Rise of the Samurai: Why does everybody hate me?

I have started a very hard campaign as Kamakura Minamoto. It was going pretty well at first, I expanded eastward to Hitachi and was just starting a war with the Fujiwara, which was fine, nothing I couldn't handle. However, out of the blue both Taira clans, one of the Kyushu clans (with allegiance to Minamoto!) and another western clan declare war on me.

Since then a few other clans have joined the war. I'm stuck with half my army running back and forth along my coast fighting off landing forces, and the other one outnumbered fighting massive Fujiwara stacks coming from the North. Now my provinces are swimming in enemy agents (and since the patch it now costs 2000-3000 to kill an enemy agent?) and my coasts are swarming with enemy fleets, including one or two 10 stacks, although luckily I have enough tax infrastructure to give me some disposable income. My border with Fujiwara is so long (They control Kozuka and Shimotsuke) that whenever I try to counter attack and take a province they just send an army down somewhere else (There are two of them against one of me).

If I felt like I could make progress this level of difficulty would be fine, but at the moment I feel like there is no way out. Most of the clans wont accept peace because I'm no threat to them and when I gain peace with one of the Fujiwaras they just break the treaty 3 turns later, and I am finding it impossible to capture any provinces.

I understand that very hard is meant to be, well, very hard, but at the moment I feel like I'm just trying to keep my head above the water with no way out, which isn't fun. I could easily beat the Fujiwara if it weren't for all these other clans declaring war on me, and I don't see why they do. They shouldn't have any strategic interest in my provinces, and I'm not even the most powerful can. My assumption is that on higher difficulties if a clan wants to expand and they have no adjacent enemies they go to war with the player. This seems to be the only plausible answer.

Alternatively it might be due to some sort of difference between RotS and normal Shogun 2. I've won with Hojo on very hard and they have a similar position to Kamakura Minamoto. During that campaign I didn't have any issues with far away clans all dying to invade me. Maybe AI in RotS run out of enemies faster? Or perhaps I need to expand slower than normal, focusing instead on converting clans to my allegiance?

So yeah, if you know why the AI are all being such bullies towards me, and what I can do to stop it, I would be forever in your debt.

The higher the difficulty, the higher the AI's likeliness to attack the player.

I assume you know how to keep everyone happy with you or what not to do in order for everyone to hate you (from a diplomatic point of view). There is just a point where the game decides that the player needs to die and you either do or you do not and it becomes a boring fest of steamroll.

I have noticed something very strange in STW2 (not ROTS). Now I have triggered the Realm Divide, but Oda, who is already unfriendly with me, does NOT declare war on me. The only thing that I can think of to hold them back is that they just dropped their military access with me, and there are still 5 turns remain. If they declare war on me within 5 turns, they will be disliked by all other clans in Japan. But there are also clans like Ikko-Ikki, who declared war on me even if I just sold them unlimited military access.

So maybe some clans care about their reputation more than others. And for those who do, selling your military access to them is a good way to prevent war.

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Originally Posted by Maltz

I have noticed something very strange in STW2 (not ROTS). Now I have triggered the Realm Divide, but Oda, who is already unfriendly with me, does NOT declare war on me. The only thing that I can think of to hold them back is that they just dropped their military access with me, and there are still 5 turns remain. If they declare war on me within 5 turns, they will be disliked by all other clans in Japan. But there are also clans like Ikko-Ikki, who declared war on me even if I just sold them unlimited military access.

So maybe some clans care about their reputation more than others. And for those who do, selling your military access to them is a good way to prevent war.

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This is a very good point. Military access deals function similarly to how you would expect a non aggression pact to work. The twist is that you allow the other party access to your lands and invite some degree of risk in exchange for trust and relative security. Depending upon the other clan's integrity rating (in the diplomacy screen) they will be disinclined to either back-stab you, break the deal or attack too soon after expiration. Their behavior is largely predictable, based upon that rating, in my experience thus far in both Sengoku Jidai and RotS campaigns. Any rating from sufficient to steadfast can be a good bet given other factors such as the clan's temperament, current wars and relative power and prosperity. Monetary compensation for a one-sided access deal is a nice exchange, particularly if you have no desire to enter their territory and only want assurance of peace along a particular border while you focus efforts elsewhere. The AI will almost never give you equivalent terms regarding access length anyway. They also might not even utilize their own access rights depending on their current scenario. I think cash (or whatever) for open borders is a fair exchange and a fun game mechanic that should probably be renamed something other than Military Access in order to better describe it's utility as a non aggression agreement. 'Open Borders' or such.

This is a great strategy in RotS where the AI exhibits much more of a dogpile mentality towards you after any sign of weakness. Playing the Kamakura Minamoto, as the OP, I usually sell open borders to the eastern, non aligned Edo clan in Musashi. They're a good candidate for such an arrangement as they are peaceful and steadfast, though a coinciding trade agreement strengthens the relationship while allowing for some limited spying. That established, I have the freedom to move west and secure the coastal corridor up to Owari with it's choice farming wealth. Combining that strategy with the lower profile method of using Junatsushi to acquire territory where possible makes it less likely you'll be singled out by touchy AI clans during early game expansion.