sites combined with this belief means you won't need production or gold to get your Campuses or Theatre Squares developed.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - Another decent source of amenities without having to build Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks.


Buenos Aires (Industrial) - More amenities to help you avoid having to use Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Faster experience gain means Samurai can get to Elite Guard sooner. Attacking twice is less of a risk for Samurai relative to other melee units as they'll still fight at full strength.

Mitla (Scientific) - Building lots of Campuses early will also be rewarded with fast city growth. The faster your cities grow, the more productive they'll become sooner. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Muscat (Trade) - Adds an amenity to every Commercial Hub, meaning there's less need for you to build Entertainment Complexes. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Toronto (Industrial) - Building your first Electronics Factory will have a bigger immediate impact, a city with Governor Magnus (the Steward) and the Vertical Integration promotion will gain even more production, and you won't need as many Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks to bring Zoo, Aquarium, Stadium and Aquatics Centre amenities to all your cities.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Your Encampments are cheaper to build than those of other civs, but your Encampment buildings aren't any cheaper to construct. This suzerain bonus allows you to purchase their buildings with faith, freeing up production and gold for other uses.

Vilnius (Cultural) - If you have an alliance, all your already-good Theatre Squares get a 50% adjacency boost. If you have a tier two alliance, it's 100%. Tier three? 150%. A Theatre Square surrounded by other districts could produce 15 culture per turn, and that's even before taking into account the Aesthetics policy card.

Zanzibar (Trade) - An amazing source of amenities without you having to build Entertainment Complexes.

Temple of Artemis (Ancient era, Archery technology) - A source of amenities for a single city (due to the way luxuries work, that amenity bonus can end up distributed throughout your empire), and both food and housing to help it grow. It's a good idea to build this in your Government Plaza city so it can support as wide an array of adjacency-receiving districts as your other cities. That being said, building this uses precious production you could be using for Settlers and other districts in the first place.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - Although it requires an adjacent Entertainment Complex with an Arena, the main advantage of building this is you won't need to build more Entertainment Complexes for quite some time thanks to all the amenities on offer. That helps you focus on the districts with adjacency bonuses.

Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - An extra military policy card can help strengthen your conquests, while extra amenities helps alleviate war weariness. The catch is that it's on the other end of the technology tree to Samurai, and the Castles technology has a tricky eureka boost to achieve if your cultural output is poor.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - Bumping up all your cities by a population point as well as providing extra housing will really help you maximise the number of districts you can fit in a small area. Requires the Khmer and Indonesia Civilization and Scenario Pack.


These Great People have particular synergy with Japanese uniques, but are not necessarily the most effective options overall. Any classical or medieval-era Great General will be useful for Samurai, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Classical Era

Themistocles (Great Merchant) - Grants +2 loyalty per turn in a coastal city - useful if your amenities are lacking but you still want to found or capture cities close to other civs.

Medieval Era

Æthelflæd (Great General) - Grants +2 loyalty per turn in a city. Be sure to finish with your Samurai wars before retiring them as the speed and strength bonus will be more useful.

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - Bi Sheng increases the district limit in a city by 1. Having lots of districts increases the effectiveness of Japan's civ ability.

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - Makes a Holy Site's adjacency bonus also add to science. Considering they're cheap for Japan to build, it's easy enough to make use of.

Renaissance Era

Ferdinand Magellan (Great Admiral) - Grants +4 loyalty per turn to a coastal city so you don't have to worry as much about building Entertainment Complexes to maximise amenities to gain loyalty that way.

Leonardo da Vinci (Great Engineer) - Makes all Workshops produce +1 culture. Considering you'll want to build plenty to make use of Electronics Factories, that's a reasonable advantage.

Industrial Era

James Watt (Great Engineer) - Instantly builds an Electronics Factory and makes all Electronics Factories provide +2 production. This makes them twice as good at providing production as the regular Factories of other civs!

John Spilsbury (Industrial Merchant) - More amenities.

Joseph Paxton (Great Engineer) - Helps get more out of an Entertainment Complex, so you can dedicate more cities to districts that offer adjacency bonuses. Beyond this point, cities will soon grow rapidly with the food bonus from Replaceable Parts and the housing provided by Neighbourhood Districts so building more Entertainment Complexes won't carry as high an opportunity cost. As such, it won't be as important to look for amenity bonuses.

Simon Bolivar (Great General) - Provides +4 loyalty per turn to a city.

Modern Era

Joaquim Marques Lisboa (Great Admiral) - Reduces war weariness so a lack of Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks is less of an issue.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Makes both an Electronics Factory and a Power Plant in the same city stronger.

Information Era

Jamseth Tata (Great Merchant) - Very useful if you want to change course towards a cultural victory. Your many strong Campus districts will now offer a massive +10 tourism each.

Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - The Electronics Factory UB combined with Japan's civ ability already encourages you to have lots of Industrial Zones. Masaru Ibuka adds +10 tourism to every single one.

Many of Japan's strengths are hard to take away from them, but that's not to say you can't play around them. Here's some good ways to take on Japan.


Doubled adjacency bonuses for adjacent districts can be tricky to counter-play. One possibility is to prevent Japan settling cities close together, or to push them into settling cities in a line rather than a blob, so the strongest adjacency bonuses are hard to get hold of. One mean method of doing so is blocking off the best locations for Settlers with your own military units.

The advantages of the Meiji Restoration will be lessened if Japan builds a lot of districts that can't have adjacency bonuses. Consider avoiding trading Japan luxuries so they're more likely to build Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks. If you appear to be a militaristic threat, they might be pushed to build more Encampments. Air superiority might encourage them to develop more Aerodomes.

Keep an eye on Japan's era status in the classical and medieval eras. If they end up with a Dark Age in that time, they can use cheap Holy Sites and strong Campuses to get a lot out of Monasticism's huge science boost. If they get a Golden Age and take the Free Inquiry dedication, their Commercial Hubs and Harbours will create a lot of science.


Coastal combat bonus

On map types such as Archipelago, where the strength bonus can rarely be avoided, be prepared to put up stronger defences than usual when facing Japan. Otherwise, if Japan starts near you, you can lessen their threat to you by avoiding founding cities directly on the coast - a tile or two inland will suffice. This will deny them a +5 strength bonus against those cities and reduces the risk of you having to fight a Japanese unit on terrain that favours them.

Prior to the renaissance era, it's a good idea to avoid fighting naval battles with Japan where possible. If they have a navy and intend to use it against you, make sure any naval units you have are kept close together and near to your coastal cities. That way, they can group together to bring down the stronger Japanese units, and heal up again afterwards ready to face more. Once you have Cartography, you can simply position your naval units in ocean tiles to make them less vulnerable to Japanese naval units.

Faster Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square construction

Fast construction of these district types pushes Japan into building these more than other civs might. Holy Sites and Theatre Squares gain from the Meiji Restoration civ ability, but Encampments don't. If Japan goes to war a lot, they may be incentivised to build more Encampments. Starting a war against Japan early on might help push them down such a path, even if otherwise little lasting damage is done - though beware that they may well end up with a Great General they otherwise wouldn't have as a consequence.


Hojo Tokimume likes civs that have a strong military as well as strong faith or culture, while disliking the civs with strong militaries but without either.

If you want to befriend him, keep in mind that he has a requirement of strong faith or culture - you don't need both. Either way, you'll still need a strong army. Some civs will be naturally inclined this way (Spain tends to have a good army and good faith, while Greece under Gorgo will usually have strong culture and a good army, as examples) but even if the civ you're playing as isn't, you can still adjust. A cultural or religious civ just needs to build a stronger defence while a domination-inclined civ can boost its cultural output. For scientific civs, your tech advantage will make your armies stronger without having to build as many units, and upping your culture output will be useful anyway for getting to key civics such as Space Race faster.


Samurai have 48 strength. So do Knights, making them an excellent choice for countering them. If Samurai are exploiting the Japanese strength bonus on coastlines, or are exploiting Oligarchy's strength bonus, promoting your Knights with Charge (+10 strength against fortified defenders) can help. Crossbowmen also work reasonably well if you can keep your distance. Keep your Pikemen away from Samurai, or you'll be dealing with a strength difference of 14 in their favour.

In the event you don't have access to Knights when Japan attacks, Horsemen and Swordsmen can work so long as you can withdraw them when injured. They each have 36 strength which is 12 less than Samurai, but their lower cost means in a prolonged war you should be able to outnumber Japan's forces.


A notable thing about Electronics Factories relative to other buildings that provide culture is that you can pillage them without even having to go to war. Spies can sabotage Industrial Zones, which includes Japan's UB. Do so and you set back not only Japan's production, but their culture as well.

The combination of strong production and some culture makes Industrial Zones a good target in war-time as well. Bomber-class aircraft are good at pillaging, as are light cavalry units. Unlike pillaging Industrial Zones via Spies, pillaging them in war-time will provide you with some science!

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These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm.

Compilation Guides

• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications
  
• Civ summaries

Individual Civilization Guides

• America (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Brazil (All)
  
• China (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination)
  
• France (Cultural)
  
• Georgia (Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Domination)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated. You can find these by scrolling to the top of this page, clicking "Zigzagzigal's Guides" and looking near the end of the list of guides. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.