Just wondering what everyone thinks is the most difficult faction to play. I'm guessing a lot of people will say Oda, and I agree that they are slightly difficult, but I don't think they're the most difficult.
In my opinion, I want to say Uesugi is the hardest to play, and then maybe Ikko Ikki behind them. I say Uesugi because I think they have a terrible starting location compared to Oda or Tokugawa. Where Oda has many easy expansion opportunuities close by, Uesugi have to go a long way to find one (Jinbo being the most obvious, but that's 2-3 turns away). Honma can be taken, but if you take too long, and with no reason for them to ever go anywhere since they're on an island, it becomes a battle with some massive stack of defending units. Let's also take into consideration that Takeda is almost always a powerhouse and are almost always in direct conflict, or shortly will be, with Uesugi. The only other avenue of expansion, aside from Jinbo and Takeda (who almost first-turns North Shinano in every game I play), is through your vassal, which isn't necessarily a good idea. Taking them opens you up to more enemies, and capturing anything beyond that when letting them live separates your lands and makes them that much harder to defend (as if that really long starting province wasn't bad enough).
Additionally, the bonuses of Uesugi are arguably not that great. Warrior Monks are expensive. I like to use them because they're kind of neat, but their bonuses are outshined by their lack of defense - I'd actually be interested in seeing how they fair in a toe-to-toe match with a similar unit, just for posterity... though I still doubt they're really worth that much more cost. The trade income bonus is negligent until late game, but is only compounded by the fact that 80% of the trade locations are on the other side of the map completely and a pain for them to get to.
Maybe it's just me, but I've always found Oda or Tokugawa relatively easy, because it's a lot more straightforward and takes less time to get anywhere. Their biggest disadvantage could easily be their advantage - they have plenty of routes to go for expansion, which makes becoming a formidable power relatively quick and easy.
On the other hand, I say Ikko Ikki next just because they suffer from a lack of samurai units, metsuke and a differing religion. Their advantages aren't really that advantageous.
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