Zen (Japanese)
Zen settlement
The Asian Dynasties
Continent	Asia
Technologies	Meditation Master Lessons Meritocracy
Maps	Ceylon Honshu Silk Road Yellow River
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The Zen Temple is an East Asian native settlement found in Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties maps. Civilizations can ally themselves with Zen Temples through the construction of Trading Posts on their settlements and train Sohei infantry units.

Unit Edit

The Zen provide the Sohei, a light infantry unit, with a build limit of fifteen. They are Japanese warrior monks, armed with a naginata, similar to the Naginata Rider. This makes the Sohei good against cavalry and buildings, but inefficient and weak against ranged infantry. The Japanese can send Sohei units from the Home City, for the price of coin.

Upgrades Edit

• Meditation

Price: 125 food, 125 coin. Improves hand infantry attack by 15%.

• Meritocracy

Price: 350 wood, 350 coin. Awards 1.000 Experience

• Master Lessons

Price: 200 wood, 200 coin Decreases unit upgrade costs by 30%

Tactics Edit

The usefullness of an alliance with the Zen greatly depends on the civilizations. The Master Lessons upgrade can be used by all civilizations, but civilizations with many Royal Guards, such as the Spanish and the Portuguese benefit the most due to the large cost of upgrading for Royal Guard units. The Meditation upgrade greatly depends on how much hand infantry the civilization possesses. For instance, the Aztecs can get much use of this, having four standard hand infantry units, while the Ottomans can only upgrade mercenaries and native warriors, having no standard hand infantry. The meritocracy upgrade however, is good for any civilization, granting 1,000 experience for a lesser price per experience than Mercantilism and Bullionism. This is especially useful in Treaty games, where experience is hard to get for European and Asian civilizations.