You need a very short window of time for that to kick in and you're set. Don't feel like losing those 2 shrines you have on distant hunt is going to cost you the game, because odds are you will be entering the early game with almost double the economy of your opponent just by your first 2 card decisions alone. But if you see a military shipment or a fast Japanese consulate, you know that you want to be playing very defensive. If he sends 600 wood, then you send 600 wood and play the harassment game. From this point on, you know that all you need to do to win is keep your shrine count up and not over do it. If you have noticed he has sent 2 villagers and you sent have kami, you already have priceless information on what he will be opting to do.

Let's say you perform the deck check trick. The goal of the civilization is to take the biggest economic lead that you possibly can without losing the game. I would also like to take a moment to introduce how you should view Japan. That being said, I hope that this guide will bring people to a more complete understanding of just how complicated this civilization is and just how much optimization goes into real 'Japan Laming'.

If I did not think that it was a valuable asset to your Japan game play then I would have left it out of this guide. At times this guide will be very specific and it is essential that you do not overlook the significance of anything stated in this guide. *Disclaimer* This guide is an older one (2010), only the late double barracks build is still viable according to h2O (at the time of writing this line, it was 2015) Japanese, An Introduction This guide is going to take you through what I view to be the civilization that I have the most in depth understanding of.

Age of empires 2 japanese build order