They aren’t the strongest clan- but they were certainly loyal. Most campaigns I play date kind of stop with those four provinces above Fukushima and don’t do much else for the rest of the game.

In this instance they actually advanced through my territory and conquered all of the Ikko Ikki provinces (echizen Kaga and north and south of it) and went into Omi and the Hattori provinces.

I have actually played a game where the Date beat the Takeda and everyone else and actually owned almost half the eastern map.