Espionage Based Strategy

[rlawrence]

Hey guys. I was wondering if anyone has a good strategy for focusing on espionage to win the game (Monarch level and up please).

Obviously, you can't go JUST espionage and win. It would have to be tied to a victory condition. Space race? Probably not if you're neglecting science and stealing tech.

My initial thought would be to neglect science, and go heavy into espionage and war mongering. Or maybe a mixed espionage/economy sort of approach. I'm just thinking through this for the first time. I'd love to hear some basic strats that may have been successful for you.

 

[Funky]

I've never used an economy based mainly on espionage, but a friend of mine likes to do this. He picks Sumeria (earlier courthouses, and in general a swift and versatile early civ) and rushes the Great Wall. After that he builds up a few cities, plops courthouses into them and settles the great spy. This grants him enough espionage points to feed on the rival's techs for a while. When it comes to war, he'll launch his infamous spy storm, which I have experienced on the receiving side in multiplayer; he'll send dozens and dozens of neverending waves of spies and pillage every single tile, destroy all essential buildings, poison water etc etc. He'll basically ruin your entire land. He doesn't gain anything by doing this but it's annoying as hell! Of course against the AI it's a lot easier, and there the better strat would be to get a stack of horses and attack after a spy has destroyed the enemy city defenses. About maintaining a strong espionage based economy till into the late game I can't give much advice though.

 

[Strickl3r]

If you pick sumeria and wanne go for the GW you need stone in the immediate area of your capital otherwise it would be a bad play to build it even if you go for espionage economy.

Also you could probably just stomp someone with troops, who builded dozens of spys


You also don't really need to start right away with espionage, if you wanne play that way.
Going early Constitution with no GW and no rushed courthouses also does the Job.
In fact it's stronger, because you can get an early great scientist and you can research and build up your way until you wanne put the slider for EP up and sabotage/steal your way through the game.

 

[Funky]

You're probably right, my friend does it more for the fun of it, and usually in a multiplayer environment. If he is a weaker civ he will try to ally with another weaker civ against a stronger civ and spam his spies like there is no tomorrow while his ally sends troops, which is pretty effective. Not the best strat to win with of course.

 

[Pisskop]

While on espionage, do multiple spies in cities improve odds? If I send say 3 spies over to 'UberAwesomeLand' to destroy their nearly complete spaceship, will they recieve any bonus for being stacked? what about defense?

 

[Ghpstage]

While on espionage, do multiple spies in cities improve odds? If I send say 3 spies over to 'UberAwesomeLand' to destroy their nearly complete spaceship, will they recieve any bonus for being stacked? what about defense?

Quite the opposite, stacking spies actually makes them more likely to be caught.

 

[QuixotesGhost]

Stacking spies is generally a good idea though since you want redundancy, and if you surge for a few turns it makes sure those gets put to good use.