Assassin effectiveness
 

Hey guys,

Are Assassins effective right out of the gate or do they need magic items to be effective? In this case it was a Marignon Assassin against an Indy commander and when I went and viewed battle he just ran off the side of the screen without doing anything as if his Morale broke (and he is subsequently gone.

Note that I did not set any combat orders because I didn't realize it went into "combat mode".

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

Depends on what you want to assassinate, and with which assassins. It's just like a fight with two people plus 5-10 bodyguards for the defender, and no retreating.

Unequipped assassins will usually kill most priests, sages, weak mages and such, but may have a harder time against commanders, mages with tricks, or people with bodyguards assigned.

PvK

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

It is easy to practice this in SP. The Machaka ones are pretty good out of the box & difficult to improve isn the short term. The others have mixed success

Pickles

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

C'tis ones are pretty awesome. Give them a nature gem and a skullstaff, and they are match for almost any normal commander.

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

Your regular "poison dagger and leather armor" assassin isn't too good... but they're cheap, and have all the usual equipment slots if you must.
Abysian Slayers are a touch nastier, IIRC; C'tis Empoisoners are mage-assassins; R'lyeh Star Children can mind bLast and have Astral-1; Machakan Bane Spiders are very well-equipped and trained.

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

Assasins should be equipped, but some cheap items come a long way. Especially if they summon friends. You do not need Bottle of Living Water, though, simple Skull Talisman is often enough. It might work even against priests as Banishment is not very precise...

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

Oh, and don't forget the best assassin of all: The Lord of the Night http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

Lord of Night is kewl. But nothing beats a pretender assassin.

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

So that would explain my ineffective attempt at an assassination against an Indy commander. It just boils down to 1 vs 1 combat (or more I suppose).

Stealth adds no bonuses (you know, the traditional stab the guy in the back scenario) it seems except for the fact that it got me into the province unnoticed in the first place, correct?

Krool

Re: Assassin effectiveness
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Correct. And the defender gets to act first, as in any combat.