does anyone bother with espionage?

[biggrumpy]

yah, scouting cities is useful. but as far as inciting revolts, it costs thousands of gold and basically never works. anyone else have other experiences?

 

[Dell19]

I got Civ 3 a month after the American release and then had to wait another month to get a decent computer so by that time I had read plenty f threads. I found that espionage was going to be alot worse than in Civ 2 so I have never bothered with it...Playing on regent at the moment, so its just a case of rushing a large army and then becoming the dominant land owner...

 

[damunzy]

Just the occasional spying....although it is even expensive for that....especially if the enemy has 20+ cities. I am lookinginto modding that to my satisfaction.

 

[LordAzreal]

I'll want to at least have a spy in each civ's capital simply so I get an idea as to how many units they have. I won't bother stealing plans, but just to get a general idea as to what kind of military I need to crush them.

Apart from that, espionage is far too expensive to be of much use. Even then, deploying a spy hasn't got that much of a success rate.

 

[Sabotage]

By the time espionage can be conducted, Democracy is basically universal knowledge. Since most AI civs I've played with tend to switch to Democracy as soon as it's discovered, and because cities under a Democracy are immune to bribery, that means espionage is only useful when you're planning an attack and want some intellegence to the likely amount of opposition ect.

 

[Craterus22]

There were never any spies in the ancient world... (?)

Its a shame that spies couldn't be implimented earlier in the game and then have more and more functions added as they pass through the ages

To be on topic - I don't even bother making the agency any more... (though I should try to make one to see if it still costs 3000gp to subvert a small city in the new patch).

 

[Strider]

I've used the Spy alot during the game and through out my estimated 500 times I've only came out successfully about 100. I stopped using it recenttly because of the cost and the useless.

 

[Quentin]

I usually use espionage during war when everyone tends to switch to communism after a while and are vulnerable to propaganda. I gain quite a number of cities this way but the other civs hate me because I do it too much.

 

[Akka]

Espiowhat ?

 

[newfangle]

come on guys, espionage is a great tool.

I like my free democracy, and I have war warriness. This presents a conflicting problem. To alleviate this problem, I always allow another country to be an agressor.

All you have to do is get a country furious with you, plant a spy, and run a low probability of success sting operation. They will declare ware EVERY time. Then you may crush them, free of guilt.

 

[Rneilan]

I allways use spies to prepare for an invasion. If i'm already switched to communism, i'll just look for troop location, see where the bulk of their troops are, and attack at the weak points... they never know what's comin.

 

[chiefpaco]

Spies also tell you how far your opponents are in the Space Ship building. I need it for that.

I once tried stealing an enemy's troop positions & it worked. Pretty cool results as you could see how many troops were in each city. However, espionage comes after rails, so it is only a snapshot.

 

[Strider]

Yeah you do need it for that chiefpaco.

They should have a option were you can sabatoge SpaceShip...Take parts currently from the spaceship and destroy them for they have to remake them.

 

[God]

I plant spies in every civ because i like to know what units it has and how many. I'm always checking the military advisor.
Also its useful so then i know what units it can create and if they have nukes.

 

[JoseM]

Originally posted by biggrumpy
yah, scouting cities is useful. but as far as inciting revolts, it costs thousands of gold and basically never works. anyone else have other experiences?

The way propaganda should be use

Go there and u will understand how to use propaganda mission in a good way.

 

[bigbill0126]

in modern times i just use spies to find out where the enemy's bulks of nukes are hidden, then attack there first.

 

[JoseM]

u cant kill nukes with nukes... i mean.. if u launch a nuclear weapon in a city with 3 ICBM's u kill all the units and half the city population but the 3 ICBM's are still there, so they can be launched back in their turn. I had a nuclear war and sent all the english cities to half of its original population and they still had the same amount of ICBM's that they had before i started the nuclear war.

 

[saintides]

I like dat idea. Hmm? Got a few other ideas from that.

I'm constantly trying to find ways for them to go to war with me wihtout me starting it.

Gotta try this one...

Originally posted by newfangle
come on guys, espionage is a great tool.

I like my free democracy, and I have war warriness. This presents a conflicting problem. To alleviate this problem, I always allow another country to be an agressor.

All you have to do is get a country furious with you, plant a spy, and run a low probability of success sting operation. They will declare ware EVERY time. Then you may crush them, free of guilt.

 

[Zouave]

Some may remember in Civ 2 the drama and fun of spying. You'd build three Spies, load them into a transport, and then send them on the long and perilous journey around the far side of the enemy's continent where you hope he has no patrols. You held your breath as you disembarked the spies onto his terrirory and hoped you found some good roads and RR's. You did! Wham! Three spies into three enemy cities - and three techs stolen in one turn!

That was a lot more enjoyable than what passes for Espionage in Civ 3. I wouldn't even bother with it if I hadn't lowered the cost for everything by a third.

 

[Sanaz]

I do wish spying were more useful in general.

There is one way that I use it successfully. If I have a spy planted, I can see their total military by unit count (but not by city). This is useful. If I steal the plans (the only thing I don't seem to ever get caught doing), I get to see their entire military in complete detail (and by city) for one turn (wish it were longer). This is very useful. For example, I just captured a city which was lightly defended and had a battleship and transport in it, which I wouldn't have attacked if I didn't know what was defending it because I only had one unit to spare.

I only play on Warlord, so this may be less useful at higher levels... And I really wish we could do more with espionage in general; it could be the best part of strategy and warfare if done right.