espionage question

[FatOldGuy]

Hi everyone, im a bit new to this game. ive been playing about three weeks and ive a question about espionage, is it at all useful? to me it seems to be a complete waste, i just started on emperor level, and now it seems even more useless then on the easier levels. i alwaays have to plant like 10 spys before one gets through, it always starts a war which is usually not to my benifit (why would i try to plant spy's in my pansy neighbor nations?, i dont care what there doing.) so i spend like 500-1000 gold trying to plant spies, finnaly get a spy in, cause a war i dont want and all this offers what? peek at there citys while im at war with them? or i can steal tech for like 3 times the amount they woulda sold it to me for, by the time i get esp i already have the entire map explored so that option isint too useful either. so am i missing somthing? or should i just ignore that part of the game?

 

[TimBentley]

Stealing the more expensive techs is often the cheapest way to get them. I'm pretty sure at least the modern age techs are cheaper to steal than to buy on emperor. This is even more true on higher levels. Looking at their army composition is nice too. Espionage can also be used to get them to declare war on you.

It is wise to wait a few turns after a failed spy insertion to try again. In particular, there is a 0% chance of success if you have unsuccessfully tried to insert a spy in that nation that turn.