screens appear to be there simply for flavour (some strategic resources are available through trade, but you tend to need strategic resources only late in the game by which time you'll probably have sources of most yourself).
Yes, trade is simple - there's nothing to it beyond clicking 'Request trade agreement' and everything else is automated. In Empire and Medieval you start with four provinces and several armies to manage right at the start - Shogun 2 is pretty kind by comparison (particularly since province management has been heavily simplified and you're no longer presented with a dozen different buildings each with its own upgrade path from the start of the game), but the best tutorial for Fall of the Samurai is actually Empire's US independence campaign, since it introduces modern warfare! Click to expand.This is always an issue with TW games.
