espionage: do you change the slider?

[Minmaster]

am i the only one who leaves it at 0%? i can't bring myself to sacrifice research/income for espionage. i have heard some of you change the slider just for a war to use the city revolt mission and then bring it back down, so i might just try that now, but usually i am so desperate for research so i dunno...

 

[TheWilltoAct]

for late game you can always bust out those 2 espionage buildings... the democracy one and the communism one (the names escape me)

I like to leave my slider at 0 as wells so those buildings can help you get some espionage while retaining science.

 

[DigitalBoy]

I'd rather spam courthouses, jails, etc. than use the espionage slider. It's almost disappointing that you can get all the EPs you need from buildings, instead of, you know, having to run spy specialists. Just seems a tad out of flavor.

 

[Borya]

+1

The only one i know, who changes the slider, is the AI.

 

[johncross21]

great thread

its useful to have a slight lead on your war rivals before a war starts if you can afford it - but the rest of the time it seems pointless

 

[Monkeyfinger]

In addition to the revolt stuff, I use it for techstealing. I have my spies camp for 5 turns, and use missionaries of my religion in the cities they sit in, so the number of EPs it takes to steal a tech is so much smaller than the number of beakers it would take to self research it.

 

[King of Town]

using the spy slider while at war is the most useful thing. You can send in your spies a couple turns before the war starts and destroy the towns with unhappiness and sickness, not to mention revolts once you get there. The AI won't be able to provide his own reinforcements and the war goes a lot more smoothly. Most people playing BTS have never even tried it. There was a great post about spy economy on here a little while ago.

 

[Enigma256]

0% all the game.

one city with spy specialists is enough

 

[Horace]

if i have some strong rivals i tend to put it up to 10% and weight accordingly

 

[lulu135]

I use it sometimes. The steal technology mission means you aren't really sacrificing research, you're just letting them do it for you, and at the same time, you're learning lots of useful things about their empire.

 

[Psyringe]

I leave the slider at 0% for a long time, while dedicating one city to building spies to protect my cities.

Sooner or later, one civ will start poisoning the water supply in many of my cities nevertheless, especially when he managed to infiltrate one of my cities with a great spy, which gives him a bonus. This can decimate the city population in Marathon games, so if that happens, I increase my espionage slider to make it harder for other civs to lay waste on my cities.

 

[ButSam]

I usually put it at 10% - 20% (10% most commonly) after discovering Alphabet and before discovering Code of Laws and building a few Courthouses.

I am addicted to the Great Wall wonder, and the extra boost to espionage from the 10-20%, plus great spies, lets me stay at least even on research.

I think the slider is most useful at the beginning of the game, soon after Alphabet is researched, but before Code of Laws.

It is handy sometimes when at war, and I will tend to give espionage a boost at some other moments in the game, generally if I am in a war (or a cold war) with an opponent. By "cold war", I mean a spy war, not necessarily a nuke-building war.

Finally, in the end-game, if someone else is going for space race, I will pump up my espionage and send spies to their cities to sabatoge production. If I can see their cities' production, I go for sabatoging Apollo, since that hurts the most. If I can't see their production before they enter the space race, I really crank things up against them, set the slider to 10-20%, and target heavily.

Sam

 

[Hollow]

Its necessary for the spy missions to keep them within reach, but its another of those hard decisions that make the game so interesting.

 

[gettingfat]

Typically 0%. However, if I want to start an early war and I see one or two walled cities with high pop and cultural defence as well, and I realize it will take too long to build and gather enough cats to bomb the D down, I'll do a few turns of 100% so I have enough to incite city revolt. It's a worthwhile investment as it may likely save me a dozen of units and the associated unit costs.

 

[futurehermit]

I get my espionage from a super science city that I build after democracy and communism. Prior to that, if I want to use espionage I'll run spies off of courthouses around my empire. There is just too low of a payoff and too high a cost to running high espionage early on (as the AI has found out in the first installment of BTS!!!)

 

[Minmaster]

yea i think it was a mistake to make espionage a slider that competes with research and culture sliders. it just is not worth it.

 

[ButSam]

While I never set espionage very high (never above 20%, usually at 10% or 0%), I must admit that I have spent more turns with espionage slider set than with culture slider set. I only set the culture slider once for a cultural victory I got. I usually run espionage slider at 10% for ~30-50 turns total (not all in a row) in a game.

 

[Tee Kay]

I rarely adjust the slider as it draws cash from my research and it's just not worth it. I hardly bothered with spy missions anyway - the cost and the risk often outweighs the benefits imho.

 

[Infantry#14]

too bad you cant build espionage, like wealth, research and culture (perhaps in a 1 to 8 ratio?). I typically have 0%, but change to 10% as my civ have the excess gold pouring out from banks while keeping research at 60-70%.

 

[azzaman333]

Multiplayer - Definately.
Singleplayer - Rarely.