Academy of dread and evil

[.L.]

Okay my shadow minions, here you will learn and share info on being well evil.
I shall give you your first lesson,
Take a bunch of assassins and rampage them across Europe killing everything in sight, one shall rise above the others(probably) and become your "Darth Vader"
Spread the plague through your spies to all your enemies cities.
Exterminate all the people in every settlement you capture.
If you take a large settlement you don't need Raze everything then sell it to the enemy.
Now who shall teach the class?

[Vanderdecken]

You can use spies to spread the plague?

SWEEEET! I'm gonna try that!

[Drustan]

You can use spies to spread the plague?

SWEEEET! I'm gonna try that!

It's really not worth the effort, the only time that the plague is a serious inconvenience is when the Black death event happens, in which case almost every city on the map is affected.

[danny X]

It's really not worth the effort, the only time that the plague is a serious inconvenience is when the Black death event happens, in which case almost every city on the map is affected.

it's funny though, if you keep doing it on the same settlement for ages!!

plus if its a different religion, if you eventually take the settlement, then the public order will be better!

[eXistenZ]

It's really not worth the effort, the only time that the plague is a serious inconvenience is when the Black death event happens, in which case almost every city on the map is affected.

indeed. only in rome it was sometimes quite handy

[Double A]

indeed. only in rome it was sometimes quite handy

Oh god. I kept that plague that starts early in Thessalonia going for decades up in Thrace. That's what they get for betraying me every single game.

However, unless the city is Huge or a Citadel, it's a very, very bad idea to keep spreading the plague, because if you're ing with that faction, chances are you'll eventually attack them. Only do it to enemies you won't ever actually get to, like all of Europe as Egypt or something.

[Kine]

Some of the things I do ...

1. Go deep behind enemy lines looking for cities with minimal garrison. Pop in 2 - 3 spies to drop their order%. 4 or more assasins to blow up City Hall, Barracks, Church, Brothels and all other happiness buildings. Do it all in the same turn and if you manage to drop order to < 40% there is a good chance the AI cannot restore order and the city goes rogue. A hijacking army should be on standy to take the city once it goes rebel. I do this to work around excomm warns.

2. toggle_fow and start looking for FLs, Heirs and other enemy family members. Send in an assasination squad; usually they all need to be maxed out on skills, and take them all out. AIs move their generals around within their territory alot. I assume it's something to do with them trying to use up movement turns.. If you're patient enough you can get Fls all alone in a single unit stack.

Also useful when you've cornered a faction down to 1 or 2 regions and the pope issues out a 7 year excomm warn. Their family members is all bunched up all in the same place. Kill enough of them off and the faction gets destroyed and their regions go rebel and free game.

3. Help save useful 'allies' who got themselves excommunicated. Take out their Fl and it's faction will get reconciled. Useful if you need to buy them time.

4. Rig the CoC by taking out rival cardinals. Clicking on the cardinal's name in the CoC page will center the map on their location. Send in your man to do his thing

5. All the above requires highly skilled men. Train them up for a few turns on them pesky rebel stacks in your interior regions. Once they hit 6 skill points start feeding on diplomats and merchants. Ideally with odds between 75% - 95%. Only send out a squad (3 spies, 5 assassins) when all of them are maxed out.

6. Spies are good for slowing down rival economies as they'll force cities to run lower taxes. I almost alwaysfill up italian cities with 2 -3 spies every campaign since they have good trades which finances their crossbows. Most factions will need to use expensive calvaries to counter their CBs and the spies even things up a little. You don't need high level spies to get the job done. Assassins can be employed to routinely torch down ports and markets. I have a squad who goes on sabotage patrol up and down rival regions.

[ZealotsACH]

4. Rig the CoC by taking out rival cardinals. Clicking on the cardinal's name in the CoC page will center the map on their location. Send in your man to do his thing

i never even thought of that! Great idea!

[ProjectCaddyGuy]

I'll admit, I love cardinal hunting and making mine the only living cardinals. The most I've ever managed is ALL the cardinals were mine. Though I couldn't fill out the ranks fully by myself. There were some vacancies. I kept so many spies and assassins out, along with priests as my eyes in enemy territories that every turn an enemy priest popped up, he died either that turn or the next. Yet the pope loved me

Oh another fun one is besiege enemy cities with a mediocre stack with 5 or 6 catapults, trebuchets, etc, and just blow stuff up. Then retreat. You count as losing the battle, but you can do it with minimal losses. It ruins a city as fast as an assassin.

[AJenny58]

I like to steal an enemy settlement, and then gift it to an ally who is not at war with my enemy yet. The enemy will take back the city and PRESTO! I have started a war.

Also I attack enemy armies that are near my allies' armies, dragging them into battle as my reinforcements, thus starting a war between two factions that were neutral the turn before.

[.L.]

I like to steal an enemy settlement, and then gift it to an ally who is not at war with my enemy yet. The enemy will take back the city and PRESTO! I have started a war.

Also I attack enemy armies that are near my allies' armies, dragging them into battle as my reinforcements, thus starting a war between two factions that were neutral the turn before.

Raze everything first

[AJenny58]

Raze everything first

But of course! Haha

[Heathen Storm]

My personal favorite - Viking raid tactics. (Works amazingly in the Last Kingdom)
Take a family member and a fairly large army between 20-50 turns into the game, searching for an enemy's most advanced settlement and taking it. Raze every building, bump the taxes up to very high, leave the settlement that turn and go to their nearest settlement. The most i've ever managed to raise up was between 50-75,000 gold from one turn.

[Shasqua]

My personal favorite - Viking raid tactics. (Works amazingly in the Last Kingdom)
Take a family member and a fairly large army between 20-50 turns into the game, searching for an enemy's most advanced settlement and taking it. Raze every building, bump the taxes up to very high, leave the settlement that turn and go to their nearest settlement. The most i've ever managed to raise up was between 50-75,000 gold from one turn.

I occasionally do this as well. It has its uses, and is pretty fun, but hurts your reputation, and your armies would be better off taking land and expanding the empire.

[Heathen Storm]

I occasionally do this as well. It has its uses, and is pretty fun, but hurts your reputation, and your armies would be better off taking land and expanding the empire.

True but when one's being evil what need do you have of a reputation?

[Fireright]

Surely the most evil 'tactic' which can be implemented from the start and achieved before hitting end turn of Turn One:

Leapfrog the map with elephant after elephant and auto-win every siege and every battle.

Hit End Turn....Au Revoir France!!

[Kine]

True but when one's being evil what need do you have of a reputation?

although it makes negotiating impossible afterwards even when trying to get allies to swap regions with you.

[Gazz]

although it makes negotiating impossible afterwards even when trying to get allies to swap regions with you.

Diplomacy is useless.

[.L.]

Can't let this die. Assassinate Crusade/Jihad leaders to disband their armies

[Primo]

I like to attack Rome with Venice in the first turns - You have a hard start, and your public order drops, but then you can simply assassinate the popes one by one, till you aren´t excommunicated anymore, because your own cardinal is pope.