Rake's

[djbrock4life]

Anyone have any suggestions on how to "level" them up?
It seems even after performing missions with them they don't seem to get very many traits or followers.

Just wondering what people have been doing with their Rake's?

[Dead Guy]

I actually mainly use them to watch enemy troop movements in their territory... very rarely I sabotage something but usually it fails, though with little consequence. Once I had a gentleman show up and try to duel my rake. Mostly I just don't care about the small benefit of removing some useless agent to bother myself with moving the little buggers around. Maybe sabotaging ports is worth it?

I agree with the observation that they level really slowly.

[Ardri]

I'll just camp them outside of a college and keep assassinating gentlemen whenever I remember to do it. Rake's don't seem to be connected to their % of success in the longterm as I had 1 rake kill probably 25 out of 30 gentlemen as he travelled from university to university. Ended up in all that killing that he only leveled up once.

[The historian]

They can be very useful i used them versus my Spanish allies by sabotaging happiness buildings in Italy i actually managed to get both the Italian states and Naples to revolt and swiftly took them, I don't know how to level them up though.

[Major Robert Dump]

kill kill kill, thats all they are good for. And since gentlemen can't duel priests (lol could u imagine) i try to send rakes in at the same time as my missionaries.

[Feanaro]

I've never gotten a Rake beyond 4 stars, no matter how much I used him. I'm guessing there's either a bug with their progression or they aren't meant to progress very far. The only way I get the 4th star is to sabotage lots of stuff.

I also find the percentages rather odd. 30% means never, except for assassination... where it means more like 50-75%.

[Leviathan]

I've found rakes (in the Americas campaign) to be next to useless. The highest chance to assasinate a gentleman that I've had was 30%, and in reality it was closer to 10%.

Using the good ole save and reload, with two rakes trying to assasinate the same guy, it took forteen reloads before one of them succeeded at the "30%" chance.

[Gaiseric]

I agree, rakes are very useless. Demolish your Village Inns and replace them with something better.

[A Very Super Market]

Nah, they keep order. Rakes are just a side-benefit, like...

The mini-grater to the Slapchop :D

No one respond to that, please. No derailing.

[Susanna]

I agree, rakes are very useless. Demolish your Village Inns and replace them with something better.

I disagree. In my current game filthy polish gentleman are cluttering the campaing map and keep stealing techs. I already lost three of my own gentlemen in duells.
The situation would be hopepless without some rake help!

Susanna/Calapine

[Feanaro]

I disagree. In my current game filthy polish gentleman are cluttering the campaing map and keep stealing techs. I already lost three of my own gentlemen in duells.
The situation would be hopepless without some rake help!

A gentleman who is good at dueling could do the same thing, though there are admittedly few of those.

Rakes have their uses but they are annoyingly limited.

[Gaiseric]

Lol

I'm trying to figure out the math on this. Is it more profitable to have a workshop with a garrison in a fully taxed city? Or is it better to have a pleasure garden, no garrison, and full taxes?

I have got to break the bad habit of garrisoning my cities like in previous TW titles. Lol, with no naval invasions in ETW I shouldn't even be garrisoning in the first place.

I am also wondering what differance a campaign would be like played on full taxes and then on normal taxes. Over the course of a campaign, does turn to wealth increase your tax base enough to make growing your economy a smarter option? I havent played enough yet, but it would be nice to know some differant strategys on how to play the game.