Hmmm that's some interesting stuff! However, I feel that having both a yari samurai unit and separate samurai heavy infantry unit armed with both naginata and yari is quite redundant. I think it's best to add naginata pole-arms to the yari samurai instead. By the way, a similar case can be made with the nodachi and the nagamaki. Hmmm... Another problem is that the way the samurai fought in battle - between the lines and acting as a screen and support/officers of the ashigaru - is impossible to replicate in M2TW, especially by the AI. So I'm afraid we have to take a few liberties here and there. The best representation in M2TW would be to place the yari samurai behind the nagae-yari ashigaru units.
About the heroes being recruitable as general, I merely meant to say that I could make them recruitable as a named character so they could get their own portrait, traits and ancillaries. The game calls them a general, but that can easily be renamed to 'leader' or something like that.
As for the red devils, I feel that it's too limiting to have them only recruitable in one specific province. Especially since the red armour was an idea that some samurai caught from another samurai. I find that it fits the idea that a general with a certain amount of dread is able to recruit red devils that are meant to scare the enemy. It also gives the player a gameplay reason for having generals with dread instead of just honor/chivalry.
Oh sure, the links are very useful. The bulk of info is info that I already know, but there's some new stuff here and there.