How to win as Oda?

[gollum]

There are other routes to take with the Oda, besides taking the centre first of course. By far the most ludicrous one is striking northeast. I mean, take out Imagawa, then takeda, then hojo then uesugi then work southwest (as hinted by Masamune), and leave Ise and yamashiro be until you have conquered the northeast. However, it is also risky, and requires fast action and skill and luck in battle. It is even riskier in 1.12 original, because of the high infrastructure costs (that do not apply to the AI especially for expert). I've had success in the past with this route - i managed something like total domination by 1552 (expert/1.12/120men). The first 10 years of the campaign were incredibly intense and epic.