The Uesugi Campaign Guide

[Babaganoush]

While it's easier to take Sado Island on realistic difficulty (aka Normal), it's almost impossible in the early turns due to the automatic four chevron ashigaru when all they have is just a market in VH.

[Mabun]

This is IMO the hardest start on VH/Legendary. You are absolutely surrounded by aggressive enemies, your starting province is weak, you have to potential need to defend on multiple fronts for a long time, and your clan-specific units are both the hardest to get out and the most expensive. The amount of units you can support early on is woefully inadequate for attack/defense on more than one front. Your only advantage is the frankly pitiful +2% to monk actions, and while monks are amazing and I always get one the first turn you hardly have enough money to incite revolts, so its all about demoralizing the enemy peasants. I've found two methods to handle the early game:

1. Zerg Rush kekekeke. You are going to need great victories and some good luck with how the diplomatic landscape forms. I haven't found anyone in the region to respect an alliance early on other than Date. In every game I've played Takeda and Hojo would try to ally and stomp the crap out of everything (and would certainly succeed if left unchecked). The only way to keep out of a war on two fronts with aggressive allies is to keep them fighting amongst themselves, so monitor the situation and find a way to break up trade agreements/alliances ASAP by giving away 5 turn military access agreements. Otherwise sell the military access agreements for cash. Particularly, if someone is about to declare war on you or die the next turn, an infinite turn military access will give you 2-3k cash and not matter soon anyway, the AI is stupid about this. But prioritize keeping them fighting. If you look at the diplomacy screen and see that someone like Takeda is friendly with everyone around them you had better be scared because in 2 turns they WILL have multiple stacks, and you are most likely the weakest target.

You need to rush in the direction of Etchu, Noto, and Kaga (possibly Echizen if the opportunity presents itself) and take them ASAP, then get ready to take on Takeda. DON'T waste money in the early game trying to improve your economy, in the time it takes to pay off you are probably dead because not producing 2.5 stacks ASAP means the aggressive AIs will all gang up on you. DON'T go for Sado, its not worth much at all until you improve it with mines/market/mesuke and even then its only going to support about .5 stacks of Ashigaru in upkeep, and doing all that will take too much away from your aggression and the early loss of units will make someone take you for easy pickings. Your town farms are unfertile trash, and trade is near-nonexistent and unreliable so just stick with what the towns already have and go for quantity over quality. Kaga is very fertile, once you get it improve the farm there. Once you get to this point, if you have prevented Takeda from forming a major alliance and can fight them alone or with just whatever weak enemy is west of Kaga mad at you, you should be in decent shape, and I can't tell you where to go after that because the diplomatic landscape could lead to almost anything. Once you get a breather (which is impossible for me to predict when it will occur), start switching over to monks as you can. Take Sado as you please and go for the alliance with Date. Date + Uesugi = best bros for life, seriously.

As mentioned, this requires a bit of luck and an insane amount of attention to micromanagement, but if it works you can be absolutely dominant in the area as soon as turn 25. Once your military strength has ramped up the other clans will be much less likely to start fights, and you can return to whatever form of play you like.

2. Relocation and turtling until you get overpowered monk armies. Just defend against the Jinbo, they won't attack too much because whoever owns that province is almost always going to get into multiple wars immediately, and sometimes Jinbo can even take a province off Takeda and fight them to a standstill. Beeline for a bow Kobaya and the Chi tech to monk bonuses. Make a navel landing at Sado ASAP (4th turn I believe) and then Uzen as soon as you feel comfortable (.5-1 stack of troops). The easiest way to get the cities without getting an impossible siege battle is to wait outside the castle until the enemy comes out of their castle to attack. You'll have to fight against a slightly stronger force, but I'm sure most people playing on VH can win at near-even odds when its not a siege battle. Rout them, make sure most of the survivors are dead, ride into the castle and laugh at the single retainer left. You'll need a little bit of luck early on (if Date takes Uzen then its pretty much game over immediately), but if you are careful all of this shouldn't be too hard.

Now, you can stop defending Echigo as soon as it becomes not cost-effective to do so. Ally with Date, as I've mentioned they have been rock-solid support to me every game. Get trade ships on the foreign trade routes (the NE one should be open, possibly the one West as well if you are quick), get the market and metsuke in Sado, go through the long task of getting the buffed monk units (fortified monastary/armoury/famous temple eventually, hello level 6 monks with +2 armor before other buffs). They are ridiculous, the warriors (which I got first) are basically Nodachi that trade half their charge bonus for a bonus vs cavalry, have a much better melee defense, and the War Cry which breaks Ashigaru easily. The archers have the best range in the game and their own morale debuffer. Uesugi Archer Monks are just so ridiculously good at siege defense, especially at lower unit sizes, that its unbelievable. Uesugi armies have the strongest composite strength IMO, even if certainly not the most cost-effective. In the meantime while you are doing this you can hopefully snag Fukushima with your left over Ashigaru units and Date at your back, and your economy should be enough to support large monk armies with just those three provinces since they are all good producers, and and maybe you can even take a few more provinces if you can incite a few revolts.

At this point it should be easy sailing up until realm divide. You are in a very easy to defend position, you have a good economy, and Date has never let me down (not that you can't backstab them if you like). As long as you don't get caught up in a war on too many fronts your individually stronger stacks should win the day. Eventually, you may want to switch your monk production over to 2 cities with an armorer in one and a bowmaker in the other since I'm pretty sure the bonuses will be equal or better in value initially and of course if you preserve your units you will make up the lost XP with enough battles. Since I go for short games I don't really get to the this point where I absolutely need the extreme maximum firepower of those units, as soon as Realm Divide hits I just blitz for 24 territories and storm Ashikaga for the finale.

[Mabun]

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[Ecka65]

Mabun, thankyou! I haven't tried the zerg option yet, but I went with the Sado then Uzen option. Excellent.

However, the tip that made ALL the difference was the diplomacy. In past attempts I'd always got a trade deal and alliance with Takeda. But then Very Friendly would disentegrate with the mysterious "Threatened attacks" massive negative and several turns after the alliance was formed they'd attack. Then the others would follow.

This time, on the same turn as getting trade and the alliance, I offered them 5 turns access for 1000. They accepted. I then paid them the 1000 back to break off trade with Hojo. Sold every other neighbour 5 turns access for 500-1000. Result? Takeda and Hojo's relationship never matured into an alliance. I was seen as wealthy and powerful (thanks to the religious 2 unit build every turn).

In a complete, stark, 180 degree turn around my VH campaign with Uesugi has been fighting clans my own size. Rarely in wars on more than one front. Able to take risks and deplete castles to go on offence thanks to allies and good relations. A completely different game and experience form every other attempt.

[Hounf of Culan]

I'm really struggling with Uesugi just on normal difficulty. I've restarted my campaign several times in a row and still running into big problems. More often than not I'm unable to get to Etchu before someone else destroys Jinbo. Then as the turns wear on it seems like everyone like Takeda, Hojo, Satomi and Ashina are all magically, cough stupid AI bonuses cough, able to have these huge ashigaru stacks and they all seem to declare war on me or my vassal and then begins the slow spiral towards defeat because as soon as I destroy one stack there are two more only a few turns away. I never have enough money, even with naval trade nodes, to have a big army to defend myself.

[zoser]

Playing Uesugi on VH/VH...fifth attemp...

Will not try on lesser difficulty, couse after four lost campaign with them, now its a matter of honor...

For strategy tips:

1.Build 1 asigaru spearmen and asigaru archer every turn...
2.Build harbour ASAP
3.Deal with Etchu in first 3 turns
4.Build a ship, and in turn 5-7 land on Sogo, there will be a massive army, that can be win with some looses...Decisive victory

Try to have good relations, and as many trade agrements as you can..
Every nation you are going to attack, you need to remove them of any alliance, if needed offer everything you can spare...

Buid bow ship, and occupie Iron Node, you put there maximum of 3 trade ship, later you can change them with better trade ships...


Takeda will attack in about 10-12 turns...so you need to build troops down ~300 koku per turn, and as much as possible asigaru troops...to take North Shinano.
Takeda will have 3 full armies, and they can all be broken, with minimal losses in N.Shinano.

Your main goal is to take in this order:
-North Shinano, Hida, S.Shinano, Kozuke can be take out with secundary army of few asigaru.

After you take N.Shinano, S. Shinano, Hida, Kozuke, Sogo, Etchu, STOP with the expansion, couse of the negativ diplomatic effect of your teritorial expansion, start building your economy...and in N. Shinano, build your main fortifiation.

Do not try to take down Date, couse while you are walkabout on big provincies of Date, your south border will be swarmed.
Date if you have alliance with them, will never betrey you, unit Realm Divide...
Next teritory you wonna take is Hojo, and there second gold mine, and timing when i leave to your good judgment...
But before attacking Hojo, take Shimonsuke, couse of the High Ground and better monk units...

My goal was to make a corridor of provincies, starting in order from north to south

1.Kaga (smithing, and good farming income)
2.Hida (wood)
3.S.Shinano (stone)
4.Totomi (defence position for south that deffender of Surega, one of the most important cities you have)

If you make this corridor, you are safe of any kind of attack...
In my territory behind corridor, only faction is Date, and he is very valuble ally...that has never betry me...for now...but i thing that they are coded to be faithfull...

Now you can make preparations for Realm Divide...

If Date is attacking behind you corridor, support him....you get exp, and better relations with Date...

[anomaly]

i had always thought of taking uzen to start producing monks asap but i could never make it work. i realize after reading mabun's 2nd strategy that i was going about it all wrong. i had been trying to invade overland from echigo into fukushima and onto uzen from there. it's much easier to do as mabun says and take sado first, abandon echigo completely, and invade uzen overseas. it's also important to keep a potential takeda/hojo alliance from forming - these guys are the two major powers in the plains of honshu and they absolutely must be kept from allying.

i feel confident enough about this start on vh/vh that i think i will try a legendary campaign with uesugi tonight.

[Lugotorix]

Playing the hardest and most treacherous faction on normal; 49 hours of game play.


Having mass rebellions due to food shortages and absolutely no way of paying for farms due to Realm Divide's loss of trade income, and no inkling that you'd have to demolish over half your buildings and your navy to continue successfully;

49 Hours, and replaying battles against 10+ stacks you've already defeated on a six turn reboot

Sense of accomplishment watching the Uesugi Long Campaign win video, having a Daimyo in said reboot with 9 honor as apposed to his father's negative honor on account of treaty bug, and replacing his father's armored war dog with a magnificently fat man of colloquial legend;


PRICELESS










Uesugi comes highly recommended for fun factor; Taking a break until Imagawa are in.

I Took Screens of Every Action I Took Since The Start, If Anyone Want's A Breakdown Of What's Successful Upon Completion.

-Lug

[Auditor]

Date if you have alliance with them, will never betrey you, unit Realm Divide...
..

Wrong... Playing on Legendary... they betrayed me at 200+ reletionship and marriage between our clans. This is fatal blow for me - they have 7 provinces and I got only 2. Now I am at war with EVERYBODY. and again I am finished

[Cruzz]

Ugh. Playing legendary Uesugi, turn 50. Just got realm divide two turns earlier when I captured my 12th province, stupid heroic victories. My only remaining allies now are Date (controlling everything east of me) to whom I'm paying 1000 every turn just to keep them from joining the rest and pretty much dooming the game for me, and a vassal in one province that I'm hoping will turn on me soon (they're unfriendly), because I have to keep an army camped next to them to keep my rear secured yet if I go and declare war on them myself, it will probably make Date break up with me. Oh RD diplomacy, how I love you so.

[Pinky333]

Just finished a vh/vh, best advice take sado asap. build 2 units everyturn, build your harbor 1st and then the bowship. Head straight over get and head back. I didnt push up towards jinbo or nshinano, instead I waited for date and ashina and I took him down. Developed all the land and started using ninjas to take down ashina without declaring war. Keep doing this till your about to hit rd. Then make sure everything is built up and mollywop everything else

[Arimahn]

Sado really is key. High income and extremely defensible. My next order of business would be to conquer the two northern most provinces. Mogami and Date should be busy early in the game and you can grab the undefended towns with ease. This essentially puts you in the position the Date start out in and you don't have to fear a two front war anymore.

[Cruzz]

Finally finished Uesugi legendary on vanilla (with hedge's campaign AI). Have to say it was just nuts compared to Oda/Tokugawa/Shimazu/Mori. The only ally (in addition to one 1 province vassal) that stuck to me through realm divide was Date. I kept paying them several thousand gold a turn but they ended up declaring war a couple turns afterwards anyway as I maxed the gift +bonus and the realm divide + territory negatives just kept growing.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Chousokabe landed with an army and took those 3 provinces within 2 turns after I had taken Kyoto. The green on the east coast is Hatakeyama who also did the same thing earlier, and who I would've beaten otherwise except my only original vassal declared war on the same turn and wiped out the army I had there that had just fought Hatakeyama on the same turn. All the clans near Kyoto are vassals that I freed up while trying to steamroll westwards from my original positions at Suruga and Echizen when I got realm divided. Out of those vassals Imagawa ended up declaring war on me after being vassalized so had to beat them back to submission again, and that finally got me up to enough provinces for victory.

Trying to maintain any sort of naval presence in realm divide without being christian or taking ages to research cannon bune is near impossible, heh. The only trade post that I managed to hold onto was the date iron one in the end, and that was my only surviving navy for that matter.

[bobtheubilder]

Date betrays our alliance on a regular basis. They're usually allied with at least one other clan, and since I'm often at war with many at once, the alliance will break whenever a new war comes up or leading up to it. This is with having an arranged marriage and trade since the start of the game, about +180 relationship the first time they broke the alliance. Which is a ***** because Date is always in Uesugi's backyard and they're so far up the island that it takes a lot of effort away from your front lines to take their provinces.

[Ma'ahes]

I have yet to not have Takeda at war with me by turn 7 on VH. Humorously enough, I've been at war with them and 5 other factions by turn three: Sataki declared war on vassal with their allies, then Takeda followed suit with Imagawa and someone else. This was the first game on VH that I have not been at war with the Hojo by turn 6-ish. Date is interesting, since you have to quickly discover them to have a good chance at an alliance. It is easy to ally with Mogami and Ashina early on to prevent a complete gang-up, but the Date are (usually) around even until late-game. Only once have I seen the Mogami overtake the Date. But in the long-run, the Ashina will backstab you if they ever expand, and you really don't have to worry about a Mogami army knocking on your doorstep when they have to contend with the Date.

Etchu is a mixed bag for me. Sure, it is in close proximity to three other towns, but it is a long ways off from your capital and it's not going to prevent Takeda from raising 3 full stacks with only 3 towns (still not happy about the bonuses for overly-aggressive AI). Plus, if you use the aforementioned diplomacy via Sado income, you can keep the Etchu area at persistent war with one another. That is, until you finally are able to strike.

EDIT:

I've been using TROM and AUM-SHO, so take this following advice a bit lightly if you aren't using it.

With longer unit recruitment times, it's slowed down the Hojo/Takeda juggernauts rushing me on VH by turn 6 and preventing any sort of expansion on my part. I hit Sado by turn 7-8, and used diplomacy to make sure I had plenty of money to upgrade Echigo to a castle. I was at 0 food surplus, but it has provided me with a bastion while I maneuvered diplomatically and militarily around the Hojo.

First up, break the Takeda-Hojo trade agreement with all the cash you've received providing small military access turns. Then, ally with them. After a turn or two, when the Hojo take out the Ogigiyatsu, declare war preemptively. Now, usually they just declare war on the vassal, so your other allies don't join in. This way, though, the Takeda are now at war with the Hojo. This gives you a lot of breathing room as those two quarrel...they'll fight over Kai for the next 10 turns at least. The Ashina generally don't like you allying with the Date, so they declared war on me around turn 16 or so. Once I took Fukushima, a trade agreement+payment from Hatakeyama and Satake are key. Why? Because hopefully by this point, you will not have had to declare war on the Satake. But most notably, they are allied with the Satomi, who are allied with the Hojo. Some diplomatic magic later, and now you've flipped the Satake and prevented another premature two-front war.

I have currently landed a full-stack to claim the Hojo's stating cities, and vassalized the Ogigiyatsu by reclaiming their city. The Hojo were kind enough to upgrade their towns to castles and fortresses, but left them unguarded. If you wait long enough for the Hojo stacks to go north, you can claim 4-5 territories very fast in the south via naval invasion. Sure, you'll lose your fleet to the generally-impressive Hojo navy, but as long as your army arrives it's easy going. I'll be having a diplomatic nightmare later on what with my territory encircling the Ogs and Satake, not to mention I have not touched the Satake-Satomi alliance yet, but for the first time on VH I've gotten past turn 15 without completely tearing out my hair in frustration at the AI.

[Count of Montesano]

I've finished Chosokabe on hard and Date on Very Hard and had a really fun time with both. I decided to give Uesugi a try on VH and I'm really frustrated. I dropped difficulty down to H but I'm still having a hard time. I find that if I move too quickly into the south, I get embroiled in a double war with Takeda and Hojo. If I concentrate on taking the northern provinces, I just don't have much money. And my faction monk bonus doesn't seem that useful considering that you have to spend a lot of money upgrading multiple buildings just to field a powerful but very fragile unit that takes forever to replenish. It's a big letdown compared to Chosokabe (bonuses that help you from the get-go) or Date (bonus that kicks in within the first 10 turns or so).

If someone can tell me that Uesugi are a lot of fun in the late game, I'm willing to stick it out. As much as I'd like to hang in there for pride's sake like Lugo I just don't have the time if Uesugi doesn't turn out to be a late blooming powerhouse.

[Pinky333]

Some people just enjoy the challenge, the chosokabe and date are both extremly easy, but the uesegi are imo the hardest. So I cant say if theyre late game is really that great, Since I dont remeber. But it is a really rewarding feel when you do beat them.

[bobtheubilder]

I've finished Chosokabe on hard and Date on Very Hard and had a really fun time with both. I decided to give Uesugi a try on VH and I'm really frustrated. I dropped difficulty down to H but I'm still having a hard time. I find that if I move too quickly into the south, I get embroiled in a double war with Takeda and Hojo. If I concentrate on taking the northern provinces, I just don't have much money. And my faction monk bonus doesn't seem that useful considering that you have to spend a lot of money upgrading multiple buildings just to field a powerful but very fragile unit that takes forever to replenish. It's a big letdown compared to Chosokabe (bonuses that help you from the get-go) or Date (bonus that kicks in within the first 10 turns or so).

If someone can tell me that Uesugi are a lot of fun in the late game, I'm willing to stick it out. As much as I'd like to hang in there for pride's sake like Lugo I just don't have the time if Uesugi doesn't turn out to be a late blooming powerhouse.

Monks are great units mid and late game, and early game when you get your first naginata monk, you can really rip **** up. Also, the fact that you probably have Takeda, Hojo and Hattori on your arse at all times, each with 10+ provinces, bumps up the fun. Let's face it, Date and Chokosabe are boring by comparison, you rarely have more than one front to worry about. In a past Uesugi game I had two cities on two fronts that were doing nothing but breaking wave after wave of Hattori and Takeda sieges, I'm surprised they managed to get rid of all the bodies lining the castle walls in time.

[bars]

Finally beat Uesugi on Legendary in vanilla version. 60 provinces.
This was the first campaign that I completed, so I'm still learning. But here's some things I picked up:

-Take Sado early if you can. I didn't, so I had to face 1.5 stacks at around turn 20-25 when I attacked them.

**
Short story on Sado:
(Around turn 20-25, I sent agents to Sado; incited rebellion. Then I landed with 1 stack. Honma had 1.5 stacks. I was hoping Honma would attack rebels and lose some of their army. Instead, they attacked me. I won a close victory, but I had heavy losses, so I knew I could not win a second time. Then the rebels attacked the lightly defended castle and took it. So Honma was destroyed.)
**

-Use agents a lot. Incite rebellions in ally towns if you have no enemies.
-Don't start wars, because you will get negative relations
-Build ports, roads, farms, markets.
-Kill Date before realm divide, because they will turn on you eventually. (I had marriage+alliance; it didn't help)
-Try to delay Realm divide as long as possible. (My realm divide was in 1560. I had 23 provinces, but I know I could have delayed it further and built up my economy some more. )
-Diplomacy: Sell your military access, whenever possible. Always break up all the alliances through diplomacy.
-Cavalry is nearly useless (relative to other TW games), except killing routing units
-If enemy has MUCH more bows than you, you should just rush them with heavy infantry/ heavy cavalry. This worked well for me against Chosokabe, because they would have up to 15 units of samurai bows. I destroyed them with very little casualties.
-Don't use navy too much, it's a waste of upkeep money imo

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Attachment 161326
Attachment 161338
^^Taking Shimazu's Satsuma - the 65th province

[Halie Satanus]

I've just hit the 40 region mark to win the campaign; By far the most fun I've had with an un-modded TW campaign in a long long time.

If you like a tough campaign Uesugi are definitely one of the most satisfying.