Aite, I got around to playing the Hattori campaign and there is no doubt in my mind anymore that this is by far the hardest campaign. Holy check this thing is out of control. The useless (useless useless useless) deploy-anywhere bonus that their units recieve will have you cringe in frustration that Ikko can field Katana Ashigaru for less than 1/3!!! of the cost of your basic Yari Ashigaru. But whats better than 1 aggressive enemy with such cheap units compared to yours? Two of them! Oda is right there next to you as well! On Legendary this spins the cost differential completely beyond anything I've encounted as any other faction.
The *only* unit that can benefit from being deployed anywhere is the Kisho Ninja, which coincidently already have that trait. Lucky enough, since their relative low upkeep compared to Hattori Samurai and Ashigaru alike will have you making Kisho Ninja a lot more than you're used to. Battlefield tactics are iffy as Ikko but they are unrecognizable as Hattori. Cavalry, Snipers (their speciality unit whatever its called) and Ninja are pretty much required to be the foundation of your army as they are the only ones with a reasonable price tag. That or some heavy reliance on diplomacy, praying that your neighbours are trustworthy enough to let you abandon the border you share with them.
Theorycrafting on the optimal way of opening in the first 15 or so turns was a lot of fun. After 65 turns I am sort of settled, but for once it doesn't feel like a total walkover from here 'till the end. This is a good campaign that will give you the extra nodge of difficulty that is otherwise only accessible by inflicting arbitrary restrictions on yourself. Well worth the re-visit to this game.
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