are spies worth it?

[misfitpunk]

Do you think it's worth trying to put spies in other civs? there's the risk of failing, causing severe anger from the leader of the enemy civ, and if you do successfuly plant a spy, the costs of
missions seem extremely high, and even at the safest level of attempts there's still a high chance of failure. can anyone suggest
ways to improve my success with spies?

 

[RX2000]

For me personally, it is defintely worth it. I hardly ever undertake any spy missions, except maybe trying to bribe a city thats near strategic resources or something. But for me the missions arent the main reason for having a spy there. Its the information you get on their military. You can see every unit they have in their whole army. So you could see, for example, that they only have 20 modern armor, and you have 50. I always try to get a spy in every civ. (Usually starting a couple wars in the process. )

 

[randomname]

I just started playing Civ3 and cannot figure out how to plant a spy. I've discovered espionage and have the Intelligence Agency but neither clicking on the embassy city or my capital brings up anything that looks like a "plant a spy" option.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Pygzilla]

Spy planting is easier if you are in communism. It's the one good thing that government is good for.

 

[God]

Once you have built Intelligence agency, you click on the pentagon shape next the city that made it. Double click and a list of the civs comes up. Go and plant your spies, some may fail, and you will get into trouble, but with the succesful ones, go to the capital of the civ where the spy is planted and double click on the embassy/pentagon box and do whatever you want.

My main use for spies is to know number of troops the enemy has. It helps alot.

 

[Informer]

Originally posted by misfitpunk
Can anyone suggest ways to improve my success with spies?

Usually being the first to build the Intelligence Agency helps, as well as being on top of the tech tree. Don't worry about going into a diplomatic war over espionage; the leaders are most likely to give you a warning first.

Concerning expenses, try utilizing the free options, like monitoring an opponents city, this can be very useful at times.

 

[captain walrus]

I was having problems with France and they had been in the modern age awhile. So I sent I spy over to see if they had nuclear weapons. They caught my spy and I found out they had nuclear weapons when four of my cities exploded. I plant my spies as soon as possible and as long as I'm Communist.

 

[ozmodiar]

I've found them moderately useful in some games, but more often than not they have sparked a war between me and the civ I tryed to spy on from getting caught.

I'm also usually spending my gold as quickly as I make it, thus spying has limited uses for myself.

I think it mostly depends on your style of play.

 

[Apollo]

What happens if you plant a spy with someone you are already at war with? I haven't done much with spies before so I don't know if this works, but if another civ declares war on you then there wouldn't be any penalty for getting caught trying to plant a spy with them, and you could try as many times as it takes and then use that spy to find out what you are up against.

 

[Daaraa]

I always plant spies!
I've used them for all of the options above.
But especially to try and "buy" a beachead for a future invasion.
I do this by making a beeline for espionage. By the time I get it most of the other civs have democracy and are going to switch. So I use my military advisor to see when they are in anarchy. That is the best chance to grab a city. Just a small coastal city. The ones I go for are never going to amount to much, but they'll be mine

 

[Daaraa]

Originally posted by Apollo
What happens if you plant a spy with someone you are already at war with? I haven't done much with spies before so I don't know if this works, but if another civ declares war on you then there wouldn't be any penalty for getting caught trying to plant a spy with them, and you could try as many times as it takes and then use that spy to find out what you are up against.

It is hard to get ht spy in but there are no penalties.
If you fail though you'll have to wait until the next turn.
The best part ( IMHO ) to have the spies in place is just to see the "real" strength of the other civ. One time I had my military advisor tell me we had an average army. I had my spy planted the next turn and I had cavalry and infantry and they had knights and musketmen. I would not have taken them over if it had not have been for my spy. They never put up a half decent defense.

 

[Zouave]

Unless you Edited down the EXORBITANT cost of everything related to Espionage I can think of other, better, ways to get an idea of an enemy's strength, such as a random city investigation and then extrapolating on the rest of the civ. There would be no reason to assume the city you chose at random was much much different from the others.

What irritates me most about Espionage is if you try to expose an enemy mole - but there is no mole - you simply get a "sting operation failed" and there is an incident. None of that should happen if there is no mole.

So, Espionage is merely a luxury I only sometimes use. It's great for getting others to declare was on you, though.

 

[Daaraa]

The cost to place the spy is not very high. (50-200 has been my past experience)
Just placing the spy gets you the info on the other civs military. And it'll stay that way for a long time depending on the spy activities you do.
Some city investigations that you would need to do to take a proper statistical sample to accuratly extrapolate his stregth cost more than 200 and it is a one time shot.
IMHO placing a spy is a lot cheaper than what you have suggested.

 

[wohmongarinf00l]

i plant spies as soon as i have intelligence agency built. since at this point i have embassies everywhere, i try to plant spies in civs i am at war with cos there is no reputational hit.
if u try to plant a spy during mordern age in a moderately decent civ u will spark war. it helps a lot especially when u don't wanna be the one to start it.