Well, I gave it a try last night. I did things a little differently due to my inherent fear of Monks and Ninja. I took Tajima on turn one with 2 SA and 1 YA. On the next turn I stormed the castle to prevent it from disappearing, then built a tea house, left the three units there to garrison and churned out Shinobi. By turn three I had 2 YS and attacked Ise. The Ronin general refused to fight and retreated to the castle. I had to garrison Ise for a year to starve out the Monks.

I kind of screwed up though. I took the single YA garrisons out of a couple of provinces and Yamashiro took Yamato without a fight. I moved single YA’s back into my undefended provinces on the next turn and Yamashiro attacked two more provinces. I decided to command the defenses, and ended up winning both by running that quick little YA from hiding place to hiding place, running out the clock. (Not exactly the most honorable way to win, eh?)

By year 1532 or 33 I attacked Yamashiro with 16 units, no YA, in light rain. By this time Ronin had a pretty good-sized army, and didn’t split his Monks off. Obviously, a frontal assault was not going to work, so I grouped my guys into a tight tight formation, with rows of archers in column in the center. I moved them around the edge of the map clockwise until I could just reach his first units with archer fire. He stayed in the trees and I had to march in formation right into the lion’s jaws. As I reached the Monks, I opened up on each one, and charged my melee troops forward around each flank. I sandwiched the whole mess and closed the trap from both sides. Ronin ended up with only four battered units starving in the castle. I still had nearly my entire force.

After that it was on to Mikawa, which retreated. Imagawa attacked me in Mino from Shinano on the next turn (with twice my number of men) and I killed the old man himself, even though I lost the battle. All his provinces went Ronin. The next step was Harima, where I slaughtered a mostly YA army of 16 units. I’m leaving the now-Ronin army alone in Mino as a shield to my north. If I don’t bother him, he won’t bother me.

I had SO much success SO early that now I’m not sure exactly what to do next. I think I’ll take Shinano, which I find very easy to defend, then sweep through the lowlands of Totomi and Saruga. I guess I’ll be at war with pretty much everybody by 1540.

So, essentially, the strategy works like a charm as long as you know how to gain the advantage on the battle map. Knowing the AI’s tendencies on the strategic map also helps a lot.