my compilation of useful to know stuff

[Martok]

Hmmm in my current campaign, I had taken a few hints from the forum regarding having a spy in each province, but I didn't know that had to be a province without a border fort..... I think I'll keep the forts though as they massively boost happiness, which is hard to come by on default unit size (as opposed to small unit size which I ran my first campaign under).

Fair enough. Of course, having spies in your provinces boosts their loyalty as well, although I don't know how their loyalty-increasing abilities compare to that of the border fort.

By the way, one thing I forgot to point out was that placing spies in your port provinces is the most effective way to catch enemy assassins. So it may still be worth your while to dismantle the border forts in at least some of your coastal provinces, particularly if you notice it's a territory that has a lot of emissaries & princesses passing through it. (Assassins love to go after those!)

I used to think spying for vnvs would raise valour, so this is not the case? Opening gates neither....

Gah! I forgot about opening gates. Yes, that should boost a spy's valour as well.

I can't remember now if they gain valour for exposing vices or not.

Say if I have a mob of valour 0 spies, which gets the point if the province goes rebel?

In that case, it would be determined randomly.

Oh, and I had several zeal 100 provinces....well, actually they AI did, because that's where I parked my inquisitors last game.

100% zeal?? Holy crap. Well I must've been doing something wrong in my campaigns all these years then, because I don't think I've ever seen that before.