Cutthroats

[BJ Joey]

So, everything was going great until I noticed a cutthroat in one of my cities and then another and then another. I tried up arrest them, but my Marshalls were not quite up to the challenge. What is the best way to deal with these guys?

 

[Thunderbrd]

They are crosses between ruffians and criminals and are thus a very difficult spot to deal with because they travel in large groups that are quite militant for the usual city-dwelling criminal. The best way to deal with them is to REALLY specialize some law enforcement units to battle criminals and don't expect them to be effective at day to day crime control or investigation at all, total dedication to all combat mechanisms and see which might be most effective, like trying to determine if stealth strikes on law is better than anti-criminal combat modifiers and so on. It's an open invitation to really test combat effectiveness of various promotion choices. Either way, go dramatic into the arrest battle with these guys and if you can get them to leave, have some strong military ready to kill them if you can catch them out of the city. Strive for the gunpowder guard upgrades (and iirc, one might find royal guards helpful here but I can't recall.)

Past this era, the next wave of criminal is best at political destabilization which the AI isn't quite as refined yet as intended for them but it's helpful to know that's the 'special' aspect of the scoundrel anyhow. They are much easier to arrest.