Hardest/Easiest Clan in Campaign?

[Alexmcm13]

I actually had a fairly difficult time playing as the Asai, as within five turns, everyone around me declared war on me. Thankfully, I was able to buy off the Hattori, and nab an alliance with the Ashikaga before they attacked me as well. It was a fun experience, I recommend it.

[kronpas]

Oda is actually one of the easieer. True, their starting position might be unfavorable, but the clan's ashigaru bonus helps immensely later in the campaign. Easiest is Shimazu hand down: isolated on Kyuushuu, with 6 provinces ready for the taking and all the trade nodes around. The only clan comparable to Shimazu is Chokosabe, but compared to Kyuushuu, they have only 4 provinces of Shikoku to start with.

Hardest one is Ikko-ikki, Takeda, Tokugawa. Takeda is hard for the inexperienced - with too many expand directions early in the game they might get lost. Toku is just .. hard. Ikko-ikki is quite difficult to play with their weird religion: everyone hates them, and they cant expand fast enough to beat other clans completely before they rebuild previously destroyed armies. Its esp. true in higher difficulty (VH/Legend).

[rakenan]

between Shimazu and Chosokabe being the easiest, i have to ask, is Shimazu restricted to only 4 trade partners/routes? if not, i would say Shimazu is easier. it really sucks being Chosokabe, expanding out from Shikoku and still being limited to 4. plus, Shimazu is closer to the packed mass of trading nodes.

You can actually get 4 other clans to trade with you? Unless I vassalize folks (and sometimes if I do) there's usually not anybody left to trade with who has trade routes available by the time I've built my Nanban Trade Port as Chosokabe. There's frequently periods of several turns where one of my trade partners is cut off and I cannot get a replacement. Eventually somebody opens up again, so I guess if I had tons of trade routes available, I'd eventually fill more than 4 if Chosokabe could get so many, but it sure doesn't feel that way.

[Mahmood]

Easiest : Shimazu
Hardest :Tokugawa

[leeho730]

Easiest: Shimaz
Hardest: Oda

Shimaz was easiest because you essentially only have to build katana samura (you can safely forget about yari or no-dachi samurai)i. Eaiest to convert to Christinaity as well. Far west means you have easier time watching out for enemy drop ships. Pretty close to trade nodes as well
Oda was hardest because the faction was surrounded by enemies... Tokugawa first turn Saito next turn! They only have one friendly faction but even then it's not strong against Hanzo so it ends up being overrun by Hanzo (or any other faction) sooner or later. Bloody hell.

[MaskedWaltz]

I actually had a fairly difficult time playing as the Asai, as within five turns, everyone around me declared war on me. Thankfully, I was able to buy off the Hattori, and nab an alliance with the Ashikaga before they attacked me as well. It was a fun experience, I recommend it.

I can see where your coming from, as I also started a Asai playthrough. I destroyed the Hattori with an ambush in about turn 3 then made the Oda into my allies to take on Ikko Ikki together. That was on my 2nd playthrough, on the 1st one those 3 clans ganged up on me T_T

[Jace11]

The island on which the chosokabe start doesn't have any decent province bonuses. Sawmills, stone, horses aren't that useful to me. Blacksmiths, pirate bays, artisans, libraries etc are better and Kyushu has all of these... I think...

[YD23]

Moved to Gameplay & Strategy Discussion.

[Kopimi]

The island on which the chosokabe start doesn't have any decent province bonuses. Sawmills, stone, horses aren't that useful to me. Blacksmiths, pirate bays, artisans, libraries etc are better and Kyushu has all of these... I think...

they already have bonus to all bow units and insanely OP bow samurai

[RAFAEL]

Easiest: Date
Hardest: Otomo (Christian + at war on 3-4 fronts)

[Kopimi]

Otomo would be hard maybe if you could play it on other difficulty than normal, but any faction starting on that island ends up conquering it and has one front war from that point on

[kenjori]

I find Uesughi also very challenging on hard difficulty. I don't have even one successful campaign with them on hard I can't even imagine how it would be on VH or legendary

[zhiphius]

I'd rate Otomo as normal on lower difficulties and hard on higher difficulties. Ouchi can be blocked with a fleet, leaving shoni to be dealt with. Shimazu and ito will occupy each other for some time and sagara rarely do anything the first few turns.

Once shoni is dealt with, wiping out sagara followed by ito/shimazu isnt too hard. having 2 fleets blocking a potensial chosokabe threat eliminates that too. Once kyushu is under your control its fairly easy to win the campaign as otomo.

[Xcam901]

Oda is easier than tokogawa.

[O'Hea]

I actually don't think Oda is very difficult if you can make it through the first few turns. Especially in tougher difficulties, better ashigaru is the best advantage you could ask for. And I'd actually argue that Ikko-Ikki is pretty easy if you're used to them. You start with two rich, defensible provinces, you get Warrior Monk garrisons early in the tech tree, Loan Swords are maybe the best low-cost unit in the game and your religion makes it easy to expand through rebellions. Takeda isn't that tough either because of how easy it is to maintain a Takeda-Hojo-Imagawa alliance until you've established yourself.

For easiest, I say Chosokabe. Shikoku isn't as strong a position as Kyushu but it's a lot easier to unite- and it's easier to conquer Kyushu from your five overseas provinces than to do it from Satsuma. Date and Shimazu are the second rank difficulty-wise. Middle clans are Hojo, Ikko-Ikki, Mori. Mid-hard are Oda, Iga, Takeda, and legitimately hard clans would be Tokugawa and Uesugi. In my personal opinion.

[Deathless]

Oda for me has been by far the easiest, to the point that I just don't play them anymore.

Hardest...hmm. Probably Ikko Ikki for me. Uesugi is close but they at least have less diplomacy issues in my games.

[Deafening Milk]

Order from easiest to hardest; choso, shim,oda, date, hojo, mori, takeda, toku, hatt, otomo (only played as them once so far imagine theyll get much easier), uesegi, ikko.

[Cruzz]

For me, I'd rank something like this (Very Hard/Legendary/Short campaign):

(Easy to hard) Shimazu, Oda, Mori, Otomo, Hojo, Chosokabe, Ikko Ikki, Tokugawa, Takeda, Date, Uesugi, Hattori

Shimazu: Isolated+Kyuushuu+Trade nodes+Good clan bonus+Smithing province start

Oda is clearly an outlier on the easy side, as the 3 other clans are all on or near Kyuushuu (and the trade nodes). Oda gets the best clan bonuses in the game, and has a very good starting position after the first few turns of difficulty.

Otomo and Mori: Kyuushuu+Trade nodes. Mori has extra issues with a war on two fronts while Otomo has an issue with initial religion

Hojo: Bad bonuses, but two good starting provinces in a nice location (for eastern japan).

Chosokabe: Ok bonuses, isolated, but has problems expanding after getting the not-particularly-good-Shikoku provinces.

Ikko Ikki: Interesting bonuses, great starting provinces, pretty defensible starting point.

Tokugawa has one big issue and that's having either to commit diplomatical suicide by breaking the vassal treaty yourself, or waiting for the (eventual, but sometimes extremely long in coming) declaration of war from Imagawa to get around that diplomacy penalty. If you can get Imagawa to declare war on you after you deal with Oda, great, but if you can't you can easily get locked into place for a long time early game.

Takeda: has issues with having to fight a war on many fronts, ok clan bonuses, relatively poor initial targets

Date has huge issues getting going as it takes so long to get to the next provinces at the beginning of the game. On the higher difficulties this means that the AI has tons of time spawning up armies before yours gets there. By the time you've gotten over this by expanding all the way down to Edo or so, the difficult part of the campaign is mostly over

Uesugi is like Date, except they aren't even isolated. Also poor choices for expansion provinces at the start.

Hattori is very much not isolated, and has an extremely counterproductive clan bonus for the start where the extra unit cost really hurts.

[nonja121]

For me, I'd rank something like this (Very Hard/Legendary/Short campaign):

(Easy to hard) Shimazu, Oda, Mori, Otomo, Hojo, Chosokabe, Ikko Ikki, Tokugawa, Takeda, Date, Uesugi, Hattori

Date has huge issues getting going as it takes so long to get to the next provinces at the beginning of the game. On the higher difficulties this means that the AI has tons of time spawning up armies before yours gets there. By the time you've gotten over this by expanding all the way down to Edo or so, the difficult part of the campaign is mostly over

I agree except that I find Date to be pretty easy, at least early on. They have easy access to the northernmost trade node, and can launch a pretty early invasion of the Honma, which gives them access to the really profitable gold mine there. Their isolated position keeps them pretty safe early on, though the longer distances are annoying if you don't use your navy to shuttle troops around. And their bonus isn't all that bad. Not as good as the Shimazu or Uesugi, but not all that bad.

My biggest problem playing them is the threat of naval invasion once Realm Divide hits. I stalled out on Hard when the Chosokabe and another clan launched simultaneous amphibious invasions of my northernmost territories. My four veteran stacks were tied up trying to take Kyoto, and my fifth homeland security stack was way too far to respond.

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[C.Maximus]

A christian clan is the hardest of them all.

I dissagrre... Christianity gives you naval supremacy and thus every trade route... Hardest for me was uesgi... Their starting providence is just odd... I always lose it... Hattori was prety hard too..