Runaway Spying on me.

Ok, so here's what's happened:

I'm playing a Lakes game. All standard on Emperor, raging barbs. No particular goal in mind, Just interested in seeing how large my capital can get. Currently at 29 pop at turn 204 with a MASSIVE religion.

The problem:
I have France as my ally all game long and I haven't fought any wars. I am allied with most Maritime CSes I found and I currently have my cap producing research because I don't have anything better to build. In terms of Land area and points, it is apparent that France is the runaway.

Turns out I am the tech leader (also leader in GNP and Pop, if the demographics screen is to be trusted). Now, my one and only buddy-bud, Napoleon decides to steal tech from me. My army is a grand total of 5 Jags (but I can easily get an army quickly), ready to be upgraded. How can I ensure that I can secure my only lead (tech advantage) from him?

Put a spy in your capital and build constabulatory and police station and national intelligence agency and pick any policy that makes it harder for spies.

Or skip all the trouble.

Post a spy in ur capital and build the great firewall. Then he will spend like 50k turns trying to steal a tech from u.

I should probably build those contabularies. Any necessary building for culture or science, I buy anyway

If you're well ahead in technology, it doesn't matter whether you have a spy on counterintelligence in the capital and have built a Constabulary there. Techs WILL still be stolen from you. That's your punishment for getting ahead in technology (or, frankly, in any phase of the game). The only way the AI can hope to compete with you is if it's well ahead of you in technology... and part of that means totally cheating in the espionage game.

Nah, it depends from game to game. Current empgame as France (before it crashed) I was 1st in Literacy for a looooooooong time, and the two spies who tried stealing from me (Mongols and Murcans) all died in a blaze of bullets.

Constabularies, Police Stations and the Great Firewall it is then. On the turn after my last save (I had to go somewhere), I denounced Japan who stole another tech from me. Suddenly, everyone in the world commended me for doing so. Except Spain. I am now assuming that Spain is allied/friendly with Japan. Since Japan is far away from me, Spain is going down! Five Heal-on-Kill rifles will serve me greatly.

As for the pop game, kinda sucks that I missed out on Fertility Rites and Hanging Gardens, but getting around 8 tiles of Desert for Desert Folklore ain't too bad.

Spain is going down. She had the gall to prophetbomb my one and only city. Hooray for stacked military buildings and wonders in one city! I have heal-on-kill riflemen and lvl 3 Artilleries!

So this is what power tastes like. Siam is next! He keeps buying my CSes! I was resisting the urge to wait it out until GDR's, but they're gonna go down. Eliminate neighbors until only the buddy is left >

AriochIV said:

If you're well ahead in technology, it doesn't matter whether you have a spy on counterintelligence in the capital and have built a Constabulary there. Techs WILL still be stolen from you. That's your punishment for getting ahead in technology (or, frankly, in any phase of the game). The only way the AI can hope to compete with you is if it's well ahead of you in technology... and part of that means totally cheating in the espionage game.

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If you're well ahead in technology, it doesn't matter if you get techs stolen either. You're well ahead in the first place because you have a higher beaker output; by the time they've stolen everything you already have, your lead has grown again. They can't steal things you don't have. This makes police stations and constabularies important; the longer you delay their tech steal, the further ahead you'll be.

Syntax Error said:

Spain is going down. She had the gall to prophetbomb my one and only city. Hooray for stacked military buildings and wonders in one city! I have heal-on-kill riflemen and lvl 3 Artilleries!

So this is what power tastes like. Siam is next! He keeps buying my CSes! I was resisting the urge to wait it out until GDR's, but they're gonna go down. Eliminate neighbors until only the buddy is left >

Click to expand...

Or you could just put a inquisitor in your capital and stop the religion bombs.

PhilBowles said:

If you're well ahead in technology, it doesn't matter if you get techs stolen either.

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I don't agree. I have used tech theft to reverse the situation when I was in it myself. A Civ that has been focusing on other things and neglecting research (like becoming a military runaway) which is able to achieve tech parity through theft is suddenly a much greater threat. Also, your blurb doesn't make much sense. If it doesn't matter that tech gets stolen, why defend it at all? Obviously it does matter. You want to maintain and expand a lead, not give it up.

What's fun is when you beeline education, plastics and industrialization and use your spies to steal all of the military techs. You kinda have to if you want a science victory on immortal.