A new envoy brigade can be recruited now as a civilian unit in the city tab. This unit can be placed in foreign cities, camps and bridges to try to exert influence.
To place the envoy inside a city proceed as follows. With selected envoy right-click on the target city and keep the right mouse botton pressed. This will bring up the command wheel. Here you can select the enter command.
Be aware that the envoy may only enter cities of friendly factions. If the faction is hostile, but there is a truce, the envoy may only enter bridges.
Envoy Stances
The player will be able to determine the envoy's goals by selecting a stance. There are three stances available on the envoy: emissary, spy and trader. To select a stance, the envoy must be outside a city; while inside a foreign city/camp/bridge various events based on the selected stance will happen.
Emissary Stance
- the emissary will improve relations over time (i.e. reduce hostility)
- depending on relations various diplomatic incidents may happen
- above 60 relations a supply truce ("alliance") may come together, which lets you supply your brigades from foreign territory
- above 80 relations factions may exchange skills, or settlers may join the player's cause (i.e. free recruits). The latter depends on how many recruits there are in the target city and in the envoy's home city. Note that these events are symmetric and may also favour the AI.
- with 100 relations and the foreign capital infiltrated (see "spy stance"), the faction may be integrated
- emissary events are semi-deterministc/random. The "supply truce" is sure to be gained, but the skill event is random (since only full skillpoints can be given it had to be limited). The integration event is random but its chance to happen depends on various factors such as intimidation, relative population size and emissary XP.
Spy Stance
- the spy will try to set up a spy network in the foreign city/camp/bridge (it then will get the "infiltrated" marker)
- once a building is infiltrated, various incidents may happen
- the spy may report the repair of the walls, which might be an opening for a siege attack
- the spy may get hold of maps, so that undiscovered cites of the faction may be discovered
- the spy may send a report on the faction's economy, giving some hints where it is vulnerable or in which ressources trade might be possible
- unlike other stances, spies risk being detected and expulsed from their location of operation (during the infiltration phase the risk is twice as high if the foreign city is the capital); if the foreign faction is particularly hostile, they even may execute him
- spying events are random, but their likeliness may be increased e.g. by the spy's XP
Trader Stance
- based on demand and supply, the trader will exchange resources for gold
- if the player is in need of resources and the foreign faction has plenty, then the trader will buy them
- if the foreign faction is in need of resources and the player has plenty, then the trader will sell them
- trading events are fully deterministic based on the right conditions, so this may be good to have the envoy gain XP
Envoy Effectiveness
There are various factors to consider if you want to make optimal use of your envoys.
Experience
- for each diplomatic action (i.e. event) the envoy earns XP
- e.g. for trades the envoy will earn a tenth of the exchanged trade volume in XP
- e.g. for spying the envoy may earn XP equal the population size of the city (e.g. 8; camps and bridges count as 1)
- e.g. for assuring a supply truce, an emissary will earn XP equal the amount of total population of that faction
- XP will increase the effectiveness of envoys (e.g. the more XP, the more likely desired events will happen)
- at 10.000 XP the envoy will be 100% more effective
Officer Upgrades
- XP can also be used to promote officiers; however, unlike with combat units, this can only be done while the emissary is in a city
- there are currently 4 types of officiers: logician, notary, orator and patron
- there are only two levels of officer upgrades: a first officer can be promoted at 500 XP, at 10.000 XP this officer can be upgraded into a detachable general
- the general will have civilian attributes (like "taxoutput" or "skillresearch") and is best suited to be made a governor in a city
- promotion however leaves the envoy brigade weaker as it consumes XP
Other factors
- envoys can not only be recruited in native player cities, but also in "uncolonized" player cities
- if the envoy is placed in a city of the same faction (i.e. envoy native faction = foreign faction), then he will get a boost to his effectiveness of 50%
- if the envoy is placed in a city of the same faction group (i.e. envoy native faction group = foreign faction group), then he will get a boost to his effectiveness of 25%
- hence think twice before you assimilate a city, lest you'll lose these boosted envoys
- it is generally more effective to send envoys to a foreign faction's capital city as he receives a 100% bonus there
- more than one envoy may be sent to a faction or even the same city, which increases the diplomatic effort correspondingly
- requisitioning a resource building will increase hostility (by at least 10), so that players cannot easily exploit the AI using emissaries
Notes
- If you're using a mod that adds custom stances, then using the stances will make the vanilla officer upgrades disappear from the GUI. Changing stance to a vanilla one will make them visible again.
- Should be compatible with Fristi61's Iberia and Latium sanbox mods (might not work as expected in scripted campaigns, though) as well as with SGZ***71's Classical World and Conquest Britannia mods
- Big shout-out to Fristi61 for his help and assistance with the intricacies of modding stuff! :-)
- This is easily the one of my mods that most thoroughly intrudes on current systems. Without making a new gui for the new stuff introduced, this means a lot of this is not as you would probably expect it from other games. E.g. there is no filling bar for a spy network in a city and many "diplomatic actions" are event-based and thus to a certain degree random. However, I think this fits Hegemony quite well. We modders don't want to make the game more complicated, after all, but more enjoyable! Nethertheless, if you spot something that you believe needs my attention - be it a suggestions to improve the mod, be it a bug or a balance concern (e.g. events popping up too often or too seldom? is it taking too long to gain XP or not worth it?) - then please let me know!
