How to catch a spy?

[Rodrigo Costa]

Is it possible to catch enemy spies? I'm playing a game where enemy spies are continually destroying my tile improvements (mines, oil wells,...). I've got own spies in my cities and some located at some important tile improvements, but without any effect, as enemy spies keep doing a lot of damage.

Also, it is written in the rules that only spies can see other spies, and even kill them (my spies have never seen an enemy spy). Is it true? How to do it?

Please, Help!

 

[kdalibor]

I think you can't see them, just your spies stationed in your cities boost your possibility to catch them. If possible you can build Security Bureau, that building helps thwart rival spies. Best way to go would be to send your spy in enemy territory and order him to perform counter-espionage. It will be more difficult to him to do successful espionage action against you.

 

[coanda]

Having a spy of your own on the tile increases the chance of spies getting caught when they end a turn there or run an espionage op there. Security Bureau also helps. Counter-espionage ops will make them pay a heck of a lot more per op, which should slow down the losses.

If all they're doing is destroying tile improvements, just get an extra couple workers. They'll lose a heck of a lot more paying for those ops than you'll lose spending a turn to replace them.

 

[sossos]

The spy from AI is welcome. They always do the silly work like poisoning or destroying. Poisoning can be easily counteracted by whipping or drafting, while destroying will exicte the workers who could be jobless in the late eras.
Nevertheless, it reduces the player's cost to causing revolt or stealing techs. The more AI spies, the better.

 

[Rodrigo Costa]

Thanks for your help!

I'm playing a game where it's pretty annoying to see almost every turn a mine blow up. My workers don't work too fast to repair the damage.

I also read the great "Spy Detection" thread, which has very useful information.

I guess that the game's Manual is outdated when it says that spies can see other spies, and even kill them...

 

[s.bernbaum]

Your "defending" spies do have a fairly high chance to "see" enemy spies that come onto their tiles. However, they destroy them before you ever get to see them. So, you will only see a message that any enemy spy was caught near city X. I see these messages all the time.

 

[Celebithil]

The odds for capturing a spy depend on some things you can't control (i.e. actions by the AI, such as whether the spy moved this turn) and some things you can.

The most significant effect you can control is by closing borders, which increases the odds by a factor of 2.5. However I feel that closing borders just to capture more spies is a bit of overkill.

Another factor increasing the odds is to have a spy or security bureau in the same tile as the enemy spy (note that this does not stack). You can also temporarily increase your odds by running counterespionage missions (though again, they seem not to give true value for EP). And finally you increase odds by having generated a lot of EPs (against anyone, at any time of the game) relative to the AI (This effect runs through the ratio of EPs generated).

Note that if you have none of the things mentioned above (i.e. no spy on the tile, no counterespionage mission and hardly any EPs generated) immobile enemy spies are almost uncapturable (though they still have to move to get in your territory, so at that time you will always have a chance of capturing them).

See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=247719

 

[Rodrigo Costa]

Your "defending" spies do have a fairly high chance to "see" enemy spies that come onto their tiles. However, they destroy them before you ever get to see them. So, you will only see a message that any enemy spy was caught near city X. I see these messages all the time.

yes, I think you're right when you say that spies can only "see" other spies when they are caught (and then a message is displayed). But that's an in-game mechanism, visualy, I don't see them.

It also appears that when moving spies across the map, those spies can pass through enemy spies and don't spot/see them.

So, after all, I suppose that the only way to catch an enemy spy (outside a city tile), is placing one of my spies on a tile, and then wait... wait... wait... until one of those enemy bandits stops there, and then hope to have the odds and some luck by my side.