A small tip - the assasins cna disable ballista/cannon towers

[Handel]

Just found out - the assasins can sabotage ballista/cannon towers too.

[Slaists]

Yes, they can. But I find this feature to be rather unrealistic... I can understand how an assassin could blow up a building, but disable all the canon towers on a city's perimeter? Not likely...

[Quillan]

No less likely than a single spy being able to open every single gate in a fortification. It's not realistic, so don't worry about it.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

You could look at a spy as an agent that connects you (the ruler) with agent networks within the enemy city...

[Slaists]

You could look at a spy as an agent that connects you (the ruler) with agent networks within the enemy city...

OK, I can buy that argument.

[Kraxis]

I believe that was the original statement for spies. That they are in fact somewhat abstract, or just the leader.

[Kobal2fr]

Yup, that also the way I've been seeing them in RTW as well. Send a agent to the local Judean People Front and let him manipulate and stir them into a frenzy... Or maybe the agent is not just a single man, but the leader a fifth column commando squad of sorts...

The agent movies get in the way of that kind of thinking, obviously

[Kraxis]

No I think the RTW style was that the agent was a sort of leader, while there were malcontents wiling to help you in all cities. So the spy was the one who made the connection while the local people did the actual work of opening the gates. I think that can be applied here too.

[Kobal2fr]

Sure, and that's what I was meaning to say with that "Judean People Front" line - that your agent tries to link up with the city's or faction's malcontents and use them to his (and your) own means.

The fifth column thing was badly worded, I was thinking of the Trojan Horse and other ruses of the sort, to get the enemy to do something stupid. The way I see it, maybe my spy just went directly and openly to the local nobles, told them "you know, if you surrender the castle, my king will reward you handsomely, give you huge tracts of land, money, his own daughter, everything !", the nobles thinking themselves cunning and wily opened the door, only my King never had the intention to keep his word in the first place, and proceeded to have their guts for garters (and christmas ornaments).

[Kraxis]

Ah... I guess I got hung up on the little agent movie comment, as that fits very nicely with a spy going inside to get to know the local malcontents.

[Kobal2fr]

Aaaaah OK. I am sorry for being as unclear as I always tend to be . Those weren't the agent movies I was referring to ; I was thinking of the "assassin torching a building" line of movies.

They are the ones that, to me, jar with that notion of manipulating local mobs and so on. They are the ones which seem a bit absurd when the building being sabotaged is actually every single tower along the city walls.

Of course, you can make believe that the person you are watching as he torches the place is in fact not your agent, and that the movie is in reality a rundown, condensed version of what's going on all over the city, I guess.

[Kraxis]

Ahh... yes that one makes a bit less sense.

But since the towers are the only thing that are multiple buildings, I just don't expect CA to haev created a special line of movies.
And no, I don't consider the assassin to be like the spy, a leader of local rabble. So technically I don't realy like that option, and I haven't used it to be honest.

What happens? Are all the towers destroyed on the battlemap? Like after artillery?

[Kobal2fr]

Ahh... yes that one makes a bit less sense.

But since the towers are the only thing that are multiple buildings, I just don't expect CA to haev created a special line of movies.

Not really, no. I mean, I can build a cathedral in Paris all the way from a simple church, but there isn't just ONE towering cathedral in Paris. There's the Cathedral with a capital C, plus a lot of big towering churches, plus umpteen local, unimpressive churches. When my assassin destroys the "Cathedral" building to deny its +20% order, I figure there's a wave of "religious" attacks and so on over two (well, one in my case) years. The ballista towers are the same - it could be basically setting fire to them the day before the assault, or it could be eroding the sentries' loyalty over 2 years, or managing to get my guy in the town council and advising drastic cuts in the town's defense budget...

What happens? Are all the towers destroyed on the battlemap? Like after artillery?

I'm not sure. I think they revert to basic arrow towers.