With the cut of an assassin's blade, a nation falls

[Spartan198]

Currently playing a great Macedon campaign and my war with Epirus that took me into southern Italy ultimately brought me into conflict with Rome. The Romans and their vast, powerful legions put up a hell of a fight with many eagles finding their way into Macedonian possession, but I eventually pushed them back, sandwiching them to two settlements between the Alps and the Kingdom of Macedon. Now, the Romans still had a number of sizable armies that I wholly expected some epic battles with. But I popped an assassin into Patavium, the new capitol of the Roman Republic, and saw its leader was there. I had an 18% chance of a successful assassination and seeing as I really had nothing to lose, I decided to give it a go wholly expecting for my assassin to be caught and killed.

It was a success. The Roman consul was the last of his line and he fell to my assassin's blade. No epic battles, no vast legions to protect him. I expected the Roman Republic to go out with an atomic blast, but in the end, they disappeared in a distant, unnoticeable poof like an unknown star ending its life in a far off galaxy we humans know nothing of.

Even the mightiest of empires, with the mightiest of warriors, can disappear in the blink of an eye. Let that be a lesson to you all.

[D.B. Cooper]

I killed Pyrrhus of Epirus with an assassin once, then rolled in and crushed his leaderless army. Felt pretty good.

[Redolegna]

In my current campaign with Pergamum, I've had two lucky strokes with that. First, I sent an assassin to Edessa, where there was only a governor and his retinue of bodyguards. Cue murder and a bloodless conquest by a single unit. A few turns later, I sent another assassin to Aquincum, where the last king of Syracuse (very long story...) lived. The point was not to get rid of the faction without fighting but without conquering, which would have made me a neighbour of the Getae, a luxury I could not afford since I was in the middle of a very bloody war with Rome.

And I must say, it felt pretty good too to fell two generals when it was said I only had a 5% chance of succeeding.

[Kallides]

I love assassins they are so valuable. I cant count how many times my assassins killed their targets while probability of success was less than 10%, spearing lives of my men. Gotta love those lads!