I've tried a couple of battles in Shogun 2 multiplayer, where you choose a province and fight against another player with a fixed budget for your army, starting at 5000 koku.
My question is, are players matched according to a skill level indicator, or the number of bonuses they have to their avatar? It seems that players who have been playing multi-player for a while would have a big advantage as you get retainers and skills from winning battles.
The advantage is actually not that great. If you play a lot you do get more retainers and more experience for your general but it's overall strategy and tactics that will win you the game. My general currently has 8 stars and I remember when I started off I beat a 7 star general without using any veteran units or retainers.
As to how the players are matched, if you let the game manage it, it will try to find a player of your level if one is available, if not, it will keep searching for any available player of sufficiently close rank.
