[GS] Espionage

[NorthernPalmyra]

hi i'mstruggling to get to grips with Espionage how do I train spies up beyond the Johnny English level of competance?

 

[Elric of Grans]

When a new spy pops for me, I send them to another civ, in a city with a Commercial Hub and do the gather sources mission. Once that completes, I steal gold. The reward is usually poor, but this has a high chance of success. Every successful mission = level up, so that first promotion decides for me what I do with the spy afterwards. After you have the first promotion, spies are pretty easy to use.

 

[Victoria]

hi i'mstruggling to get to grips with Espionage how do I train spies up beyond the Johnny English level of competance?

Gold is the easiest and is the best choice as said. However even with a successful steal you can be spotted and caught or killed which is not made that clear. So even using a +2 skill does not help as much as a spy level in surviving and being promoted.

I will try and get the intelligence agency before using spies as I believe that gives a level to all spies.
I will also always take quartermaster as first spy if I can, not so much for defence (which is fine) but because it also gives a level to spies. Cryptography also is great. Naturally having Cathering also helps.
So a key rule is do not go spying as a level1 spy because you are rather likely to die, even stealing gold. There will be those that disagree because we do not have the precise formula but I have some pretty good idea of how it works now and being the highest level while escaping is key to surviving which is what you are asking, it also helps with your tasks.
I personally prefer to take ace driver as one of my first promotions after my quartermaster is assigned at home. 4 levels on escape is quite OP, also I believe enemy spy levels count against you if they are in the city.

Machiavellianism is really key to slot, not for the discount build but for the time reduction. Spy mission feel like they take a long time and adding escape times to relocation and mission times really makes each task quite long.

So feel free to go for gold mission first but do not spend a lot of time doing this because it does take valuable time. If your first spy can go out with 2 additional levels you may want to go directly for a riskier but much more valuable task like killing envoys. Your levels for escape really do buff you a lot amd people seem to get fixated on the steal strength rather than the survivability strength which you seem to be grasping. Another great promotion is reducing your mission time by another 25%... all these +2 attack values are great but to what end? More gold? You already have loads... the +2 gold promotion is not really worth it, once you have a extra level you are that much tougher.

So I will want quartermaster before I go offensive personally. If my first spy cannot have it I will give them something else and use them as an extra level of intelligence for combat purposes until I can get quartermaster... or at least intelligence agency. Playing as Catherine is quite OP when combined with the above.

 

[NorthernPalmyra]

When a new spy pops for me, I send them to another civ, in a city with a Commercial Hub and do the gather sources mission. Once that completes, I steal gold. The reward is usually poor, but this has a high chance of success. Every successful mission = level up, so that first promotion decides for me what I do with the spy afterwards. After you have the first promotion, spies are pretty easy to use.

thank you! it is getting off the bottom rung which is difficult I find once I can start gaining XP I'll be golden (literally)

 

[Victoria]

Gold has a higher success rate but not a less death rate... The level of the spy is more important. I keep trying to stress this but people just do not see.
When you do each mission read carefully... often it says you died (and you stop there) but if you read on it says you succeeded in stealing the gold.
It's like people are blind to statistics and what is written on the screen
If you want to have a higher chance of Johnny becoming James then make sure they are using the highest levels available to them.
Such a misunderstood area of the game I want to scream

Lets say you have an 85% chance of stealing gold... a level 1 spy has a 50% chance within that of getting caught or killed, a level 2 has roughly a 37% chance and a level 3 roughly a 25% chance.
Some of that bad chance is also detection and you get a chance of escape... another random roll is made on this and based on your level and your mode of escape (always choose foot) is the chance you get away.

If you go for a more difficult task you may not succeed as easily but your death rate does not increase dramatically (it does a little) despite what it says on the screen. The screen is not telling you the whole truth! Level makes much more difference than task.

If you play France with intelligence agency and quatermaster you are +3 levels from the start and you can just steal great works from the start and have much better success than playing as England and stealing gold from the start.

yes it is weird you get killed but still get the gold but hey ho, it is a game.

 

[NorthernPalmyra]

Gold is the easiest and is the best choice as said. However even with a successful steal you can be spotted and caught or killed which is not made that clear. So even using a +2 skill does not help as much as a spy level in surviving and being promoted.

I will try and get the intelligence agency before using spies as I believe that gives a level to all spies. I'll do this from now on - thanks
I will also always take quartermaster as first spy if I can, not so much for defence (which is fine) but because it also gives a level to spies. Cryptography also is great. Naturally having Cathering also helps.
So a key rule is do not go spying as a level1 spy because you are rather likely to die, even stealing gold. There will be those that disagree because we do not have the precise formula but I have some pretty good idea of how it works now and being the highest level while escaping is key to surviving which is what you are asking, it also helps with your tasks.
I personally prefer to take ace driver as one of my first promotions after my quartermaster is assigned at home. 4 levels on escape is quite OP, also I believe enemy spy levels count against you if they are in the city.

Machiavellianism is really key to slot, not for the discount build but for the time reduction. Spy mission feel like they take a long time and adding escape times to relocation and mission times really makes each task quite long.

So feel free to go for gold mission first but do not spend a lot of time doing this because it does take valuable time. If your first spy can go out with 2 additional levels you may want to go directly for a riskier but much more valuable task like killing envoys. Your levels for escape really do buff you a lot amd people seem to get fixated on the steal strength rather than the survivability strength which you seem to be grasping. Another great promotion is reducing your mission time by another 25%... all these +2 attack values are great but to what end? More gold? You already have loads... the +2 gold promotion is not really worth it, once you have a extra level you are that much tougher.

So I will want quartermaster before I go offensive personally. If my first spy cannot have it I will give them something else and use them as an extra level of intelligence for combat purposes until I can get quartermaster... or at least intelligence agency. Playing as Catherine is quite OP when combined with the above.

 

[Jarms48]

I use all my spies as counter spy’s. At least until they get leveled up and I get the Intelligence Agency.