| Kestral | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Title |
Lady of Plunder |
|
Passive Ability |
Bonus on tax collection. |
|
Active Ability |
Can plunder City Buildings' Earnings. |
Kestral is a knight in Settlers 6: Rise of an Empire. She is introduced in the campaign during Gallos, where she and her mercenary band can be hired to help fend off the Baron of Randalfingen's troops.
Passive Ability[]
Kestral gains extra gold from taxes, without the negative effects that high tax normally entails. This provides a noticeable increase in her passive gold income that grows exponentially throughout the game. This allows her to fund Outposts to rapidly expand her territory and build up an even stronger economy to gain more gold from.
Tax is paid by production buildings, but not gatherers. The amount paid by a specific building is based on that building's earnings, which is increased when settlers buy items from it. As Kestral's ability is a multiplier of total tax collected it will be negated by exempting all taxes and will be boosted substantially with high taxes. However, high taxes also drain earnings faster which may prevent the buildings from recovering before the next taxation, thereby draining the tax income over time until the taxes are lowered.
While gold is generally more useful early on and Kestral's gold income grows exponentially over the course of a game, even the slight amount of extra gold gotten at the start can help fund outposts and upgrades for the Castle, Cathedral, and Storehouse that little bit faster. With a focus on expanding goods production early it can also potentially fund trade through the extra income, as well as potentially by selling any superfluous goods. This can increase the bonus tax paid even further if the gold is used to buy resources for more goods production, particularly cattle and sheep, as they are renewable. Furthermore, the increase in tax can also be used to more easily fund high soldiers' pay, giving Kestral a slight military edge.
Active Ability[]
Kestral can plunder the earnings of any building, including her own, to add them to her own stockpile. The amount of gold stolen is based on the building's earnings.
Stealing from an enemy building is the most effective use of this ability as it will provide gold while also reducing the tax the building can pay until it recovers. However, this comes at the risk of Kestral being defeated in the process, possibly before even reaching the a building worth plundering. Using it on the player's own buildings can provide a bit of extra income particularly if it is used multiple times over the course of the game, but as it drains the building's earnings it will reduce the tax the building pays and potentially make it poor which can delay reaching the high ranks that demand rich buildings.