Hojo

[DeadRunner]

yesterday i started and lose with house Hojo in exp i was atacked by all my neigbordes(takeda;imagawa and uesuji )i was hammerd to a non army clan only with few ragtags groups shadowns of a great house now only shade of is power http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif this happens to me all the time with hojo

[Orda Khan]

Yes.......but I bet you still love it http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

.....Orda

[DeadRunner]

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
i will love more in the day that i win with hojo in exp http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif
now i am with shimazu in exp

[Papewaio]

Teach them respect ie weaken one of them and let the others pounce on him.

BTW which map/year are you starting on?

Sometimes retreating to a smaller amount of provinces is the way to go. Using rivers (with a small garrison) and larger garrisons for the few non river provinces. Also look at the terrain and customise your garrison to take the most advantage of it.

I would suggest however making alliances as quickly as possible with the more honourable nearby clans and looking at ways to maximise income /minimise surface area of your provinces ie if you can have 7 provinces with only 3 facing enemies you are better off then having 9 provinces with 6 facing enemies.

[Brutal DLX]

I found alliances in Shogun being worth not even the rice paper they are written on. If the allied Daimyo sees a chance to take a province from you, he'll attack. The best alliances are always the ones between two clans on the opposite sides of Japan http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I lately finished a campaign as the Hojos, although not on expert. I started out just with one province and you have to attack someone to get more land. Usually I took the two river provinces (Musashi and... i don't remember atm) and then stayed on defence for a while trying to tech up. I focussed fully on the Uesugi clan and once they perished I had all of Northern Japan which will make you the richest clan of Japan.
So the start is clearly the hardest part.

[jacko_uk]

Some good advice is given and the only thing I can add is be wary of alliances with Takeda, he breaks alliances as often as not.

Jacko http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Cazbol]

I'm currently playing the Hojo and doing very well, being the richest, the largest and the most advanced. I can only second the advice given by Papewaio and Brutal DLX.

Focus on keeping your front to a minimum and don't grab every single easy province available as it will only stretch your forces. You have some of the richest lands in Japan so you really don't have to expand that much in the start. You can allow yourself to defend what you have and build up agriculture, trade and training facilities.

Make the Uesugi your only enemy. If others attack you, defend your land but don't waste your strength counterattacking other clans than the Uesugi. Aquiring their lands is not only the best choice for your ecoconmy, it also gives you a fairly compact border.

Defensive strategies.

[Rosacrux]

In the standard Shogun game Hojo and Uesugi were the easiest factions to play with... I didn't really put much effort in MI (got it too late I guess, having played endless hours with STW alread) and I focused on the Mongol faction anyway http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

But Hojo are a frigging economic powerhouse, and you can't lose if you survive the first few years - Sometimes a gang-up of Takeda and Uesugi against you, is enough to get to the seppoku screen pretty fast when you play with Hojo http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Defend Musashi by all means, DO NOT expand early, try to develop that humangous income potential and everything shall go as planned. As when playing the Takeda, you need a bit of luck when playin Hojo. If Takeda desides he really wants a piece of you early on and Uesugi happens to view things in a similar way, you are toast, no matter how well you defend.
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[Empress_Zoe]

Another way with hojo is to expand straight away......move forces and attack Uesugi trap the Daimyo in his castle and kill him off.....next, move in and take over the new rebel provinces.......ahhh

Hold Takeda off with spearmen at the bridge.

Hojo is the easiest by far.

[Nowake]

Haven't played WE in a year, but IIRC, what I was doing was to take Echigo and Mutsu from the first turns, and try to kill Uesugi as soon as possible. Takeda can be easily contained in Musashi, but if he attacks in Kozuke in great numbers, let him take it and then take Kai.