The Uesugi Campaign Guide

[Ceorl84]

After 230+ hours on Shogun 2 I finally beat Legendary with the Uesugi. This faction isn't hard, it's broken. A victim of poor design attributes which overwhelm Uesugi's weak starting position. This faction is a mid/late game power stuck in the worst possible position to capitalize on its strengths. Rather than tell you how to win, I will break down why Uesgui is so imbalanced that it requires the player to essentially not play the faction in order to win.

Diplomacy

Vassal Clan: Uesugi's weak starting position is theoretically compensated by a vassal with the attendant +1 honor boost and increased income. Instead, on Legendary, the vassal becomes a noose around the player's neck that tightens if he attempts to defend the vassal. It is too weak and isolated to survive even with Uesugi assistance and instead starts a multi front war that will destroy the Uesugi.

Poor Starting Relationships: Besides the Jinbo, no one hates the Uesugi. But no one, besides the Ashina, like the Uesugi either. As a result it is difficult to compete with the Takeda/Imagawa/Hojo behemoth which spawns in the map center. In contrast a human player, as Hojo, can force an alliance break between Takeda and Imagawa while Takeda gobbles up the north. Whereas Uesugi can break the alliance but finds it difficult to either maintain a high enough relation with the non-allied factions or get them to declare war on one another after the split. As result Takeda, and/or Hojo, attempt to gobble up the north where you happen to be.

This problem compounds Uesugi’s economic problem, discussed below, because the DoW’s invariably occur to the West and South where some of the poorest provinces in the game are. So unless a player wishes to risk a three front war Uesugi must maintain its relationship with Ashina thereby bypassing their relatively rich province. If Uesugi conquers Ashina, war with its neighbors almost invariably follows.

Child Leader: Uesugi is the only faction to start with a juvenile, 16, leader and, as a result, is one of the few to lack sons to hostage and daughters to marry. Both are pivotal diplomatic relation tools in the early game and their absence compounds Uesugi’s poor relationship problem.

+2% Chance for Monks: Like the Tokugawa and Hattori this miniscule percentage will barely affect play.

In short, Uesugi must cut ties with the vassal clan almost immediately negating any advantage of starting with a vassal. Their diplomatic relations, compounded by a lack of hostages, is so poor that only luck can prevent a multiple front war, particularly against Takeda and Hojo.

Military

Superior Warrior Monks/Reduced Recruitment and Upkeep Costs for Warrior Monks: The Uesugi have the best Warrior Monks (WM) in the game with: +2 attack, +3 charge, +1 melee defense, -100 Recruitment, and -25 Upkeep. However, Legendary eliminates the recruitment and upkeep bonus so WMs remain cost-ineffective because their low armor, slow replenishment rate and massive start up costs (around 6000 koku to build all the requisite buildings) render them vulnerable to the AIs archer spam.

Marathon Monks (DLC): Other forum threads have provided good pro and con arguments for this units, but there is no question that Maraton Monks (MM) are a late game unit of support utility. All the problems with WM still apply but are actually exaggerated due to the unit's lower troop number and absurd development costs. Much like the Hojo’s DLC unit, by the time a player can capitalize on Marathon Monks the need for the unit has passed.

Large Province Sizes: Increased upkeep costs in Legendary significantly limit a player’s ability to field a standing army. Conversely the AI’s reduced upkeep costs and taxation allow them to field massive armies. The best way to handle the imbalance is to funnel the AI along a narrow front to prevent the AI armies from bypassing the player army. Eastern Japanese provinces lack these bottlenecks and are quite large. A player will often to commit down one road only to find an AI army taking an alternative route. As a result, Uesugi spends crucial early game turns playing wack a mole without being able to expand its economic base before, finally, being overwhelmed by the expanding AIs.

Small Military: This bleeds over into economic and diplomacy but is worth addressing here. The Uesugi are the poorest faction both in terms of starting income and potential income. The only adjacent rich province, practical to occupy, is Sado but its development costs are high. In the short term, Uesugi has limited income which cripples developing Sado and reduces army size. Smaller armies encourage the AI to declare war. Multiple enemies encourage the other AIs to dogpile. A vicious cycle ensures.

In short, WMs are a mid/late game unit of questionable utility, given the AI's unchanging preference for archer spam, and cannot contribute to the vital early game. MM is a late game unit whose unit design exacerbates all the WM problems. The open map prevents economic growth and allow multi-front wars which defeat the player. Uesugi’s poverty hinders their economic development, prevents early acquisition of their best unit, and leads to smaller armies which exacerbate diplomacy problems.

Economy

Poor Homeland: Almost every other faction either begins in relatively prosperous lands or has the expansion into rich lands, defined as fertile or very fertile farms. The Uesugi’s most likely expansion points are Etchu, North Shinano and Kozkue all of which are Average at best. When combined with the large provinces sizes Uesugi players find themselves fighting over large, poor provinces whose economic returns do not justify the capital expended to acquire them.

Increased Trade Income: I believe this attribute only applies to province resources and not trade between factions lacking any province resources. In theory an excellent perk, the Uesugi are too distant from the sea trade nodes to have any reasonable access because AI fleet spam turn early game naval efforts into a koku waste. Further, no province resources are relatively close to their starting location. Fuskishima is the only adjacent province with a resource but diplomatic and military factors, discussed above, invariably keep a Uesugi from capitalizing on this resource.

No Nearby Holy Sites, instead Naval Tradition: A small problem, but the closest holy site is in Shimotsuke which is impractical to secure and build for Uesugi. As a result the faction cannot optimize its WMs until Uesugi has secured a large portion of the map whereas other factions, such as Shimazu and Date, start with home provinces ready made to optimze their best units. Instead the Uesugi get a Naval Tradition province which is amongst the weakest starting bonuses in the game.

In short, the Uesugi are poor and likely to remain poor for a foreseeable period past game start. They are poorly placed, geographically, to utilize their bonus to Trade Income to compensate. And lack access to nearby Holy Sites to strengthen their WMs even if the Uesugi manage to overcome their monetary problems.

Conclusion


My solution, as a previous posters suggested, was to NOT be the Uesugi and, instead, become the Date. That is to occupy Sado island, since the AI will not appear to attack it, and use the island to invade Date lands. Then I play exactly as I would in a Date campaign, except with the Uesugi faction bonuses.

All my efforts to expand my immediate power base beyond Sado failed. The AIs, particularly Takeda, were simply too strong and I lacked the tools to improve my relations in an effort to head off potential wars. To conclude, the Uesugi find it almost impossible to succeed from their starting position. Even a faction with better starting bonuses, such as Shimazu or Oda, would be hard pressed to win in Echigo.

[bakat8]

I just built up my economy by trading with everyone i could and constantly raising and lowering my tax rates according to the peoples happiness, and then i was unstoppable

[Bonat]

Anyway here had the Idea of making an alliance with the Takeda? after taking the Hostile Clan's province(I don't know the name but you are at war with them from the Beginning) begin embargoing Takeda's alliance with others(This will make them attack their former allies) then get a military alliance with Takeda(pay them if you have to). A clan's temperament must be observed. Make all the clans that have an "Aggressive" temperament an ally then embargo all its allies. If you do this right then Takeda will be your buffer of any threats from the West and South then you can concentrate on either growing your economy peacefully or taking down Date and the rest of the clans around you(take them down 1 by 1 of course.) Anyway the best way to gain territories without making a bad name for your clan is to incite rebellion so you can "Legally" take the province lol

[CptAustus]

Takeda always seem to betray me as Uesugi. We always have a nice relation going and out of nowhere they declare war on me, just because we are very friendly.

[Bonat]

Probably, Takeda ran out of Enemies. If you want not to be betrayed by clans with Aggressive and Ambitious temperament you should be their only ally and trade partner to make disadvantages weight more than advantages if they attack you. Make enemies for them to prevent yourself from being attacked.

[greek general]

Uesugi is a pretty difficult clan.Takeda fight me with big armies and i just wait them into castles.I don't know exactly what to do but i think i can take kai because the AI has never many troops in towns.

[O'Hea]

I'm pretty close to wrapping up my first serious Uesugi campaign (N/N. I know, I'm a wimp). I ended up at war with the Takeda and Hojo pretty early on, and later a huuuge Oda clan allied them and jumped in against me. My only ally at first were the Mogami, who were too busy fighting Hatakeyama to be any help to me. Really the only thing I had going for me were some really good territorial gains- I took Sado first and immediately started dumping money into the gold mines, I managed to grab Fukushima and Noto from the Hatakeyama, and while the Ikko-Ikki were fighting a losing war with the Hatano I swept in and took Kaga and Echizen. Fukushima and Sado were completely untouched by the fighting, and the whole Hokuriku region was safe until the Oda jumped in and invaded via Omi.

I turned the Takeda and Hojo back by winning a series of bridge battles on that river in southern Echigo; it took a lot of ninja and monk actions, an ambush, and two back-to-back last-ditch siege defenses in Kaga before the Oda invasion ran out of steam. I killed off a lot of famous Daimyo in those battles. This was one of the first games where I decided to put off RD for as long as possible, so I expanded slowly and made peace a number of times (I could always count on them to break the truce). By the time I decided to trip the realm divide I had a big blob of territory running from Omi province all the way across the north shore to Echigo, plus Fukushima, the north half of Kanto and North Shinano. Since then I've added Hida, Kai, Sagami, Hitachi, Izu, Totomi, and Suruga and created vassals in Mino and South Shinano. I still have plenty of trade income and two very loyal allies, the Hatano (who are massive, 15+ provinces) and the Mogami (who have everything north of Fukushima). It's circa 1565 in a short campaign.

[siregar0511]

I'm entering mid game in my long Uesugi campaign (around 1560s).

Japan is split up as:

1. Uesugi (myself) controls eastern Honshu from Iwate/Ugo all the way to Hitachi-fukushima-echigo. They also hold Ise and Owari (via naval invasion).
2. Takeda is controls central Honshu, North+south Shinano, Kai and the surrounding area.
3. Chosokabe controls Shikoku and some areas southwest of Kyoto.
4. Shimazu controls a vast area including Kyushu and western Honshu.
5. Ikko-Ikki controls the provinces around Kyoto.

I am allied with the Takeda and 'formally' also with the Chosokabe even 'though they hate my guts. Their true ally is the Shimazu Clan. The Ikko-Ikki is at war with everyone and being pressed on every side. I predict that they will cease to exist within a year or so.

Currently I'm conducting a massive ship building to prepare my fleet to isolate the Chosokabe and Shimazu while making my push into Kyoto and western Honshu. My plan is to take control of all Honshu (thus betraying the Takeda) while my fleet will completely blockade Kyushu and Shikoku to stop Chosokabe and Shimazu from interfering. Afterwards I will finish them off one by one and dominate all of Japan.

[Sir Walter]

If you're anything like me you hate realm divide, so you always go straight for the Ashikaga. As Uesugi this means allying with Takeda and Date getting Jinbo, then Sado, then going for the Ikko-ikki. From the Ikko point you can use a monk to cause a rebellion in the province between you and Kyoto, then march through uncontested and take the Ashikaga down pretty quick. From there you'll be fighting the Oda, but be prepared for a Takeda or Date backstab (and the usual Hatakeyama war). The Yamanouchi are usually good enough to hold your back for the start - using this approach I just took Kyoto with a stack and a half of samurai and sohei by turn 50. Also, if you demoralise enough armies you get a mission to demoralise another, which gives your warriors a fear bonus. I took on the demoralised Ashikaga stacks outside of Kyoto with my daimyo and his elite strike force, and they broke pretty much immediately. If I'd had cavalry to chase them down I would've taken Kyoto without a fight but that took about half a stack off me in the siege which is worth it. (If you attack Ashikaga and take Kyoto in the same turn realm divide shouldn't trigger).

[PaulV]

How do you prevent the Takeda/ Imagawa/ Hojo alliance? I'm playing on normal, and all of my offers to trade, break alliance, or break trade agreements are rejected.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

[zhiphius]

How do you prevent the Takeda/ Imagawa/ Hojo alliance? I'm playing on normal, and all of my offers to trade, break alliance, or break trade agreements are rejected.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

the easiest is to try and ally with takeda early on to keep em of your back and decline defending yamanouchi (shouldnt give you dishonour, just worse relationship with em):

First turns the recommended is to ignore jinbo, spend the turns until winter in building your army, upgrading your port and recruit a ship. Then on winter turn have your army except 1 general board the ship and sail to sado and during spring declare war on honma and besiege their castle. Try to make them go out of their city rather than fight a siege. while dealing with honma, continue to recruit units in echigo to hold of jinbo should they send a army your way. Your general, new recruits and garrison forces are enough to defeat them in a siege.

Once sado is secured you'll have a very good economy, try to sue for peace with jinbo (they'll accept if you vaporated their army while dealing with honma) and head east by taking fukushima and the other eastern provinces.

By breaking vassalship with yamanouchi if they are attacked you'll avoid war on too many fronts.
By taking sado you secure a good early economy and a base to fall back on as emergency.
By conquering the east you'll secure your flanks and gain some really rich provinces.

After that your next goal should be sagami and hitachi for fletcher/blacksmith so you can recruit upgraded melee/ranged units.


for preventing hojo/takeda/imagawa alliance, i'd suggest allying with takeda. They generally go west on their conquest first buying you time. Hojo and imagawa aint much threat early on.
When the time comes when you have to deal with one or all 3 of em, you should have gained the economic backing to field 3-4 ashigaru armies, 2 to defend echigo and another 2 that conquers the east and possibly defends fukushima.

[zhiphius]

How do you prevent the Takeda/ Imagawa/ Hojo alliance? I'm playing on normal, and all of my offers to trade, break alliance, or break trade agreements are rejected.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

the easiest is to try and ally with takeda early on to keep em of your back and decline defending yamanouchi (shouldnt give you dishonour, just worse relationship with em):

First turns the recommended is to ignore jinbo, spend the turns until winter in building your army, upgrading your port and recruit a ship. Then on winter turn have your army except 1 general board the ship and sail to sado and during spring declare war on honma and besiege their castle. Try to make them go out of their city rather than fight a siege. while dealing with honma, continue to recruit units in echigo to hold of jinbo should they send a army your way. Your general, new recruits and garrison forces are enough to defeat them in a siege.

Once sado is secured you'll have a very good economy, try to sue for peace with jinbo (they'll accept if you vaporated their army while dealing with honma) and head east by taking fukushima and the other eastern provinces.

By breaking vassalship with yamanouchi if they are attacked you'll avoid war on too many fronts.
By taking sado you secure a good early economy and a base to fall back on as emergency.
By conquering the east you'll secure your flanks and gain some really rich provinces.

After that your next goal should be sagami and hitachi for fletcher/blacksmith so you can recruit upgraded melee/ranged units.


for preventing hojo/takeda/imagawa alliance, i'd suggest allying with takeda. They generally go west on their conquest first buying you time. Hojo and imagawa aint much threat early on.
When the time comes when you have to deal with one or all 3 of em, you should have gained the economic backing to field 3-4 ashigaru armies, 2 to defend echigo and another 2 that conquers the east and possibly defends fukushima.

By the time i only had mogami's 2 provinces to deal with i had 4 ashigaru armies with 4000-4400 koku income per turn heh.


Edit:
For realm divide, turtle up once you got the east under control with frontline being echigo down to sagami. Develope economy and build a big enough army to not only defend and later expand from your frontline but also send minimum 2 stacks to deal with shikoku/kyushu and eliminate the naval threat of shimazu/shoni/chosokabe and any other clan surviving there.

Army: Remember, properly upgraded yari ashigaru is strong, with jujutsu dojo and weaponsmith with high tier spear dojo you can achieve 17+ melee attack with them. Which is nuts good with their spear wall ability and high numbers. Thus allowing you to field more armies due to their cheap upkeep (and allowing you to develope your provinces faster due to low recruitment cost). Do mix some specialist units in though like monks, nagi sams and yari cav's.

Edit 2: Art wise going strong spear, back up archery (fire arrow art is enough) and 2nd tier buddhist art will net you what you need. anything else in the bushido part is a bonus.

[PaulV]

All great advice, Ziphius. I'm looking forward to trying all of it.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

[Man'o'War]

I'm doing a Uesugi legendary campaign, I've just taken Kyoto but my finances are getting messy.

The best way I've found so far is to knock down the monastery after hiring a monk and changing it to a sword school, the monastery is of no real benefit until you can recruit warrior monks after researching the necessary arts. That basically means it's sitting there doing nothing for 7 or more turns, time you could use to recruit katana samurai.

Build a port and invade Sado ASAP, it's one of the richest provinces.

Don't get fooled into expanding east and west, split the land north to south and it's far easier to protect your borders and your seaways. Squeeze the Date back to the east, I vassalled them with one province left charging them 10K for the priviledge. As it turns out I should have eradicated them as was my original plan but this is one of the things I love about the game, the odd twists and turns.

Once you have the Date under control you have the northeast trade node all to yourself with the ports in Sado and your home province monitoring any eastward sea movements.

Try to never be in two wars at once if possible, use all your diplomatic tools to avoid this. If you can sell 10 turns of military access to a clan for 2K, do so. Then use that money to buy your way out of a war.

Doh, I gotta go out. I'll try to update more later.

[Sharpe]

Ive just started as the Uesugi on hard and am finding it very difficult (I've only just got Shogun 2 due to my parents getting a new pc, and have found all the campaigns hard) I cant seem to get my economy on its feet and my armies are comprised of Ashigaru and little else.

What is the best way to get research, building development and military power on its feet without fighting a war on three fronts?

[Clodius]

Firstly you will almost inevitably end up fighting a war on three fronts usually against the Ikko Ikki from the west, Takeda and Hojo (and Satomi and Satake) from the south and the Date or Honma from the east - all you can do is delay this.

1) Invade Sado as soon as you can - if you build a port starting turn 1 and a ship on turn 3 you can land an army there in turn 4 and have conquered it and its goldmine on turn 5 - this also provides you with a fallback province if as is very likely a huge horde of Takeda appear and besiege Echigo (if you are lucky you may also find it defenceless as the Honma tend to load their army onto ships around turn 3 or 4 and send them off NE to invade the Mogami provinces).

2) Sell military access to any bordering clan who'll buy it - sell 5 turns in turn 1, 10 turns in 2, 20 in 3 (but not indefinite in 4 as its possible that one or more may survive long enough for you to start selling all over again).

3) After beating the rebels (which is easier if you just sit in your fort and make them attack it in turn 2 - making sure enough survive for you to be able to fight an easy second battle against the remnants as this will give your daimyo an experience advance) make peace with the Jinbo - even at legendary they always accept, give me a trade agreement and will pay 1500 for 5 turns military access and if you are lucky will provide a buffer against the Ikko Ikki hordes for a few turns

3) Make alliances with anyone who'll accept one as it appears that this will make other factions less likely to pile on to you

4) Send a ship to the trade node at the top NE of the map to claim it and send 10 tradeships there asap and keep as many ships as you can afford just outside Echigo port (not in the port) to keep the route open

5) When your vassal Yamanouchi clan is attacked consider either abandoning them to their fate (not very in character for the honourable Uesugi) or send a half-stack army to just stand outside their castle and defend it - under no circumstances give in to the temptation to invade the provs to the south and east of Kozuke as on multiple occasions this is where I've gone wrong and lost my daimyo and army - as even if you destroy the Hojo great hordes of Takeda, Satomi, Satake, Imagawa or whatever will descend on your newly conquered provs (having said this there is something to be said for a quick raid to take Kai if the Takeda attack you as they usually leave it undefended and it is their main recruiting centre in early game).

6) Don't bother with warrior monks until late in the game as they are too expensive and too fragile to be cost-effective at hard+ until you can build them in a province like Uzen or Shimotsuke which gives them big exp bonuses - also make sure to build an encampment and then armoury in that prov as they need every extra point of armour you can give them

7) Tech-wise go for all the economic ones down to Chonindo first and then the military line down to gunpowder mastery next - matchlock ashigaru while largely useless in battle are unbeatable behind castle walls and I've destroyed multiple huge armies of two of three attacking stacks full of samurai with level 4 castles defended by 6 matchlocks and the free garrison units

8) Even without matchlocks half dozen bow ashigaru and 3 or 4 yari ashigaru can beat most enemy stacks as long as they are defending castle walls - the real threat tends to be enemy bow samurai who in smaller level 1-3 castles will shoot you to pieces from outside the walls or a two or three stack horde that will overwhelm you with wave after wave of yari and katana samurai - so there is a lot to be said for just sitting in Echigo.

9) To survive those multi-stack siege attacks set the battle time limit to 20 minutes.

10) Monks, ninjas and metsuke are invaluable - monks for demoralising enemy armies (which like converting enemy agents is free, relatively safe and quickly builds up experience) and inciting revolts particularly against the Ikko Ikki, ninjas for scouting and sabotaging enemy armies, metsuke for sitting in Sado and other high income provs to maximise tax takes - and choose agent skills and bonus items/followers that serve these purposes (having a metsuke who is great at bribing is useless when at hard+ you won't have money to bribe until late in game unless you are playing a western faction that grabs all the trade nodes early on).

11) Consequently only build markets, sake dens and temples in the early game - military buildings are useless as you won't be able to afford to recruit samurai units anyway for many, many turns.

12) Eventually however you should conquer Echizen and Kaga and/or Sagami and Hitachi and these are where you should recruit your middle game armies as they get big bonuses from the artisan and blacksmith building lines

13) Watch closely the fame bar and delay Realm Divide as long as you can as Uesugi are a terrible clan to play when you are at war with every other faction on the map.

14) Print off or keep open a window with http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/images...2accessmap.jpg as chokepoints are hugely important in the east (less so in the west where there are many more castles)

15) Closely study http://shogun.bitcrumbs.com/ and note that poor provs with barren or meagre land and no valuable resource may actually be better abandoned to rebels (either use monks to incite revolts or having taken it on autocalc don't repair or garrison the castle and jack up tax rate to provoke a revolt against yourself) than occupied as the AI will often ignore them and they can be easily taken again in late game when you need to make up your victory conditions province count - there is very little point for instance in taking Kawachi as its barren, resourceless and doesn't even have a port.

16) When Realm Divide does come watch out for sea invasions as western factions are strangely tempted by Ugo and Myagi (although oddly enough not by Sado which I've only seen invaded when its my last province and they have to). Having a stack of elite Shimazu or Chokosabe samurai (which for some reason are almost always commanded by their daimyo and has his heir and one or more other generals in the stack) rampaging around in the far east can be very hard to deal with when your field armies are off fighting far away to the west - so you need to keep two strong fleets (or better four half stack fleets working in unison to reduce chances of escape) patrolling the coasts to sink any fleet that appears carrying an army.

Unlike other factions no Uesugi game is ever the same as your starting position is so poor that you can end up with any outcome - the one given is that you almost certainly will soon end up at war with the Takeda and Hojo who will always remain allied to each other unless you do something about it (i.e. if you win a decisive victory make peace and force the loser to give up the alliance).

[O'Hea]

Ive just started as the Uesugi on hard and am finding it very difficult (I've only just got Shogun 2 due to my parents getting a new pc, and have found all the campaigns hard) I cant seem to get my economy on its feet and my armies are comprised of Ashigaru and little else.

What is the best way to get research, building development and military power on its feet without fighting a war on three fronts?

Uesugi is one of the hardest clans to do this with actually. Echigo is huge and most of the neighboring provinces ain't that great. You definitely need to focus on civics tech first and attack Sado island as soon as possible so you can start building up the gold mine. In Echigo, focus your defenses on the river crossing in the south because you are definitely going to be outnumbered. In the meantime, keep an eye on Kaga and Echizen so you can take them quickly if they're not well-defended. They're super rich provinces and they have good resources too.

I also recommend sending a cheap ship around to discover new clans and get trade agreements with them, since you need the extra income and get a clan bonus to trade. Focus your tech on getting up to Chonindo and concentrate military buildings in Echigo- build markets and sake dens in your other provinces because you need cash much more than samurai.

[Ceorl84]

Clodius offers great advice for anyone looking for tips. The Uesugi are the hardest faction in the game to win with (and imo largely in part because they are poorly balanced)

The only thing I'd change is:

3) Make alliances with anyone who'll accept one as it appears that this will make other factions less likely to pile on to you

Make sure not to ally with two clans who share borders. I swear the AI of one clan loves to then declare war on the other clan just to force you into an honor loss.

[sentinel37]

Tried again on H, with some of the tips here. I've successfully crushed Jimbo when they siege and counter-attack to take their province. I also took Sado too within 7 turns (was lucky because very few garrisons). I thought things were going well when I had 3 provinces (Echigo, Etchu and Sado).

Soon, Takeda declared war on my vassal and I decided to diplomatically defend ally because they were getting too strong (with 4 provinces already) and I didn't have any other enemies. They took out Yamanouchi and went toward my capital at Echigo. I was able to defeat their strong stack and counter-attack to take back Kozuka Province (I recreated my vassal of Yamanouchi - and I'm wondering if that's the right thing to do). My other army based in Etchu went south to take out Hida Province. Now Takeda only have 3 Province left (North Shinano, South Shinano, and Kai). And with maybe 1.0 stacks left.

I've played several turns after this and things have always went down the toilet shortly thereafter. Here are some of the things that happened and I'm wondering if some experts can help.

1) If I continue my "expansion" and take North Shinano. I have the option to create another vassal (Marakami). Should I do it or occupy it?
2) Takeda will eventually seek peace because they are near brink, should I accept peace or should I continue south to take S. Shinano and Kai? I tried taking their peace (and forced them to break their alliance on Hojo), but they seemed to want to expand rapidly after regrouping and aim for my vassals again!

3) Diplomacy question, how reliable is Date as an ally? I'm getting tired of these allies that always break alliance and declare war.
4) Once I took Etchu, I just happen to be right next to the Ikko Ikki clan of Kaga. Eventually war breaks out (like maybe 10 turns later) and I just got swarmed by 3 stacks. Should I go offensive and blitz the Ik-Ik clan? How would you guys proceed with this?

Overall, I not enjoying this campaign at all b/c I'm surrounded by really tough enemies (Ik-Ik to west, Takeda to South, and potentially Date to east). During this whole time, I didn't have any money to upgrade my towns b/c every koku is spent to raising ashigarus. I can't seem to even have 1 year worth of peace to turtle and grow economically.

[Clodius]

On North Shinano vassalising Murakami will just get you into multiple wars as its a stack-magnet for AI factions.

A better solution can be to occupy it and then not repair the castle, move your army out and put up tax rates - it will then revolt and rebels are great neighbours as they never attack you and you can just march across their territory as if they're allies.

The same also applies to Etchu - its too poor to be worth holding and rebels are a
better buffer than a minor clan as they won't ever repair any buildings and so make the province less attractive for invaders.

Don't forget that factions will usually accept a peace treaty + trade + indefinite military access offer after any decisive defeat - this is one way of dealing with the Ikko Ikki menace and avoiding the perennial war on two or more fronts problem faced by the central and eastern clans.

In fact my biggest mistakes with this clan were usually to try and finish off an enemy clan like the Hojo or Ikko Ikki rather than making peace with them and dealing with whoever else is at war with me.

A pattern of many short wars interspersed with periods of peace may not be as satisfying as a blitz but I find it works better at legendary and is also more historically accurate.