Samurai

Prerequisites

Elite unit

Requires:

Toolmaking
Only buildable by "Asian" cultures

Summary

Special Forces
Flanker

Gameplay

Whereas the Hoplite is more suited to defense, the Samurai is designed to attack.

Historical

Samurai were the warrior class during the feudal period of Japanese history from the 12th century until 1871. They were the military retainers of the feudal landowners known as daimyo (Japanese, "great holders of private land"). The samurai of the Kamakura period (1192-1333) developed themselves as stoic, military experts, in sharp contrast to the more refined samurai of the imperial court. As the influence of Zen Buddhism began to spread during the Muromachi period (1338-1573), samurai culture produced some of the uniquely Japanese arts, such as the tea ceremony, that existed well into modern times. The model samurai followed the code of Bushido (Japanese, "The Way of the Warrior"), which maintained bravery, honor and loyalty as more sacred than life itself. For samurai, ritual suicide by disembowelment (seppuku) was a institutionally and culturally respectable alternative to dishonor, cowardice and defeat.