Samy the Killer is dead!

[Aenlic]

The Sultan of Egypt (who shares the same nickname) is deeply saddened by the loss of his master of assassins. All of the world may now breathe easier knowing that the Egyptians have lost their greatest asset. Poor Samy is dead. Samy the Killer. Samy with his maxxed out skill level. Samy with his courtesan and catamite and poisoner and apprentice. Samy with his exquisite blade (wonderful item! Wish I'd been able to hand it off before he died!). Samy the Killer, who single-handledly destroyed 4 generations of the Turkish ruling family. Samy the Killer who removed 10 merchants from resources his sultan coveted. Samy the Killer who sent every Christian priest and bishop he encountered off to meet Allah. Samy the Killer who removed 6-star generals and the cream of the European nobility.

How did Samy the Killer die, you ask? He tried to kill one too many generals and fell to a fatal nose blow from a door. Oh, the shame.

(I could kick myself for getting cocky and not saving the game before I sent Samy on a 95% success mission to kill a rebel general of all things! He was killed by the other 5%)

[Whacker]

I'm surprised he lasted that long... I've had absolutely dismal luck with assassins so far, wasn't ever able to get one above 5-6 skill points. I also firmly believe from the testing I ran that the probability of success given when presented with a target is completely inaccurate.

There does seem to be an interesting discrepancy forming in terms of other forum member's experiences. As I read it, those who are able to train up their assassins to high levels state they are almost unbeatable and almost never fail. On the other hand there are a large number of folks who've had the same luck with assassins as me, in that the low and medium skilled ones are just about useless. It'd be nice if this were a much flatter curve instead of a steep one, making the low/mid level assassins more useful, and perhaps making the high level ones less godlike.

/shrug

[Aenlic]

Find a rebel army not doing anything particularly annoying. Watchtowers are good for this. They like to hang out by watchtowers and people watch. Send in your assassin to kill the rebel army general. It might take a couple of assassins to get a first successful kill; but once you do get that first kill you can stand there and attack the rebel army over and over while building up your assassin's skill. It's that first kill which is the toughest. At some point during this you'll get at least one retinue member for your assassin. Once you get your assassin to 4-5 skill this way, you can safely send him off to begin assassinating princesses and merchants and priests. Try to avoid making any attempt at less than 50% during this period. And never, ever, try to assassinate an inquisitor. I've only had it succeed once and that was at 95% with a max-skill assassin. It helps to have a higher level assassin at the start, using one of your big cities to build the assassin's line. And having a master assassin's guild helps too.

Yes, I was extremely lucky with Samy. I never had to save and reload. He never failed, after I built him up to 5 stars on a rebel army. Well, he never failed until he had that spot of bad luck on his last, fatal, mission.

Samy was recruited from a huge city with a pleasure palace and a master assassin's guild. He started with nice skill and it only took a couple of missions to get him to 5 skill and off to begin his long and incredibly lucky run.

And I agree whole-heartedly, that the whole assassin thing is entirely too random. That and inquisitors need to be addressed in the patch. Although, I don't hold out much hope that they will be fixed.

[Kraxis]

Oh, just want to point out that it appears that you can't ship off retnues anymore.

[Butcher]

My maxed skill asassain had a 10% chance of killing a venetian general whoo was a mission target. How does that work eh? The enemy must have had some insane personal protection traits.

[Basileus]

I sent my best assassin on a regicide mission to kill the Egyptian king, he was maxed out several good retinues etc and had 25% chance to succeed but alas he did not but the funny thing is my newly recruited assassin that was near by managed to slay the king with 5% chance heh.

Assassins should not die that easily though i agree they should fail often cause it shouldn't be easy to kill everything either.

[Oaty]

Oh, just want to point out that it appears that you can't ship off retnues anymore.

Actually Crusade items and a few others can be exchanged. The true cross or the holy lance. Theres a few others but it is very limited.

[Aenlic]

I haven't tried to transfer personal items other than relics. Are you sure it's only relics? I had a princess with a "delicate blade" but I forgot to try and transfer it before she died. And, of course, Samy died with his exquisite dagger on him.