Thug/SC/Assasin builds thread

[Gandalf Parker]

I may need to provide my build but my favorite assassin is still the Lord of the Night pretender. Mictlan gets him (not sure who else does). Titan, stealth, flies, summons aid during assassinations. And thats without equipment.
I think Id probably give him a bow.

The other thing Id like to try is giving a black heart to the many armed pretenders.

I also loved giving black hearts to Pans in Pangea. They would sneak into a province, and assassinate (usually by equipment or spells), and then they would throw a few maenads off. The maenads would instantly attack that province. Usually they would die fast since 3 or 4 maenads dont take a province very well but you at least saw what was there. AND if that assassination was the last commander then the enemy would route. It saves alot of trouble continually testing a province to see if the assassinations have made it weak enough to be taken.

[paradoxharbinger]

iirc, the pans just generate maenads each turn, so if you were to park a stelthy pan in enemy territory, he would keep generating them and they would attack right? sounds like a good way to drive unrest through the roof.

[Gandalf Parker]

Yes.
A regular pan can be a real pain-in-the-back-provinces for any enemy that doesnt use PD. Just move him around alot and watch the provinces fall. When you take one; crank the taxes to max, buy some PD, recruit locals, generally make it hard to take back and worthless if they do get it back. If you are given time to recuit a local commander then pillage also.

[Shovah32]

Using the lord of the night as an assasin, i never thought of that! One question though: how can you make an assasin out of a 4 armed stealthless pretender(such as a nataraja)? Those pans also sound very nasty indeed (creeping doom, charm with some penetration help, swarm, various other useful spells) and, if im not mistaken they could bring some stealthy troops with them incase you need to attack in force after assasination.

[NTJedi]

Shovah32 said:
Using the lord of the night as an assasin, i never thought of that! One question though: how can you make an assasin out of a 4 armed stealthless pretender(such as a nataraja)?

Impossible... unless you create your own unit via mods.

[Gandalf Parker]

Ahh I forgot that that none of the natarajas have stealth.

And the Lord of the Night is already an assassin altho it doesnt say that he is.

Lord of the Wild could be one with a Black Heart and that might be fun to try since he tosses out maenads. And the ghost king would be fun. Are there other stealth pretenders that toss out units or get assistants in combat?

[PhilD]

Gandalf Parker said:
Yes.
A regular pan can be a real pain-in-the-back-provinces for any enemy that doesnt use PD. Just move him around alot and watch the provinces fall. When you take one; crank the taxes to max, buy some PD, recruit locals, generally make it hard to take back and worthless if they do get it back. If you are given time to recuit a local commander then pillage also.

I don't see too many players fall for this more than once, really. It doesn't take too much effort to figure out how much PD you need to beat the Maenads (not much, I'd say), and after that all they need to do is crank PD a little over the minimum in all provinces. You get a free peek at defenders, which isn't useless, but you won't get free provinces anymore.

And even the AI does build a little PD, right?

[paradoxharbinger]

but unrest would keep getting driven up due to constant attacks

[Gandalf Parker]

And in some games I invest multiple Pans. Ive even been known to use my pretender (Lord of the Wild). I was in a 3-pllayer game where my capital and home territories were taken midgame. I survived until endgame by harrassing the #1 player (that took me out) until the other guy could get up an army and sweep in. It might not have been a winning strategy, but it was a game-affecting one. (vengeance sucks, huh?)

It might just be because of the way I play but I find Pangaea to be massively useful as an ally. Flying scouts (quick reports on everyones location), stealth armies (able to move thru your partners territories), able to trade off mages with major support abilities, lots of tactics for harrassing and reporting. But like I said, I prefer playing a supporting role in an alliance so it might just be my viewpoint.

[Valandil]

Headless hoburg assassin?