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Espionage: How to counter it?
- Thread starter Killroyan
- Start date
grandad1982
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2007
- Messages
- 2,552
It should be there. I think its near the bottom of the list.
TM Moot
King
Hmmm, I have looked for the no espionage button but couldn't find it in the custom game screenIs this only possible with a certain mod?
I don't run mods, just patched BTS.
As grandad says, its somewhere near the bottom of the list to the left of the Victory Conditions list (iirc).
grandad1982
Deity
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2007
- Messages
- 2,552
Just checked. Its at the very bottom of the list
deathturnip
Deliciously carcenagenic!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2008
- Messages
- 122
You where worried about your vassals spying on you, but I thought they couldn't. Can anybody clear this up?
TheDS
Regular Riot
The reason why the AI seems to know your spies are sitting on your resources is very simple: the cost of the mission goes up AND the odds of success go down. They then choose NOT to conduct the mission, and go for easier and cheaper missions. You can do the same thing, if you're paying attention to the numbers when considering whether or not to execute the mission.
The odds of success DO depend on your EP spending versus that of the other civ. It's NOT just a total-EPs-spent-everywhere equation. This is EASILY checked by simply looking at the Espionage screen, which keeps track of your relative EP costs. Simply spend EPs on half the players and not on the other half, and you'll see that the ones you spend points on will be MUCH cheaper to conduct missions against. (Unless this changed since 3.13, when I last played.)
If your cost to conduct a mission is over 100%, then the other guy's cost against you is under 100%. Pump EPs into the guys pissing you off the most and get your % cost way down, like 70% or better, and they'll move on to easier targets. This can be very expensive, but if you're building EP buildings and assigning spy specialists and have spies sitting on your critical locations, you should make it very costly for them to hit you without having to devote much if any of your slider to EPs. (I hardly ever use the slider, and usually have the EP advantage.) Conduct the counter-EP mission whenever you can for even greater effect.
Make it expensive and dangerous, and the spying will slow to a trickle, or even stop, until it becomes important for them to attack you (usually to sabotage SS parts).
Stationing spies at your entry points is just about useless. Before you have roads, you'll have a 50/50 chance of catching someone, and that assumes there is a single path of entry. WITH roads, the chances go down to 1 in 6, and with rails, it's 1 in 10. If there are multiple paths, the odds go down further. You can make up for it by having more spies, but why not just station them where they matter? And you can't guard against Caravels or Submarines bringing them in. The reason why this strategy is so useless is because the enemy spy must land on your spy. Simply passing over him doesn't do anything. MAYBE if you can count the number of moves through foreign territory that a spy must come from his capital, you can make a good guess where a spy is likely to end his turn, but as roads and rails change frequently, it's something you'll have to keep up with, and rove your own spies around to keep your maps current.
The odds of success DO depend on your EP spending versus that of the other civ. It's NOT just a total-EPs-spent-everywhere equation. This is EASILY checked by simply looking at the Espionage screen, which keeps track of your relative EP costs. Simply spend EPs on half the players and not on the other half, and you'll see that the ones you spend points on will be MUCH cheaper to conduct missions against. (Unless this changed since 3.13, when I last played.)
If your cost to conduct a mission is over 100%, then the other guy's cost against you is under 100%. Pump EPs into the guys pissing you off the most and get your % cost way down, like 70% or better, and they'll move on to easier targets. This can be very expensive, but if you're building EP buildings and assigning spy specialists and have spies sitting on your critical locations, you should make it very costly for them to hit you without having to devote much if any of your slider to EPs. (I hardly ever use the slider, and usually have the EP advantage.) Conduct the counter-EP mission whenever you can for even greater effect.
Make it expensive and dangerous, and the spying will slow to a trickle, or even stop, until it becomes important for them to attack you (usually to sabotage SS parts).
Stationing spies at your entry points is just about useless. Before you have roads, you'll have a 50/50 chance of catching someone, and that assumes there is a single path of entry. WITH roads, the chances go down to 1 in 6, and with rails, it's 1 in 10. If there are multiple paths, the odds go down further. You can make up for it by having more spies, but why not just station them where they matter? And you can't guard against Caravels or Submarines bringing them in. The reason why this strategy is so useless is because the enemy spy must land on your spy. Simply passing over him doesn't do anything. MAYBE if you can count the number of moves through foreign territory that a spy must come from his capital, you can make a good guess where a spy is likely to end his turn, but as roads and rails change frequently, it's something you'll have to keep up with, and rove your own spies around to keep your maps current.
