Help.

[caravel]

I pretty much agree with Sasaki and Masamune as well, though with certain factions (Imagawa and Takeda spring to mind) it depends on whether you choose to consolidate your postion or try to hold both of your territories with the aim of eventually joining up.

When it comes to Imagawa you can take the easy approach of abandoning Honshu and concentrating on taking the whole of Kyushu, moving into Shikoku and then exapanding northwards through Honshu.

Then there is the more difficult approach of trying to hold both territories or the most difficult of abandoning Kyushu and concentrating on Honshu. This makes your campaign near enough as hard as the Oda one.

In general it's a similar situation for Takeda.

With respect to the formations, I've never used them as I have always found them to be messy. I tend to set up my own during battle.