Need some spy help

[insight]

I've just switched over to BTS from Warloads and I have a few spy questions.

One article I read on this site said to make 4 or 5 spies, plant them in an enemy's city, wait a turn or two, and then you can perform a mission with your spies.
My question - Does this always work regardless of the spy point ratio? How is this best executed?

2nd question. Defensive spying. Is it good to make a spy or two for each of your cities to catch other spies?

3rd question. If a spy is discovered (passively), can it escape and be used somewhere else?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[CivMcNut]

I'm glad someone raised a subject about espionage, I was about to do it myself.

I think the answer to your 3rd question is that if a spy is discovered passively, it is captured, and you lose the spy.

Two things I know about defensive spying is building a Security Bureau helps your chances of thrwarting their efforts, you get this with Democracy. Sending your spy to the enemy city and doing a counterespionage mission increases that enemy's cost by 200% for 10 turns. I'm not sure about having a spy around will help.

Your first question. Having a spy in enemy territory there is a chance they will get caught. If they are waiting in a city, the chances are much greater of getting caught. Once you've spent some time in the city though, the points you have to spend on the mission decreases.

I'm still learning about the ratios and what they mean, best I can tell the ratios have something to do with passive espionage that doesn't require a spy.

 

[madscientist]

I am not 100% sure but here are some tidbits I picked up since my disasterous two EE RPC games.

1) Once the ratio favors your civ, it is cheaper to perform spy missions against that AI
2) Some AI cities are cheaper to perform espionage on. clikc on teh leader in the espionage window and click each city. Generally the closer the city the cheaper the mission.
3) The mission is 25% cheaper if that city has your state religion. The Free Religion civic seams to hurt espionage for that reason.
4) For every turn your spy sits in an AI city you get a 10% discount of cost of the spy mission for a total of 50%
5) When you try steal a tech you may lose the spy, you may succeed, both or neither. If you use all the above you can reduce costs for stealing a tech dramatically, example literature i got down to 670 eps in a recent game compared to 990 beakers if I teched it.

I have also decided that great Spies early in the game ar ebest settled while later best for Scotland yard. The Infiltration mission is best if there is one really advanced AI or you are badly behind everyone in tech.

 

[bamf226]

I've never seen a reason so far to use Spies. Most of the time they stand around in my cities hoping to catch a foreign spy. If I send them to another city, more often than not they can cause unhappy citizens or poison the water. I don't find that doing so helps in any way.

 

[madscientist]

I've never seen a reason so far to use Spies. Most of the time they stand around in my cities hoping to catch a foreign spy. If I send them to another city, more often than not they can cause unhappy citizens or poison the water. I don't find that doing so helps in any way.

OK, an example

My current game as Ghengis Khan. I conquered Louis and Wang snatching the Great wall from Paris. Soon, I get lucky and pop a Great Spy which I settle in the mongol capital for 12 ep/turn in addition to my capital and courthouses. The other Ais I am friendly with, Victoria and Zara. I split eps between the two.

I am behind somewhat in tech, but soon I build enough eps to send some spies to steal techs. They go the closest cities and sit in each for 5 turns. I was able to steal drama, Literature, Compass so far. All because of a settle Great Spy which is also getting me 3 beakers/turn.

Three free techs from I settled GP. Not bad considering a Great Artist will only bulb Drama, and a great scientists will only bulb compass.

Another use is to send the spies into teh city you are attacking and send it into revolt as you stack arrives. This eliminates the need to bombard the city, and you can assault at will.

I save eps until I need them. Sometimes I never use them in a game shich is OK.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

One article I read on this site said to make 4 or 5 spies, plant them in an enemy's city, wait a turn or two, and then you can perform a mission with your spies.

My question - Does this always work regardless of the spy point ratio? How is this best executed?

As madscientist said, 5 turns of waiting = -50% cost, which is huge for the "good" missions.

Answering your first question, Spies can fail their mission or be captured before even attempting it, so sending more than 1 increases your chances of having the Spies you need available and capable when the time is right.

2nd question. Defensive spying. Is it good to make a spy or two for each of your cities to catch other spies?

I haven't noticed a difference, though there is supposed to be a greater chance of catching enemy spies this way, so it doesn't hurt, IMO. (Plus, it's always good to have Spies handy in case of emergency anyway.)

3rd question. If a spy is discovered (passively), can it escape and be used somewhere else?

Regardless of the circumstances, a discovered Spy is always "eliminated".

Another use is to send the spies into teh city you are attacking and send it into revolt as you stack arrives. This eliminates the need to bombard the city, and you can assault at will.

QFT.

Especially when my enemy is sporting Castles and/or high culture, I've got better things to do than sit outside a city as it pelts me with rocks and ferries in more defenders.

 

[Polobo]

Having EITHER a spy OR security bureau will improve the chances to detect a spy inside the city. A spy can also increase the chances of detecting a spy on the same tile anywhere (assuming inside cultural borders).

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Do the AIs ever steal techs from me?

In my last game I saw them do some missions that must have taken some sick amounts of EP. They destroyed a spaceship part and they destroyed all the progress on a nearly complete wall street. Such a waste of potential beakers, no wonder the likely culprits were so far behind me in tech.

 

[alex sword]

Do the AIs ever steal techs from me?

Yes, they do, especially if you are the worst enemy for some AI and so he makes you a priority in espionage. If tech is stolen, you will see this event in log (without indication who did it). Anyway AI prefer cheaper missions (sabotage, water poison etc) and tech stealing happens not very often.

 

[BalbanesBeoulve]

Oh, it shows up in the event log? I've never seen that message, so it must've never happened to me yet.

 

[Immaculate]

In relation to spy use:

When my spies get caught and i get the diplomatic modifier: "your spies were caught causing trouble", how long does it last? Will it fade? How fast?

Immac.