Charactor skill loss

[Captain Pugwash]

Is there somehow a tipping point in the game where essentially your charactors seem to lose their skills?. Ive just passed the 100 mark and noticed this

examples.
1. Priests that had 8* piety and could fry 4 * heretics now struggle against even a lowly 1-2 *
2. My 10 skill spies suddenly cannot get into settlements and stacks that where accessible are now very risky, say 30-50% even though captain led.
3. My 10 skill assasins that would carry a hit out every turn cannot even take out captains. 1-2 merchants are too difficult and even sabatage is now risky. Howver in assassinate mode there are no targets in town, ie spys which are supposed to keep out charactors like this, and my spys as above.
4. towns that where in the yellow suddenly have gone to red. They show 10-20 % religous unrest yet the region is 99% catholic. general unrest is evident yet I know there are no local spies around.
5. Mid league merchants cannot take out novice ones.
6. generals are now starting to get crappy ancillaries and traits, but the kitty is only 30K and i thought when at sea they didnt get any.

I suppose a few masacares is needed to quell dissent

[ReiseReise]

Maybe religious unrest is because you got excommed? Regular unrest is probably from enemy spies. Having your own spy doesn't mean your city is immune, just decreases chance of bad spy getting in and increases chance of kicking him out once he is in. You still can't see him until he gets kicked out. Or... cities going from yellow to red could be from squalor increasing and the unrest was there all along but you didn't notice it until squalor changed the color. Or you completed a crusade and had Triumph keeping your city yellow and it wore off.

Low spy % could be from enemy governors gaining public security traits yadah yadah yadah.

[Quillan]

Religious unrest can come from overly pious governors, as well as a governor's traits. Any agent who survives attempts to do him in, whether it be hostile takeovers for merchants, denouncing for heretics, or outright assassination attempts, gets traits in short order that can make it massively more difficult on the next try. Compound that with several failures and you wind up with a nearly unkillable agent.

[Rhyfelwyr]

1. Priests that had 8* piety and could fry 4 * heretics now struggle against even a lowly 1-2 *

No idea - bad luck?

2. My 10 skill spies suddenly cannot get into settlements and stacks that where accessible are now very risky, say 30-50% even though captain led.

The AI only tends to get many spies later into the game, and by around turn 100 usually has enough £ and a high enough agent limit to put a spy in most settlements and armies, making it much harder for your spies to get in.

3. My 10 skill assasins that would carry a hit out every turn cannot even take out captains. 1-2 merchants are too difficult and even sabatage is now risky. Howver in assassinate mode there are no targets in town, ie spys which are supposed to keep out charactors like this, and my spys as above.

I don't think you always detect any spies in enemy cities. You need to use your assassins in combination with you own spies to see them. So otherwise see above.

4. towns that where in the yellow suddenly have gone to red. They show 10-20 % religous unrest yet the region is 99% catholic. general unrest is evident yet I know there are no local spies around.

Most likely due to rising squalor you see around turn 100. Low piety governors cause high religious unrest if the region is mostly your religion, while high piety governors cause high unrest if the region is mostly another religion to you own factions. Unrest can be caused by a bad reputation, which unless you are a saint you tend to get by turn 100.

5. Mid league merchants cannot take out novice ones.

No idea, sorry.

6. generals are now starting to get crappy ancillaries and traits, but the kitty is only 30K and i thought when at sea they didnt get any.

Bad traits are often caused by buildings such as inns, taverns etc. Later in the game, they soon give your Generals negative traits if you have built any of these buildings in your settlements.

Remember - if you play on H/VH, all your agents are put at a disadvantage to the enemies.

[Fisherking]

I have see all of that happen too. There are all sorts of little undocumented things that happen as you get nearer to victory or gain a lot of power.

Just be satisfied in knowing that you are doing well and the deck is being stacked against you to give you more of a challenge.

If your priests can’t kill the heretics then have your units do it… As to the rest, you will just have to struggle.

[OverKnight]

Did you recently patch? That might explain the new difficulties you're having with agents. I know it's now harder for spies to infiltrate in the latest patch.