I probably could have tried that ambush battle a couple times to get better outcomes. Same goes for the battle at the beginning (which might have given me a chance to hit his daimyo army earlier). Minimizing losses helps preserve momentum- especially as realm divide kicks into gear. That said- with ashigaru that don't have armor improvements you're almost always going to be taking more losses against samurai. That's why you have larger unit sizes and also why it helps to have stronger reinforcement values (roads, etc).
I probably could have tried that ambush battle a couple times to get better outcomes. Same goes for the battle at the beginning (which might have given me a chance to hit his daimyo army earlier). Minimizing losses helps preserve momentum- especially as realm divide kicks into gear. That said- with ashigaru that don't have armor improvements you're almost always going to be taking more losses against samurai. That's why you have larger unit sizes and also why it helps to have stronger reinforcement values (roads, etc).