Black heart

[Ballbarian]

This only works on provinces that have a province defense of 0. If your opponent has bought a single point of province defense, then the only thing that occurs is 5 or 6 points of unrest.

You can accomplish exactly the same effect on undefended provinces using 20 gold scouts.

It is not the same. The scout has to spend a turn attacking & not moving, whereas the pan can just keep moving and does not risk encountering enemy forces that happen to move into the "unguarded" province on the same turn as the attack.

Try it, you'll like it.

[thejeff]

It's good against stupid opponents.

Only stupid opponents won't have at least 1 PD. And there are plenty of ways to beat stupid opponents. Even the AI doesn't leave many provinces with no defenders.

Using 300gp mages to pick up a rare undefended province isn't very efficient. A scout wasting a turn is far cheaper. And the maeneads show where your pans are heading.

[Shovah32]

Using the pan you also get to see what forces and scripting the enemy has in the area without wasting a commander in an attack.