Spread of Imperial/Shogunate Influence Seems a Bit Random

[quadalpha]

From a cursory examination, it seems that a) the +x to influence does not mean +x% per turn, since it doesn't take 200 turns to convert a province even when influence is at +0.5, and b) each province spreads +0.5 (at the beginning, I think; some techs/buildings increase this) of whatever allegiance it is to neighbouring provinces. Also, the happiness penalty from wrong alignment only ever changes by +/- 1 per turn, going up to a maximum of -8 (I think) on normal difficulty.

[TargetSlayer]

My observations are similar. Still, I construct and upgrade police stations in all my provinces to control the population and create agents (which are great offensive weapons). Not sure what we are suppose to see. In Civilization Revolution culture would flip settlements to your side. I haven't seen this in TW, but I don't believe it works that way in any event. The best way to spread your influence remains conquering the province.

[quadalpha]

b) each province spreads +0.5 (at the beginning, I think; some techs/buildings increase this) of whatever allegiance it is to neighbouring provinces.

This is incorrect, I think. I've never seen it above +/- 1.0 total in any province. Perhaps it's a binary 'most of neighbouring provinces are imperial/shogunate'.

I feel that it is currently not influential enough to win a game for you, like you could with culture in Civ, but might be useful to turn smaller clans to your allegiance.