Well, I recently wrote up a new strat, and its on Gamereplays.

The Good Faith Fortress outlines the advantages of a shipment based Fort using the ability of the consulate and its techs.

Spain allows for 1500 xp for only 400 export after reaching fort and sending the 'Good faith relations'.

Go check it out and tell me what you guys think

Good Faith Fortress

The Good Faith Fortress

It seems that everyone is looking into fast forting with the Japanese civilization. I looked around the civilization for a while and found quite a few weapons to be of use, and I will be taking advantage of them in this strategy.

Main Advantages

Experience Points

• The Japanese have many, many ways to gain xp. Several of these options stem from their wonders, the Tori gates (x1.5) and the Shogunate (+ X amount of xp).
  
• Coupled with the wonders is the consulate. This baby can get you 3k experience in fort for around 500 export and 1500 gold. The Spanish consulate option grants a trickle and the Mercentalism tech for 700 export. The Dutch grant gold and the church- which comes with the valuable Mercentalism tech as well! (1500 coin).
  

Shipments

• The Japanese have decent shipments in fort, and you can send each TWICE!
  
• Ashigarus, Yumis, Flamers, Naganitas- All have upgrades to be sent for them- Naganitas have two. Try and balance upgrades with cards, as you only need one military shipment per unit (due to being able to send cards twice).
  
  
  
  
• Intervention- anyone tried this card? It is so-so I guess. Ship it with the Dutch to get 9 Stadhouders, and with the Spanish to receive 11 terecios. Not sure about Isolation or Ports though, but one could predict around an equal number of Besterios.
  
  
• Wood and Gold crates each sendable twice
  
  

So there you have it, the basic ideas about the Japanese fast fortress. The build order follows.

Deck:

Discovery Age

• Collect crates then send villagers to berries, keeping sure to get all wood treasures, then coin treasures, then food treasures.
  
• Build 1 house and a consulate in a 300 (+) wood start, gather the extra 25 wood with a villagers on it and shrine on it.
  
• If you find yourself with a measly 200 wood start, try to gather the wood from treasures or while aging up.
  
• First card should be Good Faith Agreements . this card does the following:
  -Techs train 50% faster
  -Improvements are 40% less export
  -Lessens the isolation imperial age tech to only 2k export
  The first two are the most important ones, as the card will save you more than 1k export in all the upgrades!
  
• You have the following options to ally:
  
  Spain
  
  
  • The Spanish Consulate
    
  • Used the most with this new strategy due to its relatively cheap 1500 experience for ~400 export technology.
    
  • ultra cheap 121 export tech that makes shipments come in much faster, combine with the Daimyo for a fast drop off point directly at your enemies' base or behind their lines.
    
  • The least usefull (but still great) tech is the silk road one, for ~270 export grants you 25% more on all resource crates. Couple this with the shrine age up to get some of the export needed for these techs.
    
  • Possibly get the silk road one once you ship the 600 coin to turn it into 750 coin, saving you the labor of gathering the coin, and making the 1k wood and 1k gold x2 all the more appealing to send.
    
  
  
  Dutch
  
  
  • The Dutch Consulate
    
  • Grants a coin trickle helping you gather that 400 coin earlier.
    
  • The Church has the 1500 coin for 1500 experience tech, helping the flow of experience once you hit fort. The church is available in colonial as well, and for only 90 export, it’s a bargain.
    
  • AA usefull in late fort
    
  • Bank great for booming
    
  
  
  Portuguese
  
  
  • The Portuguese consulate
    
  • I recently found out the usefulness of Portuguese. I'm always a bit short on food as I get 1k gold, so stay allied with ports from the minute you build your consulate to the second after you build your age up wonder to fort. It also allows you to get houses up quicker (the houses you need for your way to fortress).
    
  Isolation
  
  
  • Japanese Isolation
    
  • Should be switched to upon soon before or after your first Fortress strike.
    
  • If you have spare export late game check out the 2k export imperial to surprise your enemy!
    
  
  

So there you have it, the consulate choices. However which consulate should you to choose to age up with? Your best choose is the Tori gates with as alternative the Toshogu Shrine. You can use the Tori Gates as a bluff to give your opponent that you’re going to apply pressure in Colonial. The Samurai it grants also help you to kill off any small raids from you opponent by disciples or horses. The Tori Gates’ effect will have longer to be in action if you do this as opposed to using it as your fortress option.
The shrine grants you export and pop space, but the export is better saved for fortress age up. Use this if you want to achieve a faster fortress but slower shipments.

Colonial Age

• Have 4-5 on gold a bit before you hit colonial in order to have the 400/250 gold in time. While still allied with the ports, build a house.
  
• First card should be 600 gold
  
  
• Next card should be either Sentry Uprising or Diplomatic intrigue, based on whether you think you will have enough export for the techs/ fend off any rushes.
  
  
• BE SURE TO SCOUT to see what your enemy is doing.
  
• Garrison Villagers when needed to fend off any attacks.
  
• Save any other shipments for later once you hit fort.
  
• Age up with the Toshogu Shrine or the Tori Gates. (Depending on which one you used earlier). Make sure to put the shrine near some hunts, even if it is a bit out of your way.
  
  
• DO NOT forget to switch to Spain in the consulate while in transition. It's very important.
  

Fortress Age

• Once you hit fort, immediately grab the Spanish tech Mercantilism then Merchant marine, in any order you feel like. You will get ~3 shipments. Ship 2 Flamers twice- they don’t do enough if you only have two- I found that out the hard way 
  
  
• If your rush was pushed back go for economy and a Trade Posts maybe a TC or two ship the silk road buffed 1k wood and the 2 7 villager shipments from your Dutch mercantilism tech.
  
  

Enjoy!

Other possibilities

Here is a rough summary of some other Consulate Fast Fortresses .

Spain
Start with Spain and keep them. Age up with the Tori Gates to II for the experience points flow and your rax, fooling your enemies. Use excess export to get the cheap Merchant Marine upgrade to speed up shipments. Send Daimyo while in transition and set him as the gather point near the opponent’s base. Once in fort get the Merc tech from Spain and you should have 3 open shipments in under a minute. Ship whatever you like, 8 Ashiguri, 5 Naganitas, and 7 villagers or a mix of military and crates, or upgrades, whatever you choose!

Spain and Dutch
Get the silk road tech with Spain once you send in your 600 coin, making it 750 coin, then switch to Dutch ally. Ship in 600 coin again in colonial transition to fort or wait for 1k coin once in fort to get the Mercentalism tech from the church allowing an easy spam of shipments. This is a good alternative if you decided to use the Shrine to age up to colonial.

Portuguese, Spain and Dutch
If you have a 200 wood start, don’t bother trying to get the consulate up to save you the 120 food for age up, just wait until transition. If you have a 300 wood start, put your shrine and 1 villager on wood to get the consulate up once you have the wood. Change relations once you build your fortress wonder to Spain. Get the mercentalism tech and the merchant marine tech as well as the silk road one. You should have 3 shipments now. Ship 1k gold when you have an army on the field and change ally to Dutch. Grab the cheap church and with the 1k (1250) gold, gather the extra 250 and get the mercentalism tech from the church, for another two shipments! Spend it on 14 villagers and other economy upgrades or use it on more flamers or whatever you feel.

Replays:

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[This message has been edited by CookieCrisp13 (edited 02-09-2009 @ 11:32 PM).]