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[mirrorshades]

Ah, Nobunaga's Ambition. I remember playing this game on my friend's Nintendo for what seemed like hours, back in the early 1990s.

I wanted to give it another go, but apparently my skill at strategic management and military tactics has diminished considerably since high school... this game is turning out to be *hard*, even at the lowest difficulty setting.

What I find is that, if I don't get attacked on the first turn, I am unable to build up gold/rice/army/city fast enough to compete... I can barely maintain a status quo. Eventually, I will either invade or be invaded, and my army gets crushed.

I can't believe that I was so much more of a military genius in high school... so I'm thinking I might be missing something. Anyone got any pointers for getting started off on the right foot? I have noticed that the daimyos all begin with different levels of wealth, army sizes, etc... but that doesn't seem to matter since the computer AI builds so much faster than I can.

I know that I can choose 8 players at the beginning, then consolidate all the fiefs... but that feels like cheating somehow (though I'm sure that's what we did in high school). Any tips for winning using the actual gameplay mechanics? :)