Sengoku Rance Recruitment Guide: How to Recruit Commanders

A commander reaches your roster through four gates, and any one can block the join while the others pass: the capture roll puts them in the prison, a Negotiation check buys them out, free national power decides whether the game will hire them, and a 30-commander roster decides whether there is room. A recruit who never appears is almost never a capture problem — it is an NP ceiling you filled with generics.

Sources: the community AliceSoft Wiki, which covers the 2006 Japanese original (v1.04) and the 2019 MangaGamer English release. Not re-verified on the Steam build released October 1, 2026.

The four gates between a defeated commander and your roster

A Negotiation failure takes stats and items, an NP failure takes province development or fewer troops, a roster failure takes a dismissal.

Negotiation buys the prisoner out, and failure is not a reset

Negotiation is the yellow stat covering "declaring war, creating a vassal, persuading prisoners and foreign generals to join your army". In the prison: click a prisoner, read the required total, press Persuade, pick up to five commanders.

A failed attempt reduces the requirement by however many points you spent, so attempts accumulate instead of resetting. Persuading costs no action fan, so the wiki recommends spending commanders who would sit idle at the end of a turn — which also makes a throwaway unit a legitimate way to grind a hard requirement down over several turns.

No formula for the per-prisoner figure is published; the number is shown per prisoner at runtime. Items that move it: Smooth-Talking Smooth Miso (+1), Double-Tongued Saburou (+2), Negoshi Eita (+4, also a 2-point New Game Plus purchase). The cheapest dedicated recruiter is the Persuasive Monk, 6 Negotiation in Ise, with 8 of his own.

National power is a hard ceiling, not a budget

This sits behind most "the command is greyed out" reports.

• NP is the sum of your provinces' development, vassals included. One province caps at 30 NP via the blue <Province> Development command.
• Cost is the sum of every commander's national power cost: a base value of 0 to 9 plus a troop surcharge — under 500 troops adds +0, 500–1000 adds +1, every further 500 adds +1.
• If a hire would push Cost above NP the game refuses it: no warning, no partial state, the option is simply unavailable.
• Gold income is 60 × NP, halved for any turn starting with Cost above NP.

Prisoners arrive with troops — from a battle, their pre-capture count minus 20%, capped at 1,000 — so one handed over above 500 troops starts a surcharge band higher than the same commander at 300. Two province-event items cut a unit's NP cost: Tanimachi-san (−2) and Tanimachi Yonchome-san (−4). One exception: the Copa mercenaries join "even if you don't have enough NP" if your roster is under 28.

The 30-commander roster and reading a missing command

The roster maximum is 30, per the New Game Plus bonuses page, and map commands are conditioned on it — the Texas exploration command "will not appear" without at least 1 free NP and fewer than 30 commanders.

Important characters and the ronin pool

Some characters are flagged Important: immune to instant-kill attacks and uncapturable. Clan leaders are the standard case, capturable only after their clan falls. Three are coded impossible to recruit regardless of state: Sourin Otomo, Kashinkoji and Heizou Abe.

A second unlock path answers "how do I get the Takeda generals": conquer their clan, then wait for a rival to hire them from the ronin pool. Take the 20-point Uesugi New Game Plus package first and they never enter it.

• The pool starts empty and fills only when you conquer a clan. Forced surrenders and enemy occupations add nobody.
• An enemy drawing a replacement picks 50:50 between a fresh generic and the pool, at most once per enemy turn, and only under 60 commanders. Capacity is 60; when full, the important names displace the first generic.
• Conquered Uesugi sends Torako and Katsuko; Mouri sends Iwami Ginzan, Murakami Suigun and Kuu Hime; Takeda its three surviving generals; the Miko Union sends Himiko, Goemon, Maya, Isuzu and Hayate Souma. Monster Army, Dokuganryu and Imagawa send nothing.
• Timing advice: "the fewer characters in the pool, the higher the chance a faction will recruit the character you are trying to get."

How to get Kenshin Uesugi

Kenshin is the most searched-for recruit in the game and one of the hardest gates. As Uesugi's clan leader she is Important and uncapturable, so she will never sit in a prison to be persuaded out.

1. Declare war on Uesugi for 20 Negotiation. On a first playthrough, war with Houjou first lets Takeda conquer Uesugi out from under you, so declare on Uesugi before Houjou or on both.
2. Strip Uesugi to its last province. Night raids start immediately and reconquer a territory there, so you cannot just clear it and wait.
3. See three one-off end-of-turn events, one per turn: Ai notices Kenshin is not sleeping, Kenshin tries dating, then Kenshin returns from training. The last needs Uesugi down to one province; the first needs the automatic Rance-versus-Kenshin win.
4. The coup then fires on Uesugi's next turn, which you can force by winning a battle in their last province. Kenshin's uncle Kensei offers her for peace: slay the messenger to keep conquering. Accepting makes Uesugi your vassal — the only way to do so — and forfeits Kenshin and Ai permanently.
5. Conquer Uesugi within 5 turns of the turn you refused, or both are lost for good. She then joins through a purple command in Sado or on a start-of-turn event. Ai Naoe only joins after Kenshin is in your army.

Named recruits that cost Negotiation, not gold

A second stream never touches the prison: yellow province commands paid for with commander Negotiation, which is why they survive an NP crunch.

Breaking your first gourd auto-flags the Kouhime event. For who deserves the slots afterwards, see the best commanders page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my recruitment command missing when I have plenty of gold? Gold is not the constraint. It disappears when the hire would push Cost above NP, or when no roster slot is free.

How many commanders can I have? 30 — the roster maximum, not the prison limit. The 30 often quoted as a "prison cap" is the roster; capture thresholds sit elsewhere, in the capture guide.

Can I recruit a clan leader directly? No. Conquer the clan and take them from a purple command or start-of-turn event, or wait for a rival to hire them from the ronin pool.

Official source: Parameters & Formulae, Game mechanics and Walkthrough on the AliceSoft Wiki; Steam for the release date.

Related Guides

• How to Capture Enemy Commanders — the 1-in-n roll.
• Best Commanders — who is worth a roster slot.
• Stats Guide — what Negotiation changes, why NP punishes upgrades.
• New Game Plus — roster-capping bonus characters.
• Beginner Guide — opening turns, so early prisoners fit.