Taking over territories with Assassins...

[earwicker7]

Assassins are fun, but I'm still a bit light on understanding their mechanics. I'm wondering what would happen in the following situation:

1. You have an assassin hiding in enemy territory.
2. The enemy has province defense.
3. The enemy has one commander.
4. You issue an "Assassinate" command.
5. You kill the leader, so there are no commanders left (other than province defense).

Would you automatically take over the province, or would you have to attack it on the next turn?

I'm also wondering if there is a way to tell if there is only province defense (and no commanders)in the province you are in without scrying... if your assassin has the "Assassinate" option, does that mean that there is a commander there (in other words, if there is no commander, will you be unable to issue the order, kind of like how you can't do a blood sacrifice without having blood slaves?) If there is no commander there, would you automatically attack the province defense commander, and, if successful (assuming only one province defense commander), then take over the province?

[Soyweiser]

You do know that this takes about 15 minutes to test right?

[earwicker7]

Originally Posted by Soyweiser

You do know that this takes about 15 minutes to test right?

Yes, because my life isn't already busy enough. You know it only takes about five seconds to not make a Thread-Nazi post

[13lackGu4rd]

it's even easier to read some general common knowledge, such as that stealth troops can't conquer territories unless they unstealth. so unless you actually attack(as opposed to assassinate) the province and get rid of the province defense, you won't be able to capture it. also, assassinate has no effect on PD, for obvious reasons. as for the option to assassinate, it isn't dependent upon having legal target(as in commanders to assassinate), all it checks is whether the ability is legal for the province you're in, for assassinate that's basically every enemy province(never tried to assassinate in sieged provinces and stuff, so I don't want to spread any misinformation in that regard). same as with all other abilities...

[earwicker7]

Originally Posted by 13lackGu4rd

it's even easier to read some general common knowledge, such as that stealth troops can't conquer territories unless they unstealth

I think this is what was confusing me... I assumed that assassinating someone was unstealthing.

[brxbrx]

Originally Posted by earwicker7

I think this is what was confusing me... I assumed that assassinating someone was unstealthing.

assassinate and attack are two different things. the combat generated even uses different combat scripts

[earwicker7]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

assassinate and attack are two different things. the combat generated even uses different combat scripts

Whoa... slow down, partner lol. When you say it uses different scripts, do you mean that the scripting you assign to your assassin in the normal orders screen isn't what it uses?

[Edi]

Originally Posted by earwicker7

Whoa... slow down, partner lol. When you say it uses different scripts, do you mean that the scripting you assign to your assassin in the normal orders screen isn't what it uses?

No. what he means is that the mechanics of how Dominions runs assassinations are different from the ones it uses to run regular combats. I.e. to put it simply, the game has one script called "Regular Combat" and one script called "Assassination" and it runs the appropriate one for each combat. It has nothing to do with the combat orders of commanders.

As far as assassinations go, even the Abysian and other better assassins have a hard time against lots of opponents unless they have some equipment, mainly weapons. This is because an assassin with only length 0 or 1 weapons gets repelled too easily and can't get hits in and then dies.

I tend to use Abysian assassins in pairs, equipped with paired fire swords each, which can significantly increase expansion speed, especially when you have a scout along or lurking in the next province over. Two turns of assassination, then the assassins move on and the scout attacks the province, conquering it. You still have to be careful of tough opponents like cavalry commanders and barbarian chiefs. Elephant provinces can be risky, since they often have wizards.

[brxbrx]

no, assassin will merely stay stealth. in fact, you may repeatedly press assassin and end up facing off against moult generic commanders

[P3D]

It is generally inefficient. Even Abysian assassins can lose to cavalry commanders, and the usual indie provinces has at least 3 commanders total.
Tribal provinces and Barbarians has two commanders. Horse Tribes only one. But there might be bodyguards.
The only time it is useful, is when you have access to assassins that can defeat commanders regularly (prophetized assassins, Abysia, Lanka, Patala), and your expansion troops would have trouble with elephant/heavy cavalry provinces.
Or you try to grab magic items from special indies.