Getting Pwned Early-Mid Game, Need Advice

[Terpy]

Hi all first time poster long time lurker.

I'm loving Shogun 2 but have been having major issues with mid game and I don't know why.

Specially: I played two games as Date and once I took out my nearby rivals and had a nice rump empire in N. Japan. I was stymied by two of the other "strong" clans who allied with each other both times, and declared war on me simultaneously both times.

So does anyone have some advice on playing Date? Maybe I'm not using enough diplomacy or something?

[Daevyll]

I've been in the same spot, and what worked for me was two things:

- retreat to castles and fight there. You can bleed out attacking armies in short order, giving you space and often the chance to make peace after a few decisive victories. Bribing, demoralizing and sabotaging are also very useful if you have the cash.
- use the diplomacy options. Trying to break up the allies not just by doing it directly, but by causing war with other clans (remember failing to join defender causes the alliance to fail). Money, marriages, hostages, trade, use whatever you can.