Good strategy overall with the assassins but I think that espionage should be part of every good campaign. Aside from just taking cities, spies and assassins are a good way of keeping everyone, friend and foe, just a little weaker and a little distracted. I hone my assassins on my enemies, first by getting bonuses on easy sabotage and then by killing the easiest targets. Later these elite assassins are sent to nearby "allies" whom I can hobble just a little and make spend time and money replacing resources that I remove.

Hehe, it must be great to be my neighbor, huh? (Jeez, Mike your house caught on fire too? Damn, your car just burned down yesterday)

Actually one thing interesting that I'm noticing and I'm not sure if its intentional on the part of CA designs but I'm now the strongest, richest, most populated faction in my game and neighbors are lining up to ally and it seems they're so very friendly. However, I do see espionage agents, including diplomats and princesses, trickling into my lands and all of a sudden I'm getting more, ahem, natural deaths. They're in essence using my own strategy but I find it quite cunning and smart of them to launch a shadow war as they can't win an outright one. I don't know if this is programmed into the AI but its certainly brought a new twist into the game as we're all running around trying to twist knives in each others' backs all the while smiling to each other and proclaiming friendship.

Reply