Oda guides, hints and tips

[Jacobin]

Useful guide.

This was actually the first TW game I've played (and I've played every one except Empire since STW1) where Hard really means Hard.

Every other game I've started off at VH/VH and after a few false starts have won with almost every faction - the only exception I can remember is Austria in NTW which would always be swamped by hordes of enemies attacking from all sides.

The Oda may STW2's Austria - strategic position which makes it hard to expand beyond a handful of provinces without ending up at war with everyone on the map, too far from trade nodes and too resource-strapped to build a proper navy and AFAICS lacking distinctive late game elite units (though this is less of an issue in STW2 admittedly).

Anyway I've tried at least half a dozen campaigns at Hard and always been destroyed before the mid 1550s - the nearest I got to success was when I did follow the south and then east expansion axis to destroy the Imagawa but that just resulted in my being piled onto by Hojo and Takeda from the east and a whole bunch of minor clans from the west.

Vassalising rather than destroying Tokugawa led to an interesting turtle campaign - they went off and conquered the Imagawa and left me free to build stuff in Owari and send out trade ships - I managed to build up my income and a good set of dojos rapidly but came unstuck when I got 'a take an Ikko-Ikki province' mission - taking Echizen eventually embroiled me with every clan in the centre of the map.

Even at hard I have noticed that the Saito can be also peace treatied and vassalised immediately which does free up forces for a couple of turns to focus on the Tokugawa - but they then quickly get destroyed by the Hattori who are much more dangerous enemies.

So at hard every strategy seems to fail - blitzing makes you too many enemies too fast, turtling and surrounding yourselves with vassals and allies just seems to avert disaster for a few more turns.

Which is I suppose good campaign design and AI - certainly better than I expected - although so far I am still not impressed by the battlefield AI.

[Jarmam]

Puncturing the Myth - the Oda Legendary Long/Domination cakewalk campaign


It seems to be a general consensus that Oda is either fairly hard or really hard, and given that I feel the exact opposite (only Chosokabe is easier) I've updated and clarified a post I once made in an attempt to make a simple-to-execute strategy guide on how to dominate with Oda in a fairly easy manner. It involves low teching, no ricing, no fleets, low diplomacy and a lot of casualties hopefully resulting in a quick win without too much trouble.

The basic ideology behind the approach is this:
Since you start in a barren wasteland of mediocre to weak provinces (except your capitol) and hostile, very aggressive neighbors (Ikko and Hattori seem to hate everyone in every campaign) there is little sense in attempting a Choso/Hojo/Shimazu ricing-style of building up a solid infrastructure and slowly creeping forward with solid development until you snap-rush up to whereever the narrowest choke (like with Shimazu to Buzen province, el oh el) is and staying there for 40 turns building up the 2-3 deathballs to go to Divide and beyond. The way of the peasant will put this approach to shame (unless you're biased towards lategame deathballs, you Shimazu dog.

Oda is the faction with the biggest beard, the Ax'iest of the Axe, and is all about aggression from turn 1 and never (rarely) looking back. Your Ashigaru are so stupidly powerful that you should have taken out Tokugawa, Saito and have Imagawa on 1 province in turn 8 (6-7 if you're better than me at not losing troops needlessly and can tolerate a revolt). And since you have no need for a strong infrastructure to support your dirt cheap easily-replenishable troops you can just keep going. These concepts will dictate the strategy presented in every aspect.

Ill start out by outlining the basic structure of our strategy and what makes it work. I have drafted a detailed guide on the mythical first 5-8 turns that seem to give a lot of people problems in the post after this one.

Arts:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Let us start at the beginning - turn 0. What we want to accomplish is a win (40+ provinces) in 80-90 turns. This means that everything we do, from building (or not building) infrastructure, to recruiting troops, to teching Arts, to waging war has to align to this philosophy. Everything you do has to be lean and crisp in the sense that it makes sense in the overall strategy. We cut away everything unnecessary to get what we require so much faster. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Arts.

Start with researching all the Chi arts you'll need - this means Way of Chi and Todufoken. Thats all the Chi Arts you'll need from now 'till the 40 province-mark. I used to also get Equal Fields, but this is a colossal flaw and is wholeheartedly suggested to cut out. Tax Reform is much better, and since Tax Reform is expendable (yes it is strong, very strong, but as Oda it is skippable) you can rush for Heaven and Earth - supplementing Yari+Bow Ashi core armies perfectly - then get Way of the Spear if you wish. Joking aside, we do not get Way of the Spear as it is a complete waste of 7 turns. 1 xp for your Yaris will translate into roughly 15 Katana kills (xp ranks get exponentially harder to get so the first rank is naturally the weakest) and the 1 unit you get in reward is an insult. Cancel this mission in turn 1 and forget it exists, it will never help you. All of this builds up to our midgame plan, which is to rush Gunpowder Mastery absurdly fast. We cut everything that isnt needed or worth our time to get this Art. Even Zen. Leave an inexperienced metsuke or yari troop in those 1-invasionresistant provinces and save the 3 turns to get your real Arts faster - your daimyo's honor will eventually do Zen's job in those provinces. You want Gunpowder Mastery and you want it fast. We only grab the Arts that are so efficient and fast to research that skipping them would be silly. This means WoC->Todufoken->Bushido->SoD->HaE->SoA->AbF->5 Elements->Gunpowder Mastery. Why this ordering is my preferred I shall elaborate in the Army Guide

Why And How It Works:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

In the first 15 or so turns (approx) your units are so much stronger than anyone else's that you can just roll through the south while turtling in the north in Saito's town and your main. Additionally, your core units (yari and bow ashis) are so cheap in cost and upkeep that you can rally stacks of armies in a matter of a few years. You are independant of structures, arts and province specialities. Every single unit in your army is quick to replenish and cheap+easy to replace.

The strategy is this: Attack attack attack. Ideally you will reach Hojo/Takeda (thus eliminating Imagawa) in 10-12 turns while having gotten rid of Saito in the north and possibly already started clashing with Hattori and/or Ikko. If you can, seek allies beyond these clans. The AI will gladly ally with you if it feels threatened on its existence by the clans you're at war with, and will forgive your daimyo for calling their troops a bunch of field-work no-good squabblers represented in the -20 rep trait.

This Gunpowder Mastery-rush works primarily due to these factors:
The reason we can take 2 Chi Arts and never consider any of them again is fairly simple: We dont need Merchant Guilds. We dont need Terrace Farming. We dont need Monasteries. We dont need Criminal Syndicates (or even Gambling Halls). There is no money for any of this, and our troops cost such a small amount of upkeep that you're much better off just rushing for more troop stacks than trying to develop real infrastructure. Developing economy with Oda is like rushing Bow Arts as Date - it's counterintuitive and goes against the flow and strength of the faction. Also, remember that provinces encourage war with the enemy - but more units discourages him. Having 4 stacks in turn 30 will make even the most aggravated AI more hesitant to wage war and when we aim at winning before turn 90 every turn counts.
The reason we dont upgrade Way of the Spear or any direct unit upgrade before Attack by Fire is because its worthless. Ashigaru benefit the least from these upgrades, and they can hold their own well enough that we dont need to invest in them. Remember, researching Arts is an investment of time (which is quite a finite resource). Any choice is a loss of something else. And there is no choice to trump just getting our Rifles fast. The only upgrade you'll miss is Form and you can get that after Gunpowder Mastery.

I would try to manage the Imagawa-front more carefully as any province you take beyond the river will open you up for backstabs from Takeda or Hojo - you will need 2 full stacks to take care of both of them - but you need 2 (or even 3) stacks absolutely asap in the west since Hattori and Ikko are much deadlier and more important enemies than Takeda and Hojo (heck, trade and ally with the east if you can). Hattori's ninja provinces are very hard to assault since they're spread out and lack roads to connect them quickly until Hatakeyama's provinces, but once the 5-6 provinces south of Kyoto are secure it becomes much simpler to defend and the income bonus from Burakumin villages will make it laughably easy. And as anything with Oda: The sooner you try to conquer something the easier it is. So prioritize this front.

Once this area is secured you might want to consider stalling for your Matchlocks. Takeda and Hojo should either be trusted allies or eradicated (preferably you have Hojo's 2 provinces as both are excellent to hold) and Hattori should be gone with Ikko to follow. This is the one period of time where I would consider stalling for Matchlocks. If you trigger Divide before Gunpowder Mastery you risk getting into a world of pain. Once you have them, though, I'd blast east, west and whatnot with a reckless pace.

Diplomacy and construction

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I strongly suggest you search out an alliance with Kiso as soon as possible. Kiso is usally dependable to sit on his 1 town and trade with you while being a buffer to the east and the rampaging Takeda. The fewer fronts you have in the earlygame the better (this will lose importance later). This is why going nuts towards the south in the first 15 turns is completely acceptable and even encouraged, since it opens up no new fronts to protect. You can also ally with the friendly folk in the West, but be warned that 9 games out of 10 these guys will be trampled in seconds by Hattori and you must go to war on their behalf (and thus not when you want to) or you will suffer Dishonoring Treaties which will be punitive when coupled with the -20 diplomacy from your rude daimyo.

Developing your cities is straightforward enough: Don't build anything but Markets and Sake Dens. 1:1 until you reach 5 Sake Dens, then only Markets. Dont upgrade your forts - ever. If you have food to spare this goes into upgrading Rice Exhanges in your rich provinces (as these can be equipped with a r4-r5 Metsuke in the midgame to produce breathtaking profit). Never upgrade the Sake Dens, never upgrade your Ports. Simply put there is no way this can ever earn enough income to warrant its cost - and even if it could we need the money for units now and not for floating 30.000 koku later. In fact, the Sake Dens exist solely to keep order in the permament-1-resistance-to-invaders-provinces (saving us 59/turn in upkeep) and to field Ninja (absolutely critical for this strategy).
A noteworthy exception would be in the cities that you choose to develop, should you decide to use a deathball-stack (you wont have time or resources for more than one). In that case I would get a Fortress in such cities to speed up production and leave room for Encampments->your preferred upgrade. An obvious example would be Ikko's two cities (notice that Hunting Lodges and +acc province specialities affect gunpowder units) or Hojo's capitol.

Generals

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

One of the reasons why this is so effective is the experience system. Your units will skyrocket to xp5 or better in no time, but more importantly your generals will accumulate massive amounts of xp in no time. Expect to field at least 4 r4 generals within 40 turns, and probably 2-3 r6 generals by the end of turn 80. This ties in nicely with our overall structure. In no time you will have general access to Stand and Fight, effectively making your Ashigaru fight like Samurai for less than 1/3 the cost. As a bonus, at r5 you can upgrade the +4 morale to Ashigaru, which I strongly recommend. Both rifles and Fire Bombs adversily affect your own morale, so the +4 morale is never wasted. We outlast and break - if you want to steamroll and grind the enemy ranks down with superior quality melee, Shimazu, Uesugi or Date is probably what you're looking for.

Army guide
Early:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Start with armies of 1:1 ashi yari to ashi bow. Dont go higher than 6 archers - their purpose is to defend newly taken castles and forcing engagements with your superior Yari Ashis, not to win the battle themselves. Just stack out with yari ashis. In the first 20 or so turns (unless you're extremly unfortunate with a 10+ katana army in turn 20 - it can happen) this army composition will wreck absolutely anything the enemy throws at you. However once Samurai cores become more abundant we need something to back up our Yaris - this is why we take Strategy of Attack after Heaven and Earth - unlocking Fire Bomb Throwers. Add 2 Fire Bomb Throwers when you can - these replace 2 Yaris. FBTs require some babysitting and might take you a few battles to get used to, but they *wreck* morale and our biggest advantage is morale. We win by standing our ground. This is why I find FBTs complement the Oda battlefield strategy perfectly.

Add cavalry as you wish. There are 2 places with cavalry specialization in close proximity to Oda's starting province, so you should be able to field upped Light Cavalry relatively easily if you prefer them with the charge bonus, I cant really tell the difference. We lack morale destroyers apart from FBTs and cavalry fit this perfectly - they also secure easy wins against otherwise frustrating Samurai/Ronin archer cores from Hattori, Ikko or Hatano. I have seen Hatano with a 14 Sam Archer army and it was nigh impossible to defeat outside forests with my Yari+Matchlock Ashigaru stack. Add however many you need - I personally prefer 3 cavalry units to support my general. This army will demolish anything that isnt a "Sword School in turn 6-stack" for a long time. Engaging is simple. Either clash in favourable terrain (like forests) and run him over if he has archer advantage, or exploit your archer advantage to pick holes in enemy melee before running him over. If melee is engaged and your FBTs didnt throw yet then toss those bombs into the melee. Your Ashigaru will thank you. Or they will fly. But we replenish faster than the Samurai they're locked in melee with.

Late:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'd replace the Light Cavs with Yari Cav first (or Katanas if you prefer those - I actually am starting to like Katanas over Yaris more and more). Most importantly I'd phase out archers completely except 5+xp ones, and replace them with Matchloch Ashis - preferably from Echizen (Ikko's capitol), since they benefit a lot from the +10 acc on top of the +5 from a hunting lodge. 6 matchlocks per army is core. Dont get me wrong, you'll have at least 4 stacks by now and Matchlocks can come from anywhere, but prioritize making them in Echizen since you need the tech anyway for your pseudo-deathball + Arsenal bonus. This is our common stack core and what we will rebuild in a couple of turns, should one of our stacks suffer a massive defeat. You will lose battles and you will lose stacks, but as long as your general is alive its not a problem - advantage comes from fielding a new stack at the front in 3 turns. The reason we want Matchlocks is that our Yari Ashis simply cannot hold up with the enemy Katanas and Naginata anymore and our Bow Ashis, even with their xp8 bonuses, are struggling heavily against enemy archers and their arrows barely scratch the heavily armored Samurai cores anymore. But as the Heavy from TF2 has so wisely taught us - "I have yet to meet someone that can outsmart bullet"! Matchlocks will make minced meat of heavy infantry, heavy cavalry and even enemy samurai archers if they fight in a forest. If you're unsure on how to fight with Matchlocks in your army, I suggest searching for a few guides (Ill try and find some links for this guide) or ask away. It takes some finesse and gets significantly more effective with some micro but its not terribly difficult - just remember to shoot at angles and never directly into the melee as that will only ensure that your 30 remaining Yari Ashis will wonder where all their friends suddenly went. Its also almost always worth it to use ranked fire.

As for deathballs, I'd say you only need a single pseudo-deathball army for Kyoto and to spearhead the western dominators (usually Hatano and Chosokabe+Shoni post-Divide). Ikko's and Hojo's old lands hold a smith which I'd use with an armory to get the +4 armor bonus (+5 is too expensive and requires trade or trade ships - ships are for Mori or Christians, trade is for Uesugi and our post-Divide vassals). Make Naginatas from this province to replace the Yari Ashis in your "deathball". Use Echizen to make your Gunsmith->Arsenal and get 6-8 Matchlock Samurai from there with the +15 acc (if you can get the +20 acc province structure... then you have Chonindo... why do you have Chonindo, you Chosokabe dog?). So instead of Ashi Matchlocks/Yaris and Light Cav, we have the upgraded version of each which is what our Arts and tech supplement perfectly + of course our trusted 2 FBTs. After this is done just use the provinces to churn out Ashigaru with the bonuses - Matchlock Ashigaru with +15 acc and Stand and Fight's reload bonus (all your 4-5 generals are at least r4 by now, preferably all r5 for the +4 morale) + arsenal bonus are monsters disguised as men. Try giving them Inspire for fun - preferably on a wall ^^ Yari Ashigaru with more armor than a vanilla Katana also fare decently well against archerfire, so remember to churn out of your +armor towns if you're not in a hurry with replenishing lost stacks.

You dont have time for a second deathball. Its also not necessary. 5-6 self-replenishing stacks rampaging east and west will utterly dwarf 2-2½ strong stacks running from town to town to defend. It does require strong ninjas - from those Sake Dens you rushed 40 turns ago - to manage enemy stacks via sabbing (an ashi stack will not hold up against 2 enemies fielding 20 units each at the same time). Ninja are vital for scouting ahead to ensure you dont get sandwiched between 2 different enemy stacks and at sabotaging enemy stacks close to their friends, so that you may pick them off one at a time. They can also ensure that should the enemy throw a Samurai stack at you with a r4+ general, they might show up with a captain in command. If at any point you have 10 or more provinces, but you dont have 5 Ninja scouting, sabbin' and stabbin' away and 5 Metsuke either r4 in your rich towns or r1-3 at the front heading for r4, then for the love of your daimyo's daughter recruit them and get to work.

Just field a couple of Yari Ashis and 3-4 Matchlock Ashis in any city you feel threatened in. The enemy will need either a full stack or some really insane troop quality to break Oda's rifled peasants behind walls. I have held off a r3 general with 10 Yari Samurai and 4 Bow Samurai with just Sam Retainers, 6 Matchlocks and 3 Yari Ashis with ridiculous ease. This makes holding multiple fronts in the midgame much simpler than with archer ashis.

Now you're set. Take Kyoto while... laughing at him? (since you're not awesome and playing Tokugawa, and therefore cannot have a Geisha taking out all of Kyoto's generals for the sake of it). Then just take whatever the enemy gives you and 40 provinces roll in easily. Remember that Vassals count towards your provinces so making a few in the east to stall Date/whoever has Date's lands is fine. They also let you profit on all those trade goods you'll have by turn 70-80. Plus its nice to have "friends" post-Divide - just be warned that they seem very eager to stab you in the back after all these patches, so I would generally advise against having more than 2 with 1 province each.

A couple of screenshots against 75+% Samurai armies using rifled peasants and highly ranked generals:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

My general giving his usual encouragement

And they did

All so much easier when your troops do exactly what they're told

Ashigaru Matchlocks can dwarf even Uesugi Bow Warrior Monks in killcounts if given the opportunity

[Jarmam]

The Start

Turn 1-3

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turn 1:
The first thing you should do is demolish the Yari Dojo in your capitol. This building is entirely worthless and will never be used. We wont ever make Yari Samurai, and the Naginata we will produce in 50+ turns from now might as well get the +armor bonus available to us by then. You might be thinking of Long Yari Ashigaru, but if you are then I must crush that dream - Long Yari's cost twice the upkeep of regular Yaris, require more tech than Yari Samurai and have laughably poor stats. This unit might have its place in MP Battles, but in SP campaigns it is entirely worthless to the point of being an insult and should be ignored.
Deal with your diplomacy. I advise an alliance with the blue west (Kitabakate or smth) clan as if he forces you into a war it will be with Hattori whom will go to war with you anyway.
Now, normally I would advise that when attacking the rebel stack in your province you let some of the enemy troops run so that you may attack them again a 2nd time for the +15 xp to each of your generals. However, with Oda you don't have time to run after the rebels if you can avoid it, so crush them in the first battle - you will get plenty of xp for both your starting generals, do not worry about that. Remember that attacking with 1 general+army while the 2nd one reinforces (or vice versa) will provide both generals with the xp from the battle completely undiminished.

An acceptable result of the battle. Notice how my Yari Samurai are still alive and kicking - a flaw in my play as this unit is being disbanded shortly

Remember to research Way of Chi (we will get a Market in our capitol as it is rich and the earlier you get a Rice Exchange here the better).
Upgrade your Farm
Buy 2 Bow Ashigaru

Turn 2

Change your general's commission from War to Finance. The increased taxes with help you more, since recruiting peasants is cheap - its their upkeep and battlefield cluttering that makes them less useful than Samurai in larger numbers (but our Yaris cost 30% less upkeep and are about 20% more effective so this won't be a problem for a long while). Once your general reaches rank 4 you'll enjoy a 4% bonus to taxes - much much more important that war. I'd prioritize my highest ranked general to Finance, next two to supply/development (repairing sabotage and castles also gets cheaper from development-commissionaries, but supply might be more important depending on your current situation), and lastly Warfare.
Recruit 2 Yari Ashigaru. If you do this before you switch commissions you'll get the 4% discount on these units, as well as the tax bonus next turn. Not exactly massive, but you never know when that gold might save you.

Things just got real. At this point Tokugawa will move into your province with a fairly decently sized army. Of course we already dwarf his army completely and in a siege he has about 0% chance of winning, but you can do something a bit more fancy.
First there is the "real" way of playing it, which is something like this

A picture of turn 3 after Tokugawa's attack. My Daimyo was outside the castle to provoke Tokugawa to attack him where my garrison could assist me but Saito can't assist Tokugawa. Again this can be done much more seamlessly with significantly less casualties, but this is also perfectly acceptable. After this battle either disband your Yari Samurai or be thankful they died in battle instead of your Ashigaru. A single Yari Samurai costs the same in upkeep as 3 Yari Ashigaru, which is obviously not worth it

There is a slightly more... dishonorable way of dealing with Tokugawa as shown in the Additions-post underneath this.

Turn 3
Hold off Tokugawa's assault in whatever way you prefer. Now we take the offensive.
Send your daimyo with a sizable army (all but 1 or 2 units) towards Tokugawa. He is cripped and will fall easily, but Imagawa is not and Imagawa will instantly attack you after you conquer Tokugawa's province.
Send your general with the remaining units north and take out Saito - if Saito against all odds has decided to create a small army, do not sweat it - just wait for your next production cycle and smash him with that in turn 4.

You should look something like this

With Saito's town you can now trade with half the map - or at least a lot of new people. Get trade agreements with everyone you can, even if they're certain to be your enemies in 4-5 turns. We benefit more from gold than they do through our cheap and efficient troops.
Amongst others I offered Kiso a trade agreement and he didn't want it - he instead presented this option.

Why yes, I wouldn't mind that at all

Recruit 2 more Yari Ashigaru in your capitol and start building your Market in your capitol.

In the AI turn, Imagawa will come at you with usually 2 generals, 2 Bow Ashigaru and 3 Yari Ashigaru. Even in a broken castle this battle should be easily won with no unit casualties. Remember a unit with 20 people will have the same repression as a unit with 150, and rebels are your main concern in the early stages of rapid expansion.

Turn 4-8

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turn 4
Fairly uneventful turn. Recruit Yari Ashigaru in all three provinces, totalling 7 (they're the cheaper unit and in open-field battle its more beneficial to have more melee units than to rely on missile troops at this stage). Fix whatever damage is done in your provinces to quelch rebellious tendencies and get a metsuke from Toku's market-capitol as he will greatly help with this for an upkeep of 0 and a steady 1xp/turn.
Get a Sake Den in Saito's keep, its time to get ninja to scout out Ikko/Hattori

Turn 5
In my game, Tokugawa revolted in my new province due to destructive sabotage from Imagawa's 9 man strong "army" from his earlier attack. Chase and kill off Imagawa's broken army in turn 4 to prevent this.

Quartermaster's report in this turn and the next should look something like this:

Come at me bros!

Get a 2nd Metsuke from your capitol's market. Quelling unrest is by far the most important thing to do.
Make 7 more units

Turn 6
The Toku-rebels assaulted my freshly repaired castle and with the reinforcing units from my capitol I lost only 139 man to Tokugawa's 500ish. More xp for my daimyo and time to gather my reinforcements with my main army.

By now the Zerg of the Oda start should dawn upon you. The sheer number of units at your command both north and south will usually keep Ikko from declaring war yet, and even Hattori will likely target your allied Kitabatake over you. This gives you time to quell unrest and... get more units.

Turn 7
By now you should be able to quelch rebellion in Toku's capitol just with your metsuke, your castle and the units you recruit from it+your capitol. It'll take 2 turns to move there but 1 turn of unrest will only hurt your town's commerce which is an acceptable loss if it frees up units for your invasion force. This means its time to move southward to Imagawa's outlying province. You can reach it in 1 turn from Toku's capitol keep. It should be a joke to win this fight - if anything else just lay siege and he'll come out for you in the open, which is complete suicide for him.

Hattori should have declared war on either you or your blue ally, and Ikko will most likely either do the same now or do it next turn. No problem, however, as your southern border is now completely secured with Imagawa on 1 province which you will take as soon as you can (turn 9 or 10, once unrest is under control in your new province). This allows you to divert all your recruitment towards the northern border and it shouldnt take long before you can take the offensive here. Just spit out more and more units and remember to prioritize Yaris over Bows - Bows are great at hurting enemy morale, creating holes in their melee ranks, sniping generals and defending freshly taken Keeps, but their effectiveness declines as they get more numerous and their upkeep is high - I would never go above 6 and never have more archers than Yaris in a stack.

Turn 8
Fight on! Hattori and Ikko are next on your to-do list.

If your map looks something like this, you should be absolutely fine. The revolt in Toku's main kept me from assaulting Imagawa for a turn and he decided to move into the open, making it a walkover to take his keep in this turn. There is an alternative pic/map in the additions-post to show how different the map can look for everyone and yet similarly for you

[Jarmam]

Additions and notes:

The trollface-way of dealing with the southern invasion in turn 2

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is where I position my daimyo after the battle against the rebels. In the "real" way of doing it I moved him next to my keep to lure Tokugawa to attack him. However, notice how he can attack the Tokugawa keep? Its currently defended by 45 Samurai Retainers, also known as a 95% win chance for a lone General

Problem, Tokugawa?
If a faction loses all provinces, it is removed from the game. All units in its last province become Rebels - all units outside their last province are removed from the game. Your daimyo just crushed Tokugawa's stack singlehandedly. Note that this method will make it a lot harder to deal with rebellions as you lose the +1 recruitment bonus from taking Toku's keep (it triggers next turn), and you take the keep with no units. Still... :)

Some SSs from another campaign showing a different way the map might look at turn 8

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alternative turn 8 diplomacy and map

[Tixan]

My normal tactic of beating larger armies, is to spear into some good spot, and "Castle Hug" to make them all just destroy themselves towards my walls. I've done this in many campaigns, and the AI does take the bait, every time, thinking it can win. Thus creating a good counter potential. Starting on the Oda campaign on VH/VH was no exception. I just built a few units, and Castle Hug (CH) after killing the rebels. They attacked so they got each other as reinforcements too, just the more fun.

Screenshots of the CH

Tokugawa and Saito attacks, and fails, thus creating an easy 2 new town catch with no defence. Leave army in Mikawa town to CH away the Imagawa assault

Click to see large picture

EDIT: I forgot to say; Well written and good pointers econ21. Now anyone can play Oda with great success ;)

[HopAlongBunny]

Thank you econ21. Your tips give a good outline of what to expect and overcome as Oda.
The effect of the Ikko-Ikki DLC seems to make Owari and Mino vulnerable sooner. The Southern expansion is still possible but it generally has to feed itself; all builds in Owari/Mino stuck at home for the invasion.

Jarmam I think your advice is applicable to all factions. Gunpowder is really that good! Oda was the first Christian Shogun I ever mananged and gunpowder was the key :)

[Jarmam]

Jarmam I think your advice is applicable to all factions. Gunpowder is really that good! Oda was the first Christian Shogun I ever mananged and gunpowder was the key :)

I seriously doubt it, though I havent tested it except with Ikko (whose Ashigaru units admittedly are both insultingly weak and ludicrously expensive, their archer ashi is the weakest unit in the game). What makes it work for Oda is a combination of 99% independance of Chi arts, a ridiculously 33% cheaper 20+% more effective Yari Ashigaru unit, the ability to spit out almost 3 full stacks in 20 turns, the complete independance on allies (apart from Kiso, who is a trade partner with sprinkles) and the ability to instantly reinforce no matter where its required. If you try the same with, say, Date, I would predict that you'll fall apart to a Hatakeyama or purple (whatever their name is) samurai stack assault long before you get matchlock ashigaru - and even if you do get them I doubt that'll do you any good. No matter whom you trash, the next enemy will be better prepared, and with a 50% higher upkeep you simply cannot rely on Yari Ashigaru with any other faction. Not only are they weaker and rout faster, there is also a criminal lack of them. On top of that you will usually fight the two most fearsome alliances (being Hattori+friends and Takeda/Hojo/Imagawa) on the map right away as Oda, when they are the weakest and you are the strongest. If either alliance gets the 30+ provinces combined and you run into them with just ashigaru stacks they will break you in half in a bilisecond, rifles or no rifles.

Is it possible to fight with Yari Ashis as your core with another faction for the entire game? Probably - but not anywhere near as easily. Even with someone like Uesugi I had to switch to Katanas much quicker than I wanted since monks take too long to get to. If I ever rely on Ashigaru its to stall for my real units teching in the main keeps. You cannot ever beat the upkeep efficiency of samurai with other factions and on Legendary upkeep is the destroyer of worlds for you. I use 8 No Dachis in my stacks as Date for this very reason and base my tactics around it - not because its the most fearsome but because its the cheapest for its effectiveness.