How to counter assassins?

[briny_norman]

The Byzantines are showering my cities with assassins and they have already killed off my best governor...!
So I need some tricks to counter this terrorist threat.
Apart from fighting fire with fire, that is, going after the assassins with my own assassins, how can i protect my generals and governors?
By placing spies in my armies/cities?
Or will my own assassins perform the role of personal bodyguards if put in an army/city?
Are there any buildings I can construct to raise security?

Thanks!

[Ring-A-Ding]

I've been wondering about this as well.

Also, it seems to me that some of my cities are permanently infested with spies that constantly open the gates for my enemies when the city is attacked. How the blazes does one get rid of all these spionage dudes?

[gambit]

Spies work best as counter-intelligence I believe. They will help work against enemy spies in your cities (making the gates less likely to open and reducing the propaganda disorder they spread).

I'm not sure about assassins but I'm guessing having them in your city will decrease the chances of an assassins success.

[Snipafist]

Putting a decent spy and assassin inside of your own city is a good way to make spying on and assassinating within that city difficult. Spies will notice enemies trying to get in, and if it's a weaker assassin, just assassinate him with your own guy. Sooner or later, you'll be able to wipe out enemy assassins whenever you like. I believe having more troops garrisoned there will also improve your chances of survival.

[Samir]

i find it hard to counter assassins with assassin if you dont employ a whole staff of assassins. Rank 1 assassins are useless against almost any agents especially spies, merchants and assassins.

if you constantly train a whole bunch of assassins you get dread leaders who have increased personal security already though.

other than that, higher garrisons, spies as bodyguards, many fought battles which result in bodyguard, berserker warrior, etc ancillaries and paranoid traits help

[-Traiano-]

Keep governors in big cities with security buildings and a couple of spies!!! Usually nobody is able to kill my governors....i don't remember the last time an assassin was able to kill one of them...
Also keep a couple of your assassins near your big cities and when you see enemi's killers just kill them!!

[Old Geezer]

Your spies will see the assassins if they are nearby. You can often block assassins' access by putting units in narrow passes or on bridges. I often train my assassins by destroying AI brothels and such so they can't recruit any. The AI rarely has a high level assassin and a level 3 or 4 can readily kill them off for you. Train your assassins by liquidating priests, diplomats, merchants, princesses, inquisitors, or small rebel stack leaders. Your king will get a lot of dread and authority eventually.

[Korlon]

If you don't have any sort of assassin available, you can use the old age trick of surrounding the unit from all four cardinal directions and the diagonals, which uses 8 units, and then sending an extra unit on the same spot where the unit is. Since it can't go anywhere, it's effectively erased from the game. However, this is sort of an exploit so I would not do this unless you really needed to, but you could probably explain it as having your armies cornering said agent and then sending another army to kill off the agent since he has nowhere else to go. Having a couple spies, or even one, in the same city as the governor will drastically decrease the chances of spies and assassins succeeding. I rarely see the AI use assassins anyhow.

[Erwin Rommel]

hire that lady who always scream form the assassin.......wirks everytime

[gargy]

With a spy in the settlement its very hard for assasins to kill anyone.

Churn out some assasins from one city and get yourself an assassins guild. Level the assassins up on rebel armies send them to the frontline. Killing a low level enemy assasin has a large chance of success. It also gives your king high dread and high personal security.

[candle_86]

i keep one assain around, trained him in Italy on the presiests, and the occsianal princess. Used him to take out 3 kings so far.

[caralampio]

I have the impression that the AI cheats some with its assassins. When I send my assassins (even high level), they frequently have to run, and sometimes they run towards the right alley You know, the dead end...

However, the AI's assassins (those that I can see, I'm sure there are a lot I didn't even see) very rarely get killed even if they are level 1. And when one of my characters gets caught, if I can see the killer frequently it is a level 1 assassin. Annoying.

[Xix]

I am a relatively new TW player, but one thing I have gotten down is assassins:

First, learn to embrace Dread as a ruler. Employing assassins effectively will cause your kings dread to skyrocket.

Second, start producing assassins and spy teams right away. Try to have them spy/kill every turn. To level up assassins have them assassinate the captains of troop stacks that don't have a leader. There is is usually a 95% chance of success and a quick way to level up your assassin. I'll even leave rebel unit in a province and surround it with assassins I am leveling up.

Third, when assaulting a heavily fortified citadel (or city) go ahead and take long-shot assassination attempts against any generals in the citadel/city just before you make the assault (I never siege, I always go right for the gates). You may lose an assassin, but I value more the ability to take out a 20+ man 2hp group of Generals Bodyguards with a quick snake to the crotch (the most favored way to assassinate people in the middle ages, didn't you know?)

Last, keep those assassin/spy teams rolling. You'll need to spend some time to get them to 10/10 skill and after that you'll only have so long until they die. It's best to keep a steady stream of new recruits to fill in areas of your empire as you grow.

My 2cents as a TW newbie.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Fight fire with fire. Recruit your own assassins and spies, send them out to do tasks, get their ability up, then bring em back and stick them with a general.

[Zodiac]

The best way to deal with them is to deal with their country. Like once there was a Level 10 assassin who killed my very paranoid king after 5 turns of trying. So I sent a grande total of 75,000 troops into England. Remember, Once a faction is destroyed so are all their agents. :

[NobleNick]

Here are some pieces of advice I second (with comments added as appropriate).

Keep governors in big cities with security buildings and a couple of spies!!! Usually nobody is able to kill my governors....i don't remember the last time an assassin was able to kill one of them...

I try to keep a spy in border cities. I sometimes put two spies in cities which seem to have constant problems. It seems that an enemy spy is dying in one of my cities every turn.

Your spies will see the assassins if they are nearby. You can often block assassins' access by putting units in narrow passes or on bridges. I often train my assassins by destroying AI brothels and such so they can't recruit any...

Excellent ideas! Why did I not think of burning down brothels? Possibly because my muslim assassins are too busy burning down churches...

With a spy in the settlement its very hard for assassins to kill anyone... Churn out some assassins from one city and get yourself an assassins guild. Level the assassins up on rebel armies send them to the frontline...

Agreed with building them all in the same city, to get a guild; but I do not go hog wild on assassins, since their upkeep is spendy. As said before, keep a spy in settlements you want to be secure. As best I recall at the moment, when I am near the end of the game, with about 45 settlements; I might have roughly 40 priests/imams, 35 merchants, 20 spies, 5 assassins, and 4 diplomats. (I play agressively, and am disappointed if I cannot win a long campaign in under 100 turns. The priests precede my armies and help convert target territories quickly. My spy/assassin teams go with the priests and burn down opposing religion's buildings)

Spies work best as counter-intelligence I believe. They will help work against enemy spies in your cities (making the gates less likely to open and reducing the propaganda disorder they spread).

I'm not sure about assassins but I'm guessing having them in your city will decrease the chances of an assassins success.

They will reduce assassin's success. THis is because an assassin needs a spy in the city to be effective. Your spy reveals the enemy spy. The enemy assassin, without the helper spy, is hamstrung.

The best way to deal with them is to deal with their country... Remember, Once a faction is destroyed so are all their agents.

An effective technique, which I have used many times. Sometimes wiping out a small faction is the most cost effective way of dealing with its spy/assassin threat.

Finally, as a few posters said: assassins are most effective as part of a spy/assassin team. I often use spies alone; but I always make sure an assassin has a helper spy when he goes into cities.