How to win as Oda?

[Metalhead3004]

Every time I try a campaign as Oda I get attacked from all sides be it rebels or rival clans. I can win with Shimazu or Mori (having the advantage of starting in a corner with the former and monkrushing with the latter) on normal, but with Oda I get owned.

[Togakure]

Ten tips of the top of my head:

1) Take advantage of cheap guns and the +1 honor bonus in Owari (gunners are ashigaru). Use them well (ranks three deep for rotating fire; backed by yari sams to prevent cavalry strikes). Learn to protect them well and maneuver effectively.
2) Take Yamashiro to use the +1 honor bonus there (I prefer to produce Yari Samurai there because it's the only region that can give YS a bonus (not related to a building).
3) Secure a 5-6 province front (I prefer Kawachi-Harima-Tajima in the west and Echizen-Mino-Owari in the east). Use castles to reduce the number of troops required to effectively defend.
4) Choose a direction (west or east; I usually go east because it's richer and there are fewer provinces--and the threat is usually bigger). Conquer that side of Japan while effectively defending central Japan. At first, you can use chevauchee (take a province, destroy what's there, back out without trying to hold it), particularly against developed provinces that the enemy is using to produce troops. You can even send "suicide" armies deep into enemy territory to destroy their key production regions.
5) infest the areas surrounding your borders with shinobi. If provinces are taken they are more likely to revolt, shifting focus towards the rebels and away from you.
6) optional: use assassins to take out generals, heirs, and daimyo, particularly if you are allied and stand a good chance to inherit their provinces.
7) central Japan is fairly rich if you invest in farming; you can also build a lot of ports.
8) train up or bribe 4-star generals for all your crucial defense points.
9) spend on dojo improvements (+1 honor = +1 Attack, +1 Def, and +2 Morale) rather than on swordsmiths (+1 Attack) and armories (+1 Def, +1 Armor) and palaces (+1 morale); they don't really give you equivalent bang for the koku.
10) Don't turtle too much; if you sit in central Japan without dealing with one side or another aggressively, you'll eventually be in a pinch (literally ...). That being said, "timing is everything ...."

FWIW.

[A Nerd]

I have a quick question...how do you deal with all those warrior monks that will undoubtebly gang up on you early in the game with a small army. I don't remember what the starting territories are in the traditional campaign. That tends to happen to me. Though I don't remember if I attacked a rebel province to the west or just sat in the provinces I controlled from the beginning.

[gollum]

Welcome to the org metalhead3004, enjoy your stay


You can defeat the initial WMs in Yamashiro or Ise, however you need to make a choice; one or the other. There are lots of starts that can be done, a typical one for example is as follows:

Take over Ise, by using all your troops in Yamato, Kii, Iga, Omi (and some from Owari) together with the Daimyo (Nobuhide). The rebels of Yamashiro will take over the empty provinces however that suits Oda since Ise is very rich and it makes up for the lost provinces while at the same time it and Owari need far fewer troops to defend them. Next is build up your losses asap and attack Yamashiro which should be weakened in troop numbers from the rebels spreading out. Then you can have a continuous territory from Owari to Omi to Yamashiro to Kawachi. All this needs speed, otherwise Mori might get ideas in the West - make an alliance with him while you beat on the rebels. After the rebels in Yamashiro fall you are set up to mop up the rest of the rebels or ignore them and deal with the Imagawa or the Mori (you can do a pre-emptive strike in Mimasaka to slow their build up before heading northeast).

There can be endless variants of this with the Oda as the early game is fluid and very much dependent on the successes or failures of battles. Luckily Nobuhide gets quickly a heir.

After you set up in central Japan and you play MI/WE then you can do all sorts of things go either northeast of southwest or even stay in and turtle, building up your income and troops/tech etc before you make a decisive move or even play a subterfuge heavy game. Central Japan is fairly defendable with rivers in Owari and kawachi and Mountains in Mino and Tamba.

Nerd: defeating the WMs with yari Ashigaru and archers and the Daimyo, can be done assuming you play them en masse and you outnumber the enemy. Use mass and strength of numbers.

[A Nerd]

That's great! I never thought about using the 'pull out of a province' technique with Oda. I used it with Uesugi all the time, but never with Oda. I had won the Oda campaign on hard several times but I don't remember the technique. Noting my strategic and tactical brilliance those foolish warrior monks will soon fall to me seemingly inept and cowardly conscriptial ashigaru!

[Jef Costello]

Some great advice so far. I'd agree with it all. What difficulty level are you playing on? AI is more aggressive on higher levels. I would take/hold Owari and kawagucho and get yamashiro. Ise and Kii are good and you also have an armoury province there too. If you want to take the central area be quick, you don't want to tie up troops down there.
With Ashigaru you basically have to make sure they don't really do anything, they even get scared chasing down routing troops. Ashigaru need upgrades and a good general. personally I never build any.
I normally play with 60 man units which makes reinforcing quicker.
In general you should expect to win all of your defensive battles with rebels. archers on a high elevation and some ashigaru in case they charge you. Careful about chasing them when they rout because WM have a habit of turning around and slaughtering ashigaru.
And when battles are tight don't use the speed up, I have messed myself up so many times doing that :)

[Kagemusha]

post enough forces on your borders (preferably ashi´s and archers as ashi´s are dirt cheap).Save bit of money and bribe those monks. You will gain a nice core troops for your army from them.

[A Nerd]

Last time I played an Oda campaign the difficulty was set at hard. I'll take all of the above advice though, Oda seems like an entertaining campaign as I again wet my feet into that placid pool of shogunistitude. Soon you can all refer to me as Nerdy Nobunaga!

[ReluctantSamurai]

Depends on which campaign you play. 1530 and 1550 give you some time to consolidate and secure a hold on central Japan, as the main opposition is usually rebels. SJ is a bit more fluid and you will more than likely be in conflict with Tokugawa early on. 1580 will see you on the defensive, early on. Takeda and Tokugawa will have an alliance and come after you early and hard (as an example, see my last Oda 1580 campaign...Nobunaga's Ambition, with all the screenies).

The particulars are certainly up to you and your style of play.....much good advice has already been given. I can only add that:

1. You must be decisive. Turtling is rarely an option. If you don't have a clear plan for expansion, and follow it aggressively, you will find yourself fighting a two-front war that will be extremely difficult to win.

2. You must have patience. In central Japan, with potential enemies on all sides, it can get frustrating to be on the defensive...especially in the 1580 campaign. It will be somewhat difficult to blitz as the resources are scarce at the start, and expanding both north and south will be nearly impossible.

3. Muskets are the great equalizer for Oda. Get them ASAP! My own strategy usually consists of having defensive armies that rely heavily on the musket to hold the frontier while I build up my counterattack. When I've bled the enemy white with casualties, I strike back and sweep several provinces at a time. One thing Oda is blessed with is good generals. Use them aggressively. It's not uncommon for me to have at least a half dozen 4-star generals and a couple of 5-star by mid-campaign. Being well-led as such, often tips the battle to me whereas a lesser general might have had a more difficult time. That is one of the keys to using Ashigaru...they are less likely to rout. Many folks don't like Ashi, but if you use them wisely, they can be of tremendous use. I usually have a handful of 'elite' Ashi in defensive armies even late in the game. I've had them withstand WM's and just about anything else that gets thrown at them. So don't underestimate them.

[DEB8]

post enough forces on your borders (preferably ashi´s and archers as ashi´s are dirt cheap).Save bit of money and bribe those monks. You will gain a nice core troops for your army from them.

This one worked for me. I did buy a few YS though. The rebels will not attack for some time, particularly if you leave a YA as a "garrison" in the provences adjacent to ISE & Yamashiro. I then attack west first as Owari & Mino are great to defend.

[Kagemusha]

This one worked for me. I did buy a few YS though. The rebels will not attack for some time, particularly if you leave a YA as a "garrison" in the provences adjacent to ISE & Yamashiro. I then attack west first as Owari & Mino are great to defend.

Nice to see same kind of thinking from other players. With Ise and Yamashiro in Oda control ones powerbase is solid.From there on it is just matter of opportunity to where to expand.