The priest and the assassin.

[Itherael]

My favourite civ is Khazad and I simply love playing them in a Kilmorph religious theocracy style, as such every city I own has a Stonewarden as part of its occupying force.

Many of my cities often lack a unit advanced enough to sport the Guardsman promotion.

First I promote my Stonewardens to Inquisitor (for when I need to switch out of theocracy for one reason or another and want to ensure absolute loyalty to Kilmorph) and City Garrison I.

After this I tend to be left with some options as to which I'm not sure what to pick, this brings me to the point... what promotions out of my remaining options are the best for resisting Assassins?

Usually I go for Combat I,II,III,IV,V and slipping in Shock I & II when available. Is this the best option or would I gain survivability by promoting to Drill?

 

[Itherael]

I just had a thought, would placing my own Assassin in the occupying force allow me to attack and enemy Assassin before they attack me?

 

[readercolin]

if it is in a city, remember that assasins get -50% city strength. So the problem then is resisting in the field. For that, I would recommend going up the combat line - assasins are immune to first strikes (iirc - if not they have 1-2 of their own). As assasins are recon units, and there are no anti-recon bonuses... combat is really all you can give your stonewardens to resist being assasinated.

-Colin

 

[Breez]

Personally For City Defenders I like to have 1 Archer/Slinger with First strikes and another with City Defender. I also like to add a melee/mounted unit that can counter attack when needed specialized vs. what ever seems to be invading me the most (melee, mounted, etc), a priest for improved healing, and a Adept to maintain 1st level spells like Earth, Mind, and Growth...

Of course you notice I ended up with 5ish defenders. I only do that on my boarder cities. The rear echelons have just the 2 archers. I move everyone else up when I get a new front line City.

 

[rvarnell]

I usually leave weak units in areas where I'm concerned about assassins. Scouts, tigers, skeletons, etc. They are assassin fodder and are much cheaper than having a guardsman promoted unit in all of those locations.

 

[Emptiness]

I just had a thought, would placing my own Assassin in the occupying force allow me to attack and enemy Assassin before they attack me?

This is a good method of countering enemy assassins and catapults. Beware of situations where their assassin can kill your assassin before you kill it, however. Sometimes you may want to keep your assassin close to the city, but not in the city itself.