Best way to prevent sabotage from enemy spies?

[TyranusBonehead]

I guess this question applies to any bad that enemy spies can do. Since spies are undetectable, how do I prevent them from destroying buildings, stealing techs, etc. So far I've been building my own spies and performing counterespionage in as many AI Civ's cities as possible. Is this the most effective way?

 

[bardolph]

Build Security Bureaus
Keep spies of your own in the cities you want to protect
Run Counter-Espionage Missions
Spend EPs on the rival civ
Conquer/Destroy the rival civ

You cannot stop rival spies from running missions against you, but you can make it really expensive to do so.

 

[Roxlimn]

By far the most effective way to prevent spy missions against you is to have so large a lead on EPs that you can freely investigate enemy cities.

 

[KMadCandy]

Build Security Bureaus
Keep spies of your own in the cities you want to protect

by the way, those serve the same function. if your city has a Sec Bureau in it, it replaces your spy, it doesn't stack for extra defense. so a spy would be wasting her time there, have her go hang out somewhere else.

 

[Colossian]

Build Security Bureaus
Keep spies of your own in the cities you want to protect
Run Counter-Espionage Missions
Spend EPs on the rival civ
Conquer/Destroy the rival civ

You cannot stop rival spies from running missions against you, but you can make it really expensive to do so.

Keep spies of your own in the cities you want to protect
Run Counter-Espionage Missions
Spend EPs on the rival civ
Conquer/Destroy the rival civ
Build Great Wall and get Great Spies.

 

[bardolph]

by the way, those serve the same function. if your city has a Sec Bureau in it, it replaces your spy, it doesn't stack for extra defense. so a spy would be wasting her time there, have her go hang out somewhere else.

Really? So keeping a spy present in a city w/o a Security Bureau also adds 50% to the cost of all spying?

 

[Wade.]

I'm not sure. The Spy information states, "Helps Thwart Rival Spies". Does this mean as in performing Counter Espionage missions, keeping your spies in your own cities, or is it simply a missed text deletion for Beyond the Sword?

In Beyond the Sword Concepts\Espionage it states:

"The cost of these Espionage Missions decrease the longer a Spy remains stationary on a tile, but every turn a Spy remains in enemy territory, there is a chance that she will be caught and destroyed. The chances of being caught increase with your opponent's Espionage spending, with the presence of a Security Bureau and if your Spy has recently performed a mission against that tile."

Espionage defense is performed by:
1. Your Espionage spending against the specified opponent.
2. Security Bureau
3. Counter Espionage missions.
4. Apparently/possibly (if NOT refering to Counter Espionage missions or if it is a missed text deletion for Beyond the Sword) the presence of your Spies in your cities "Helps Thwart Rival Spies" as the Spy information says.

In regards to number 4; I believe that your Spies would be better used spending turns on enemy cities to decrease the cost of your eventual missions. The best defense is a good offense.

Like you, bardolph stated, "You cannot stop rival spies from running missions against you, but you can make it really expensive to do so."

 

[Bushface]

There is no completely certain way of preventing sabotage. I had a city with a Security Bureau, a huge EP advantage over the only two civs which could get spies into my territory and had recently performed counterespionage against both of them, but none the less the Airport in my city was lost to enemy action (and I know who was responsible; he'd better be prepared to suffer). I think the motive was jealousy: he's doing Combustion, and I've launched my spaceship.

 

[PutCashIn]

Strange, I'm sure there was a post on CF's forums (dont ask where tho) that discussed how it wasnt specific spending of ep's vs an opponent, but total spending of ep's amongst everyone.

Maybe I missed a later post that reclarified that....?

 

[KMadCandy]

Really? So keeping a spy present in a city w/o a Security Bureau also adds 50% to the cost of all spying?

well, no, neither one does that . "thwarting rival spies" means lowering enemy spy success rate, it doesn't directly impact the cost of the mission. a Sec Bureau costs more hammers than a spy but is much better! it indirectly increases the cost of all enemy missions by increasing your total EP spending (see below), earns you passive EPs, and it isn't another unit to support.

this thread talks about how much missions cost and the modifiers.

Strange, I'm sure there was a post on CF's forums (dont ask where tho) that discussed how it wasnt specific spending of ep's vs an opponent, but total spending of ep's amongst everyone.

that's one of the things that modifies the cost of running a mission. the code is in the thread i linked above. that author doesn't define it but i've seen it stressed elsewhere, since it isn't what you might guess without looking at the code (at least if you're me). it has a line for "int iOurPoints = GET_TEAM(getTeam()).getEspionagePointsEver()" and the same for TargetPoints. it does not look for EPs spent specifically on that target. that's a good thing really. it means you still get get some sort of credit for your basic palace +4 EPs points and courthouses in an isolated start, and points spent on a target that dies early with a big chunk of unused EPs.

Spoiler :

// My points VS. Your points to mod cost
int iTargetPoints = GET_TEAM(GET_PLAYER(eTargetPlayer).getTeam()).getE spionagePointsEver();
int iOurPoints = GET_TEAM(getTeam()).getEspionagePointsEver();
iModifier *= (GC.getDefineINT("ESPIONAGE_SPENDING_MULTIPLIER") * (2 * iTargetPoints + iOurPoints)) / max(1, iTargetPoints + 2 * iOurPoints);
iModifier /= 100;