What is the best use of spies?

[avl8]

Ive played on emperor difficulty, mb thats the cause?

 

[Barghaest]

Yeah, AI might get a boost to chance of success with spies in higher diffs. Not checked that. Still trying to figure out if changing any of the espionage settings does anything (appears meaningless in adjusting an existing game - unlike most other settings - might be set when spy is acquired, not sure).

 

[smallfish]

Putting them in cities that I'm trying to take. They are extremely useful recon units in that regard, and it gets better in the later eras when you have Bombers.

 

[flairin]

I'd keep the first in your capital if tech leader of course, then try to get to other eras super fast so you could pick up a few other spies. If you are playing tall you could keep them in your cities then send out 2 or 3 to rig elections, etc. I had one game where I was super tall founding three cities with spies in them and four others out causing chaos in the mid 200's.

If you kill off the other civs' spies then I guess you don't have to worry about them stealing techs...

 

[StrideColossus]

In addition to all the above suggestions - spies are a nice alternative for currying favour with city states with quests that don't align with your goals, e.g. they might want you to build a specific wonder that you're not interested in, send in the spies...

 

[Muscu]

Right now I'm friend with Spain and Japan. Spain is plotting against Japan, so I told them: boost of friendship with Japan. Will Spain be mad at me or can we assume that they will never know I talked?

 

[Moriarte]

Last game i had them moved into two mercantile CS's as soon as they appeared. That action yielded +30 happiness without the need for further gifts (situational?) and allowed me to grow very fast (no need for ND thank god) and launch @ t.281 on immortal. Built police station and constabulary in Cap.

 

[avl8]

Last game i had them moved into two mercantile CS's as soon as they appeared. That action yielded +30 happiness without the need for further gifts (situational?) and allowed me to grow very fast (no need for ND thank god) and launch @ t.281 on immortal. Built police station and constabulary in Cap.

That was a nice idea!

Ive did this in my emperor game and got 2 CS from my opponent. Bad news 2 other civ get 2 my CS from me meanwhile

Can we protect our friendly CS with our spies to counter rig elections/coup?
And how can we prevent it from happening?

 

[greggbert]

Spies only level up when they steal tech or kill enemeis, so foreign city tech spying should be your #1 priority. If you have spies positioned in all the possible places you could possibly steal tech, then put your highest level one in your capital or most populous city to kill enemies. If you have 2 counterspies and have gotten all the available techs, then putting them in city states might be worth it. I do that rarely, even when I have 4-5 spies.

Also, never move a spy into a city state until just before the election. Rigging is about length of time that the spy is in the CS along with the comparative levels of the spies. If someone else is using a spy in a CS It's not worth it to put yours in no matter what. You can't get points for exposing them.

 

[Death_Slayer77]

they are better used as an diplomat after the world congress has been founded or if you
are the leading civ in the game and got no techs to steal

 

[VainoValkea]

I use spies as counterintelligence if I'm tech leader. The AI usually doesn't seem to bother to steal from cities other than the capital for some reason, so one is enough, maybe two for protecting a separate "science capital" as well.

Otherwise I spy on the guy who's beelining a different part of the three and pick lots of techs that way. And send some spies to rig and coup CS's. Diplomats are something of a bore, they can be used in the early game to gain a permanent foothold in the WC but after that it's usually easy to dominate even without buying votes.

 

[wcbarney]

In my current game (immortal, huge map), when I was about 7 out of 12 in the tech demographic, I finally managed to beeline a tech that nobody else had -- dynamite. I was rather amazed that this new tech was stolen about five times within the next 4-5 turns. I think all civs had 2-3 spies, but why would any of them have wasted a spy on me?

 

[tedoll78]

If I'm tech leader, my first spy gets posted in the capital.

After the founding of the World Congress, I then beeline to the next era to gain another spy ASAP, and begin sending him/her from leader to leader, schmoozing for votes.

 

[Walter R]

Spies just bloody annoy me! I turn them off unless I'm playing as England, in which case I use a tip someone on the forum gave me: keep a lower level tech undiscovered and then go and steal it - won't take v long and levels your spy. I keep in capital after that and use other to maintain an allied CS.

 

[VainoValkea]

What's annoying about spies? The worst they can do to you is stage a coup, which is expensive and risky business for them as well.

 

[Walter R]

In my current game (immortal, huge map), when I was about 7 out of 12 in the tech demographic, I finally managed to beeline a tech that nobody else had -- dynamite. I was rather amazed that this new tech was stolen about five times within the next 4-5 turns.

This!

 

[njmfff]

the standard of "how many of those gd enemy spies I have in my city?" moment.

In the last few games, I found that dropping spies in CS all over the place and couping them is funniest thing to do. It completely messes up the AI's CS grab.

Drop in one CS, leave it for a few turns to rig election so you can get influence boost, do quest if possible, coup, move spy into another CS, repeat the process.

I especially love doing this to Alex. He always throws a tantrum at me for taking his "favorite CS"

 

[Socratatus]

I just wish I could tell a spy not to steal Tech when in a city. I want to spy, but I don`t want to risk being caught stealing tech, especially if a powerful Nation.

 

[njmfff]

Then send him as diplomat? Does the same thing as spy, only without stealing tech.

 

[Walter R]

...Creating a multi film franchise for Eon Productions over 40 years?