A commander with the assassin ability may attempt to assassinate a random enemy non-hidden commander in the same province. Assassination attempts occur before many other events in the turn order, such as movement. If the assassin is in a province where there is a hostile fort under siege, they must have the Scale Walls ability to be able to assassinate a commander inside.

If there is a non-hiding enemy commander in the province, an assassin will always find a target and trigger an assassination battle. There is a 50% chance that an assassination will occur at night, which has potential to incur some darkness penalties. Commanders that are assassinated are considered to be surprised and will disregard any scripted orders they are given, including conservative gem usage. The assassin however will carry out their script as normal.

A potential assassination victim can have bodyguards, which are units under their command with the Guard Commander order. Each bodyguard has a base 50% chance to be present in the assassination, which is increased by the Bodyguard ability.

Similarly, the value listed on the assassin ability is the patience score, which reduces the odds of any bodyguards being present at an assassination attempt.

A unit with the seducer trait can effectively serve as an assassin. If the seduce order is given, and if when it resolves in the turn order there is at least one adjacent province controlled by the player or if the seducer has the flying trait, a non-hidden enemy commander will always be found (given there is one). This commander will roll a morale check against 9 for most seducers, 15 for dream seducers. Depending on the outcome, three things can happen: - the enemy commander fails the morale check ; the seduction is successful and the commander is stolen by the player back to an adjacent province chosen at random among the ones controlled by the player. - the morale check is a draw ; the assassination does not take place, the seducer stays hidden. - the enemy commander succeeds on his morale check ; an assassination battle ensues.