My first experienc with realm divide was touched on in the "How's your first campaign going" as the Chokosabe. The resulting clash between East and West was so intense i'm currently working on a story about it. It lasted over ten years (fourty+ turns) of deadlocked back and forth until Kyoto was finally taken. I made so many pushes where i'd get within spitting distance of the city only to be turned away. And that was just taking Kyoto - the campaign had to continue, i was still 10 provinces from victory!

Such a frustratingly fun experience.

I think Realm Divide actually fixes the problem of previous TWs where you basically had the game firmly in the bag at 10 regions or so.
Could not agree more.