Regicide Techniques

[Zild]

Interesting quandry: My outstanding allies, the Scots (which is itself a bit of a problem as I am playing the short English campaign and therefore must destroy them!) have asked me to kill poor old King Whatshisface the Mad, their leader.

Given the reason behind my request, do I assume I am to do this subtly, through assassins? Because I could easily march up to his very-poorly-defended capital and slaughter him without harming any Scots aside from his bodyguard. But I guess that would leave a few tens of thousands of witnesses to the deed, not to mention technically putting us at war.

Is murder on the battlefield an acceptable technique for regicide of an enemy, let alone an ally?

It is more likely to succeed than assassins at the moment, and a failed assassination could also ruin our relations...

[PBI]

In my experience this does not work. I can't remember whether you fail the mission if you kill him on the field, but since the reward is improved relations with the new king, the damage done to your relations by the attack would cancel out the reward. Only killing him with assassins really works.

[I of the Storm]

Yup. Killing him in battle doesn't count as a fulfilled mission. The mission has also failed, should he die of age before the mission runs out. You must assassinate.

[FactionHeir]

Actually the mission only fails if you let it run out. If you kill him in battle or any other way except via assassination, it counts as expired (i.e. "my father has perished, you are no longer required to take care of him").

That said, yes you need to assassinate for it to succeed.

[Old Geezer]

Regicide is lower than murdering a fluffy princepesa and her nanny.