Assassin nations?

[Ironhawk]

The ethereal xbow is MR resists tho, isnt it? So you cant be 100% effective.

[Jazzepi]

Stryke11 said:
You've seen the Ethereal Crossbow work? I ask because I never see an attack sprite of the commander and no quarrel like a regular bow. I was beginning to think they were bugged. I even looked at enemy armies very closely for unexplainable deaths.

They definitely worked. I used them as MA C'Tis in a recent game to kill elephants. Eagle eyes + 4 precision off the bow is a beating.

Jazzepi

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Ctis has an interesting option in the Empoisoner.

Snake Bladder Stick + Defense items. If you can get defense over 20 (not difficult with nature items) the poison just piles up rapidly, plus area attack to deal with bodyguards.

There are a variety of interesting choices for defense, but the key is 20+. Five boring independent HI will make five attacks, leading to a total defense penalty of 10 on the last attack. If you just have the default defense and just natural protection, you'll be done for.

A few Animate(d) Skeletons are nothing to laugh at if its a cavalry commander.

Mujina's (Shinuyama) are just too fragile, but I keep wanting to combine them with that morale lowering air global.

[thejeff]

The simple approach with the Empoisoner is a Skull Staff.

Raise skeletons beats anything short of thugs and high level priests.

[Potatoman]

The defender always gets the first turn in assassination attempts, don't they? That makes attacking most mages a risky proposition with skelespam, even if they don't have bodyguards. A turn 1 soul slay, tangle vines, combustion, etc, will end the fight before any skeletons enter play.

[thejeff]

True, but that applies to most anything other than fully kitted out thug/SC.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Skull Staff is fairly low tier, just like my setup. But even with a Skull Staff, the fatigue (40 per cast) is nothing to laugh at. Five Ulm Black Plate w/Flails (3x attack) could probably massacre 15 Skelies easy. Now, throw in some gems to lower the fatigue and its a different matter.
Or perhaps Elite Warriors (Ctis, 14 g, 9 resources, two attacks) or wolf tribe (those are the ones with two daggers, right?) warriors.

[Stryke11]

Edratman said:
I've seen etheral crossbow work with an assassin. Nothing exciting, opponent just disappears in a blink. I had to replay the very first one a couple of times just to comprehend what happened.

I think that my assassin should be 100% successful with it, but that has not proven to be the case. I guess the problem is accuracy combined with not firing every round.

Thanks for that. I guess it's just one of those things you can't see, but have to trust that it works. I'm glad to hear it does. I always though EC's had perfect prescison, tho. I can see how for an assassination situation that would be overpowered, though.

[Shovah32]

Any assassin with a skullface can also be deadly. Sure, it's expensive(and other than against the ai, probably not worth it) but casting raise skeletons for 5 fatigue means that, assuming you survive the defenders first turn, you should be safe.

[Edratman]

Stryke11 said:
Thanks for that. I guess it's just one of those things you can't see, but have to trust that it works. I'm glad to hear it does. I always though EC's had perfect prescison, tho. I can see how for an assassination situation that would be overpowered, though.

I've just recently switched to a nation that can make the etheral crossbow with its own mages and I've come to like it to equip mundane commanders. I usually play one nation at a time so I also haven't often played a nation with assassins and the few times I've had assassins was from sites, which are few and far between. I previously equipped assassins with the bow of madness, but I think the EC is better.

Because I don't routinely have access to assassins I don't use them as a strategy, but more of an experimental toy. I keep trying to get a pretender or major mage with the bow of madness or etheral crossbow. No luck to date. My assassins seem to always go after mundane commanders or low level mages when they weren't getting killed off by the PD.