Yojimbo

"Heavily armed mercenary cavalry good with both a bow and a sword. Good against cavalry."

—In-game description

The Yojimbo is a Japanese mercenary ranged cavalry in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties. It is an hybrid of Cavalry Archer and heavy cavalry (particularly to Cuirassiers) in some respects.

Overview Edit

The Yojimbo can be trained at the Stable and Monastery with the Atonement Home City Card.

At first glance, the Yojimbo might seem as a superior version of the Yabusame, but in reality, it plays more like a highly improved, mercenary version of the Cavalry Archer. The Yabusame itself is more comparable to a Culverin, as it has a very high bonus versus artillery combined with a good range and strong ranged resistance (50% to be precise).

On the other hand, the Yojimbo is meant to be a shock unit, quickly destroying enemy cavalry and artillery with arrow volleys, and when enemy light cavalry or infantry arrive in the battlefield, going for the kill in melee combat, where they particular excel, as they have great melee armor, combined with a strong attack, but most important of all, area damage.

Not unlike Cuirassiers or other cavalry in Trample Mode, this makes them excellent against masses of weak units, such as Strelets or Macehualtins.

All in all, Yojimbos are spectacular mercenaries, but by no means should they replace Yabusames, as they are much more expensive, and not as cost effective against Artillery, while larger masses of Light Cavalry may wreak havoc on Yojimbo.

Campaign Edit

In the Japanese campaign, they are featured in the first scenario as woodcutters who were going to be executed for rebelling. When they are freed, they will make a remark about regaining their honor and join your forces.

Further statistics Edit

As Yojimbo are unique to the Japanese, only technologies that they have access to are shown in the following table:

Unit strengths and weaknesses
Strong vs.	Heavy cavalry, light infantry, artillery
Weak vs.	Heavy infantry, ranged infantry, light cavalry
Improvements
Hit points	Comanche Horse Breeding (+10%) Cree Tanning (+5%) Navajo Weaving (+5%)
Attack	Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+10%) Carib Kasiri Beer (+10%) Carib Garifuna Drums (+1.0x multiplier vs. villagers) Seminole Bowyer (+25%) Tupi Poison Arrow Frogs (+10%) Yoga (+5%)
Range	Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
Sight	Town Watch (+2) Ranged Cavalry Caracole (+2)
Speed	Comanche Mustangs (+10%) Apache Endurance (+5%)
Creation speed	Mass Cavalry (-50%) Cheyenne Horse Trading (-25%) Incan Chasquis Messengers (-25%)
Train cost	Mapuche Ad-mapu (-10% coin cost)

Home City Cards Edit

As Yojimbo 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 Yojimbo

Green: TEAM Shipment that is sent to each player in a team Red: Shipment that can be sent TWICE (Japanese only) French Edit Card Description Age HC level TEAM Hand Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry and Coyote Runners get +15% attack 10 Germans Edit Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Attack Heavy cavalry, light cavalry, and light infantry gets +15% attack 10 Indians Edit Card Description Age HC level TEAM Shivaji's Tactics All units get +5% hit points and attack 25 Japanese Edit Card Description Age HC level Hire Japanese Mercenary Army Ships 5 Ronin and 5 Yojimbo; costs 2,000 coin 25 Hire Yojimbo Cavalry Archers Ships 4 Yojimbo; costs 1,000 coin 10 Russians Edit Card Description Age HC level TEAM Cavalry Scouts Cavalry and light infantry gets +10% hit points and +4 LOS 1 Spanish Edit Card Description Age HC level TEAM Inquisition All units get +10 LOS 10

In-game dialogue Edit

Main article: Japanese (Age of Empires III)#In-game dialogue

• は [Ha.] ("Yes."; a variant of hai (はい "Yes") pronounced with a short, strong breath; old-fashioned, typically said by fictional archaic characters, especially of the feudal ages, in response to the instructions or remarks of their superior person, with an attitude of respect toward that person)
• ご命令を [Gomeirei o.] ("Your instructions?")
• 御意（に） [Gyoi (ni).] ("At your will.")
• はい！ [Hai!] ("Yes!")
• いざ [Iza.] ("Now.")
• 直ちに [Tadachi ni.] ("Immediately.")
• 仰せの通り（に） [Ōse no tōri (ni).] (Literally "As you say."; it means "In accordance with your will.")
• いざゆかん！ [Iza yukan!] ("Let's go now!")
• 戦じゃ！ [Ikusa ja!] ("Fight!")
• や！ [Ya!] (an interjection)

Trivia Edit

• The Yojimbo is the only cavalry archer that have area of effect melee attack.
• The Yojimbo are classified as gunpowder units, despite obviously using arrows. While they're normally not affected by this classification, it does prevent them from benefiting from any archer-related native upgrades, such as the Carib bonus against Villagers.
• The Yojimbo bears physical resemblance to the fictional character Sanjuro from a 1961 Jidaigeki film with the same name.

History Edit

"A yojimbo is a bodyguard or security warrior often hired from the ranks of wandering ronin, or masterless samurai."

Gallery Edit

A Yojimbo under white background

An in-game Yojimbo

The Yojimbo Cavalry Archer's history portrait

Yojimbo stats

It is possible the the Yojimbo was based on Sanjuro from the namesake 1961 Jidaigeki film

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