Assassin
 

I need to know some things about assassins:
a)other than piercer, there are other ranged armor piercing weapons?
b)i want to do a kamaikaza assassin(in sp), so im going for B9 bless,charged armor, double "explosion on death" misc(the fire one,cant remember name) and holy avenger.:angel
can i put put some other items that do kaboom when my commander die? and what spell/item make him immortal(other than bottle of life)?
c) how is assassination order calculated?for example if i order my assassin to attack one commander and my opponent do the same?

Re: Assasin
 

a) Piercer is actually armor negating, not armor piercing. Vision's Foe is also AN. All X-bows and Arbalests (including non-magic ones, with the exception of the above two) are armor piercing, so that includes the Banefire Xbow and the Just-Man's Cross.

b) Not sure that 2 medallions of vengeance will provide double explosions...have you tried it?

As far as other similar effects, try the spells Phoenix Pyre and...what is it? Inner Sun? One that provides fire damage vs. undead upon death.

RE: "limited immortality", there's also the Crystal Heart, with the downside that it causes a chest wound...You might also consider (if the assassin has any death magic) the spell Twiceborn to return as a Wight Mage. You could also look at Ritual of Returning, but that doesn't seem to be what you're after.

You might also consider items that cause additional attacks/damage/spells that don't necessarily require the death of the assassin, such as a Spirit Helms, Astral Serpents, Stone Birds, Eye Shields, etc. I assume you're doing this in SP, so efficiency is less of a concern...

c) someone else can step in w/the algorithm :-)

Re: Assasin
 

ehm the whole idea of a suicide assassin isn't really a good idea in dominions I think.. certainly not if you are going to kit him out.

PS which assassins are immortal?

Re: Assasin
 

Vampires with black heart.

Re: Assasin
 

To Stavis_L
a)yes, i meant negating not piercier,my bad.
b)haven't tried it but i think it does work.i'll try tomorrow
Thanks for the immortality answer.
To Aezeal
More than a strategy is a fun, because i like killing gods in unusual way.
Can i know where u take your name from? i think i read of an Aezeal somewhere but cant remember.

Re: Assasin
 

Yep, vamps with black hearts is one of my *favorite* assassins.

Re: Assasin
 

I thought immortal assassins that die or flee during an assassination attempt remain dead?

Re: Assasin
 

I think that's true Lolo. Anyone confirm?

Re: Assasin
 

My name, I've played utopia quite a few years under this name.. well everything online I do under this name.. but I can't really think of other stuff except the utopia scene.

Re: Assasin
 

Indeed as far as I know. Don't know the reason why immortality doesn't work on assassinations and I thought it was a bug when my vampire died in my own dominion.

Re: Assasin
 

I've heard that immortal (and twiceborn etc) units that flee during assassination are lost. I didn't know it was the same if they're killed. Both cases sounds like bugs to me.

Re: Assasin
 

As An ranged weapon, there is also a lv 8 construction xbow that is An and have 999 as damage.
I think that is a one shot-one kill weapon, at least from flavor text and experience.

Re: Assasin
 

It's not construction 8 (that would mean it's unique). It's constr 2 or 4, and it's negated by magic resistance. It's basically Soul Slay that can be resisted by magic resistance, Air Shield or a shield with a good parry value.

Re: Assasin
 

No one mentioned the lightning bow? Armor negating, with strength based damage.

Re: Assasin
 

Oddly enough, it appears to work on mindless units too, sort of. I had a poison golem that got hit by an Ethereal Crossbow and took 85 points of damage from it--I assume because he failed his MR check.

-Max

Re: Assasin
 

Are u sure it's not Con8? MY pretender wasn't able to forge it when i had con6,but maybe i just didn't see it.

Re: Assassin
 

The ethereal crossbow requires con 6 and 1 astral to make.

Re: Assassin
 

Thanks for the clarification.

Re: Assassin
 

Can assassin units be used to kill mages in forts? For that matter, are all units in a province with a fort protected from being targeted by an assassination attempt? I have no experience using assassin units, so any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Re: Assassin
 

Forts don't protect against assassins.

Re: Assassin
 

Unless you are sieging them. Then they turn all the lights on, and your assassins can't hide anymore. Or something.

Re: Assassin
 

What do you mean? If I'm sieging a fort, I'm not allowed to make assassination attempts in that same province? :confused:

Re: Assassin
 

Which makes assasins 90% less useful, since without siege they will patrol your assasin the next turn after your assasination attempt and get some of his gear if he has any.
Really, the only general case when assasins seem cost-effective to me is to reduce enemy commander count before siege attempt. Which they can't do, unfortunately.

Re: Assassin
 

Assassins are good when used in bulk. Sure, one assassination and they patrol and catch him, having lost one commander. So do a dozen assassinations on that first turn.

Or target blood hunt provinces (unless he's patrolling for unrest) or forts without large armies in them.
Or better still armies about to attack. You kill a couple of commanders, all their troops stay behind. They attack at half strength and get wiped out.

Re: Assassin
 

Yes, sometimes it's useful, but you have to prepare for it for many turns (it's not easy to suddenly get 10 good assasins) and usually works only 1 time (sometimes it's enough, though). So - as I said - the only *generally useful* way to utilize them seems to be during sieges. And it's impossible.

Re: Assassin
 

I think assasins are useful if they have items that summon creatures.

*The talisman that enables the raise skeleton
*the skull face (raise skeletons)
*bottle of water
*bag of air
*pocket knight
*the headless halfling
*soul contract (probably the best one)
*the soul cage (or wathever the name is the artifact of the ghost mages)
*the wolf head (the artifact with free combat wolves)
*the artifact armor of the wolves
*the wraith crown (too expensive)

maybe im missing one

Re: Assassin
 

I think assassins are very useful. For some nations they arent much more expensive than scouts so why use scouts?

I like to keep assassins on my borders. Some nations have commanders that lead large armies. You can often chop an invading army in half. If you use a couple, and immediately have a scout or something attack, you can often rout his units before he can purchase a local commander to save any.

And even if all you do is force him to get nervous, buy more pd, set a patrolling army in his back provinces, any of those can be a game factor. Some people are so locked into their strategies that just pushing them to do new things can throw them totally off their game. The more that people say that assassins, PD, stealth, seduction are useless; the handier I find them to be just for the shake-em-up factor.

I agree on the "summoning equip" thing.
I also like additional attacks such as dancing trident or stone dove or spirit helm.

Re: Assassin
 

Because you can buy indy scouts, but assassins take up castle slots where you can recruit mages instead?

If, of course, he hasn't bought at least 1PD.
Splitting armies is useful even if you can't take the province with scouts. If he's got magical or undead troops and his PD commanders don't have the appropriate leadership a scout or slightly stronger attack might get them to vanish if you've assassinated their leaders.

Re: Assassin
 

theres often times when you cant afford to buy mages on all of your forts.
If this happen to me i usually buy scouts. I wouldnt spend any money on assasins unless i plan to equip them.
But if i get the 60 gold one i probably would buy a few. (and kit them)

Re: Assassin
 

The H1 assassins of Abysia rock. Self blessing and great stealth preachers. I like them.

Re: Assassin
 

If you have a fort under siege, then you can also give any command a Black Heart (not just stealthy ones) and you are then able to issue then the assassinate command.

This only has niche usage though, but could be very useful for taking out key commanders just before a siege attempt. Especially ones resilient to Earth Attack. The commander can assassinate and take part in a siege defence in the same turn. Tart assassins anyone? :)

Although this could easily be considered as too gamey, or even just a basic exploit. But it happens too rarely for it to be brought up for attention.