Spying and Counterspying in MTW (NOT VI)

[Martok]

Interesting. That's new to me.
By detecting we mean killing, right? So you're saying that hypothetically an emissary could kill an assassin if he had enough stars? (I've had emissaries killing assassins when being attacked, of course)
I've never observed this but that could be because I haven't looked out for it.

Does anyone know more about this or is able to confirm macsen's theory?

R'as

There is a sort of "heirarachy" when it comes to who can catch/kill enemy assassins. Also, macsen rufus is correct in that only spies can catch other spies (aside from border forts). Assassins and emissaries can only capture assassins, but not spies.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have more than one spy in a province, then only the spy with the highest valour gets a chance to capture the assassin; the other spies in your province will not be given the opprtunity to catch him. This rule also applies to multiple assassins & emissaries in a province--only the highest-level assassin/emissary will get a chance to capture enemy assassins. (So there's no point in sticking 6 assassins/spies in a province, as this will not improve your chances to capture enemy saboteurs.)

As you already know, the border fort (if there's one built in a particular province) will have first crack at capturing enemy assassins.

If there is no border fort, then then your spy is the one who gets the opportunity to capture enemy assassins. So if an assassin is caught, the valour star(s) will go to your spy for capturing him.

If there is no spy in your province, then your assassin gets the valour stars from captured enemy assassins.

Your emissary only gets valour stars from captured assassins if there are nor spies or friendly (heh) assassins in the same province.

Second note: This heirachy is absolute, regardless of whether one agent has more stars than another. In other words, if you have a 0-star spy and 4-star assassin in the same province, the spy will still get the valour stars for capturing enemy assassins, even though the friendly assassin has greater valour.