Agents + Family members

[Spart]

What is the point to spies and assasins. I just do not use, I just go out and fight, I do not even use family members, all they are good for is continuing my line. Even if another factions family dies out, you still need to take out the remaining units, Diplomats I occasionally use, but only for getting some money out of a faction

[Caius]

Some people uses it.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi,
Spies are useful for finding out what an enemy has in their city and what traits an enemy character has. They can also cause cities to experience a large amount of unrest causing them to rebel if they have a low enough happiness rank.

Assassins are useful for finishing off enemy family members which offer their faction large bonuses such as a high management/influence general that is causing a settlement's wealth to increase by 25% and it's happiness to increase by 50%. This can cause settlements to rebel and lose money every turn. They can also be used for destroying high star enemy generals which offer large bonuses to their troop's morale and give their army an extra powerful unit.

Diplomats are useful to get trade rights (more money) and to get an alliance (meaning that the faction is less likely to attack you). You can also get access treaties giving you permission to walk on other faction's lands.

Family members offer bonuses in battle and in settlements. Their influence allows them to increase the populations happiness more than it would be without them being there, their management allows them to squeeze the highest possible amount of money out of a settlement and their command increases troop morale on the battlefield causing them to be able to hold the line for longer than they would be able to with a simple captain/a family member with no command.

I hope the answers your query. Cheers!

[Quintus Of Pompeii]

Sup,
I have not yet used the Assasins. However I use Spies all the time, when I recieve a Senate Assignment to capture a town or city i always use my spies to go and see what the defence is.

Family members, I dont get the, sorry :shrug:

Quintus

[César Victor]

Family members come with very powerful bodyguards. I have a general with 30 guards with 1 gold chevron. They are unbeatable; I even tear Carthage spearmen apart with them.

[lottrbacchus]

in rtw, i love assassins to kill generals just before a big battle. nothing like the enemy losing their best unit and command stars just before the fight.

i especially loved it the 1 time i killed a britton general, as it cut their chariot force in half in one fell swoop.

i've read that mtw assassins seem a bit over powered, so i'm looking forward to that greatly, especially as the subterfuge increase from sabotage doesn't seem to work in rtw.

[César Victor]

I HATED Geisha in STW. I spent ages building my armies, not bothering with assassins except for the odd ninja, then all my enemies sent a load of Geisha after my generals and I had very little I could do to prevent them.

[The Foolish Horseman]

this morning, i sent 19 assasins out and they killed all the grekk family members and the gaul family members and most of carthages.....pure joy!!


As for spies, i use loads of them.....i recently used them to check spartas defences befor the assasinations began

If anyone is wondering how i created 19 assasins, i always seem to make a lot of money in a campaign by ransacking or exterminating all the cities i find. And then i dont spend the money for a long time as i always build up large armies before taking any cities. the senate missions are usually a waste of time and a waste of men...i dont need them anymore as i own the whole of italy

[lottrbacchus]

my question isn't how you got 19 assassins, but from 19 missions, how many died? even with 95% success, 1/20 will fail and die.

and have you noticed that when a low level assassin fails, sometimes he escapes from the guards, but with a high level guy with high chance of success, when he fails, he always dies. that bugs me a little bit. but then i say- well, at least he was dedicated enough to either get the job done or die trying- which is what must have made him that good to begin with!

[Caerfanan]

I play mostly MTW with the viking campaigns. What I can say of agents is:

Priests: spies unlikely to be killed

Spies: protect my own provinces rom enemy agents, keep loyalty at a higher level (I think). Sometimes, when lucky, stays alive in another province and slowly brings the loyalty down: you can then see that the tax level disminishes, hence making your potential enemy loose money

Princesses: spy unlikely to be killed

Emissary: spy unlikely to be killed PLUS bribery (the funny one!!!)

Assassins: I use them 90% of the time to extinguish a royal line when I have a powerful enemy; As said int hte guide, their chances are low, so use a lot of them at the same time. When a big faction has no more royal line, it's way easier to take some provinces. No reinforcements coming from the neighbouring provinces, no loyalty problems with other allies, and so on.

But I'm disapointed, because I can't quite get any cease-fire when at war. Even when the other is loosing... Any idea about how to get proper diplomacy go well in MTW?

[Agent Miles]

Caerfanan, welcome! There is actually a subforum for MTW:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=20

If you are at war with a faction, but do not have provinces that border that faction's provinces, or have any ships in a sea zone next to any of that factions provinces and they do not have a Crusade/Jihad aimed at you, then they will become neutral again.

[Martok]

Any idea about how to get proper diplomacy go well in MTW?
If you can figure that out, you should let me (and the rest of us MTW players) know. ~D

My kidding aside, you've just highlighted what has always been a major weakness of the Total War series: diplomacy. No matter which TW game you're playing, the other factions can almost be guaranteed to behave irrationally. They'll attack you when you have 20 provinces and they only own 1, they'll refuse to sign cease-fires even if you're sieging their last province/city, etc.

Unfortunately, there's just no real way to get the AI to see sense in your diplomatic dealings with them. :wall:

[Caerfanan]

Deleting the content, I sent it twice.

Sorry guys, my bad.

[Caerfanan]

If you are at war with a faction, but do not have provinces that border that faction's provinces, or have any ships in a sea zone next to any of that factions provinces and they do not have a Crusade/Jihad aimed at you, then they will become neutral again.

Thank you Agent Miles! I actually knew that, though, and I'm using it heavily with the vikings: nothing beats burning down the whole british isles, then put my boats int the Nordsear and take a drinking horn of dark ale. Two year's later I'm considered a total neutral stranger, negociating with peasant generals! :-)

I was more "complaining" about the fact that an emissary or a bishop were really unlikely to gain a cease fire or an alliance. I was surprised, for instance, to see the king of a battered two provinces-and-500-guys-to-defend-it faction refusing my cease fire offers. While at first, a lot of faction tend to build the more useless alliance that they can.

But since that moment a few days ago, one of my bishops did win an alliance with the vikings. Sio I guess it might have something to do with the "rank" f the agent. Or some unknown (to me) factors. I Guess...

If someone has any info on how an agent, apart assassins, gets it's chance to manage soething, or what can help to obtain this and that diplomatically, I'm really highly interested!

~:cheers:

[Caerfanan]

My kidding aside, you've just highlighted what has always been a major weakness of the Total War series: diplomacy. No matter which TW game you're playing, the other factions can almost be guaranteed to behave irrationally. They'll attack you when you have 20 provinces and they only own 1, they'll refuse to sign cease-fires even if you're sieging their last province/city, etc.

Unfortunately, there's just no real way to get the AI to see sense in your diplomatic dealings with them. :wall:

:gah2:

Somehow, I knew it...

Watching over my father shoulder when he plays RTW, I was expecting the diplomacy to have become a wee bit more interesting, isn't it the case? I haven't played RTW much though, I'm so found of this Viking campaign!

Well, thanks, Martok, even if it is bad news. I'll try to see if I figure out something relevant on this topic anyway, and I'll be glad to let you know!

:shame:

[Martok]

Watching over my father shoulder when he plays RTW, I was expecting the diplomacy to have become a wee bit more interesting, isn't it the case? I haven't played RTW much though, I'm so found of this Viking campaign!
There are far more diplomacy options in Rome, but the AI is ill-equipped to handle them properly. As a result, it's still just as nonsensical in its dealings with you as the other TW games. It refuses offers and deals that are clearly to its advantage, it makes demands against factions that grossly overpower it....the list goes on. :wall:


If someone has any info on how an agent, apart assassins, gets it's chance to manage soething, or what can help to obtain this and that diplomatically, I'm really highly interested!

~:cheers:
Caerfanan, you might find this thread (https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?p=1225584) to be of some use. It's not an official guide, but it's still pretty comprehensive in covering the abilities of agents in MTW. :yes:

[Caerfanan]

Uuuh. So RTW diplomacy is a shinier non sense?

:gah2:

I'll check your link. Thanks Martok.

:coffeenews:

[Martok]

Uuuh. So RTW diplomacy is a shinier non sense?

:gah2:
Yes (unfortunately). :sad:


I'll check your link. Thanks Martok.

:coffeenews:
Happy to be of service. :bow:

[César Victor]

it makes demands against factions that grossly overpower it

The Gauls demanded on the third turn of my campaign as the Germans to become a protectorate. I just laughed in their face.