| “ | Powerful Japanese lord who can train troops and receive Shipments. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
The Daimyo is a melee heavy cavalry unit in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties that is unique to the Japanese and can be shipped from the Home City, after which they can be retrained at the Shogunate wonder. It is a special unit that boasts several special abilities to bolster the Japanese military might.
There are three different Daimyo in random map games, which only differs in appearance and name; Daimyo Mototada, Daimyo Kiyomasa, and Daimyo Masamune. Mototada and Kiyomasa are shipped from the Home City, while Masamune is given if the player uses the Shogunate wonder to advance into the Fortress Age or higher.
Overview[]
The Daimyo possesses the Saburau Zeal ability which boosts the attack of all nearby friendly units, although the effect from multiple Daimyos do not stack. They can also serve as a drop off-point for Home City shipments, allowing them to be brought to wherever he is on the map. Finally, the Daimyo can train Japanese infantry and cavalry in the field, giving the Japanese army the advantage of boosting its numbers in the middle of a fight; however, they must stand still while doing so, leaving them vulnerable.
The Daimyo are very important to win a skirmish via conquest. The preferable method is building the Shogunate, where the player can retrain killed Daimyo. The other way, the hardest, is keeping them out of battle with the help of the advance button commands, ordering him to not attack any unit.
The weakest point of the Damiyo is their ability to train units, because they must stay still while they’re producing the unit. So, if one is not aware of this and leave a Daimyo alone, the Daimyo run the risk of being killed. The Daimyo don’t need to stand still when a Home city shipment arrives, but if the player don’t choose their cards wisely, their shipped crates of resources may drop in enemy territories!
Special ability[]
Saburau Zeal (passive): The Daimyo increases the attack of friendly units in a radius of 24 around him by 10%.
Upgrades[]
The Daimyo is automatically upgraded in every Age up starting from the Fortress Age.
- +20% hit points and attack
- +30% hit points and attack
- +50% hit points and attack
+20% 
+30% hit points and attack
+50% hit points and attackCampaign appearances[]
In Act I: Japan, Daimyo appear as friendly units that can be shipped from the Home City and as enemy units. The Daimyos in the Campaign are different from their Skirmish counterparts. The named Daimyos in the campaign are listed below:
- Daimyo Kato Kiyomasa (friendly)
- Daimyo Date Masamune (friendly)
- Daimyo Hosokawa Tadaoki (friendly)
- Daimyo Otani (enemy)
- Daimyo Ishida (enemy)
Further statistics[]
As Daimyo are unique to the Japanese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:
| Unit strengths and weaknesses | |
|---|---|
| Strong vs. | Rifle Infantry, foot archers, artillery |
| Weak vs. | Heavy infantry, light cavalry |
| Improvements | |
| Hit points |  Cavalry Cuirass (+10%) Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
|
| Attack |  Pillage (+25% siege attack) Yoga (+5%)
|
| Sight |  Town Watch (+2)
|
| Speed |  Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
|
| Creation speed |  Mass Cavalry (-50%) Cheyenne Horse Trading (-25%) Quechuan Diet (-25%)
|
| Train cost |  Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)
|
Home City Cards[]
As Daimyo are unique to the Japanese, only their cards and other civilizations' TEAM cards are shown in the following tables:
| Click for a list of Home City Cards related to the Daimyo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team French[]
Germans[]
Indians[]
Japanese[]
Russians[]
Spanish[]
|
History[]
| “ | The daimyo were the great feudal landowners of Japan. Unlike the kuge, or court nobleman, the daimyo were lords of territory and local citizenry, and as such held great power. By the twelfth century the influence of certain daimyo rivaled even the power of the emperor. The first Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, had been a daimyo, but upon obtaining power in 1192 CE, he established a centralized feudal system. As a result, the shogun’s power quickly weakened during the bloody civil wars occurring between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. By the end of the sixteenth century, one daimyo was quickly growing in power and wealth, rivaling the emperor for power. His name was Tokugawa Ieyasu. Upon becoming shogun in 1603, Tokugawa once again strengthened central power. | ” |
Gallery[]
