The power of Assassins and Religion...

[Mikeus Caesar]

I recently started a new Danish campaign, and have discovered the wonderful power of Religion and Assassins!! I had conquered most of Western Europe, and advanced into Almohad-owned Spain with 5 stacks. Even though i managed to take all of Spain in less than 4 years, i still had problems with Rebels, because most provinces were 90% Islamic. But, a quick trip from a Cardinal and the Grand Inquisitor at the same time would bring a province to about 90% Christianity within 3 years. Within 10 years, all of Spain was about 80-95% Christian, which allowed me to leave smaller Garrisons in Spain so that my large armies could go conquer Africa. But, that still left of the problem of those damn Egyptian Alim's, who kept bringing Islam up to about 10%. Then i discovered the Assassin. Now, a few years later, i have a huge network of Cardinals, Inquisitors and Assassins, all holding the empire together.

Anyone else find stuff like this handy for running an empire?

[Arkatsson]

That is the greatness of the agents. They can old an empire from falling or keeping it together. Instead of having a big fight against a king. :duel: Or have him captured and killed :hanged: . You can just assassinate the person just like how I assassinated an egpytian sultan. :sultan:

[ichi]

Religious agents are great for converting provinces whose former bosses were of a different faith, but I really like to use them as spies.

Spies have a tendency to get caught by enemy security forces, but a Priest or other religious type can move around provinces where you couldn't otherwise see, which provides you with great info.

But spies can be very useful in helping to maintain province loyalty and reducing the amount of infiltration from enemy speis and assassins.

I feel like one of my provinces is naked unless it has a Priest, Spy, and Assassin sitting in it.

Just wait until the Pope excomms you - send a bunch of your best Assassins to send to sleep with the loaves and fishes.

ichi :bow:

[Mikeus Caesar]

I'm currently training up one of my Grand Inquisitors...he's going to be paying a permanent visit to Rome...

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I'm attempting the ahem.....1st degree burning....of the English King. I killed my ally, the King of the Danes, in a battle he was aiding me in. The following is how it was laid out:
K=Danish King
G=HRE soldiers
A=my handgunners

G
K
A

I fired a slavo and creamed the Danish King. I assasinated him without even decalring war or training agents.

[TwinMfg]

I use bishops/alims as spies as well, spreading them across the entire map. Not only do they show me what is going on, they also conveniently increase my religion in all the provinces.

I don't normally put a bishop/alim in my own provinces, unless I need some converting done, but I do put a spy in all my provinces instead of border forts. They do the same thing and the spies gain valor.

I build assassins, but normally leave them bunched in on province until I need them.

Inquisitors are just plain awsome. They can deal with high valor generals easier than assassins can, and they are great to use in advance fo crusades. There ain't nothin' like passing through a province with 80% zeal. ~D

[TheWingedVictory]

But I sometimes noticed my grand inquisitors in Egyptian provinces getting asssassinated (almost frequently)

[Darkrising]

I'm attempting the ahem.....1st degree burning....of the English King. I killed my ally, the King of the Danes, in a battle he was aiding me in. The following is how it was laid out:
K=Danish King
G=HRE soldiers
A=my handgunners

G
K
A

I fired a slavo and creamed the Danish King. I assasinated him without even decalring war or training agents.

How do you have battles with Allies in?

[Zarax]

If you fight a battle near their territories sometimes allies sends you an army to "help"...
Beware if their stack is bigger than yours the province will go to them.

[ichi]

and, of course, the situation also occurs where a AI faction is joined by one of his allies. This can suddenly put a lot of enemies in one of your provinces.

ichi :bow:

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

If you fight a battle near their territories sometimes allies sends you an army to "help"...
Beware if their stack is bigger than yours the province will go to them.
Not always. I got Saxony when the Dane army I was allied with had triple the men.

[ichi]

Not always. I got Saxony when the Dane army I was allied with had triple the men.

who had the most men on the field at the end of the battle?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Haha.......me. I made sure of that. Most of the Dane army routed after the King fell. Even though it was my arquebusers that killed him, I had to admire the last stand he made on the bridge, with all his guards dead around him, fighting off the army of the Holy Roman Empire. Then I just sent my (undamaged) soldiers across and "swept up the trash". The Danes declared war on me 2 turns later.

At your service, Evil_Maniac From Mars, "accidental" assasin of MTW

[ichi]

Haha.......me. I made sure of that.

This lends credibility to the claim that the province goes not to the guy who started the fight with the most men, but the guy who has the most men left standing at the end.

Which would make sense.

ichi :bow:

[CountMRVHS]

I found out something new about assassins the other day, playing Byzantines Early/Hard/GA. In some of my provinces I had only built Watchtowers, because I wanted my spies to get the valor for catching enemy assassins rather than having my Border Forts do all the heavy lifting. So in Bulgaria, which only had a watchtower (and other buildings of course, and a port -- the AI agents are suckers for a port), I had a 1 star spy and a 3 star assassin. I left my assassin there for a rainy day and went about my game. I kept getting messages that I was catching enemy assassins in Bulgaria and thought Great -- I must have an awesome spy in there about now!

So I checked. My spy, disappointingly, was still only 1-star. On a whim, I looked at my assassin. He had gone from 3 stars to 4, just sitting there! Several years later, still sitting in Bulgaria and intercepting lots of enemy agents, I now have a 6-star assassin!

I'm getting pretty tempted to test out this guy's skills now, though: the Spanish have all of western europe and are catching up to me in points. Should I risk sending a 6-star assassin into enemy provinces with border forts? Or do border forts pretty much kill everything, guaranteed?

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a great technique for farming your assassins entirely risk-free.

CountMRVHS

[sephirothno12000]

I myself have about 2 assasins per province and a few inquisitors. I keep at least 1 assasin in each province and train the others on my own punk emissaries and buff them up to about 3 star, then i start takin out other inquisitors...needless to say...i have over a dozen kings killing assasins. Many a pope and king they have killed. It's also helped me gain quite a few catholic provinces easily. Emissaries are kinda handy too for bribing armies that have tons of enemy troops that don't contain an heir's unit. To me religion plays a somewhat small part in my conquests compared to assasins, but i do use a few cardinals. :rifle: