Rake (ETW Agent)

Rakes are the spies and assassins of Western nations in Empire: Total War. Their eastern and Indian equivalents, Hashashins and Thugees respectively, are identical in every way sans their inability to duel.

Overview

Rakes are randomly recruited from entertainment buildings throughout a region. The more entertainment buildings there are, and the higher their level of construction, the more likely it is for a rake to spawn there. Rakes are also more likely to spawn if their parent nation had recently lost a lot of rakes through natural causes or capture and execution.

Rakes have several functions. They are invisible to any faction on the world map, which makes them ideal for scouting out general locations of armies. For more detailed information of armies, rakes can attempt infiltrate them, revealing the army's unit composition and strength. The chance of a successful infiltration varies wildly, from less than 10 percent to over 80 percent.

When ordered, rakes can also assassinate targets. Assassination targets include gentlemen (and eastern scholars), missionaries, generals, and other rakes (and eastern hashashins) (only available if they are caught in an act of failed subterfuge). Perhaps the most useful assassination targets are generals, as successful assassinations of good generals can make ensuing battles much easier. Successful assassinations generally have a 5-45 percent chance of happening, depending on the skillfulness of the rake and the traits of the target.

Rakes can duel gentlemen, but only if they are challenged to a duel by gentlemen. This is rare as rakes can only be challenged if they had failed an act of subterfuge on the turn before and thus be made visible. Rakes are notably worse than dueling than gentlemen, but still stand a small chance of winning.

Finally, rakes can sabotage enemy buildings. This may hurt their economy, cause unrest, delay research, or prevent the training of units. Rakes usually have a 10-50 percent chance of a successful sabotage mission.

Rakes can only attempt one act of sabotage, infiltration, or assassination per turn. After they attempt their mission, rakes can still move around on the world map, but will not be able to do any further damage. Successfully completing missions increases a rake's skill in subterfuge and increases the chances of successful future missions, while unsuccessful attempts may cause rakes to lose these positive traits.

Whenever a rake attempts any sort of subterfuge (which is everything they do short of walking around on the world map), they face the risk of detection or death. The risk of detection is much higher than death. A detected rake simply is unable to complete his mission, while an executed rake is removed from the world map.

Strategy

Rakes run the risk of being discovered (or worse, execution) if they are left in any building or army not owned by the player by the end of the turn. Therefore, it's a good habit to attempt to make rakes leave the building or army if possible after the mission.

While assassinating gentlemen can permanently hurt a country's research rate, it may be more practical to sabotage the university the gentlemen work at. Sabotaging a university halts all research there, and sabotage has a much higher chance of success than assassination. Continuously executing successful sabotage missions on a university will ensure that the country will start lagging far behind in terms of technology.

Counters

Rakes are extraordinarily difficult to counter. Not only are they almost permanently invisible, even if one can pinpoint where they are (due to sabotage and assassinations) there is very little a faction can do to rid itself of rakes. The best it can hope for is hope that the rake is eventually caught an executed while attempting to do more harm. Rakes can assassinate other rakes, so placing a rake next to a location the player is sure has trouble will ensure that friendly rakes will have a chance of getting rid of the nuisance. Unfortunately, the chance of a rake assassinating another rake is rather low.

Another thing a player can do to reduce the harm caused by rakes is to move gentlemen and priests away from the area, lest the rake attempt to assassinate them. Gentlemen and priests are too valuable to be given to chance.