STW Stalemate due to unfair AI advantage

[Murmandamus]

I played the original a few times on easy level when the game first came out but now I'm trying it on Normal as Uesugi. My problem is that after defeating Hojo, Takeda and all the Ronins in that area I have now come up against a Imagawa brick wall.

He inherited Oda lands early and has largest army highest income and all that. All of the other clans are still allied. I'm the only one fighting and it's nearly 1560! So they are just building huge armies.

My problem is that the AI can react to your army movements but you can't react to the AI's. As soon as I move an army or more into one of his provinces he just moves as many plus a few extra in to defend it. I've tried everything I can think of like moving an army into neighbouring provinces in order to stop him doing that but it leaves my provinces vulnerable and he just moves in behind me.
So how do I do it? or do I have to start again and hope for a more favourable sequence of events. Or do I have to sit back and try to build a huge army as well upgrading my provinces to support it? I don't want to have to resort to Geisha.

In order to be fair all players movements (including AI) should be based on the status of the map at the start of the round rather than the human always going first. This seems to me to be the main cause of stalemates in this game.

Sorry if all this has been covered before but it's getting very frustrating. Especially when I need 6-7 armies to take a province defended by one.

[Algesan]

Do you have xpack or original? If you have the original, then simply build an elite 16 unit army, walk in and take the province. Once you rout his initial army, follow to the center of his side of the map and rout off any reinforcements he gets. If you are playing with the xpack, it gets a bit more complicated, but is still doable, you just need more cav. The key is your tactical combat, you have to seize control. Don't expect any reinforcements that seems to be currently bugged for the offense.


Be ready with a bunch (6-10) of Shinobi to move in the province to establish control. You may have to build up multiple armies and strike multiple provinces in one turn depending on where you are. First move from the Echigo-Mutsu line would be for Kozuke-Shimotsuke-Hitatchi line, followed immediately by the Shimotsuke army taking Mushashi and the Hitatchi army grabbing Shimosa and Kazusa. Then you can take a break and rebuild on this three province front with two river provinces. Next I would take out Shinano, then sweep the south to Mimsaka with any breaks being taken in Imagawa's starting provinces. Then start sweeping the north side to establish a three province line based on Wakasa (or Echizen) to Owari. After that, you can stop and tech up or build the armies and Shinobi to sweep through the old Oda lands.

[Murmandamus]

Thanks for the advice, I'm playing the original. My front line is currently Kaga, Hida, Shinano, Suruga. I'm spread a little thin. I'm wondering if I would be better off going Totomi, Mikawa, Owari keeping a front line or should I attempt to divide and conquer. Taking Mino then Owari to isolate Totomi and Mikawa from reinforcements. So much to think about, so many options. Damn this is a good game and they have the nerve to call Age of Empires a strategy game, bah. :-)

[Algesan]

I would grind straight up to Mikawa then jump to a three province defense line based anywhere in there. Since each province is self supporting, especially if it has a castle and can then build dojos, it doesn't pay to get fancy, just grind them up. Now if you hold Shinano, one option is to take Mikawa first and then attack Totomi. Any horde there will die when it retreats if it has nowhere to go. Also Totomi has a permanent port, so the AI can always reinforce from other provinces.