First of all welcome to the .Org !

Anyways answering your question, agents can help swing campaigns in you favour, from the non too subtle inquisitors to the more subtle spies. There is a use for each.

For VI 2.01

Inquisitor/Grand Inquisitor - Catholic only - These guys can really help if your main enemy is catholic and has some really godd generals, just drag and drop the inquisiotr over the general you dont really like and you see a report on how likely the inquisitor is going to get his man, then click end turn and the next turn there will be a message telling you the results of the inquisition. The more stars a inquistor has, the more likely he is gonig to get his man, the sucess rate depnds on the general on trial's piety. Inquistors gain stars by burning men. (Visible to enemy)

Bishops(Orthodox + Catholic), Cardinals (Cath only), Alim, Imams (Muslim) - These are religeous agents which convert the population of the province they're in to your faction's religion. I'm not sure about the Muslim agents but the catholic ones can also be used in offering peace etc.......By using these agents you can stop religeous rebellions and the such, also by having the population as your religion you vcan tax them more as thir happiness is partially dpendant on religion. Catholic Bishops and Cardinals also help against inquistors, having bishops in the same province as a general who is being tried by a inquisitor lowers the chances of the general being burnt as a heretic. (Visible to enemy)

Assasins - The obvious one, you train them up you send them off to kill people, the chance of sucess comes from the valour/command star rating of the person involved and the star rating of the assasin, the assasin gains these by killing. Each time you drag and drop over a target you will be informed of the chnce of sucess, sometimes large amounts of high valour assasinns need to be used so thta the chance of a takeout is very good. By builing upgrades to the tavern you can increase the starting valour of trained assasins from 0 (for tavern) and 3 for (????). Syria also has a +2 bonus for any assasins trained there so with top upgrades you could be pumping out 5* assasins! Assasins are not seen by the enemy, also watch out for border forts and watch towers as these can often catch and kill many of your agents before they make it to the target. They also share an abilite with spies (see "spies" section) . Assasins are best used to get rid of pesky enemy agents (inquisitors/bishops).(Invisible to enemy)


Spies - These guys are the hardest to use, the basically do nothing on the surface, but hwen they are used properply they can be very useful. Spies when put into a enemy povince slighly lowers that province's loyalty and the amount is determined by the valour of the spy. Sometimes it is neccesarry to spam them in large amounts to cause a rebellion. The also warn of troop movements made by the enemy such as preperations of attack etc......When dragged and dropped onto a general they will attempt to find hidden vices and bring them out into the public, making the general less useful.

However, when put into your own provinmces they act as counter intelligence, along with assasins they can catch and kill enemy hidden agents (spies + assasins). They also boost the province's loyalty so they can be helkpful in helping you reduce your inland garrisons. like assasins they can be upgraded by builnig the right buildings but unlinke assasins they can only be upgraded to +2.


I may add princess and emmisary later...........................