The Immortal and Unbribable Last Man Standing...

[King Henry V]

I thought that after time even garrisons which had to be attacked died of starvation. It takes about 20 years but in the end it does starve.

[_Aetius_]

I dont see why you cant spare some troops to storm the fortress? even a modest force could storm such a lightly defended fortress, its worth the cost, Constantinople is worth it, you simply have to take it at all costs.

However you didnt mention Nicaea, so do you even have nicaea? if you dont then it has to be taken or troops taken around via a small fleet, without Constantinople the remnants of the high period Byzantine Empire is highly unlikely to survive.

[English assassin]

Storming a fortress would be costly, it has all its defences even if there's only one man in it.

Have you loaded VI? I seem to remember before VI if you autocalced a castle assault the computer forgot about all the castle defences.

Still, look on the bright side, there is an epic legend in the making here isn't there, the lone defender of Constantinople holding out against your hordes. I think you should bribe him just to have such a famous person on your side...

[King Bob VI]

Why don't you abandon the province, and send in a very small unit to kill him in battle. Or else, eventually, he'll starve.

[antisocialmunky]

I'm only getting about 1000 per turn because I'm keeping the Mongols out of Georgia, when they finally die, I'll get some cash from disbanding the Italian Mercs. And yes, I have Nicea. I think I'll just autocalc it with a single unit of Byzantine Infantry.

The problem with getting spies or assassins is that I don't think I have the infrastructure. I've bribed him 10+ times already, he's a lone 0 star guy with a honorable man trait. It doesn't make sense he costs 2000+.

[Patron]

I have a plan...

Withdraw out of your border provinces next to the mongols, leaving one insiginificant unit behind in each to hold garrison when the mongols invade and an offensive army with a good general in a province borderring all of the provinces from whence you withdrew.

Send the units you think you can spare West into Greece and Wallachia or whatever is next to constantinople (wasn't vlad the impaler from wallachia?), a proper invasion to conquer and hold the 2 provinces. Then withdraw from constantinople and attack with 1 prince. The lone man will foolishly walk out to greet him in battle and if your prince kills this lone guy then he can simply walk through the gates and be greeted by the cheers of the 35000 or so inhabitants.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

I have nothing to add about Clint Eastwood there but about the Horde:

Arbelasters, about eight units, protected with Kats and Alegion. It works like a charm.