Assassination Guide

[Daveybaby]

Havent seen much on this before, but i thought i'd share my experiences with using assassins to their maximum effectiveness.

Hokay. Everyone knows that trying to assassinate someone is generally more trouble than it's worth. What initially appears to be near-certain mission success when the target is in your own territory will suddenly become certain failure when the target moves to its own heavily guarded territory on the next turn. This makes it VERY difficult to train assassins up past the first few levels, as they tend to die quite often.

If you're playing as a catholic country this isnt too much of a problem, but if you play as any other religion, you will find you become swamped with bishops on a fairly regular basis. Unless you make efforts to cull their numbers then there can be a real risk of rebellion. And assassinating religious units carries a real risk of failure, as the AI tends to move them on almost every turn, thus the risk of losing your assassin in an enemy's territorial defences is very high, much higher than the risk stated when you choose whether to accept the mission or not.

The main points to consider are:

(1) Only assassinate units that have just moved into your province. (i.e. they are still in the standing position on the strategic map). These units are much less likely to be moved out again on the very next turn, and thus are much less likely to drag your assassin to his doom in enemy territory

(2) Only assassinate targets in the same province as your assassin. Otherwise by the time the assassin has moved to where the target was, it will likely have moved (probably into enemy territory). Keep an assassin or two in each of your territories, and only use them on local targets.

(3) Make every assassination mission a maximum of 1 turn long. Thus EVERY YEAR you must go through all of your assassins, and cancel their missions, then reassign them to new targets. If you do this, then they will NEVER follow their targets when they move (except as described in point 4 below), since they tend to lag 1 move behind their target. This means the target is more likely to live, but your assassins are almost guaranteed survival, which is the important thing in the long term.

(4) Always move your assassins home immediately. Your assassin WILL follow their target if their mission is successful, i.e. if the target moves, and the assassin kills them, then the next turn the assassin will be in the location that the target moved to (probably enemy territory). Thus you MUST immediately move any successful assassins back home, or they risk being caught and killed.

(5) Risk of Failure. There is still a risk that your assassins will fail and be killed if the target doesnt move, but this risk is the known risk given to you when you select the mission, e.g. 83% chance of success. So, you will still lose SOME assassins, but it is a managable number, and at least now you know the risk before you decide to continue.


Notes:
Okay, this involves a LOT of micromanagement, but it works, and if CA would give us a way to sort the strategic units list, then a lot of this micromanagement will be reduced.

I have cleared out hundreds of bishops, inquisitors and emisaries (even the occasional princess), resulting in me usually having a large number of rank 2-3 assassins, with at least half a dozen surviving at ranks 4-5 and above. These elite few should be saved for emergencies as they can be very useful if you ever need to take out the odd target in enemy territory (say... an enemy king http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif).

[Shahed]

Awesome post dave

I usually follow the same rules as above. However with one exception:

I usually have at least 1 religious agent in 85%of the areas. This allows me to keep watch on what's going on deep inside the enemy country (topic for another post).

Strategic Agent Deployment - Middle East
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/strategicagentdeploymentme.jpg


If an enemy, neutral or even ally strategic unit is in a territory which does not have a border fort, and the enemy agent seems to be sitting put, I send in the assasin anyway, since I have found that the border fort has a HUGE impact on the chances of survival for an assasin in enemy country.

Strategic Agent Deployment - Central Med
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/strategicagentdeploymentcm.jpg

Also another point about border forts. I kept taxes to very high in an ungarrisoned province, the loyalty level was at 132%. then in the next turn I destroyed the border fort just to see the impact on loyalty. Guess what Loyalty dropped to 76-78% immediately I am playing Egypt and the province Swabia is 80% Muslim.

Safe to say an assasination party is taking place tonite.
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/assasinpartytime.jpg


-----------
About a list sorter:

Suppose you have to choose a governor for a province. What do u do ? You have to go through every army right clicking each unit leader to find out his acumen rating, V&Vs. That takes ages if you have about 19-21,000 men in the field. As acumen & V&Vs are very important, we all know that, you have to select your governors carefully.

Military Deployment - Middle East
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/militarydeploymentme.jpg

Military Deployment - France
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/militarydeploymentgaul.jpg

It would be a TREMENDOUS HELP if there was a parchment which showed you all your unit leaders, WITH their, acumen, piety, command, dread AND V&Vs. This would be a huge time saver. In my current Egyptian campaign it takes at least 30 mins just to complete one turn. Not that I really mind coz I luv MTW but anyway it's one of those fine points that would be greatly appreciated for a game of this quality.

It would be great if this info was included in the military parchment. It could be posted to the right side on the rank maybe...showing the acumen, piety, dread AND V&Vs after command. That way you could see at a glance who's who in your armies. Ideally this change would allow you to see the traits of independent unit commanders as well as army commanders.

Unit / Army Leader Sorter
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/unitarmyleadersorter.jpg

I have more than 120 strategic units on the map and it's very difficult to keep track of all of them. I keep my elite spies, assasins, emisarries in Egypt (or another highly developed, recognisable area) just so that i can make sure I know where they are. Again if the strategic info unit parchment could be sorted by: Unit Type (New Colum or replaces "Agent" column"), Valor, Area...it would be a HUGE help in running the show If I pull up the strategic info parchment it still takes ages to find the unit I'm looking for bocz it cannot be sorted http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mecry.gif If you could simply click on valor and the parchment sorts agents by valor, click on Agent Type and presto sorted by that..control click unit type and then control click valor further sorts the list by unit type and valor. Needless to say this would be a welcome development for all devoted MTW SP lovers

Strategic Agent Sorter
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/strategicagentsorter.jpg

HEY While we are at it how about an economy sorter as well doh Click income and voila sorted by income, loyalty, expenses, etc...

Economy Sorter
http://www.geocities.com/katsujin_ken/economysorter.jpg

....ehh I'm gettin carried away now but the same could be very helpful for navy

Personally I don't know how to mod this meself so CA, all you modders any ideas ? If so Fire at Will

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

EDIT: Pictures, comments

[A.Saturnus]

Thank you, sounds usefull.
However there`s a LOT of micromanagement in it when you have a large empire with many assassins.
Some additional tricks:
keep two assassins in every province, so one can go on assassination missions while the other one catches enemy assassins and spies (you can get very good assassins, just by intercepting enemy spies). If the active assassin gets killed or goes to another province to assassinate, you have always the other one to guard your province.
Train your assassins with the 'assassin survival contest':
let two assassins in one province kill each other. The surviver usually gets better. Even if a new assassin kills a high level one its no problem, he gets at least the same level as his victim.

[Shahed]

Quote[/b] (A.Saturnus @ Nov. 19 2002,16:42)]Train your assassins with the 'assassin survival contest':
let two assassins in one province kill each other. The surviver usually gets better. Even if a new assassin kills a high level one its no problem, he gets at least the same level as his victim.
Let the assasination tourney begin

[MonkeyMan]

thanks for the post dave and thanks Saturnus i never thought of trying that. I'll be starting an assasin training school of my own, and probably going to see the fights and place bets too. How brilliantly evil http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif

[monkian]

Yeah cheers guys http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Daveybaby]

Heh, I like the assassination knockout contest. I used to use emissaries, but that idea is much more efficient.

I stopped using my own emissaries as targets though, cos it felt too much like cheating :-S

[Maelstrom]

Quote[/b] (Daveybaby @ Nov. 19 2002,11:11)]Heh, I like the assassination knockout contest. I used to use emissaries, but that idea is much more efficient.

I stopped using my own emissaries as targets though, cos it felt too much like cheating :-S
Agreed - The school of assassins would be tough to graduate from and obviously carries a cost. Doesn't feel quite so much like cheating.

I can feel some serious casualties coming on amongst my Assassins tonight.... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[hoof]

It'd be nice if you could order your assassin to "kill all special units in territory x". This would involve the assassin seeking out and killing everyone in a particular territory (other than military personell), but never moving. A more advanced version would be "kill all units of type x", such as killing all catholic bishops (leaving emmissaries and muslim religious men alone).

The problem with this feature is that the AI would have to "learn" which territories to avoid. Since it cannot see assassins (in theory), it cannot know where assassins are directly, only by dead people showing up. Thus, such a feature might cause the AI to constantly drain their resources in your territory, while your assassins gain valor.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Good post Davey. Here are a couple more ideas.
1) Early in the game I like to place assassins in my port provinces and just leave them there. Enemy agents move through all ports every turn. Over time your assassins in these port provinces start catching and killing these enemy agents with no risk to themselves. A good way to train up to 2-3 star assassins and not lose many yourself.

2) Only attack enemy agents that are in an interior province. This way they can't travel by port else where and lead your assassin into a trap. Place your king in such a province, when enemy ambassadors come calling on your king for alliances you can kill them. Try using several assassins from surrounding provinces to attack one target, that way no matter which way he moves you have an assassin in his path.

3) Use your bishops in conjuction with your assassins as scouts. They can warn you of borderforts in surrounding provinces.

4) Click on visible enemy agents to see if they are on a specific mission, like offering an alliance to a king, yours or another factions. Knowing your target's destination can help you set up that ambush.

[Dionysus9]

Wow good thread for SP'ers. The micromanagement is part of the reason I only play MP anymore. Somewhere around halfway through the campaign, I just cant take it anymore.

If there was an in-game sorter, that would draw me back to SP.

[solypsist]

just a small detail on the killing of other agents/emissaries/etc. in your own provinces: try to have assassins in provinces that don't have a port, too. We all know that when you send an assassin to kill an agent on a port province, the target almost always moves on and your assassin gets caught. If you go after targets in non-port provinces, well, the target can't get away so easily and usually gets killed.

[Teutonic Knight]

heh haven't even played mp yet hahaha http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Dionysus9]

Quote[/b] (Teutonic Knight @ Nov. 19 2002,12:57)]heh haven't even played mp yet hahaha http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif
Well you are missing out Great competition out there

[Daveybaby]

Quote[/b] ]If there was an in-game sorter, that would draw me back to SP.
Yup, I think its something CA really should look at. Give us the option to sort strategic units by type, mission or location, by clicking on the appropriate heading in the parchment.

OR - how about if right-clicking on the strategic units icon produced a pull-down list of strategic unit types - pick one and it only shows units of that type in the parchment.

[Nelson]

I like to plant assassins beyond my own borders early before too many border forts appear, in capital provinces in particular. They can wait decades before they strike.

[FesterShinetop]

Quote[/b] (Daveybaby @ Nov. 20 2002,10:40)]Yup, I think its something CA really should look at. Give us the option to sort strategic units by type, mission or location, by clicking on the appropriate heading in the parchment.
Yeah, that would really be a huge help Hope they gonna do that

Here's another tip I heard somewhere else on this forum (or another): If you give your assasin a target afterwards check his parchment and you usually get a destination. So if the target is moving out you can also see your assasins new destination and you're able to cancel the mission if necesarry.

A tactic I once used is to be able to build assasins in every region, than if you have a target you really want to get rid of drop a whole load on him. My record is about 18 assasins on one target, costs some money but one is bound to get through... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif