Questions on Strategic Units (Shinobi, Geisha, Ninja, Emissary, Priest

[Granite Golem]

Hi All!

I'm a newbie to this forum. I've lurked some info in different places, but about those strategic units I found only common words. Maybe somebody know answers on these questions? I hope yes, while STW is not very new game, and it is studied rather deeply (so it seems to me http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif ).

1. For what actions a shinobi gets honour? How fast and what is the limit?
2. How depends a ninja's rising on his risk? Is it true that if he succeeds more risky task, he grows better?
3. Till what level I have to rise my emissary for safety (relative, surely) from newbie ninjas?
4. Does anybody have a full table for ninja's percentage for assassinating emissary/geisha/priest/taisho/daimyo?

[MizuKokami]

hi http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
a shinobi gains honor when they succeed with their missions. there are 2 possible missions they can be sent on that can possibly raise their honor. one is inciting a riot, though i'm not sure that would work in raising their honor. the other way, and this does raise their honor, is if they catch enemy spys and ninjas. (kinda silly when you think of it) they sit in a province, an enemy shinobi walks into the territory, bam, instant honor.but they die easy when they go into other territories:/
if you use ninjas to catch enemy spies, as in counter spying, they too can gain honor.
i think the max honor for these units that you can get for them is 3 (though it might be 5). as for the effects of honor adjusting their chances of successful assinations, rank of target and honor of target are taken into account. heirs are harder and daimyos are nearly impossible. i don't know of any graphs or tables that explain this, but others might.
as for your emmisaries...they seldom stand a chance against an onslaught of ninjas, but as long as you keep them moving, and don't stop moving them, it's harder for enemies to zero in on them. i will tell you, emisaries are excellent bait for enemy ninjas. just put one or two in a territory of your own that you have a couple of ninjas and shinobi, you'll catch enemy spys like flies on flypaper. then, after surviveing several assination atempts, it becomes a little safer to use your emisaries for spying. just remember to bring them to a safe spot every few turns.

[This message has been edited by MizuKokami (edited 10-02-2002).]

[Cyricist]

I had a Ninja LUCKILY kill the Takeda Daimyo at the beginning of my Imagawa game. Hij was honor 4 (!) immediatly after. Since Takeda had no heir, the number of Ronin exploded on the Hojo, leaving hilarious chaos in their wake. Lost both my daimyo's in the end though, the old one died in battle, and his son followed him soon after. It can be fun.. this starting with two ninja's.

BTW: you can also raise a ninja's honor by taking out emisaries. This takes some skill though, these guys are often on to you and they handle a sword like a samurai (in historical perspective, they often WERE samurai)!

[Granite Golem]

Yeah, I agree, I've lost many shinobis in enemy lands with Border Forts of lots of enemy shinobis. But I also raised many riots, and my coolest shinobis gained even 6 honour! I wonder, if they can have 7. The most funny thing with them, as I see, is that they discover lost sons of daimyos of eliminated clans. I played for Hojo and got rid of Takeda, then sent my shinobis into Izu (Imagawa's province at that time) and they found Takeda's son with a good army! Then this guy developed very strongly, and only by his fault he vanquished.
But I have bad luck with ninjas - even 5-honoured ninja couldn't open castle gates! Yeah, I hunted for emissaries, they die pretty cool, even taishos with honour of -2 - 0 are good victims.
So ninjas are also spies - very well, I found that geisha is not a spy, only super-assassin. But she's very good assassin for overloading her with espionage!
It's a pity that there are no systemized data on these units, while for battle ones all the numbers are well known...