Spies discovering battle plans

[Disgustipated]

Several times my spies uncover battle plans against me, but no attack ever comes. What gives? One time another civilization warned me of a battle plan against me (which I thought was a very cool feature), but then no attack ever came. And occasionally I uncover battle plans against other nations, but they never attack them.

I'm happy to not be attacked of course, but I question the reliability of this spy information. Maybe it's possible because I fortified the city in question, they called off their plans. But often I didn't even fortify that much, just moved troops onto roads nearby so they can respond.

 

[Miravlix]

We know that spy never lie, so the civ AI has started troop movements. What ultimately makes it give up I've no idea how to figure out unless the dev decide to tell us.

 

[Anvari]

Well, it could be anything. Maybe another civ is getting weaker and is a better target. Or your new units scare him of?

 

[Adjuvant]

I've been arguing this in other threads, wherein people argue "the spies don't lie". In any event, in many circumstances the information is useless, because, yes, apparently the AI changes its mind.

 

[The_Quasar]

In my current game, I was told America was going to attack... it took them about 100 turns before they did, but they did in the end! By then they stood no chance, and I took Washington with a fleet. Going to try to win this game by ships only, as all capitals are on the coast... only 1 more to go!

 

[Prophet Skeram]

I've been arguing this in other threads, wherein people argue "the spies don't lie". In any event, in many circumstances the information is useless, because, yes, apparently the AI changes its mind.

The AI generally seems to be pretty timid at times (not always, sometimes they go completely warmonger-crazy), they "want" to attack you, but if you do as much as move 3-5 units at the wrong border, they get scared - at least that's my impression so far.

 

[Huaojozu]

This gives me an idea. What if spies, by being stationed in the capital, could give disinformation to enemy spies looking for intrigue? Say I position my spy in my capital and tell him to act as though I am going to attack France (while in fact, I am preparing an invasion against Inca). An Incan spies comes and uncovers my feigned plot to attack France and goes ahead to inform them of it. Meanwhile they feel safe because they think I will attack France while Inca was my target all along!

 

[Adjuvant]

This gives me an idea. What if spies, by being stationed in the capital, could give disinformation to enemy spies looking for intrigue? Say I position my spy in my capital and tell him to act as though I am going to attack France (while in fact, I am preparing an invasion against Inca). An Incan spies comes and uncovers my feigned plot to attack France and goes ahead to inform them of it. Meanwhile they feel safe because they think I will attack France while Inca was my target all along!

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=465761

 

[King William I]

based on my experiences, "X is plotting against you" is useless. "X has launched a sneak attack against the Y city of Z" is reliable and happening very soon

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I've seen the intrigue come in 3 flavors:

X is plotting against y"

X is building up an army/navy for a sneak attack"

X is going to sneak attack y's city"

The first seems to be the decision-making stage, the second is the building stage, and the third is a mobilizing stage. It seems that the AI is not truly commited to the course of action until the third stage.

I know that I've dissuaded the AI from attacking me by building troops and fortifications or moving them to the border cities. I've also thwarted attacks against other civs by massing my troops as if to invade.

I love the "plotting" intrigues, because the AI plots against nearly everyone. That way I can share it out with the neighbors and build blocs against the AI in question. I'm currently using one spy to turn everyone against Alex and another to turn everyone against Maria.

As an aside, Maria appears to be going for a culture win this time and hasn't DMed any city-states.

 

[Civologist]

I had a chinese spy warn me of an english attack on a specific city. I moved my troops south to protect this city. China then proceeds to declare war and attack a northern city. The English attack still followed a turn or two later. China made sure to tell me that this was a backstab. I can't decide if the AI was intending me to move my troops before they attacked or not. Either way I still beat both of them. A lot more interesting than vanilla though.

 

[Disgustipated]

Twice I got the message Japan was on his way to Orleans, and both times he never came. I can understand him changing his mind on the first two intrigues, but if he's already on his way, why would he change his mind?

First time I moved a caravel over closer to the area, second time I did nothing.

It's an interesting feature I like it, but it may be a little buggy, or they intentionally mislead you.

 

[nefloyd]

What's interesting is I've had a Civ whom I gave warning of a sneak attack to decide to attack the sneaking Civ the next turn

 

[compwiz1202]

I don't usually need any intrigue. When the Ottomans have a dozen units on the border, I can pretty much anticipate DoW. Although it is interesting that the AI actually decides it wants to attack a city in advance.

 

[AbenHumeya]

Every time I have been informed that X is planning a naval attack against me, it has never happened. It may be that the AI is less likely to carry through if it is found out, or that building up a naval force to counter an invasion dissuades it from attacking. But, spy information has always been wrong about anything involving me, but it is surprisingly accurate about things which only involve other civs.

 

[Civsassin]

I had heard from another civ that Hiawatha was sending troops to attack city x. I moved some strong troops to defend the city. I saw Hiawatha's troops near my borders, but I think the AI decided not to attack because of the defensive units it saw close to my borders. The AI it would seem is programmed not to enter into "stupid" wars in some circumstances.

 

[Valbuena]

Ive had a spy tell me that Montezuma, who happened to be a good friend of mine, was going to attack one of my biggest cities with their navy. So in turn i told him not to settle near me and denounced him, and reassembled my navy. I had a much more powerful military so i think this dissuaded him from actually declaring war, even i though i saw his navy coming towards me.

Instead he went to attack his neighbor Hiawatha, as usual >_>

 

[AriochIV]

I don't usually need any intrigue. When the Ottomans have a dozen units on the border, I can pretty much anticipate DoW. Although it is interesting that the AI actually decides it wants to attack a city in advance.

Right. When you see more than two or three units moving together, something's definitely up. It might not be you he's going to attack, but he's definitely looking to attack somebody.

As has been mentioned, though, it does appear that the AI can change his mind, so if you move troops to counter, I think it's possible that you can make him rethink his strategy.

 

[Halcyan2]

Ive had a spy tell me that Montezuma, who happened to be a good friend of mine, was going to attack one of my biggest cities with their navy. So in turn i told him not to settle near me and denounced him, and reassembled my navy. I had a much more powerful military so i think this dissuaded him from actually declaring war, even i though i saw his navy coming towards me.

Instead he went to attack his neighbor Hiawatha, as usual >_>

Even in Vanilla, denouncing someone who plans to attack you would often (though not always) change their plans (most of the time I find that it delays their DoW, though often by a number of much needed turns).

 

[PhilBowles]

Several times my spies uncover battle plans against me, but no attack ever comes. What gives? One time another civilization warned me of a battle plan against me (which I thought was a very cool feature), but then no attack ever came. And occasionally I uncover battle plans against other nations, but they never attack them.

I'm happy to not be attacked of course, but I question the reliability of this spy information. Maybe it's possible because I fortified the city in question, they called off their plans. But often I didn't even fortify that much, just moved troops onto roads nearby so they can respond.

It can take a while. I had the sense in my first G&K game that intrigue was mostly there to flavour diplomatic relations, and that the "information" provided was randomly generated rather than actually info on AI plans. But my spy informed me in my current game that Germany was planning a sneak attack on a civilization, though he didn't know which one. Sure enough, the very next turn my scout came across a gathering of Landsknechts. The war dec itself took a long time, but all the spy got wrong was that it was a sneak attack - the Germans (Hostile towards me for a while, having previously backstabbed me with a denunciation) moved their army to my borders and were building it up for some time before they actually attacked - possibly, as mentioned above, this is because I'd denounced him to satisfy Colombo.