Taking over territories with Assassins...

[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?

[PriestyMan]

no, he's just trying to confuse you. in fact i have no idea what the heck he's talking about, but what it sounds like he's saying is flat wrong

[Jarkko]

You can assassinate indy commanders, and then move in a single commander to take over the province. Notice that indies usually have 2-3 commanders per province. Not really a viable strategy as such, but for example EA Abysia might use it to take control of some hard to come by indy province (at the end of a dead end, or an isolated indy province behind another nation) and to get some experience for the flying assassins.

It's also possible to seduce indy commanders. I used this in a game as Patala to gain two bloodhenge druids (and thus nicely got into blood without having to go through the scouts "hunt slaves, empower somebody" -route). There was a third druid present too, but he refused to become seduced (so it resulted in assassination battle). Eventually a single markata scout conquered the province, all those dark vines and whatnots just routed in front of the godly power of markata (or perhaps because they had no commanders left).

[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]

what I meant is that a retreat command for combat does not apply for assassination.
I guess I put it in the worst possible way.
I'll be back under my rock, now, where I belong.

[PriestyMan]

no, your still wrong. they still retreat. its very unfortunate

[P3D]

Originally Posted by Edi

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.

I haven't encountered elephant provinces with wizards. However, if one sees no elephant at militia+slinger provinces, there are a/only two or three elephants that won't show up on the scouting report b/there are two or three wizards behind the chaff.

[earwicker7]

Originally Posted by PriestyMan

no, your still wrong. they still retreat. its very unfortunate

I thought retreating from an assassination attempt was automatic death... is this wrong?

[brxbrx]

Originally Posted by earwicker7

I thought retreating from an assassination attempt was automatic death... is this wrong?

yes, but this was supposed to have been addressed by now*. see the very first post in the bug thread


*retreat orders are supposed to be ignored