Spy tips

[byjimini]

Evening all, I've done a few searches on here for tips on spying, but the forum search feature returns no results

I'm quite a few points ahead of the opposition and have a strong army, I've just got my hands on a couple of spies and quite fancy seeing what mayhem I can cause with them.

I've read the manual and seen what can be done with them, just after some tips or advice from experienced users

 

[oyzar]

Well spying is best used to catch up from behind as if you are ahead they are pretty useless unless you use them to cause revolt in cities you want to take to remove the time it take to get down defenses.

 

[Sonnybonds]

Spies are great for stealing money of you are short on gold.
And if you want to build a worldwonder you can destroy your opponents production if he builds the same wonder.

 

[Hereditary Rule]

Foment unhappiness and poison wells in your best opponent's best cities, to keep him from catching up to you.

 

[cripp7]

Foment unhappiness and poison wells in your best opponent's best cities, to keep him from catching up to you.

specially if you do both at the same time, you can almost take a large city down by doing that. Stealing techs, damaging buildings, just make sure you have the EP points as they get higher each time you do a spy mission.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

If you have a spare spy with nothing to do, have him waste his turns sleeping in some crappy city owned by a strong rival, instead of having him sit in your capital or whatever. That way, if say a tech you want to steal gets researched by this rival, the spy is immediately in a city he can operate on, and likely has the full "stationary spy" discount.

 

[Airefuego]

Does sleeping a spy in my own city make it tougher for the enemy spy to complete a mission there? Or do I have to burn EPs on "counterespionage" missions in order to catch him?

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

Does sleeping a spy in my own city make it tougher for the enemy spy to complete a mission there? Or do I have to burn EPs on "counterespionage" missions in order to catch him?

Yup. A spy on the same tile as an enemy spy has a chance to catch them, it may actually be close to 100% (I'm not sure on the number). If you have a tile you want to protect or a city you want to keep running smoothly, leave a spy on it. It definitly helps.

 

[obsolete]

I'm rather upset about spies in something.

I remember being forced to change civics because a spy influenced me.

OKay!!!! So I went into anarchy for a turn.

That gave me an idea. So next time i'll force HIM into anarchy.

Well, my last game I kept forcing my opponent (non-spritual, no CR) into swapping civics. And it didn't do a damn thing. He just kept on making space ship parts without hinderance.

So I dont' know, was this a bug? Or does it only affect human players, or is it level dependant? Hell, I just don't understand this...

 

[Julian Delphiki]

I've wondered the same thing -- spy mission is succesfull but there is no message of civic change.. ?

 

[obsolete]

I've got messages before, about the civic switch, but maybe it doesn't give the message every time.

I'm still baffled why I had to go under anarchy and an AI doesn't? Or did I only go under anarchy due to a bug, and in reality no one is supposed to have anarchy?

ARgggghghh.... This stuff really needs to be listed somewhere.

 

[Airefuego]

Yup. A spy on the same tile as an enemy spy has a chance to catch them, it may actually be close to 100% (I'm not sure on the number). If you have a tile you want to protect or a city you want to keep running smoothly, leave a spy on it. It definitly helps.

ah thanks!

 

[obsolete]

Alright, I just went back, did some more tests. There is definitely something wrong. I had Joao forced to flip civics back and forth each turn. And he still had no problem making 2 components for the space ship while he was supposed to be in anarchy, and he STILL launched while supposed to be in anarchy.

O_o

 

[oyzar]

Maybe he had cristo redendor?

 

[Airefuego]

I am guessing that it is meant to operate as a Civics switch without anarchy...?

Forcing a civics switch is bad enough. I think it would just be too powerful if you could force an entire Civ into anarchy for a turn with such a simple maneuver - especially if you can do it every turn.

 

[Elfdemon]

I've got messages before, about the civic switch, but maybe it doesn't give the message every time.

I'm still baffled why I had to go under anarchy and an AI doesn't? Or did I only go under anarchy due to a bug, and in reality no one is supposed to have anarchy?

ARgggghghh.... This stuff really needs to be listed somewhere.

Does the leader have spiritual trait? He will never have anarchy if he's spiritual. It could be golden age too, and as someone already said, the Cristo Renderer. Any 3 of these can make him anarchy-free.

 

[obsolete]

As I mentioned earlier, he's not spritual, and I have the CR so he couldn't have it. I didn't check for sure if there was a golden age going on, but I doubt it. Suppose I could triple-check one more time. Is there anything else we could have missed?

But again, if causing anarchy is too strong for civic switches, then WHY is it I had to go through anarchy when an AI used a spy on me for switching? It caught me by surprise, and is where I got the whole idea from in the first place.

 

[Airefuego]

But again, if causing anarchy is too strong for civic switches, then WHY is it I had to go through anarchy when an AI used a spy on me for switching? It caught me by surprise, and is where I got the whole idea from in the first place.

I agree entirely, I wonder if it is a bug...

 

[Gliese 581]

I suppose it's not an event? I don't know much about them..

 

[Zello]

Yup. A spy on the same tile as an enemy spy has a chance to catch them, it may actually be close to 100% (I'm not sure on the number). If you have a tile you want to protect or a city you want to keep running smoothly, leave a spy on it. It definitly helps.

It's definitely not 100%. I had some serious problems with a neighbour causing mayhem in one particular city, so I stationed a spy there. Two turns later, one enemy spy was found, but then in that same turn FOUR successful spy attacks occurred.