Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Two questions, not one, from a total newb.

1. Do you folks generally give items to your assassins when sending them out? And does an assassin get to take with him other stealth units for an assassination attempt?

2. Blood sacrifices: Do these create one-time or permanaent effects? If permanent, I could see that folks would want to do one at each fortress/temple location at the very least. (I am speaking of your dominion's radiating out from the area.)

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

I dont know about 2. But I will answer alittle on 1.

Only a few assassins can take troops and no they will not assist in the assassination. They can help win the day in a couple of other things though. If he gets spotted, and if you think you have killed enough commanders to try and take the province.

I try to always give my assassin items. If you want assistance in the assassination then thats the only way to get it. The skull talisman to summon undead, the contract that summons imps during combat, the items which will fight next to you such as the trident or stone bird.

Also items which will fire on their own (helmet that shoots lightning, armor that lightning bolts an attacker), items which can give you some good hits as the person runs up (dragon helmet), etheral robe, items of luck.

Lastly there are items which will affect a province while you are in it which you might consider giving an assassin so he can do double duty.

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

A Skull Talisman and Boots of Quickness go a long way towards boosting survivability.
If I'm absolutely rolling in gems, a spirit helmet or a deathwand, er, rod of the phoenix (20 fire gems) plus some armor would help.
If it's late game and I'm just toying with the AI, I like a Vampire Lord with a Hellsword, perhaps some Armor of Souls, quickboots, spirit helm, black heart, and luck charm. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Since assassinations are of a "random commander," do you think that the best defense against assassination is to have lots of commanders with your mage and some folks patrolling your home province?

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Also, does anyone know the answer to the blood sacrifices question?

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Every slave sacrificed works like one temple for that particular turn. If I understand you correctly you ask if one slave sacrificed works like a temple for perpetuity, that is not the case. So one bloodmage sacrificing one blood slave a turn in a Mictlan temple would behave in a similar manner to one ordinary temple. I do not now if you have noticed but if there is a lab present in a province where a commander is bloodsacrificing he will replenish the sacrificed slaves from the lab store.

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">yes, it has been posted by the dev some days ago. When you do a blood sacrifice, you generate a dominion roll equal to your max dominion level. That is if you have a max dom of 7, you have 70% chance of getting +1 candle (one time).

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Better with too many answers than to few.

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

This is interesting. Might be something I would do if a major battle were next to a province where there was barely enemy dominion and I wanted to change to morale effects.

But I don't think I will be doing blood sacrifices a lot. I have much better use for those slaves (when I can get them).

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

For something different, try summoning a Succubus. She's stealthy and can fly, and can try to seduce commanders. If she succeeds, both she and her new "friend" reappear in your nation's capitol; otherwise, she tries to kill him -- hell hath no fury and all that. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif
Interestingly, I never saw mine try to seduce a Eunuch or, for that matter, anything truly weird like a Mound King. Ewwwww. Perhaps Illwinter programmed in assorted flags to restrict it to non-undead, non-inanimate males?

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Ya, I wonder what the potential values for gender/sexual compatibility are in the game, if any. They only appear in descriptions as far as I've seen, but there are implications that some things might be going on - the Cat's Paw for instance, says it might make males weaker, and is supposed to make females more beautiful, but it's hard to know if that's just for humor, atmosphere, and mystery (all of which it accomplishes, even without implemenation), or if there are really effects. Has anyone tried giving a gal dual cat's paws for years to see if anything unusual happened? (Get abducted by Zeus or a lovesick prince or anything? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ).

PvK

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

Hrrrrrm. A question now seems obvious: does the Cat's Paw improve the odds for a succubus's successful seduction?

Re: Assassination and Sacrifices
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">My cute little avatar has dual cat ears, and has all sorts of unusual things happen... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I wonder more about the Bear Claw. "It is said to make women grow a beard." ... I was unsure if it would be safe to put one on my Earth Mother; she's ugly enough already... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif