siuox firepit nerf was not 6%, it was 20%, i.e. huge.
their eco is missing a lot more than just royal mint and refrigeration, they are missing just about every eco upgrade you can think of - no auto gather buildings, no eco theory, no planatation cards at all (vs 3~4 most euro civs has), no age up eco upgrade option, and the 3rd plantation upgrade (+30%).
even at 99 vils they are still slow.
as for unit upgrades, note the biggest problem with their cav upgrades is that all their cavalry are colonial based, even dog soldiers, while the 3 other cav orientated civ all have veteran based cavalry - spanish, germany and french.
on top of that, sioux has 1 more 10% hp upgrade (from BB) and that not-so-useful +1 multiplier for anti trillery, (because WC's own +10 miltiplier already does an excellent job), but lack church cav training upgrade and 10% hpp+att RG upgrade,
their special card upgrades - merc axe raider 20% hp, or merc dog soldier 15% speed, or merc rifle rider 25% attack, sucks compared to lancer's +1 against all infantry, cuirs -15% cost and train speed, and uhlan's +15% att+hp.
not just japan they cant compete with, they cant compete with anyone late game. it is now made worse with the undue wakina price increase + firepit nerf.
the fix needed:
1, Wakina price go back to the way they were, 1.01 LI nerf and WC speed nerf is already more than enough, if their siege was too good, reduce it to 9 to reflect their cost, and give +0.3 multiplier in the merc card.
2, siege dance and attack should be unnerfed. that nerf was undue when all these other nerfs were in place.
3, mustang should reduce train time by 10% , including dog soilders.
4, dog soldier still sucks for their cost, default 3.0 vs infantry would be a good start, after all they cost over 50% more than lancer, and perform barely better.
[This message has been edited by ultimitsu (edited 04-20-2008 @ 11:59 PM).]