Chosokabe long campaign on hard.

So so, and then there appear to be two difficulty levels above that.

The first runs were more focussed on 'browsing' around, than really playing hard. But still, the AI keeps you on your toes in the campaign and it's doing quite well on the batlefield too. I'm not uncapable on the battlefield, yet the autocalc is doing a better job at times. Finally, it got some nasty surprises in the combination of those two parts (maybe I overlooked something, but it pays to be really cautious).

Cautious, that's how I'm used to play these games. But the overdose I use, doesn't seem to work here. When I consolidate too much/long or forget about developping a branch, the AI is going to take advantage of that (that's how it feels). And I have to adjust my play style a lot.

I'm around 1570 now and I'm stuck with an ally on Shikoku who has a huge army in his single province, but hasn't assisted me in any battle despite numerous requests. A few years before that the Ito on Kyushu declared war upon me. Luckily for me they also got a run in with the Tuitsui during their attempt to get a foot on Honda. Luckily as their navy vast vastly superior to mine and my landforces were a bit too weak and scattered. So I got some time to build my own navy. The Tuitsui were very friendly towards me, they are strong and keep the Ito's busy. I assembled an army of ashi yari and yumi, complemented with three samurai and a young general and launched a naval in Ito's centre (I expected it would be their weakest spot). It was and I could also easily get the 2nd province, which split Ito's territory in two pieces. There was no serious Ito payback, what I overlooked though was that they were allied with Mori. It seemed an insignificant clan, surrounded by the powerful and ambitious Tuitsui. A probe on the landing army learned me that Mori was serious: three taisho and loads of samurai, mounted too. My army was a little bigger, but wouldn't stand much change against it because of it being 75% or more ashi. The Mori also had a huge fleet, choosing sea with my army was risky. To get something good out of the attack, I decided to move away from the Mori, to the south were Ito was and destroy as much of that clan as possible. Mori was on my tail to the south, but a small rearguard diverted them and my mainarmy could destroy Ito armies, once deep south I went north again with massive mountains between me and Mori. I looted another city of Ito, gained loads of money and could return to my homeland by sea.

The looting allowed me to finally construct a naginata dojo, as well as cavalry and samurai archer producing facilities. I used a few turns to rearange my invading army with tougher units and launched a naval on Mori homeland. That was succesfull too. The powerful Tuitsui there would probably not like me, so I also just looted the place and moved away. Back to Kyushu. The new army is too much for Mori and the last of Ito. Then the religion problem popped up.

Nice challenges. But then came a shock. I was thing I had to conquer the whole of Shikoku and 1-2 provinces in Honda to win the game before 1600. Upon checking the requirements again, I noticed 40!

Both Shikoku and Kyusha are poor, so I will develop slowly
I have religion and rebel problems in Kyushu
While friendly, Tuitsui is a huge and ambitious power, who's virtually everywhere on my 'border' and very close to Kyoto
It's way into the 70's, with only 100 more turns to go it will be hard to conquer 30 more provinces
To win the game, I have to get rid of the Sogo, the unhelpfull ally with the huge army near my homeprovince