Help with speed of advancement

[Arjos]

They are good, but far too costy at that stage...
Ashigaru replenish very fast, in campaign they are the best troops imo, you can sustain heavy casualties and be ready to fight again the very next turn with a decent general...
If you can manage to push towards Noto and capture it, that would be very good, just beware the religious unrest...
Once that's done go all out against the Hattori with your new armies, keep an eye on the Uesugi though...

[NightwindKing]

Well, last night I took your advice!

It worked. Sorta. Uesugi suddenly came-up with two more full stacks from nowhere and pushed the Hattori stack out of my tail province. What's the one directly east of Kyoto? It went back and forth there for a while. Meanwhile, the units I'd been sending towards Noto promoted one of their own as a general, which allowed me to recapture the province, barely hold-off an Ikko assault, and destroy the Ikko Ikki. Thank God. Sheesh.

Next turn I was able to set-up my main stack and the remnants of the second near Kyoto. For some reason the shogunate's second stack had been steadily disappearing (?!) but whatever. I attacked, letting the computer do the battle this time (since I sucked terribly at it last time) and crushed them.
Long story short, despite another small Hattori attack, Uesugi kept them off my back long enough for me to secure the shogunate.
Problem is now I'm in a pickle. I have 12 turns left, and I only need 4 more provinces to win. But...Uesugi just declared war on me and is marching to Kyoto from the east with two full stacks, to my one full stack of defenders. I also have half a stack in...the province directly north of Kyoto, and half in the one directly west. I WOULD pull them back to stop Uesugi, but the Chosokabe, who inexplicably hate my guts (and have since the start of the campaign) are sending a full stack through that mountain pass west of Kyoto.
Meanwhile I have two half-stacks down in Hitachi and...the province directly north of it. I've managed to capture five undefended Uesugi provinces down there, but my advance has slowed thanks to rebellious subjects.

[Arjos]

Assemble all you can in the Kanto or maybe in the Echizen-Noto area and be the shadow of the approaching Uesugi, they should leave the provinces behind them quite undefended...
Grasp what you can in the Kinai or wherever, usually Kyoto can be left unguarded (due to its settlement bonuses), I think you can manage to halt the Chosokabe at Harima, merging your half stacks, while gathering all you can to stop the Uesugi, if possible at your best castle in the vicinity...
It will have to be a rush for the victory conditions :P

[NightwindKing]

Thanks dude! I'll try it this afternoon.

I can probably stop the Chosokabe. I'll fight the battle myself...in pitched battle I have a much better success rate than the AI, likely because it doesnt use as complex tactics as I do in 'calculating' the win. Not to boast, or anything... ;-)

The Uesugi will be a problem. I can easily take on one stack, but there's no way my guys up in Echizen will be able to make it south in time to support my Daimyo, and the Uesugi keep leaving their second stack JUST close enough to support, but JUST far enough away that I can't reach it. Urg.

[Arjos]

Oh I didn't mean to come and help against the Uesugi, but to capture the undefended provinces they left behind while marching :D
Btw if one of those stacks happen to be without a general, I'd say to go for it, there is limited amount of men on the battlefield and armies without a general are so prone to mass rout :P

[TheLastDays]

Also, where are your ninja? Sabotaging one of the armies and picking off the other should do the trick.

[NightwindKing]

One ninja is busy helping-out my invaders in hitachi. He'll never get there in time.

My metsuke is only level 2 (they killed my high-level one) so he's useless.

My other ninja is there, but he can only do one action per turn, and it costs more than I make to sabotage the main Uesugi stacks. But I am trying.