What is the highest level for an assasin?

[m52nickerson]

I'm new to MTW and would like to know what is the maximum amount of stars an assasin can get? I'm training one up for a date with a king and want to make sure he is ready.

[bretwalda]

7 stars was the most I have seen. By assuption if this goes the same way as command stars 9 should be the max. Considering that promotion requires on average 1,2,4,8,16,32,etc wins (if I recall correctly) pretty hard to do. I stick to swarms of 5* assasins from Syria... The problem when you can't produce enough of them... Damn Byzantine uber-emperors and their endless chain of heirs...

[edyzmedieval]

* Laughing out loud!!!

What's with the BYz??? They are my fav faction!!! Useful heirs because they are the very powerful Kataphraktoi!!!!!!!!1

And about assasins.... Maximum in 9 stars...

[Togakure]

I've only seen up to 7-star assassins as well, but I agree that it's probably possible to get them as high as nine stars.

Why produce assassins in Syria? Do they get a valor bonus?? I thought Syria produced +1 Valor Nizaris for the Egyptians ... .

You like Kataphraktoi, Edyz? In my current Byz campaign I've capitalized on something I learned about in my previous one--Avar Nobles from Moldavia in the Early Era. They ROCK! They have the same stats as Kats (armor and all), except that they are faster and have a better charge (6 as opposed to 4). They only require a Master Horse Breeder and Armorer to produce (and automatically come out of training with +1 valor because of the Master Horse Breeder ...). I bribe Moldavia on the second turn, and from there it takes 42 years and 4800 florins to develop the necessary infrastructure to produce them. All things being equal they will defeat Valor 1 Feudal Knights, which are the best cav you will likely encounter in the Early Era and early part of High. I produce Kats in Constantinople also, but use them mainly to replenish my royal commanders. Their lack of speed makes them less than desirable for the tasks I normally assign to assault cavalry. Avar Nobles do the trick beautifully, and when combined with Steppe Light Cav and either Byz Cav or Steppe Heavy Cav, you can really kick some butt.

[bretwalda]

There are some undocumented ;) features and I was happy to learn that you get +2 valor assasins in Syria. So you can get the maximum of 5 star dudes coming off the assembly line...

I am not that much fan of heavy cavalry. Actually I find it easy to live without them as long as I have nice horse archer types like steppe heavy, turcoman horse and so on... Heavy cavalry tires too fast thus it does not fit my playing style that much.

Kats are easy to counter if you have the mobility and / or you have the appropriate pinning unit and javellins. However when I started playing with the original mtw (no vi) and also no experience I felt that Byz are unbeatable...

Once I had my whole army standing around 3 depleted Byz units: Varangian Guard, Kat and Treb... And I did not have the unit that could scratch them... (not the valor because I did not have a decent general) So I lost despite outnumbering them 10:1...

Since then I am more advanced ;)

[Patron]

Byzantines can get the best units in the game in the early period. Kataphraktoi and to a lesser extent varangian guard. Also if you are a human player you can start building byzantine cavalry which are multirole battlefield owners in conjunction with the command lvl 8 princes the byzantine royal family keeps on churning out.

[metatron]

Yes, Syria gives +1 to Assassins, just as Portugal gives +1 to Grand Inquisitors (I think...).

Also, Katanks are bleh. They're too slow to pin most cav down, they're only useful to break the enemy with their sheer inertia. I'd rather train PAs or Byz Cav.

[bretwalda]

It is Castile with Inquisitors. Although it says it gives valor +1 I see that both Castile and Syria give +2 to Inquisitors, Assassins respectively. (Portugal gives valor to Caravels although I never see actual command stars appearing. Might be broken, too)