Written: Darkwolf
Edited: Naaira

Jomon Dragon Daimyos by Darkwolf

Masters of Asymmetrical Warfare is the title Jomon can claim, and this guide intends to show why and how to utilize it. Jomon is a nation that is hard to define, doubly so in Dominions Enhanced (DE). They have awful human troops, a random focused mage core and foreign recruit with temple 90% one path mages, They have an unrivaled amount of national summons as well, and it is hard to sort through them, but they are not useless - far from it - and if played right Jomon can become hell to deal with. Because of the many scattered portions of their playstyle, instead of this guide being focused on one specific blessing or pretender it will show the effective tactics they have and recommend different ways to merge them whilst leaving room to change. The golden rule with Jomon is that fighting your enemy on equal footing with a doomstack is the opposite of what you want to do.

Dominions Enhanced changes the game in many ways, especially Jomon. Compared to vanilla Jomon, DE adds many new types of mages like the Dragon Princess, and Shinobi, as well as many new non-national spells and items

I am not going to waste both of our time going over every single unit in Jomon’s roster so I will just focus on the general weaknesses and noteworthy units. The main roster issue is not the units themselves but the age they reside in. They are quite misplaced in LA due to one crucial factor: their lack of shields in the age of crossbow. Going into specifics their cheapest units are the Ashigaru, which acts as basic chaff, actually having 12 protection and a length 4 Yari. The issue is that they, like the rest of Jomon’s troops, do not have shields. Then there is the cavalry, which looks good on paper sporting a light lance and katana plus 17 protection. The issues arise from their cost: they simply do not provide the same value for their price compared to other nations’ cavalry. For example, they have the same recruitment point cost as a Mailia Druzina, a much better cavalry with heavier armor, an actual lance, and one more attack. Of course, the samurai cavalry also lacks a shield. Beyond those two examples, the rest of their unit roster follows a similar concept of being good on paper, but their lack of a shield causes a low defense skill making them bad blockers and terrible against crossbows. Their sacreds are similar. While they may benefit from a bless their low stats and the better variant Sohei being undisciplined as well as both being cap only makes a strategy that focuses on sacreds both difficult and inefficient.

The best infantry options are the Samurai Archers and Aka-Oni Samurai. The samurai archers can hold fire to make them easy to buff and are as good in melee as the other variants of basic Samurai but a little more costly in resources. The Aka Oni Samurai is the best stat-wise making them the best target for buff stacking, something Jomon can do well with their wide variety of paths.

The commanders of Jomon come in a large variety, but many are simply outclassed by others. Of its four general options, two come to mind, the Gokenin and Hamoto. Both being a single commander point, the Gokenin is the cheapest of the national generals and has 60 leadership. The Hamato is more pricey but is 16 map move and 80 leadership which allows it to set formations.

The mage lineup of Jomon is diverse and thus scary. Most mages have specific uses, though the amount of randoms makes it impossible to pin down all the exact castable spells. This is especially true for DE.

Shugenja 11100% The Shugenja is the basic mage of Jomon and can also be recruited in mountains and highlands with just a lab, capable of casting different spells based on their randoms. Some randoms are more useful than others though most have some use.

• Fire randoms can cast Magma Bolts.
• Water randoms are quite useful as they can cast Grip of the Marshlands, practically reverse Quickness as it halves the stats of any enemy that it hits.
• Nature and air randoms mainly forge cheap items or research - not a big issue as you are heavily encouraged to take magic 3.
• Earth randoms are the best of your randoms, capable of forging Earth Boots to get to earth 3 and make Dwarven hammers for cheap gear or make other earth 1 Shugenja useful. They can Summon Earthpower to get to E3 without items or E4 with the boots making them able to cast Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants, Curse of Stones and Blade Wind or with the earth boots, Keen Blades, Weapons of Sharpness, Army of Gold/ Army of Lead or even a risky Earthquake.

Master Shugenja- 112100%
100%
10% Masters follow the same principles, being different degrees of useful depending on their randoms. Worth noting is that nature randoms can craft Thistle Maces.

Onmyo-ji- 22100%
100%
10% Omnyoji is late-game spellcasters due to their Astral 2 and comparatively cheap cost - though being a 4 commander point mage makes them harder to mass. They have two of the same randoms as other Jomon mages making their communions at high levels deadly but requiring a large number of communion slaves which can be a problem since Jomon has no easy way of amassing cheap astral mages, therefore I recommend taking independent S1 like Crystal Sorceresses and Lizard Shamans if possible to act as slaves.

Miko- 112100%
100% The Miko is useful for its national spell and being inspirational but beyond that, all Miko can cast the Teaching Sign, a national version of Power of the Spheres turning a comparatively bad mage into a decent one cost-efficiently. The power of the Miko based on its randoms cannot be understated because of this spell: Its two random paths and one constant (nature) all get plus 1 giving it at least 2 in each random and 2 in nature. Jomon’s national spell, while being expensive, can enhance this further, allowing you to create an 4 Mage with 22232 s It is good, but because of your already wide path access, the ritual is largely useless after your first 1 or 2 casts to get access to forgers or site searchers.

Dragon Princess- 2010% The Dragon Princess is one of the two capital only commanders and is notable for its massive map move in dragon form and it's 20 gifts of water breathing in human form, allowing Jomon to expand into underwater provinces without an aquatic pretender, summons, or mercenaries. It can shapechange into a dragon form getting 34 map move, allowing you to quickly reinforce your frontlines with casters. As a result, armies do not actually have to have a full mage core for each army. Instead, mages join the armies for important battles. This flexibility allows Jomon to adjust which spells they bring to each battle - and the mages can easily flee if the army is about to die. The map move also allows less downtime between researching as the armies march to combat.

Shinobi Paths- 111100%
10% Why should assassins have their own category? Because I believe they are integral to Jomon’s playstyle and its tactics of divide and conquer. Jomon has 2 assassins. The Ninja is a very good assassin that can reliably kill commanders and weak mages. It is better than the vanilla assassin and has Scale Walls allowing the ninja to assassinate commanders within forts, making it a deadly tool in your arsenal. The Shinobi are mage assassins with high attack and defense skills. They can also scale walls and are cap only. Depending on their paths and gear they are capable of killing most mages, either by carrying Water bottles or by equipping gear such as a GSS. Their ability to cast Quicken Self makes it hard to kill them before they kill you, and that is before taking into consideration whatever buffs their other paths give them.

Monks are special, being H1 random 90% and recruit anywhere. This allows the recruitment of 70 gold 2 commander point sacred researchers in any province with a temple. They are not just amazing researchers with their massability and 7 RP with Magic scales. Some even have combat uses you can focus on depending on your plan.

• Nature- The Nature ones can cast their sign going to N2 and from there cast Wooden Warriors, Sleep Cloud, and effectively enough Storm of Thorns later on.
• Fire- Fire signs can Charm at no fatigue cost at 15 range. Note that Farcaster helps. No seriously, that is all they can do and what they realistically should be doing for you lmao
• Water- Water signs can be Frozen Heart casters, being easily spammable, or cast their sign, an extremely minimal fatigue reduction from 9-13 at aoe 3
• Earth- Their sign can one-hit demons at MR negates easily. I mainly use them for research or Earth Grip
• Air- Air randoms are your best monks for one reason: They have an aoe 5 Air Shield to stack on your troops and cover their lack of shields. They also grant morale plus 1

Ryujin Paths- 32200%
10% Whilst the air monk can handle the weakness of the main troops, The main strength of Jomon is in its underwater recruitment. Shrimp soldiers are decent but the real stars are the shark warriors. Having two attacks, an attack skill of 17 and decent protection makes them great buff targets, though you have to watch out for them being size 4, having 5 encumbrances, and most of all their bad defense skill. Then you have the center of the roster: Ryujin. With a base map move of 34 and flying without changing shape into a dragon, they are a direct improvement to the princesses. That is without taking into account the Dragon Pearl, a cursed item automatically given to them, while the misc slot being locked can be a hindrance. This pearl grants them a temporary water gem and astral pearl at the beginning of combat. Ryujin can act as heavy casters or as heavy thugs and light super combatants able to cast Foul Vapors and other battlefield wide spells or use combinations they random to self-buff and engage in melee with gear.

Some Ryujin Type uses Fire- Acid and Boiling spells. Can act as battle casters. With a Flame Helmet can cast Pyre of the Frozen Phoenix to start generating 1D3 water gems. Phoenix Pyre causes issues when the ryujin has gear as they have different forms and switching forms makes it lose its gear Nature- Foul Vapors, and the melting spells or elite or thug targeting Earth- Best Thug Variant Air- Ice Evocations, Summon Selkie Ofc Water 3 spells and elementals or Swarm as well

Beyond the Signs the only national combat spells are the undead D2 and one D1 summons. These Alternatives to the Horde of Skeletons make better skeletons but fewer. I did not bother testing further as Jomon has no Death casters Jigami- N2 mage with Strength of Summer. Not worth it as you already have easy access to N2 Mori No Kami- N2 mage that becomes an N3 mage when in a forest. It can then be boosted to N4 and summon Ivy Kings, who are N3 mages everywhere. Kaijin- W3 N2 E1 mage with ethereal, for only 20 water gems. It is a decent mage and it is up to you whether you use them, though water gems may arguably be better served for brands or elementals as you have Ryujin that can random W3 N2

Kenzoku, Ghost General, Ujigami- These three are grouped together because they all have similar uses, practically all being better Banes. Summons that can easily thug at under 10 gems.

Ghost General- 10d gems A Bane with Ethereal and Fear. It can thug with light gear like just a Vine Shield

Kenzoku- 9 Pearls. The best of the three, it has Awe, Ethereal, and is sacred. Equipped with basic thug gear it can easily thug and with a Frost Brand, Vine Shield, it is capable of killing up to 50 PD including heavy cav and barbs. With either a Bottle and Regen bless, or Ring of Regeneration it can take up to 100PD, unless the PD contains a mass of Crossbows which ignore the awe and Vine Shield

Ujigami- One of the three most out of place. An Ethereal H2 that has Inspirational and is a magic being. While it can be a thug and quite efficiently at a 5 gem cost, I find it more useful for leading armies with its120 leadership and 80 Magic Leadership. This is valuable considering the large amounts of chaff and summons you should be amassing.

Gozu Mezu- 2 Heavy Infantry with Soul Trap Halberds. Good against immortals - a great counter to Wraith Lords and Vampire Thugs-

Yama-no-Kazi- A great A2 E3 N2 forger and caster Oni- Chaff Tengu- A bunch of different spells summon different variants of these flying lighting bolt firing birds. The clan holds and other summoning spells are not overpriced, but nature gems and air gems are constantly in demand for Jomon so the value of summoning them is not normally worth the cost. On the other hand, the village and clan hold are valuable for the cost in gems giving sacred tengu repeatedly, giving you some good buff sponges and flyers- Dai Tengu are high air and can cast the big air spells like Fog Warriors

Oni General- D2 random 1. Your bread and butter death mages. They can thug but you have better options that are either cheaper or better at it. Instead, I recommend using them as forgers, site searchers, and battle casters.

Dai Oni- Giant Demon Chassis that is originally for Yomi with high Death, Fire, and Earth. They do not perform adequately as SCs, as by the time they are online, demon counters are easily accessible. As casters, however, they work great and are not anywhere as vulnerable as the human casters this nation fields.

Kitsune- N2 summon with a chance of N3 and a selection of other randoms. It can even random N4. If this happens it can then shapeshift taking a Thistle Mace and, with a Copper Arm a Treelords Staff. This turns it into a N7 mage capable of casting many of the major Nature spells. N4 + Thistle mace + Treelord’s Staff would make it N7

Okami- Stealthy dogs with magic power. Decent summons actually to fill your stacks if you have extra gems

Bakenoko- Breaks you into D1 from Nature but you will need an empower or another way to boost higher if you do not have death on your pretender

Mujina- N2 Assassin capable of casting Warm during assassinations. Generally not worth it due to the large variety of nature uses and how you have great assassins already.

Tanuki- 26 Gem N2 E1 W2 mage. Those are paths you have access to quite easily so is usually not worth it EalFolk- Not worth it. Just bad troops in water and on land

Yuki Onna- 10 DGem Ethereal Fear assassin with Cold Breath, Actually really good but death gems are very valuable and you have access to Shinobi and Ninjas so their actual value for gems is pretty low.

Call The Tesso- Remote Temple Destruction for 12 Gems that takes some gold

Wake Namazu- Requiressome hard to obtain high earth and water paths, but for 10 gems may be the best remote attack spell in the game. First it causes unrest and kills the population. Afterwards it summons a bunch of high tier oni and three mages that cast undead spamming spells capable of taking a decent amount of pd and then holding a province - also notably capable of draining gems

Gryou- An amazing 40 Death Gem Summon- 3 Month mounted Immortal with D3 and a combination of 3Water Fire and Air. It causes unrest and misfortune but they have Chill aura, ethereal and Fear as well as a retinue of 1d3 and 1d6 of ghost Jomon Troops that can clear basic pd alone. Can act as an SC with Phoenix Pyre Soul Vortex, or other variants, thug as an immortal, or act as a battle caster, its main weakness being the fact that it is undead.

Four Holy Beasts- Summons four Elite troops that when GOR or other spells to turn them into commanders are effective creature super combatants. While the creatures are not game-changing this ritual has the additional effect of granting 5 resistance to your bless, 2 ritual range in your capital, and 20% conjuration Discount - something that cannot be understated as a conjuration focused nation

There are so many spells so I am going to ignore the end game unique summons they are all good

Jomon’s variety of paths and strategies mean that almost everything but Blood is useful, so make decisions based on the enemies you are facing and your gem income

Conj 5- First Summons and Elementals for Ryujin raiding and army casting. Also gives access to the summon powers and Light of the Northern Star along the way. Alteration 4- Swarm, thug spells, Protection, Curse Of Stones, Body Ethereal, Evo 3- Sleeping Cloud, all your N1 Monks can cast it Con 2- Basic gear Thaumaturgy 2- Mind Burn and Communions

The weak early game encourages an awake or dormant combat capable chassis, but you can also take a risk for a much stronger mid to late game. There are a lot of different useful paths to take making it hard to make a perfect choice. You will want Death and small amounts of Fire to obtain their great death magic capabilities as Jomon can only summon D1 mages with Nature making breaking into Death require an empower. At D2 F1 Jomon can summon Oni Shugo, which are D2 and can be boosted to D3 or even D4 F1 for summoning Dai Oni. This guarantees easy access to death and gives you the big earth, death, and fire caster much earlier, A thug or SC blessing like regen is just as valuable for them with ryujin and the many summonable sacred thugs being accessible as well as the many national sacred summons.

Jomon is not a nation meant to win a straight army fight and their basic strategy reflects that. Unlike many of the LA nations they cannot rely on stacks of troops or one overwhelming strategy. They need to approach a game from many different angles and play the mental game as much as the physical one, but do not take that for weakness. I am of the humble opinion that DE Jomon is one of, if not the most, underrated nations in DE considering their capabilities. There is no single tactic or play that works for them but the trick is to mitigate their issues and play to their strengths. Jomon has insane research so many will try to wipe you out in the early and mid game - be wary of that. For your early war try to be the aggressor to surprise yourenemy.et some early ninja to attempt to scramble his forces. Use your mages as an early fighting force - you can catch up in research especially if you took magic scales so use your mages make sure you win. Elementals, Swarm, and Sleep Cloud and buffs are all spells you can cast during your first war depending on what research goal you started with. If you survive the early game Jomon comes into its own. While you are not a sacred nation or a nation with one great single tactic you can attack all facets of your opponent with so many different strategies and tactics it becomes impossible to counter them all. Causing constant chaos and uncertainty for your opponent is the way to victory. Remember your opponent is a person too and uncertainty affects people. You may wonder how you cause so much confusion and chaos but it is a combination of factors. You have 4 different thug chassis that all have their own strengths and weaknesses plus levels of gear they need. You have amazing assassins to strike all sides of the enemy and kill enemy generals, mages, and thugs - nobody is safe. You have Ryujin who can travel insane distances and raid with gear, summon elementals, act as battle mages, or cast battlefield wipes. Cast Call Tesso to destroy enemy temples and lower their dominion. Have communions constantly switch spells with their variety in paths, switching from buffing infantry to mass evocations and the like while clearing the paths for your armies with thugs. If the enemy starts countering your vicious communions with spells like Earthquake and Bloodletting to interrupt or kill your human HP casters, you can start mixing in oni shugo skele spammers and dai oni battlefield casters to mix up your strategy even more and provide a less squishy mage core. By the very late game you should have amazing research and path variety making it quite possible to push from there

Reliance on Water- Nowhere near as reliant as in base game. Having just a single water province makes Jomon so much stronger. A lot of this comes down to luck on maps with few water provinces, and there is no perfect advice for it besides taking an amphibious expander and go to war with the goal of obtaining water earlier and holding onto it Bad Troops- Take an awake to expand or scales to spam (though that is riskier), then buff your elite infantry and Shark Warriors to insanity Low Paths- You will need a lot of mages and have to use boosters and summons to attempt to climb up the magic trees earlier than you do with most other nations and don't forget Miko are great combat mages Rushability- Awake or dormant pretender helps counteract this Counter thugs against Ryujin- One strategy is to assassinate first with a shinobi and Ninja. Instead of a counter thug fighting a ryujin they will end up fighting a water elemental or a shinobi heated and scripted for fighting anti thugs. Or just have ryujin summon elementals instead.

Notes: I’m shit and this guide is shit :P but its still missing a decent amount- also the key to Jomon is getting lots of mages don't sit on your ass you can’t turtle once you hit mid game take land as much as you can and dissuade people from attacking you with your assassins and Ryujin, also note your most valuable resource by far are gems, followred by go;d take those over resource rich forts at any moment.

Rovsea: So there’s actually a way to summon the oni *without* empowering in death magic. You would need a swamp to pull it off, but you can summon a nushi (national homesick swamp snake with water 3 nature 2 and death 1; costs water gems to summon), who can then wear a robe of the sea to summon a Kokythiad. The Kokythiad needs to be empowered in fire instead to get d3 w3 f1 and can comfortably cast either summon oni or dai oni later on. The Kokythiad would be a pretty strong mage in its own right as well. That being said, it’s a *big* gem investment (55 water gems and 50 fire gems).