Can someone point a lurker/BtS Newbie to a good espionage article? Of the changes between CivIV vanilla and BtS, this is the one I'm having trouble adjusting to.

Thanks in advance!

Can someone point a lurker/BtS Newbie to a good espionage article? Of the changes between CivIV vanilla and BtS, this is the one I'm having trouble adjusting to.

Thanks in advance!
Yeah, espionage in BtS is quite a bit different then implementations in older versions of Civ... here's a few golden rules in a nutshell:

1) don't forget to prioritize your "espionage spending" in the espionage screen (that little "hat" icon in the top-right of your main map screen).

2) Use your own spies to defend border cities and/or use security bureaus to defend... remember that one spy or one bureau is all you need to defend a city... more spies or spies plus a bureau don't give you any added defensive bonuses when stacked.

3) Harass your opponent with blowing up tile improvements and poisoning cities, or cause a revolt right before you attack his city (to remove the defensive bonus).

4) Without a Great Spy, you can pretty much kiss stealing technology from your opponent goodbye, as you'll NEVER have enough espionage points to steal technology, so don't even bother trying (oh I'm sure there's some way of doing it, but realistically speaking, without a great spy doing the dirty work, you're hosed).

5) Speaking of Great Spies, use them to "infiltrate" another civ... you'll get a TON of espionage points against that civ, that you then use your regular spies to perform missions (like stealing a tech)... conversely, settle your first great spy, then use your second great spy to build Scotland Yard in the same city... never build scotland yard in a city that isn't producing spy points anyways!

Those are the top-5 things for a noob on espionage. I'm sure someone will point you to something more in-depth.

That helps enormously. Thanks very much. :)

3) Harass your opponent with blowing up tile improvements and poisoning cities, or cause a revolt right before you attack his city (to remove the defensive bonus)..

This one can be key at times. You can take out the enemy's source of iron or oil at the worst possible momment (i.e. when they're rebuilding their military just before your counterattack). If it is their only source, then that equals a much easier military to destroy.


:espionage:: 10% Don't forget about the Espionage slider. After you've constructed an EP producing building in the majority/all of your cities, then increasing the slider will give you even more EPs per turn. Only adjust the slider though if you have a great economy and it won't crush you in the research race though (i.e when you're near the top, or leading). If you can flex 10% on Espionage then you will be able to carry out more missions, as well as thwart more enemy missions, and at cheaper prices than your foes too. Using 10% against the AI is pretty much a must when allowable since they are so spy-happy most of the time. One last thing, if a Civ is at the bottom or near bottom of the score board and not your neighbor, then take them down to a 1 or 0 weight on the espionage screen (Ctrl+E). They're probably being conquered if their score is going down.

Welcome to the Forums medjenXII. :beer: