Tip Against Enemy Priests

[NewUser]

I have been playing a campaign with the Byzantines and one thing that I found to be annoying is the amount of catholic and Muslim priests I have on my land. Orthodox isn't all that popular, and the Imams spread their faith a lot faster than my bishops did. I experimented, and found out that if you encircle an enemy priest (or any other agent, I think) and then sent a troop to the spot where the priest is (or was now), and they die.

I found this has helped greatly with BGR IV because of the high religion needed in each area to recruit troops.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Nice tip. Thanks NewUser +Rep

[toluas]

Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them with an assassin?

[Ichon]

With BGR I find it is actually beneficial to build up the religious buildings/churches more. Usually I never bothered with that but now getting to at least Abbey especially in the border regions is handy.

I wish there was a way to mod religious conversion bonus to generals since the orthodox church for most of this period was led by the ruling Caeser at least as titular head though the Constantinople bishop was the spiritual head at least for most of this era.

Getting to the level of church where you can get a 2nd priest per region is also necessary to fight the religious war, 1/5 stay home and balance against Imams/PriestsShamans while the other 4/5 concentrate on converting the next invasion target.

With 8 regions you can get 16 priests and probably only face anti orthodox conversions in 2-3 regions at a time. Hungary, Venice, Turks, Fatimids, Mongols, Sicily... always gave me the most problems and in that order too. Building 3rd level building should give 4% bonus so that counter acts 1 active imam/priest/shaman.

The exploit to kill an unwanted priest converting also works on all other agents except I think spies have a chance to escape. Diplomats, assassins, princess, inquisitors, die. Although if they are bordering water or a city you can't trap them very easily.

[JorisofHolland]

The exploit to kill an unwanted priest converting also works on all other agents except I think spies have a chance to escape. Diplomats, assassins, princess, inquisitors, die. Although if they are bordering water or a city you can't trap them very easily.

Spies will die, just like any other agent type.

[Ichon]

Spies will die, just like any other agent type.

I thought if a spy hadn't used it's spying function on its turn it can escape thru an army but maybe I'm wrong.

[bɑne]

I thought if a spy hadn't used it's spying function on its turn it can escape thru an army but maybe I'm wrong.

This game mechanic is really just a easy mechanism to handle the fact that units shouldnt inhabit the same space on the campaign map except for settlements. The only reason why we can't kill whole army stacks with this "box of 9" is that there is a different action defined when a army unit moves onto an army field.

So it basicly kills everything thats programmed to leave the place you are moving onto. Conditions for this are a) no place to go to or b) exhausted all movement points (from the units NEXT turn) [but seriously, who has the patience to drive a unit over the whole country]. The b) part I'm not 100% sure about.

[Chyeaaaa111]

Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them with an assassin?

Except for this way is always guaranteed. I've been doing this as long as I can remember, but only in great need

[sbroadbent]

I have been playing a campaign with the Byzantines and one thing that I found to be annoying is the amount of catholic and Muslim priests I have on my land. Orthodox isn't all that popular, and the Imams spread their faith a lot faster than my bishops did. I experimented, and found out that if you encircle an enemy priest (or any other agent, I think) and then sent a troop to the spot where the priest is (or was now), and they die.

I found this has helped greatly with BGR IV because of the high religion needed in each area to recruit troops.

Ah, the classic 'box of 9'. Easiest way to get rid of those pesky agents (and yes it's any agent) that annoy you. Even better is when you pin them against a river or other barrier so you need less units. The only problem is that the AI routinely makes more.

In most cases, these priests are there to pre-convert your region before enemy stacks march into your land. It's one of those warnings to let you know they are going to attack that particular target in a couple turns. I don't tend to worry about it too much, but I suppose if recruitment is dependent upon religion, that can matter.

Wouldn't it be easier to just kill them with an assassin?

Assassins can fail, the enemy agent might be too high level, or you just might not have an assassin available. Sure you could save/reload, but this is automatic

[NewUser]

The use and training of assassins will also give your generals (King and whoever trained the assassin in the city) bad traits. Plus it lowers reputation; I like to keep my reputation at immaculate .

[Concrete]

The use and training of assassins will also give your generals (King and whoever trained the assassin in the city) bad traits. Plus it lowers reputation; I like to keep my reputation at immaculate .

If you think about it, a dagger might be a kinder way of killing somebody, as opposed to pitching a tent right on top of them.

[NewUser]

If you think about it, a dagger might be a kinder way of killing somebody, as opposed to pitching a tent right on top of them.

Of course, but I surround them in the open where everybody can see instead of stabbing them while they go to the washroom.

[TigerVX]

Some people might call this an exploit but I think its a viable game choice: If you absolutely want to kill an individual wandering around your lands, you're free to do so. It's just that you need to mobilize a huge force to find him, box him in, and butcher him.

The only thing I think is missing is that you should lose relations with a faction when you kill one of their agents in such a way, since such a public killing is bound to draw attention. But you already need to devote a half stack to kill one person, so I guess its not too exploitative.

[bɑne]

Some people might call this an exploit.

Well technically it is one as the engine has no way to deal with this (weakness) except killing the agent.
Other options like small area teleportation would have worked as well but were not implemented.

but I think its a viable game choice:

Nothing against that.

The only thing I think is missing is that you should lose relations with a faction when you kill one of their agents in such a way, since such a public killing is bound to draw attention. But you already need to devote a half stack to kill one person, so I guess its not too exploitative.

Having once killed 8 agents that way I still could siege the next settlement with the same stack in the same turn. The downside in the cost of movement points diminishes to nearly nothing in areas like the holy lands.

[toluas]

The use and training of assassins will also give your generals (King and whoever trained the assassin in the city) bad traits. Plus it lowers reputation; I like to keep my reputation at immaculate .

Hmm, never cared about that...

[Sir Walter]

The use and training of assassins will also give your generals (King and whoever trained the assassin in the city) bad traits. Plus it lowers reputation; I like to keep my reputation at immaculate .

If the mission was a success, nobody would know it was you so your reputation shouldn't be lowered The traits aren't that bad, they just lower chivalry. Also, the "Master of Assassins" ancillary is helpful for not getting bumped off yourself

[JorisofHolland]

It certainly is an exploit, but I don't mind if people use it nor if they give it a different name. Just like I don't mind if people cheat, because I don't care. It's not my business in the first place

[JorisofHolland]

You're wrong.

[NewUser]

It's realistic though, how agents will die if you surround them in real life... However, is there a possible way to cause the country whose the agent belonged to to lose relations with the country that they died on?
For example, if a Hungarian Priest was on your land and you boxed him in and killed him, then Hungary would lose relations with you (amiable to so-so) or something with the likes of that.

[midget_roxx]

It's realistic though, how agents will die if you surround them in real life... However, is there a possible way to cause the country whose the agent belonged to to lose relations with the country that they died on?
For example, if a Hungarian Priest was on your land and you boxed him in and killed him, then Hungary would lose relations with you (amiable to so-so) or something with the likes of that.

Realistic . Yes because being surrounded by exactly 8 people and then a 9th one decides to step into you and you disappear :o

Never knew about this trick I think I will try it now