Wiping out a faction with assassins

[glawen]

Hi,

I'm wondering if it's possible to wipe out an entire faction with assassins by killing all members of this faction's family.
As the Scipii, I'm trying to destroy spain that way; I've got two level 10 assassins, but each time I kill the one I suppose to be the last faction member (the faction chief), a new one seems to pop up from nowhere the next turn.

Is this strategy possible at all ?

TIA

[dagiz]

you know I really don't know if that would work. You'd probably have to do it all at one time to make it effective - getting all the family members in one year as when a family gets low, marriages start happening. And than that person gets listed as part of the faction.

not in RTW, but in MTW I did exactly what you are talking about to the Spanish over the course of two years.

[Antagonist]

Technically it's possible, i'm pretty sure, but with a large faction it would be extremely difficult, especially in RTW. I think I've done it once or twice with very small, weakened factions.

Antagonist

[Ordani]

Functionally impossible in RTW unless you get insanely lucky, because of the rate at which the AI generates new characters for factions hurting for them.

[Teleklos Archelaou]

It can work. You can even wipe out the roman factions and almost win the whole game without declaring civil war by doing this. I had captured almost the whole map this way as Julii and still was on ok terms with the senate. Mostly because I could achieve lots of missions taking back scipii and brutii lands after they collapsed and went rebel when I assassinated their leaders. A fun campaign.

[Oaty]

The way to do it is pick off the young family members first, then once the old ones are left they can no longer have kids or adopt because they have had 4 under thier belt.

MTW was to easy to eliminate a faction, and RTW a bit too hard. So maybe it will be better in MTW2.

[Upxl]

It’s possible alright.
I just wiped out the scipii and now my legions of assassins are being shipped to Greece for a major cleansing of Brutii Generals

[Avicenna]

But wouldn't it be ridiculously hard to get rid of the final family member? (faction leader) They usually have a 1-4% chance of death max.

[Ciaran]

It definitely is possible. Tough, because the last family members have to killed all in one turn, lest new ones pop up, but still possible. I did it myself once and another time I saw it happen. Usually, conquering all the cities of a faction is easier, because unless you have a lot high-class assasins you´ll have to corner in the respective faction to make sure they have no family member wandering around somewhere that can take over leadership and adapt new members.

[gardibolt]

What does work pretty well is reducing a faction to two family members, killing the heir with an assassin and that same turn (before they can promote someone else) fight a battle with the faction leader and kill him in battle. Not quite as aesthetically pleasing as killing them both with assassins, but much easier to accomplish.

[Severous]

Hi

Ive never attempted to wipe out a faction in this way.

What happens when you achieve it ? What happens to all that 'ex' factions cities ?

If you kill just one enemy general where will his replacement pop up ? Can this be predicted ? I killed the Greek faction leader by sinking his ship. I am concerned that a new leader will appear in Sparta, the Greek capital, that I have under seige.

[Ciaran]

If a faction is wiped out its cities (if any are left) join the rebels, usually with stacking up the garrison considerably.

As for the leader, I assume the Greek have more than one city and army left? If so, the heir will become leader, regardless of where he is (this is unlike MTW, where the new King was teleported to the province with most buildings). There must have been at least one family member left, because otherwise Sparta would have become a rebel city, according to your description. There is a certain chance, however, that a captain stationed in Sparta gets adopted into the Greek ruling family if they´re low on members. But if you´re besieging the city, you should be able to see that.

[Upxl]

But wouldn't it be ridiculously hard to get rid of the final family member? (faction leader) They usually have a 1-4% chance of death max.

The trick is pretty simple.
assassinate the younger ones.
they are also a much easier target.

Then keep a high star assassin at the city with the faction leader/heir.
Every time a younger general pops up it's very easy to put a knife in the poor boy's back.
Eventually the leader/Heir will die of old age.

[Severous]

Thanks for your reply Ciaran.

Sparta didnt rebel...there is at least one other Greek city other than Sparta. So perhaps the heir is over there. Sparta fell before any family member appeared in that city.

[jelay14]

I've had two high-level assassins (I think one was 7 and the other 9) knock the stuffing out of every captain and faction member in Britannia's last city as the Julii in one campaign. That was how i destroyed that faction, because after the last apparent faction member died the city turned itself over to rebels. Britannia was conquered, but not quite pacified.