How do YOU train your agents?

[Destitute Noble]

From a NooB perspective, I find the Agents and political stuff and Leadership/wizard training stuff the murkiest. Is there a strategy guide available that covers the topic of training non-military expertise (ie. missions vs. money)? For example, does a wizard and/or captain get a chance to increase level if they go on a risky mission (to investigate an unusual event, for example?).

I think like anything else with your kingdom you have to decide how important that aspect of it is to you. If you are the trolls, and just want to smash everything you may not worry as much about emissaries/espionage. I have found that having a good agent corps gives you some flexibility to protect yourself/hurt your enemies when the need arises. That's key also I think...if you're just going to use agents to protect and recon then you don't need to worry about training them to higher levels. If you are going to use them to assassinate/kidnap/steal then you better train them up before you attempt to use them.

Also, your military leaders can increase their "level" as they do unusual sightings - in fact, even if you fail they can increase. Not sure if this is 100% of the time though...in a recent game I failed an unusual sighting, and my leader still gained a "level". Wizards will not advance though - they can only do that if you train them (799 order).

As a follow-up - after rereading some of my stuff, I've also had an instance where an unusual sighting was successful (i.e. I got the artifact) and the leader did not advance to the next "level", though a new leader did join the group (as happens sometimes when your group has an encounter - i.e. battle or unusual sighting).

[Beatific]

From a NooB perspective, I find the Agents and political stuff and Leadership/wizard training stuff the murkiest. Is there a strategy guide available that covers the topic of training non-military expertise (ie. missions vs. money)? For example, does a wizard and/or captain get a chance to increase level if they go on a risky mission (to investigate an unusual event, for example?).

I think like anything else with your kingdom you have to decide how important that aspect of it is to you. If you are the trolls, and just want to smash everything you may not worry as much about emissaries/espionage. I have found that having a good agent corps gives you some flexibility to protect yourself/hurt your enemies when the need arises. That's key also I think...if you're just going to use agents to protect and recon then you don't need to worry about training them to higher levels. If you are going to use them to assassinate/kidnap/steal then you better train them up before you attempt to use them.

Also, your military leaders can increase their "level" as they do unusual sightings - in fact, even if you fail they can increase. Not sure if this is 100% of the time though...in a recent game I failed an unusual sighting, and my leader still gained a "level". Wizards will not advance though - they can only do that if you train them (799 order).

As a follow-up - after rereading some of my stuff, I've also had an instance where an unusual sighting was successful (i.e. I got the artifact) and the leader did not advance to the next "level", though a new leader did join the group (as happens sometimes when your group has an encounter - i.e. battle or unusual sighting).

Yeah, but how do you get new agents? Most set ups only have a few at most. Can you recruit them? How about bribing them (ie. double or triple agents)? Heh heh.....I am serious about the recruiting question though.

[Stillgard]

From a NooB perspective, I find the Agents and political stuff and Leadership/wizard training stuff the murkiest. Is there a strategy guide available that covers the topic of training non-military expertise (ie. missions vs. money)? For example, does a wizard and/or captain get a chance to increase level if they go on a risky mission (to investigate an unusual event, for example?).

I think like anything else with your kingdom you have to decide how important that aspect of it is to you. If you are the trolls, and just want to smash everything you may not worry as much about emissaries/espionage. I have found that having a good agent corps gives you some flexibility to protect yourself/hurt your enemies when the need arises. That's key also I think...if you're just going to use agents to protect and recon then you don't need to worry about training them to higher levels. If you are going to use them to assassinate/kidnap/steal then you better train them up before you attempt to use them.

Also, your military leaders can increase their "level" as they do unusual sightings - in fact, even if you fail they can increase. Not sure if this is 100% of the time though...in a recent game I failed an unusual sighting, and my leader still gained a "level". Wizards will not advance though - they can only do that if you train them (799 order).

As a follow-up - after rereading some of my stuff, I've also had an instance where an unusual sighting was successful (i.e. I got the artifact) and the leader did not advance to the next "level", though a new leader did join the group (as happens sometimes when your group has an encounter - i.e. battle or unusual sighting).

Yeah, but how do you get new agents? Most set ups only have a few at most. Can you recruit them? How about bribing them (ie. double or triple agents)? Heh heh.....I am serious about the recruiting question though.

You can hire new agents using 510 order. I like having a good number of agents, and usually one is training on a standing order. Low lvl ones are cheap to use and usually successful on recons.

[Hawk_]

From a NooB perspective, I find the Agents and political stuff and Leadership/wizard training stuff the murkiest. Is there a strategy guide available that covers the topic of training non-military expertise (ie. missions vs. money)? For example, does a wizard and/or captain get a chance to increase level if they go on a risky mission (to investigate an unusual event, for example?).

I think like anything else with your kingdom you have to decide how important that aspect of it is to you. If you are the trolls, and just want to smash everything you may not worry as much about emissaries/espionage. I have found that having a good agent corps gives you some flexibility to protect yourself/hurt your enemies when the need arises. That's key also I think...if you're just going to use agents to protect and recon then you don't need to worry about training them to higher levels. If you are going to use them to assassinate/kidnap/steal then you better train them up before you attempt to use them.

Also, your military leaders can increase their "level" as they do unusual sightings - in fact, even if you fail they can increase. Not sure if this is 100% of the time though...in a recent game I failed an unusual sighting, and my leader still gained a "level". Wizards will not advance though - they can only do that if you train them (799 order).

As a follow-up - after rereading some of my stuff, I've also had an instance where an unusual sighting was successful (i.e. I got the artifact) and the leader did not advance to the next "level", though a new leader did join the group (as happens sometimes when your group has an encounter - i.e. battle or unusual sighting).

Yeah, but how do you get new agents? Most set ups only have a few at most. Can you recruit them? How about bribing them (ie. double or triple agents)? Heh heh.....I am serious about the recruiting question though.

You can hire new agents using 510 order. I like having a good number of agents, and usually one is training on a standing order. Low lvl ones are cheap to use and usually successful on recons.

I think it is worth pointing out that most of the agent orders come after 510 so you can purchase a new agent and do a recon or transfer an artifact for example.