New to Sengoku - seeking advice on where to start.

[Captain Gars]

Starting as a kokujin in Sengoku is very hard. As some has already suggested above it's better to start as a clan either down in the south or up in the north where you have fewer enemies around you.

 

[Captain Gars]

I just bought the game yesterday. I have played the demo before and it wasn't too diffcult. I'm planning to play my first serious game as Oda family (I managed to find where Oda Nobunaga's ancestor is). I might try as some bigger famous family, but I don't know Japanese geography well enough to know where ancestral lands of those families were located and finding dynasties which became famous later is quite difficult in earlier scenario, because there are so many to select from.

I wouldn't recommend such a start for your first game but looking up a character that later became influential and start as him when he's still a kokujin is a fun challenge. We even included some famous historical characters as courtiers just so that they are around. That way you can start as their overlord and give them a title and then switch to playing them.