The Game is Broken...(Spy System)

[Victoria]

As I understand it spies will not siphon more than you have when they start
To siphon 1000 you must have had a gigantic amount of gold being produced and spent it all. I agree it should siphon a % of the output of the city each turn rather than a lump sum at the end but it does sound like bad timing and every now and then someone creates a thread like this.

Spies are important as they are really the only simple way to stop a long distance science victory.

It is an interesting one though... maybe placing a gold siphoning spy in every city of a civ that has a CH and watch their civ disintegrate.

 

[burleigh]

It is a bit crazy and illogical... how do they do it? It's a bit like a thief steaming into your house, nicking all your money & then forging an IOU from you for money you haven't got. There should be an upper limit that's related to how much you've got on hand (with some sort of correction mechanism/minimum to stop exploitation by over running the reserves down)

 

[Locke_Daemonfire]

It is a bit crazy and illogical... how do they do it? It's a bit like a thief steaming into your house, nicking all your money & then forging an IOU from you for money you haven't got. There should be an upper limit that's related to how much you've got on hand (with some sort of correction mechanism/minimum to stop exploitation by over running the reserves down)

Hm, I don't find it that illogical. It's unlikely that you just have all the money of your kingdom stocked inside your house and you pay everything in cash. It's more like you have a bank or a budget, and you expect there to be a certain amount of money you can use. But online banking hasn't been invented yet. If someone steals money from you, you might not notice until you overspend, at which point you get hit with overdraft fees.

On the other hand, it would be cool if it deducted the money from you every turn, but didn't show up in your income rate. Astute individuals might notice they are being siphoned from before the notification happens if they count their gold every turn.

 

[Zuizgond]

Spying is another rushed mechanism in civ6...

 

[Underseer]

I think the problem is the consequences of running out of money. It hurts a lot more in this game than in previous games.

 

[TomKQT]

Build a spy and put him on counterintelligence in your capital? They seem to target capital cities from what I've seen.

That's not generally true, I've had MANY enemy spies in my commercial districts in other cities than the capital. I would even say that for me it seems that the AI targets commercial hubs more in other cities than in my capital

 

[Victoria]

You need to run Cryptography really, it's such a good defence card.
I agree to a degree on the CH spies, they seem to target the most lucrative. Once roads are done I tend to send external trade routes from my capital and have my campus and CH together if possible so one spy does the lot.
I even happily sell spies back, you get a good deal of stuff for them and they then send them back in. My CH spy can get more gold than my offensive one

 

[ltccone]

IMO spies are too powerful. A spy can destroy a district and EVERY building in it in one fell swoop. What are they doing, nuking the district?

 

[Pragmatic]

Don't own Civ6 yet, waiting on a 50% off deal.

How many spies can you have, max?

 

[Victoria]

6 if France, otherwise 5

 

[Pragmatic]

So, combining that with "any city can have the City Center tile and 3-4 districts" and "wide is better than tall," how do you defend your civilization against spies?

 

[Victoria]

how do you defend your civilization against spies?

Try to group districts, normally adjacency help the districts anyway.
They tend to target what I am strong in, and seem to have preferences for their own district types but it's just a feeling. Just like they target my capital more but is another has a higher pop a campus may be targeted there or if a city makes more gold a commerce district there

Normally my cap has a campus and CH and earns good gold and has a good pop. I place a spy there and they catch lots. They also get a taste of a good thing so is you loose some money somewhere, place your spy there. When I am starting to win I get targeted a lot more, especially in what I am strong in. That's why I like Cryptography, one spy normally does enough but if need be I can produce another or pull one off offensive duties. A lot depends on what is getting hit and if I consider it important.

 

[pietro1990]

I thinx its a better system then civ 5 becaue you need to spend time and hammers in it you don't get a free spy each era...
So you decide how much time you spend on espionage and same goes for the AI it has to invest in hammers.

Not to mention that you can atually counter spies pretty easy in this game no more putting a spy in the capital who doesn't capture enemy spies.


If you put a spy at a campus there isa big chagne the AI won't be able to steal techs.