Intrigue actually works!

[blackcatatonic]

After a few months of playing G&K I'd taken the view that the 'intrigue' feature is fairly useless. Sure, it's nice to get a diplomatic modifier if your spies discover something which can be shared with an ally, but in practice, surprise attacks and declarations of war predicted by the intrigue very seldom actually happen. If an AI comes to me to pass on the information that Civ X is planning to, say, embark an army with a naval escort and attack my coastal city Y, frankly my instinct is to thank them for their time and file it together with photographic evidence of the Loch Ness Monster.

In a recent game as Carthage, Sejong had been dutifully feeding me titbits of information his spies had gathered. But Napoleon's promised attacks never materialised, so once again I ignored him when he popped up warning me of an coastal attack by Darius, at that time a regular trading partner, on Lilybaeum:

I was caught up attending the cities on my main island so didn't even think to send a few ships over as a precaution. So imagine my surprise and delight when this happened:

And this:

It was completely out of the blue: he'd been Friendly the entire game and was still giving me full-fat deals on lux trades (hilariously he even renewed our Incense-for-Cotton swap the turn before attacking). Needless to say my Commerce Tree and Great Lighthouse-powered fleet of Battleships and Ironclads were over there later that turn and finished off his assault. But nevertheless, I was uncommonly impressed by the AI's spies getting it right for once - right down to the last detail!

Has anyone else experienced intrigue intelligence actually resulting in the promised attack before?

 

[JaGarLo]

In my current game some intrigues became reality:

Once, Moctezuma told me that Genghis Khan was plotting against me. Later, one spy of mine reported that Catherine was plotting as well and she was building a navy.

And, like 30 turns later, the both declare war on me.

 

[dac050]

My first G&K game my own spies told me Napoleon was heading for me, he was a runaway on the other continent, so more advanced than I was. The city he was heading for was recently captured from the Germans, so had a very narrow front (I cut the German empire in half, I love doing that). I had six tiles of "beach" to defend, I put a Gatling gun on each tile, with a cannon right behind it. Then I posted 2 frigates and a caravel on watch duty. The invasion force of Foreign Legions, ironclads, one or two destroyers, etc, ran across my pickets, immediately declared war, sank two, a frigate escaped. He was so flustered at being caught that the fleet spent 10 turns loitering in the middle of the ocean, then he offered a straight up peace deal. My "Atlantic Wall" was never tested.

But intrigue does work, but I only pay attention to it if it names a specific city they are heading for, the more general ones don't often materialize, especially if you build or upgrade a few units on that border.

 

[ense7en]

Even if the attacks on you rarely materialize, it's worth re-arranging a few units and keeping alert as they certainly sometimes do.

And being able to share intrigue is great for making friends with previously less friendly civs.

 

[blackcatatonic]

This is literally the first time any intrigue, either that I'd discovered or that someone else told me about, has come true in a game for me. But now knowing that they do occasionally, I'll take them a little more seriously in future...

 

[Peng Qi]

When the AI reveals intrigue to you, it is always true, it's just that the AI is constantly re-evaluating whether or not the attack is a good idea. For example, if they start marching troops toward your city, but then get intrigue that someone else is planning an attack on them, they will often abort the attack entirely and re-arrange their troops defensively. I had one game where someone told me Rome was going to attack me, but I was at war with France, so instead of re-arranging troops I sent scouts to look for an approaching Roman army. Sure enough, there was one, so I quickly threw up walls and redeployed some units to the city Rome was marching on. When the Roman army arrived on my border, I was expecting a DoW next turn, but instead they just milled about in the area for a while. About a dozen turns later Siam declared war on me, then Rome did a couple turns after that; I presume he figured that if I were fighting a two-front war he had better odds against my otherwise well-fortified city.

 

[eris]

I have definitely had intrigue warnings come true. It is also fairly obvious that sometimes the warnings don't pan out because I re-arrange or reinforce troops. I keep a pitfully weak military, so my movements and the reactions are something I am used to observing. It is definitely an opportunity to manipulate situations.

Because I play a passive aggressive game, if I get such warnings, I only build up the city they plan on attacking a little bit, stationing my other newly minted troops on the other ends of long roads. More than once, I have been rewarded sooner or later with a "surprise" attack that was quickly quelled and then followed by my counter attack taking a couple juicy cities.

 

[smallfish]

What actually happened:

Spoiler :

In an alternate universe:

Spoiler :

 

[Lord Kid]

I've had quite a few intrigues come to pass. I got some intel that Siam was coming for my cap once. He was a runaway and ahead in tech, so I was kinda worried. I was able to build a nuke and had it waiting for him. Sure enough, my subs find him sailing at me with 2 full carriers, battleships, destroyers and ground troops. I waited til he was close but still in the middle of the ocean and nuked his fleet.

It's nice when the intel actually pans out.

 

[greetswithfire]

that happened to me in a game russia vs japan...i had been trading and friendly with japan the entire game so i ignored it...very surprised when a mass of samuries bombed me

 

[Karmah]

Intrigues are ALWAYS true at the moment they are told.
I've observed it then tested it in a 'I'm the watcher' kind game (settler spamming scouts )

Two things to keep in mind , first you must distinguish 'sneak attack' from 'plotting' , second it is at the time they are told.

1. Sneak attack means he will attack . He has made troops ready and he is on the move or about to.
X is plotting against Y , is just pretty general , it usually means , he has a spy in Y house or he is asking people to go to war or he is ready to denounce you. Most of the time , it s the fact that he has a spy in your capitol.

2. If sneak attacks warning are true at the time , the IA really has this intention , he might change his mind , because you reacted defensively and he has a way to see it , because someone attacks him , some proposed an other target or simply because he was counting on some open border to reach the target that he lost/never got and the travel time becomes to high.

This is speculation over some observations but I m pretty sure that I m right.

Conclusion : Take sneak attacks warning seriously , assert the feasability of such an attack by the IA and observe the diplomatic moves in the turn to come.

 

[Halcyan2]

I've occasionally found Intrigue true as well.

Sometimes the plotting is funny though. One time I was playing a Continents game where Askia told me that Augustus was plotting against me, even though I was on the other continent and he hadn't discovered Astronomy yet!

 

[animalguy]

It is often true for me but then i get useless intrigue where I discover that somebody is sending naval escorts to attack an inland city. What was worse was that the attacker didn't have any costal cities

 

[Smokeybear]

Oh yeah, a small percentage of the predicted attacks will occur, though usually from the big-dog aggressive AI's you expected to be coming after you anyway. By and large, it's of no great use to me beyond some extra +diplo.

 

[cman2010]

This is one of the reasons I love coming on here, everyones games seem to play out differently. Personaly out of 6 games I have played of Gods and Kings I have had 4 times where intrigue came true.

 

[Yzman]

There is different steps of intrigue. I don't remember them exactly but they are like this...

1) Plotting against you - This just means that the AI is considering going to war with you. It in no way means an attack is going to happen.

2) Building up a force- This means the AI has gone to the next phase. It has decided to attack and will, provided certain conditions don't change.

3) Has launched an invasion/attack - The AI has decided to attack. They are actively sending over a force. I am not sure if this ever doesn't come true. If they don't attack, something must have changed and they literally turn around.