Slitherine

Sengoku jidai Campaign --- Oda vs Takeda (AI) (Busho level please don't laugh).

Several turns of cat and mouse lead to 2 major battles in 1501, both are Oda victories. This changes the situation from slight Takeda advantage to a significant Oda Advantage. The Akai join my Oda forces. 1501 ends before I can launch a crushing defeat of the 2 remaining small Takeda armies, but I am confident of good things to come in 1502.

1502 dawns with my treasury being depleted repairing my armies and NOOOOOO the Uesugi have joined the Takeda …

Early 1502 and the enemy now has 4 armies to my 3. With my treasury exhausted I am forced to go on the defense. Thanks to local auxiliary forces the main Oda Army manages to hold off a large Takeda attack inflicting enough casualties to bring the manpower back to a slight Oda advantage yet I’m not in any shape to push forward and will remain on defense, hopefully I can hold out till the end of the year. What surprises await … ?
IMHO an awesome change of events - I love this game.

Well aside from finding it quite odd for the Uesugi to join the Takeda, the 2 Daimyos were archrivals historically.

Your funds are depleted because you pay the upkeep for your standing armies. It's a good idea to split forces so even a small army that can never fight may still keep in check a much larger enemy force that is compelled to chase it as you damage the crops and hurt the revenues of the enemy.

I'm not in a much different situation in the Tenka Fubu playing as the Takeda...I have won 1 battle and captured 1 enemy native province but I'm facing a big Oda army I have no way to defeat. Even with almost even numbers their troop quality is vastly superior and I'm basically in a lose-lose situation whatever I do at the end of the first year of campaign.

I think the only way to go on is to actually lose a battle, I only need to pick where and hope my losses aren't too great. I have asked to check for balance because of the troop quality disparity but unfortunately... the Oda actually WERE stronger.