Turning the world grey!

[sharky4u]

Without setting foot in someone elses back yard!What does it take to make a city go a rebellious grey, or more importantly change to your faction colour? ...I have assassinated the govenor...I have destroyed key buildings with asassins...I have even used the add_population cheat to maximum effect....All that ever hapens is there is unrest for a bit, then nothing.......Your thoughts would be appreciated.

[vonKrysiak]

Well the easiest one would be to convert their religion. if you convert over 50% you will see that your enemy is losing towns and then you can take them oer without starting the war!
Also sending in spies into towns will lower the order as well...

[Sher Khan]

You need to pump that city full of spies as well. They'll really bring the public order down in an instant.


The best way is to simply assassinate the entire family tree. Then EVERYTHING they own goes grey.

[King_Sulieman_YHWH]

right. you kinda have to eliminate their entire family.

the sad thing is, youd think you could cause a town to just go rebel from unrest from sabotage, spies, and religious conversion, but all 3 used to max affect dont seem to do it.

sucks .. id like to make a covert war too.

[COMIS -3- ΠΑΝΙΩΝΑΡΑ]

take 4-5 of your best priests(cardinals,Bishops etc) infiltrate 3-4 good spy in the settlement and at last take 5-6 good assassins to sabotage and kill.First kill any family member or general in the settlement,then clean of the area from enemy religion priests.The best way to manage your assassins is:1)Kill the enemy priests and heretics(easy killings adding trait increase and ancillary to your agent),2)Kill every agent of your future foe in his settlement(it is very important to clean off all the priests of his and his spies inside the settlement for avoid detection of your agent, and reduse the conversion rate of his settlement) 3)Kill every general-family member inside the settlement 4)start destroying the buildings(i suggest to follow the line: a)religion settlements (high rate of success and if so extra ancillaries and trait increse) b)Economy buildings to damage his overall economy C)Public order buildings to increse the squalor and the unrest D)Don't forget every military building to avoid the reqruit of new units,because new units in garrison=better public order and finally E) any guild buildings to stop the better training of his agents.If you follow these instructions i believe that you will succede without adding population to the enemy settlement by using cheats.In the crusades mod as a Byzantine i took 5 regions from my allied Antioch's.A!At last it will be just great if your spies are affected by the plague

[Sher Khan]

It certainly can be done, as I've taken Rome plenty of times like this without having to incur the wrath of the pope.

[Captain Spanky]

I've managed to make a city rebel with a priest and two spies. Get the conversion going, with a faction with differing religion obviously, then send in the spies. Give it some time and there you have it, grey settlement. I suppose adding an assassin would help. Though I wouldnt recommend using said assassin to take out the governor. The only time I would go with that is if you were planning on taking out the entire family tree, or if he is a really good governor. Apart from that, go with the lower risk removing public order building.

Its definetly possible, and with a fairly small collection of agents, you just have to choose your target well, and be willing to wait for it.

[antaeus]

you could simply buy the city.

you can usually buy a city of a friendly nation for 15000-20000 gold so long as you are on good terms with them.

cheaper of you trade them a territory you dont want (like a distant crusader state for example)

a city like antioch can be bought for 15000 and will earn that money back in 3-5 turns.

it saves on reputation damage. if you attack a city or faction with dozens of assassins and spies, you're gonna end up despicable in no time - damaging your relations with many factions not just the one you're destroying.

[Sher Khan]

This is very true. I bought all of Spain, France, and Northern Italy as the Moors one campaign. Never waged war or suffered any hostilities towards another faction.

[sharky4u]

Thank you all for the tips! I gave the whole multiple spies and bishops thing last night and although the order % went down to +35 not a lot else happend, i had raised everything in the town to the ground as well. To be honest i would have been better off just attacking and dealing with the fallout.I like the buying settlement idea, but when i have tried this before the price has always been ridiculously high. is it better to flatten the place first?

[Kahn]

Well, if you follow COMIS -3- ΠΑΝΙΩΝΑΡΑ's advice and level the entire town, then when you take it over post-rebellion, you've got a piece of crap town that you've got to devote tons of cash-money and time to repair.

Going cloak-and-dagger style is fun, and I've definitely tried to conquer a whole campaign this way (with moderate success), but unless the city is already on the verge of rebellion and just needs a little nudge to get there, it's cheaper in my opinion to just wage a freaking war and take what you want.

...then again the pope is always mad at me. Take all advice with a grain of salt.

[COMIS -3- ΠΑΝΙΩΝΑΡΑ]

Well, if you follow COMIS -3- ΠΑΝΙΩΝΑΡΑ's advice and level the entire town, then when you take it over post-rebellion, you've got a piece of crap town that you've got to devote tons of cash-money and time to repair.

Going cloak-and-dagger style is fun, and I've definitely tried to conquer a whole campaign this way (with moderate success), but unless the city is already on the verge of rebellion and just needs a little nudge to get there, it's cheaper in my opinion to just wage a freaking war and take what you want.

...then again the pope is always mad at me. Take all advice with a grain of salt.

1)The repair of the buildings is not very expensive and lasts 1 turn
2)You can't damage every building in the settlement
3)You don't have to damage every building to rebel the citizents it is most likely that they will start rebel before you could sabotage everything,

[antaeus]

1)The repair of the buildings is not very expensive and lasts 1 turn
2)You can't damage every building in the settlement
3)You don't have to damage every building to rebel the citizents it is most likely that they will start rebel before you could sabotage everything,

it is a big concern though. especially if you dont have a strong enough garrison in the area, you wont be able to build more troops in the city for several turns, and by then the city might have rebelled.

thats the benefit of a purchase, the city comes complete, intact and with an intact militia garrison, and if you look in the settlements details... no devistation penalty on income, less unrest, full population, and an overall happier people.

of course, it helps if the city has the same religion as you, so its always beneficial to send in monks first anyway.

even better, if you buy the city as part of a peace settlement the city will benefit from full glory bonus's like the rest of your towns and wont be stuck in a post conquest/rebellion mess. a city being happy with the outcome of a war really makes a difference.