Any success with spies?

[robinm]

Has anyone worked out a strategy for effective use of spies.

I must admit I havn't even tried (CIV3 hangover - where I found spying to be a huge waste of money)

 

[automator]

I mostly use spies to poke around my neighbor's areas. Check out what's happening. I don't think it's all that important for me to know every unit the Civ has and where they are, since new units can be built and units can be moved. But it is nice to know, when I'm going to be attacking "City A" exactly what is in the city and the nearby cities.

Used in combination with air Recon, it's nice.

I've also been able to destroy production a few times.

 

[jerVL/kg]

Sure they have uses. Most importantly, you can send them to a civ you're at war with, to see what defenses their cities have. Depending on where your enemy built their cities, a well-positioned spy can view the garrisons of 3 to 4 cities at once.

Spies can also destroy tiles, like oil pumps or aluminum mines, deep behind enemy lines, without the risk of sending an army there. And if you're besieging a city and they're building something nasty like a cannon or a mech, spies can (try to) blow it up before it reaches completion.

During peacetime, spies are great for checking out who's working on stuff like certain wonders, or the space program.

 

[Grogs]

They're actually awesome to have in a war. Sneak into an enemy city and steal his plans. You'll get the location of every unit he has. I was able to spot a couple of transports of enemy troops trying to make a sneak attack that way.

It's also good to know what your opponent is building during a space race. You can get a good idea of whether you've got it wrapped up, or you need to take some kind of action.

 

[robinm]

Do you tend to loose spys much?
How much gold are you prepared to allocate to the spies?
Is the gold better spent rucing units and finding put what's in a city by cruching it?

 

[Loyran]

The best use for spies is sabotaging tiles improvements. It's relatively affordable (200 gold), and it can really help. Depending how late in the game you get them you can use them to sabotage pasture (no horses = no cavalry), iron (no cannon), oil (no tanks, planes, advanced naval units, gunships), aluminum (no modern armors, advanced planes), copper (reduce building speed of some wonders).
Usually, the AI doesn't fix it for another 10 turns, sometimes even more (monarch level).

They're also useful in the fact that they can't be attacked, so they're good for scouting ahead to plan an attack.

Stealing plans has some uses, but it's not cheap (sometimes 500 golds).

I consider sabotaging production as next to worthless. Upward to 6000 golds, and it doesn't reset the production to 0, merely drop it a few turns (2 turns, for spaceship part on average).
However, sometimes it's your only solution. If you know you can win in 4 turns, but the AI can finish his spaceship in 2, then you'd better go for 100% gold and do your best to blow up his last piece.

 

[Bezhukov]

Yes, it's not cheap, but you can really hose an AI by cutting off all his health resources and starving all those late specialists they like to run. Can also open up some trade opportunities. The nice thing is, this can all be done without declaring war or even hurting relations if you're not caught. Playing as Mongols in the 1000AD, I brought Saladin to his knees this way, only getting caught on like my eight try, and I think it was still only a -1 relations.

 

[obsolete]

If you're playing settler, go ahead and use spies if you feel you need them. By the time you hit monarch, they are almost freiken useless. You can spend all day cranking out spies and spending lots of money for killing production, and they will get caught every freiken time.

 

[kernok]

Oh mon ptit gars si tu savais!!

november 1954
I was winning a game against 10 AI on a huge map by leading Rome to the place of "greatest civ ever" after I had crushed these vicious Tokugawa by sending him one or two special gifts (you know the ones US sent to japan civilians in 1945)
BUT I couldn't believe what I realised after Toku signed the peace treaty and adopted my holy confucianism: Washington was already building the SS!!
grrr
I was 1000 points over him and I know I could win the space race but I wanted to be certain of my glorious victory. I called back my spies who helped me to avoid Japan having a heavy navy avantage by destroying oils and uranium spots every 5 turns and I sneaked into US big cities.

Once Washington reach the point where one of the three reactors would be finished in 3-4 turns my lovely spie number 0069 did a nice sabotage!!
When Washi waked up on the next morning is reactor needed 23 turns to be built!!

muhahahahhahahhaaaaaaaa

 

[biratets]

I'm unsuccesfully trying to use spies to reveal enemy spies. Here's the situation: I have 2 oil wells which get destroyed/sabotaged almost every turn. It's ridiculous - I have two of my own spies sitting on top of both oil wells with 8 workers who immediately reconstruct the sabotaged wells. Regardless of this both oil wells still get sabotaged and I'm able to catch maybe 1 out of 10 enemy spies. The manual says that your own spies should be able to reveal enemy spies operating in "nearby tiles". Well, from my experience I can tell you that this does not work. I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but antispying (imo) is completely useless.

The conclusion - spies are very useful.

 

[punchandpie]

I find spies aren't much help. Mine all too often get caught trying to destroy production. And if I need to explore potential enemy territory I just use explorers with an open border agreement or use my fighters to do recon work. (Big fan of fighters here.)

 

[PC-Pete]

I haven't been using spies much in my various civ games, but in my last game (Not the one I am currently playing) I was attacked by Cat (I play America). Our borders were next to each other and she did destroy plenty of my fishing farms as well as other tile improvements around my cities, before I managed to beat her back.

During a small reprieve when I had successfully managed to kill her attacking troops as well as some transports heading my way, I built spies in my spy city and airplanes in a couple of my others. I bombed her closest towns to make it easier for my troops to beat her back. Not all that easy as she had stacked up around 15 troops in that town.

Once my first spy was completed I airlifted it to my closest town by our clashing borders and managed to get inside. It was captured, and so was my second. My third spy did manage to destroy her current production. She had 3 turns to complete a destroyer, but with my spy I sent her worktime back to around 24 turns.

All in all, the spies seem to lack experience. I get something like 6-55% chance to succeed. At the cost involved it is sometimes difficult to justify the cost vs. the low chance of success.

As the war carried on I managed to capture the 3 cities next to mine at heavy losses and I built 2 carriers to take the war to her homeland. I did this because as I managed to steal the plans from her at one point I noticed she had access to Uranium. As Manhattan project was just around the corner to be researched and built by some of the civs I didn't want to give her the edge of nuking me. Sending the spies over was a bust as my 2 destroyers protecting my transport got sunk along with the transport. Building 2 subs to carry 2 new spies was my next plan, but my carriers arrived first.

By sending in the 6 fighters I did manage to destroy the mine. I also had 2 gunships which were taken out by her overwhelming forces defending her towns.

Not remembering exactly, but I think I had a 1 in 3 chance to successfully use my spies. If they had been able to earn xp for success I would say that their uses would be better, but from that episode I fought I would say that fighters and planes in general is better to do some destruction. Spies at the moment seem to have their biggest uses in just spying. Seeing what is being produced, and maybe sever the lines from a valuable resource to the towns.

 

[Longpot]

Don't forget that a spies chances of success are altered not only by the presence of another spy in the surrounding squares (not sure if this works) but also by the number of war units present in the target square.

I've had much more success in catching spies just by putting a couple (if that) of units in the squares I want to protect...

 

[Rayjr]

I have to say I kind of like the spy's. Mostly for recon to check out my opponents cities. Granted they aren't all that effective when placed on a mission I usualy don't like my odds when they are below 60%. But if I am about to go to war with another civ I usually like to know where all of thier troops are to make certain I have the right number and combination of forces to roll them over. I find having 2 spys at a time works for me. one to execute the missions as needed and another to go from city to city to check thier defenses.

 

[eataTREE]

Spies are nice, but they tend to die a lot if you send them on sabotage missions. Build Scotland Yard in a city with good production so you can replace them quickly.

Related question -- does anyone know how the chances of success for a spy's mission are calculated? The game UI always something like "Chance of success: 20 - 90%" which is vague to the point of uselessness.

 

[Bismarck II]

To answer a few questions with spies,

Q: How much gold?
A: Depends how much bang for the buck, if it is something really important almost unlimited.
Q: What do you do with them?
A: Scout but mostly sabotage wonders and destroy improvements, especially when it is something like oil or another needed resource.
Q: does anyone know how the chances of success for a spy's mission are calculated? The game UI always something like "Chance of success: 20 - 90%" which is vague to the point of uselessness.
A: On how much the city is your enemy's (by culture), units, and some other vague factors that make your 12.2-1 victory go into the clubman smashes through all of your troops.

 

[TLHeart]

I use spys to slow down the production ability of the AI. Aluminum gives a 25% production bonus for the space race, so I use spys world wide to keep aluminum production to a minimum, except for me. Also spys are a great way to plan your attack, to see what the enemy has, and to know what to send to that city to take it. Plant a spy into the city you are going to attack, and you know each turn what units to send to that city to take it. Station spies in near by enemy cities, and you know what reinforcements are coming. Very useful, and cheap.

 

[rgbender62]

For those of you who think spies are worthless it only takes one game where you are on the receiving end of what biratets is describing. Another civ with spies in your terrritory and money to burn. They will relentlessly go after your oil and as biratets notes it's pretty darn tough to stop them. Late game, if I've got money to burn I have all 4 spies (max number you can have) out hammering the other civs resources.

 

[Mano3]

Spies have saved a few Space Race victories for me by sabotaging the leading opponent's SS construction. Taking out my enemy's resources is also great.

 

[genjiboy]

Use them for, well, spying. Spying for barely-defended cities, spots where your units can make a sneak attack from transports.

If an AI opponent is building a spaceship, sabotaging his aluminium is far more effective than destroying city production.

Also, I'm not sure if you need to be able to see a city in order to use nukes on it. But if you do, then a spy can show you exactly where to drop.