troytheface
Deity
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2002
- Messages
- 3,262
"Espionage, for the most part, involves finding a person who knows something or has something that you can induce them secretly to give to you. That almost always involves a betrayal of trust. "
Aldrich Ames
The missions, espionage points, great Spy, related building...these are alot of areas to cover and while breaking each category down in explaination may help one's ability to digest the parts it may still leave one unable to utilize the whole. Hopefully this Handbook will enable a player to not only understand the mechanics but to utilize them. And just what does Aldrich Ames in the above quote mean by "betrayal of trust"? (have open borders, be on peaceful terms with your most hated enemy)
Setting up a city to be a center for spy activity is one route to help the player focus his/her attention on this aspect of the game. Any civ that has a courthouse, jail or Castle Unique Building is optimal.
(Aztecs- Sacrifiicial Alter, Rathaus-Holy Roman Empire, Ziggurat- Summaria,
Spain - Citadel, Mausoleum - India.)
The idea is to create a city geared to creating spies and espionage points similiar to how one would set up a science or unit producing city. This means all buildings -Courthouse, Jail, Palace, Castle, Security Bereau and Intelligence Agency pertaining to espionage should be created here. Of course the granddaddy building of them all is the Great Wall. The Great Wall is to espionage as the Pyramids is to stupid players. Likewise the Kremlin enhances the chances of producing a Great Spy. Beelining to the techs of Alphabet (for Spy units)and Nationalism ( to run the civic Nationhood +25% espionage in all cities) are optimal.
After creating this out of the way spy city there are several tactics one can employ. The "Spy Flood" is a hyper espionage attack prior to military invasion. Sabotage Improvement is the name of the game here, resources and roads are the target. The second wave initialized after the invasion proper is the much ignored Forment Unhappiness. Prior to attacking a city proper is the well known Support City Revolt which brings the city defenses to 0- 2 spies in an invading stack- not 10 catapults! In the espionage game there is a saying "anyone who uses catapults is a plodding reloader with bad defenses and a putrid heart"
Then of course there is the Great Spy. A direct "use it this way" is a bit simplistic, however, as an Uber Spy -it can explore with impunity and can be saved until your ready to expend it on a target civ city in preparation to Steal Technology -a regular spy mission against target civ- make sure u have spies in that civ's cities to perform the steal tech afterwards) or joined to your spy city, or to build Scotland Yard (100% espionage bonus) in your spy city.
There is a reason espionage has its own icon - it is equal in importance to science and happiness. (Which makes the percentage 33.3- the remaining .1 % is what programmers refer to as the "binary unknown factor" a topic of another article) At first contact it is wise to set your espionage to at least 10% even before courthouses. You will adapt to the money shortage, compensate and in the end, benefit. Allocating points to a specific Civ is optional - there is always room for personal play and choice and in the spy game- as in other game aspects- this is to be encouraged.
There is not one way to victory that is not attainable or preventable (another civ) by the correct use of espionage alone. Space race- stop them Sabotage Project or Sabotage Building- no factory there Cultural -Spread Culture religion a pain? Influence Religion, going broke? Steal Treasury Feeling malicious? Poisen Water, Foil enemy spies? Counter Espionage, Nukes? not without the Manhatten or Uranium. And how will you know all this ? Your passive missions will allow Can See Research, City Visibility and Investigate City via your accumulated espionage points . Espionage- it is who you know and what you know and how to manipulate both.
Aldrich Ames
The missions, espionage points, great Spy, related building...these are alot of areas to cover and while breaking each category down in explaination may help one's ability to digest the parts it may still leave one unable to utilize the whole. Hopefully this Handbook will enable a player to not only understand the mechanics but to utilize them. And just what does Aldrich Ames in the above quote mean by "betrayal of trust"? (have open borders, be on peaceful terms with your most hated enemy)
Setting up a city to be a center for spy activity is one route to help the player focus his/her attention on this aspect of the game. Any civ that has a courthouse, jail or Castle Unique Building is optimal.
(Aztecs- Sacrifiicial Alter, Rathaus-Holy Roman Empire, Ziggurat- Summaria,
Spain - Citadel, Mausoleum - India.)
The idea is to create a city geared to creating spies and espionage points similiar to how one would set up a science or unit producing city. This means all buildings -Courthouse, Jail, Palace, Castle, Security Bereau and Intelligence Agency pertaining to espionage should be created here. Of course the granddaddy building of them all is the Great Wall. The Great Wall is to espionage as the Pyramids is to stupid players. Likewise the Kremlin enhances the chances of producing a Great Spy. Beelining to the techs of Alphabet (for Spy units)and Nationalism ( to run the civic Nationhood +25% espionage in all cities) are optimal.
After creating this out of the way spy city there are several tactics one can employ. The "Spy Flood" is a hyper espionage attack prior to military invasion. Sabotage Improvement is the name of the game here, resources and roads are the target. The second wave initialized after the invasion proper is the much ignored Forment Unhappiness. Prior to attacking a city proper is the well known Support City Revolt which brings the city defenses to 0- 2 spies in an invading stack- not 10 catapults! In the espionage game there is a saying "anyone who uses catapults is a plodding reloader with bad defenses and a putrid heart"
Then of course there is the Great Spy. A direct "use it this way" is a bit simplistic, however, as an Uber Spy -it can explore with impunity and can be saved until your ready to expend it on a target civ city in preparation to Steal Technology -a regular spy mission against target civ- make sure u have spies in that civ's cities to perform the steal tech afterwards) or joined to your spy city, or to build Scotland Yard (100% espionage bonus) in your spy city.
There is a reason espionage has its own icon - it is equal in importance to science and happiness. (Which makes the percentage 33.3- the remaining .1 % is what programmers refer to as the "binary unknown factor" a topic of another article) At first contact it is wise to set your espionage to at least 10% even before courthouses. You will adapt to the money shortage, compensate and in the end, benefit. Allocating points to a specific Civ is optional - there is always room for personal play and choice and in the spy game- as in other game aspects- this is to be encouraged.
There is not one way to victory that is not attainable or preventable (another civ) by the correct use of espionage alone. Space race- stop them Sabotage Project or Sabotage Building- no factory there Cultural -Spread Culture religion a pain? Influence Religion, going broke? Steal Treasury Feeling malicious? Poisen Water, Foil enemy spies? Counter Espionage, Nukes? not without the Manhatten or Uranium. And how will you know all this ? Your passive missions will allow Can See Research, City Visibility and Investigate City via your accumulated espionage points . Espionage- it is who you know and what you know and how to manipulate both.
