Some questions about the game...

[General Maximus]

Can someone give me a detailed explanation of how agents work in this game? How many agents are present in the game? Along with a complete list of the interactions they can do and how to do/procedure for those interactions?

So far, I have only used Emissary. I cannot figure out how to get him do anything other than roam around to spy on provinces, and sometimes bribe small armies. The only negotiations I can do is from the other factions' emissaries that come to my throne room.

And what interactions can be done in the throne room, apart from consulting the advisor and clicking on the map to return?

God....this game is so much different from all other TW games...I played them all (except Medieval 1) and never so so much detail...

[Xerrop]

Well Shogun1 and Medieval1 are completely different games compared to the others (but the same is true with Rome+Medieval2 being hard to learn for persons used to Empire and Shogun2). But they offer some nice unique and good gameplay-elements when you don't mind the old graphics.

The Emissary can only start negotiations by reaching the other faction leaders (Daimyos). When you see one on the map drop the emissary on the foreign Daimyo and he will automatically get there during the necessary turns, as all movements go by jumping from province to province (or harbor to harbor) each season. But Diplomacy is very limited in Shogun1. You can ask the Daimyos only to ally with you or demand a ceasefire to end a conflict. The Catholic Priests are also some sort of emissaries. Plus they can convert the population in the current province. But they often get executed when contacting a Buddhist Daimyo you should use him only to contact christian leaders.

About the other characters I am not sure. It is a long time since I last played the game. But there are Assassins to kill enemy characters or army leaders. Killing an armies captain before the battle gives a moral loss to the troops on the battle map. Furthermore he can end sieges by opening the gates during night and allowing your troops to capture the castle without own losses.
The Geisha, a Super-Assassin able to win whole campaigns by having a good chance to killing the Daimyos one by one. This is some sort of Technology-Win as you need to build most of the possible buildings from the tree in one province. And preferable faster than the others cause hiding your Daimyo and the few princes is hardly possible. You can only move them around each turn and try to station many assassins or spies in the same province hoping that they can defeat the enemy Geisha. There can exist only one Geisha per faction. Therefore only when she gets killed you can recruit another one.
And then there are of course the Shinobi's (Spies). They can also collect informations about building and armies by sending them to foreign provinces. He is also reducing public order on enemy territory increasing the chance of rebellions there. And he can detect enemy agents on your territories which you should kill with an Assassin.

About the Throneroom:
You can see the current owner of all provinces on the map below. So she is not only there to return to the campaign map.
But aside from Clan's Emissaries and some other (Video-)Appearance, there is not much to do aside from requesting a small quote from the advisor on the left side.

[Teppo Ashigaru]

With Shogun, unlike Medieval, we do not have exact data as to how agents work, as they are completely hard coded. But to expand (and a little correction ) on Xerrop's post regarding agents:


Emissary (Buddhist Emissary):

1) Drag over a rival clan's daimyo to offer ceasefire/alliance (works best with Buddhist Daimyos).
2) Drag over a rival clan's army stack (not heirs) to attempt to bribe.
3) Leave in a province to convert the province to Buddhism (negatively effect the provincial "Percentage Christian" stat)
4) Counterspying*


Priest (Christian Emissary):

1) Drag over a rival clan's daimyo to offer ceasefire/alliance (works best with Christian Daimyos).
2) Drag over a rival clan's army stack (not heirs) to attempt to bribe.
3) Leave in a province to convert the province to Christian (positively effect the provincial "Percentage Christian" stat)
4) Counterspying*

*Counterspying means just sitting in the provinces automatically catching rival Ninjas/Assassins (invisible agents) as they pass through. Counterspying is not when a Ninja fails a mission and gets clobbered by e.g. an Emissary - that's simply failing a mission. with counterspying, the Ninja never even gets to attempt his mission and is caught and killed e.g. "crossing the border".

It's never really been clear if emissaries can do this at all, but when left in a province they are shown as "counterspyping". Personally I've not really noticed an emissary catching a Shinobi/Ninja, but that doesn't mean that it can't happen.


Shinobi (Spy):

1) Leave in a province to increase loyalty - higher honour effects this positively and it's a cumulative effect*.
2) Counterspying - gains honour from doing so.

*The more Shinobi in a province the more loyal the province - this was changed in MTW.


Ninja (Assassin):

1) Drag over a rival clan's Emissary, Priest, General, Heir, Daimyo or Geisha to attempt assassination. The higher the honour the more chance he has of pulling it off, success results in the Ninja gaining honour, failure results in death.
2) Drag over a besieged castle to attempt to open the doors and end the siege quickly.
3) Counterspying - does not seem to gain honour from doing so.


Geisha*:

1) Drag over a rival clan's Emissary, Priest, General, Heir, Daimyo or Geisha** to attempt assassination. The higher the honour the more chance she has of pulling it off, success results in the Geisha gaining honour, failure results in her trying again...
2) Counterspying - does not seem to gain honour from doing so.

* Not a unique unit, you can train as many as you like, but as I recall they take many seasons to train (16??).
**You have to sacrifice your own Geisha in order to kill the rival one - this is why a very high honour ninja is much more handy for this role.


Watchtowers:

1) Increases provincial loyalty in the province where it's built.
2) Acts as a basic spy* in every adjacent province.

Border Fort:

1) Further increases provincial loyalty in the province where it's built.
2) Acts as a basic spy* in every adjacent province.
3) Acts as a (very effective**) counterspy in the province where it's built.

*not a Shinobi as it does counterspy nor negatively impact loyalty in adjacent provinces
**in fact a much too effective counterspy which stops agents from counterspying and in the case of Shinobi that means not gaining honour.

[General Maximus]

Thank you both very much for the answers.

I heard somewhere, that you can behead the emissaries that come to you, probably by clicking the Geisha in the throne room. It didn't work for me, is there a way to do so?

[Teppo Ashigaru]

Only the AI clans have the option to kill emissaries in this manner. The Geisha does nothing. The only active parts of the throne room are the map, the advisor and the diplomatic parchments which emissaries or the Portuguese/Dutch present to you.

[General Maximus]

Surprisingly, the throne room adviser becomes the battle adviser in Shogun II, both voiced by Togo Igawa. And that Geisha sitting in the corner becomes the campaign map adviser in Shogun II.

Too bad that AI can do something and player cannot...

[Teppo Ashigaru]

Too bad that AI can do something and player cannot...

I'm afraid that's the case for most TW games - but a greater problem with TW games after Shogun is that the player often has access to a huge array of features which the AI does not...

[General Maximus]

By the way, is there a limit on how many buildings you can build in a province? Or is it like RTW, where you can build anything and everything in any province?

[Xerrop]

Why should there be a limit? The building slots are only a new feature since Empire:TW.
So you can upgrade each single province with all available buildings when you want it - except ports in landlocked provinces of course ...

[Xerrop]

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[Teppo Ashigaru]

By the way, is there a limit on how many buildings you can build in a province?

Yes, you can fill the review panel with buildings, but not go beyond that. If you want to build anything else beyond that you will need to demolish existing buildings to make space...

This is a limitation which was removed from Medieval 1...

[GeorgiBG]

Sad but Shogun 1 is getting older and older (I prefer it instead of the newer games like Shogun 2). I never played for more than 2 hours but it's a nice ga,e anyway. Medieval 1 in my opinion is the best.

[General Maximus]

Thanks for the replies.

The only game I haven't played is Medieval 1, starting from RTW and bought every one of them except base game Shogun II.

What are the best ways to prevent the enemy from retreating away even before the battles begin? Cavalry seems rare and precious, and will get attacked and destroyed if used to chase non-routing units...

[Xerrop]

You can only attack with fewer troops to prevent an AI-retreating. When the AI realizes no possible chance to win it is natural to abandon the province.
And are you attacking with light or heavy cavalry? The light ones are obviously not the best solution to attack infantry leaving the battlefield in good order.

[General Maximus]

I am attacking with heavy cavalry. Sometimes I manage to catch them in retreat in bad order, and win. But most of the time they run away in a formation, making it extremely difficult to chase them without heavy damage.

Will using cavalry archers work? They won't touch the enemy and can still do some minor damage.

[Teppo Ashigaru]

The only game I haven't played is Medieval 1

Medieval has many improvements over Shogun, but like later TW games, the complexity is often too much. The simplicity Shogun was just enough, in my opinion. Very good game though and quite a few good mods available. I still play both of them - don't bother with the new games.

What are the best ways to prevent the enemy from retreating away even before the battles begin? Cavalry seems rare and precious, and will get attacked and destroyed if used to chase non-routing units...

In Shogun the enemy will retreat off the field if it realises that it's vastly outnumbered and outgunned. The AI bases it's decision to withdraw on troop numbers, unit class and of course honour. You can tell the honour of a unit by counting the number of small pendants they carry. This withdrawal scenario does not happen as often in Medieval (it makes most of those decisions on the campaign map).

The solution is to deploy a force which can defeat the enemy army, without going overboard. If you send too large a force, the enemy will obviously retreat. The enemy will not stand and fight a battle which it cannot win - Shogun follows the general principles of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" (the throne room advisor quotes some of it if you click on him).

If you chase withdrawing units, unlike routers, they will often turn and engage to defend themselves. You have to remember that in Shogun all units except the Ashigaru types are Samurai (elites) with fairly good stats. Yari or Najinta units are spears, so if you try to attack them with cavalry, you're in for a disappointment.

[Teppo Ashigaru]

It may take some getting used to if you're accustomed to "click-fest" Rome Total War style arcade battles, where cavalry beats everything except those phalanx units.

Shogun battles are about combined arms and committing the right units against the right enemy units at the right time. If heavy cavalry could beat everything, then there would be no need for the other unit types.

Cavalry archers are a good option to damage withdrawing infantry as they leave the map, but it's better to concentrate on getting the enemy to stay and fight by picking your armies more carefully. If the enemy continue to retreat they will simply cluster in one province and the result will be a huge battle.

[General Maximus]

Well, I fight the battles from my experience with Shogun II, avoiding all Yari and Naginata units for cavalry. That way, I pick out retreating archers and other weak units and charge them. And just as you said, the enemy turns around and breaks the pursuers. I managed to lure them back by using a Yari cavalry unit, somehow.

Oh, and I also noticed that each unit has different banner and officer, with their own clans. Are these things present in Medieval 1?

[Teppo Ashigaru]

Well, I fight the battles from my experience with Shogun II, avoiding all Yari and Naginata units for cavalry. That way, I pick out retreating archers and other weak units and charge them. And just as you said, the enemy turns around and breaks the pursuers. I managed to lure them back by using a Yari cavalry unit, somehow.

Samurai Archers are not weak units. Dependent on terrain, fatigue and honour/morale/upgrades, etc, Samurai Archers can beat cavalry units.

Oh, and I also noticed that each unit has different banner and officer, with their own clans. Are these things present in Medieval 1?

You mean the clan mons which sit atop the army stack banners? These were removed from MTW (which is a shame as they were a nice touch).

[General Maximus]

Samurai Archers are not weak units. Dependent on terrain, fatigue and honour/morale/upgrades, etc, Samurai Archers can beat cavalry units.

I know, but I attacked them when they were on flat ground. Of course, sometimes they can not be defeated so easily, or may win from cavalry.

You mean the clan mons which sit atop the army stack banners? These were removed from MTW (which is a shame as they were a nice touch).

Yes, the same. Indeed, it is a nice and immersive touch. Especially because they can be promoted to great generals.