The Noob's Guide To: Taking A City Without Going Into "Total War"

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to view my guide! If it's helped you in anyway, don't forget to rate it. Thanks :]


Introduction: So you've just started a brand new campaign as your favourite faction, the Romans (I will use the Romans as my example throughout this guide, but the information shown can be applied to all factions.) and as your first priority, you set upon uniting Italia, Magna Graecia and Corsica et Sardinia back to their rightful owner, you! Upon doing so, you come across two towns, Lilybaeum and Karalis held by the Carthaginians which start out with Nova Carthago and Libya as it's allies. You decide, 'Hmm I could go into "total war" with the North of Africa for a town, or... I could take it subversively and take it with tactics!' In this guide you choose tactics because your just a cunning fox!

The troublesome pair.

The Basics You'll Need: The entirety of the plan can be achieved with out going into battle at all, keeping everything on the campaign map. To take the town, you will need at least one:

• Spy
  
• Veteran
  
• An army capable of defeating 3 - 10 basic infantry

Any more spies and veterans can also be used to hurry things along if one should fail.

All you need to cause havoc.

To take the town, were going to use subversion via the veteran and sabotage via the spy to lower the town's public order. Each of these acts causes negative public order in the target town which leads to an uprising from within the local population that in effect will take the town for you.


Step One: Move your spy and veteran to your target town and use their subversion and sabotage abilities. Don't worry about the enemy thinking your about to attack as these units are 'covert' meaning they are only seen by the enemy if they're caught.

• The Spy: Use 'Incite Unrest' to do exactly that. A new spy would inflict a negative fifteen public order where as an upgraded spy can inflict upto a fifty negative public order.
  
  
• The Veteran: Use 'Rally Slaves' like the spy to do what it says on the tin! The lower the public order, the greater chance that this will work. The effectiveness of this isnt set at specific levels but, at negative forty, regardless of the chance of success shown, it'll nearly always work.

The spy's 'Incite Unrest' ability.

The veteran's 'Rally Slaves' ability.

Once the public order is low enough, a slave army, incited from the veteran's ability and/or a rebal army incited from the spy's ability will apear just outside of the town. At this point move your army around the town in the territory but do not attack the town. This way you can attack the town when you need to, with out taking into account travel possibly missing your window of opportunity.


The new army will firstly need to build up, so keep using your abilities to incite greater unrest within the town.(Important Note: As it builds up, the enemy may bring in reinforcements or another faction may try to take the town as a slave and/or rebal army will attract 'visitors' that may take the town before you, so watch out! If this happens, unless you want to take them on, just let them take the town and repeat step one.) When it feels confident to launch an attack, the new army will in most cases win if the battle is just against the local garrison. If it loses, just wait until it wins and takes the town. If it wins, the original faction that was there from the start of the campaign will take over the town, or if it's a town from the start, then a random new regional faction will spawn and take over the town. Regardless, any of the factions that take it over will have no allies or enemies, it's a clean start meaning they will also have spawned with two basic armies and a spy.


Step Two: Launch an assault to take the town. Now that the town is owned by another faction that only occupies that town, it's going to be relatively weak compared to your semi upgraded, built up army. The town is now nothing to do with the previous owners, so taking it wouldn't cause hostilities between your two factions. The new faction that you've just robbed the town from will have been defeated completely in the process, destroying it.

Assaulting the Garamantians instead of the Carthaginians.

Conclusion: Congratulations! You've just conquered your final remaining town, uniting that region that you've always been scared to unite, by using tactics and a little planning. Though don't forget that this works for all factions on any city regardless of their security level against all agent actions. Woop!

Finally.