Spy Usage Guide

[Kadazzle]

Hello everyone! Many people know what spies do, but not many people know how to use them to their full force, and how to make the most out of stealing all of your enemies gold and Great People. Spies, like every unit can be built into rings, made up of 3 spies.

Spies, can move 2 spaces per turn making them a quick unit. They have no defense outside of cities, and only have an attack while facing other enemy spies. When moving your spy inside enemy territory, always move a unit with them if you're at war with the enemy civ, or always keep it 1 tile away from the city, s that their units can't capture your spy, unless they have Horseman, or other units that can move 2 spaces.

What can spies do? Spies are easily one of the best units in the game. When being moved into a city, they have 4 option:

Steal Gold
Destroy Unit Fortification
Steal a Great Person (If they have one at the City)
Sabotage Production
(or leave quietly)

Now, it may seem simple, just move your spies into the enemy city, and steal whatever you can. It's not that simple! If there's an enemy spy guarding the city (The AI usually have them in their big cities) your spy must battle it out against the enemy spy in order to steal stuff.

So, how do you counter a spy guarding an enemy city? Simple! Get yourself a spy ring! A spy ring should always defeat an enemy spy, so it should be easy to steal stuff. But, how do you maximize your profits when stealing from your enemies? Easy! Build a spy ring, then a bunch of spies, don't group your other spies together! First, send in the spy ring to destroy any defending enemy spies, but if theres no one defending, make him leave quietly. Why? You may ask. Well, if you make him leave quietly, you can then send in your other singular spies to steal great people and gold. Keeping the spy ring helps you move along to the enemies other city, as well bringing a ring into an enemies city doesn't reward you with 3 great people; just like a singular spy it only rewards you with 1 great person, making singular spies just as good as a spy ring, unless they're attacking an enemy.

This has worked in many online games I have played, as it's especially fun taking America's free Great Person. This works really well with both Russia and Egypt, as Egypt as +1 movement for Riflemen, meaning you can make them keep up with your spies, while receiving a defense bonus if attack. This is good with Russia because of the 1/2 cost spies, and 1/2 cost Riflemen.

Remeber, use spies to your advantage, and have fun while doing it!

 

[tuten k]

Thanks

Was helpful for me

 

[Kev]

Spies also give the choice of 'destroy building' - a pretty handy option. Send a spy you get from a barb hut into Athens early to wreck the courthouse or to Paris to ruin the cathedral is an option (still prioritize the great person if one is there or elsewhere). Usually that's early enough to to guarantee that they have no counter-spy (unless they got one from barbs and kept it in their city). Later on, if there is a city that is causing a lot of culture pressure, it's nice to send in a team of spies to steal the great people and wreck all of the buildings they can.

Of course protection is the key as Kadazzle mentioned. Once the choice is made to 'leave quietly' they are stuck outside the city with nowhere to move. Also consider that there must be a workable escape plan for the great person you've just liberated. Ships can be very handy in this case.

One other item to consider is using a protective army with a Great General attached. I am not sure if it's true or not (perhaps others can verify), but it would seem that the great general adds to the attack of the spy just like it would to other units within that square. At least it does show the animation of the general sending the spy into 'battle'. If so, it could help increase the odds of a successful spy mission - and successful protection of remaining spies and subsequent great people.

If spies were cheaper, I think everyone would build them early and it would be spy-fest time. For a cost of 25, they can certainly net you a production advantage if they can destroy a building worth more or steal an irreplaceable great person. Still, while it helps you in very specific cases or against a specific target civ, that production really needs to go toward other things early in the game. Figure ONE spy is equivalent to 2-1/2 archers - almost a full army.

 

[KaNick]

Hey, I was using spys to destroy defense and I guess if your spy wins it just dissapers. Is this also true of spy rings?

Also, yes, Generals do add to the spy's attack.

 

[Terrapin]

Also, do not underrate the value of using spies in conjunction with offensive units. Use the spies to break city defenses and your chances of winning a fight go way up. The bonus for a defensive unit which is fully dug in is on the order of 100%. That means your spy can halve or nearly halve the power of the enemy's best defensive unit. In the simplest example, this makes a Horse/Vet Horse army equal to an Archer/Vet Archer army, making spy use pretty much the only way a horse rusher can take out a city defended by an archer army (other than blind luck, of course).