How to win as Oda?

[ReluctantSamurai]

Oda 1580, while it has some things in common with earlier campaigns, is also vastly different. The first major change is that everyone's infrastructure is quite well developed right from the start, and there are two other clans besides the Oda who are Christian and therefore have access to guns.

So you will be facing BFN from Tokugawa, cavalry with gold armor upgrades from Takeda, Nodachi and Kensei with +3 attack bonus and teppo from Shimazu, lots of monks from Mori, and....if you haven't disabled the feature, geisha within a decade or so from Hojo.

So yes, while the ashi still help to get the economy off the ground, and help to bolster the line during the initial onslaughts, they are not nearly so effective against guns and gold armor cavalry. I still have several ashi in my armies well into the 1580 camp despite the lessening of their effectiveness. They are usually have been recombined from very high honor depleted units and usually are garrisoned in Owari.