View Full Version : Annexation / Overthrowing of Entire Country
Dalewyn
16 Mar 2008, 04:01
Hi again, everyone. I've come across something I haven't seen before in the campaign I've been playing (many thanks with the encouragement over my heir problem, by the way! :) ).
In a time span of what must have been a few seconds, the empire of Byzantia was gone (emperor died of old age) and replaced by an entirely new tribal country called Pehenmeg (or something like that, don't have the game open to spell it correctly right now). I probably wouldn't have noticed it if the new country wasn't Pagan and I saw all those "<province> switched to pagan" notices.
My question today is, how could I accomplish something to similar effect? I'm going to guess it requires a spy, but I, sadly, don't have a deep understanding of how the espionage system exactly works as my spy always got hired as a marshal or, if I was lucky, a spy.
Using espionage right, could I annex an entire kingdom into my own? Or would the old country fade away and be replaced with another (like in this case)? I've been conquering provinces through military might, but the conquering of a kingdom through espionage gives me a lot to think about.
Oh, and if anyone's interested, I'll also post what I did/am doing with the newcomers in here. The overthrowing of an entire country (one that was my heartfelt ally, no less!) gives so much RPing potential. :D
Mephistopheles
16 Mar 2008, 11:34
When you have a spy at the enemy's court and he becomes king you can ask him to turn over the crown to you, annexing the complete country.
That's likely what happened to byzantia. As unlikely as it sounds I think a small pagan country had send a spy to byzantia, he became king and the Chief of the pagan country made the spy turn over the crown.
You can make the process easier by bringing two spies to an enemy court. Spy 1 becomes a marshall and you send him a couple of easy armies to defeat so he becomes very experienced very quickly. Spy 2 becomes a spy at the enemy court and starts killing off any possible successors to the current king. With no legitimate heir it is very likely that your spy-marshall will be proclaimed king. Otherwise you can still assassinate the knight who was elected in your place so a new king has to be chosen, where it is even more likely that your knight will become king.
That strategy works alright when you have a lot of books to educate a lot of spies, because a couple of spies will be detected during this.
Yes, it seems to me that the Pechenegs have one way or another taken Byzantium by the line of espionage - either directly annexing the kingdom or more likely in this case - the Byzantine emperor was childless, so the Pecheneg spy in his court was chosen as the new emperor and then handed the crown to the Pechenegs (that seems a bit more likely to me, given the mentioning that the old emperor had just died).
As for your question - yes, separate provinces and even whole countries can be annexed through the good use of spies. Provinces can be annexed when your spy is set as a governor of that province (f.e. a trader set in Trondelag - you get the option to try and take the settlement then). IIRC, whole kingdoms could be annexed only when they're your vassals (and your spy is hired as another spy or trader, I think, though I'm not exactly sure what professions were needed - perhaps someone more familiar with that here would elaborate). Another option is my favourite one, but also quite more rare - the king dies, your spy is made the new king and then he agrees to hand over the crown to you (though he might also refuse and break all bonds with you) - kind of what probably happened with Byzantium in your case. In those ways of espionage, I can say that the trickiest part, however, is the chance your spy to get hired at the right job (or at least any job other than a marshal).
there are many ways how to make your spy annex other country
to describe some that weren't described yet:
send your experienced spy to a the contry and wait. Then sign a trade agreement with them and grant them some nice amount of money, so they can afford to buy new knight (however, it is most likely that they will hire him as marshal) - and with the new trade agreement there is a chance he becomes a trader. Then you have 2 choices, let him be as trader and wait long time since he may become king. The other is to wage a war against them and make the kingdom your vasal. if the kingdom is your vasal and you are larger than them, your spy-merchant can annex the entire kingdom.
Another way is through marshals:
Use 2-3 spies against them. The first will start a revolt (all their experienced marshals are gone) - but be careful to call him back, or he might get arrested. After that it is good to send them some money and it is possible that you will get both a marshal and a spy (after the revolt, there is need of spy-protector of the court) It is good to have your marshal near to protect your spy-marshal from possible strong rebel-armies.
PS: not long ago I managed to kill my spy-marshal. I had too many enemies and missed that his lord re-declared war on me and he invaded my kingdom and suddently military victory and spy-killed announcements appeared :bash:
There's another possibility - the emperor was indeed heirless but he had one daughter and she married to the Pecheneg Chief. Then he annexed the whole Byzantine empire by inherritance. I don't know if this works, for I've inherrited 4 provinces at most, but it is a possibility.
that would be possible only if Byzantia had 3 and less provinces
Dalewyn
17 Mar 2008, 03:37
that would be possible only if Byzantia had 3 and less provinces
Which they didn't, Byzantia was covering all of the areas it starts out with in the early period and was wailing on Anatolia and Antalya. :eek:
Going to have to take a crack at this espionage stuff more, sounds extremely fun (and evil).
Going to have to take a crack at this espionage stuff more, sounds extremely fun (and evil).
My favourite part of the game! ;) :go:
Going to have to take a crack at this espionage stuff more, sounds extremely fun (and evil).that's for sure ;)
My favourite part of the game! ;) :go:
my too :) actualy conquering provinces gets bornig after some time, even building provinces up, but playing those spy games and siplomatic reactions are the spice of KoH for me ;)
Yep, exactly the espionage makes the difference between KoH and other medieval games :)