Assassins

[rvarnell]

How do you stop them? They ate up some of my mages in my second game (still currently playing it). So now, I've got a bunch of scouts with my stack of mages/soldiers and the assassin attacks have completely stopped. Thing is - I'm not sure if they're not attacking due to the scouts or if I just killed them all. Does this really work? Also, is there a better/cheaper way to protect your mages from assassins?

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Guardsman promotion on a few tough defenders can stop assasins. Your own assassins can stop their assassins. Water walking can make your mages unreachable by assassins. There are probably a few other things, but that should get you started.

 

[rvarnell]

I had ghosts in the stack & the assassins still got to the mages. Does the assassin vs. assassin thing not work for the sidar?

 

[cIV_khanh93]

well, you could also keep cannon fodder scouts like i think you suggested that you did, or earth II magescan caststoneskin, which gives them +2 defence and +3 first strikes till theirnextbattle. All of them have to cast it though, having one cast it would mean that it wouldn't be targeted.

 

[PotatoOverdose]

Well, what I meant was that you could use your assasins to kill their assasins since in all probability, assassins would be the weakest unit (in terms of defense) in their stacks. This is even easier because of the hidden promotion your ghosts will have. I forgot about earth II which is an excellent choice as well.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

There was some big thread on guardsman and I didn't quite gather how it actually works currently. Apparently the FfH and FF versions are different or something, and how best to use guardsman depends a lot on how the promotion works.

 

[Sephi]

There was some big thread on guardsman and I didn't quite gather how it actually works currently. Apparently the FfH and FF versions are different or something, and how best to use guardsman depends a lot on how the promotion works.

Guardsman has two effects (FFH patch t). It negates marksman promotion, so enemy assasins will also target the best defender. The second effect of Guardsman promotion is that the unit might defend the stack even though there is a better defender in the stack.

If you send a marksman against a stack with an arquebus, a warrior with guardsman promotion and an adept, he will target the arquebus (cause he is by far the best defender). If the guardsman warrior doesn't exist, the assasin will target the adept. If the warrior guardsman is upgraded to a champion, the assasin (and most other attackers, unless they have shock II) will target him, even though the arquebus is a better defender.

 

[Kenjister]

It's soo nice playing as Bannor, all the benefits of Guardsman, none of the drawbacks (since all units have it). Otherwise, I've found that simply sending an advance stack of Recon units and Assasins will take the hit from most of the AI Assasins, especially since you can usually stay in cover with 2 moves. Your own Assasins (if they survive) can kill the injured AI units leaving your main stack to move in relativly unharrased by the AI.

This works great if you have Hawks and the Raiders trait, since you can find the Assasins before they even hit you and get them first. If you have a Hero, get him Guardsman and that should also stop the attacks. The AI would be afraid to attack the hero at all, and won't send Assasins at him either. Even if the Hero does get him by an Assassin or two, World Units have about a -50% strength modifier when picking the best defended, which counters the defend until you die aspect of Guardsman.

 

[citizenalex]

in ffh2 patch t, what is the progress tree for promotions until guardsman?? I only managed to promote Brigit so far...

 

[Humakty]

It's all in the pedia : go under promotions, click guardsman, read.

 

[JonathanStrange]

I've used Royal Guardsmen, available with the Aristocratic civic, to protect mages. It works well enough both as a mage defender and as a side benefit for the particular combination of civics that I use (Aristocratic/Agrarianism).

I've used the other remedies mentioned as available -but I like this best as it frees the mage a bit from having to learn/use spells just for self-defense.