I was curious if anyone uses the strategy of getting a Great Spy from the Great Wall early on in the game, and then using him to explore enemy territories, or just any unexplored territories? I have found this to be pretty useful as he can never be "stumbled upon" like regular spies and he cannot be attacked by enemies, barbarians and animals.

If I am invading an enemy, I can just let him roam freely in enemy territory and he lets me know of enemy troop movements. Of course you could just ask him to infiltrate and it will reveal a lot about the enemy, but you still need to actually explore his territory first. Eventually, I would have him infiltrate someone else, or just start a Golden Age. I only wish he had the commando upgrade like regular spies.

It is true, the GS will never get caught or eaten by Barbs.

I used him for exploring a couple of times - for a very limited number of turns - if the intel is really important and hard to get by in any other fashion - like when i plan to attack Tokugawa - there is no chance to get OB to do a bit of souting...

However it is also true, that he's much to valuable to let him just wander around the map for long.

Also good for popping huts that are defended by barbs.

I always use my Great Spy to fully explore my continent.

1. He's fast, 2 move. Huzzah.
2. He goes Commando. Gotta respect a spy who doesn't wear briefs under his kilt.
3. He's unstoppable. Nothing in the game can ever, EVER, detect or effect him.

All in all this means that he's an ideal scout. Add to this that the best use of your first GSpy is generally acknowledged to be in building Scotland Yard somewhere and you get additional incentive. Not only is having a Scotland Yard mostly useful late game, early game you may not even know for certain which city you want to be your final spy city.

Put every factor together and I assert there's a very strong incentive to use your first GSpy to explore your continent before building Scotland Yard. Or, for the sneaky-minded, hitting your tech-whore neighbor up for the 3000 or so EP. Using squads of spys that sit for the full 50% discount, plus hopefully a religious discount too, makes for a whole host of Classical techs, and all the Ancient ones too boot as a bonus.

-abs

He does not seem to have commando tho :(

I can't recall if it shows it on him when you click on him.

But I've seen GSpys use roads in other folks territory. Or at least in countries with and without open borders. Can't recall at 2:30 AM if I've used one while at war.

Anyhow, even if it doesn't show I am pretty sure it acts like it goes commando.

-abs

And you can establish diplomatic relationships with the Gspy. This should be fixed.

Exploring with the Great Spy can be very useful, and if you don't have an urgent need for it, using him to bomb later on does not diminish the effectiveness of the bomb.

Does anyone know what would happen if you put the Great Spy on a caravel and the caravel is sunk?

I would imagine it would be lost.Can you test great people in the world builder?

I got my exploring Great spy kicked out when I declared war.. Basically I built Gwall as Sulaiman before second city. Being Philosophical I got Spy very early and declared war on Cyrus and kept on using him to observe troop movements while I axe rushed . Don't think I even had alphabet at that time.

I got my exploring Great spy kicked out when I declared war.. Basically I built Gwall as Sulaiman before second city. Being Philosophical I got Spy very early and declared war on Cyrus and kept on using him to observe troop movements while I axe rushed . Don't think I even had alphabet at that time.

I believe this was fixed in the Bhuric's patch, in that your spies won't get kicked out when you declare war. I'm not sure if it applies only to regular spies or not.