The way you should use PROPAGANDA spy mission.

[JoseM]

As you can see here , the terrain inside the BLACK lines was the former AZTEC empire... China (my civ) and my allies, England, India and Iroquious made a war alliance against Aztecs and invaded them.
The red arrows represent my invasion.
The orange arrows represent the english invasion.
The grey arrow in the right of the aztec empire, represent the indian invasion.
The purple arrow in the left represent the iroquious invasion.

Aafter i took my part of the terrain which took more than 20 turns, i made peace with aztecs, but they still were in war against the english, india and iroquious.

After another few turns the english managed to take the souther part of the aztec empire.

(the yellow line represent the borders between the northern part of the aztec empire (invaded by me) and the southern part of the aztec empire (invaded by the english)
see next Screenshot

 

[JoseM]

The terrain inside the BLACK LINE marks the southern part of the aztec empire that was invaded and occupied by the english. It contains 2 dyes and 1 source of oil, stone and coal.

The aztec empire was dead, and the english were my allies, and i didnt wanted to make war with them just for those resources. Since the southern part of the aztec empire occupied by the english were 1 or 2 size cities, then it was cheap for me to start PROPAGANDA in all those cities and in one turn for the price of between 2500 - 3000 of gold, i managed to take that terrain without declaring war on the english, also they were communist and i was democracy, so it was easy for me to "convert" those cities to my civ.

If you see in this game 3000 of gold is nothing to me since i have 30.000 of gold in my treasury, i had like 35.000 of gold and i used 3000 on propaganda and 2000 in other stuff.

Also in this game u see that im researching FLIGHT and i already have mechanized infantry, well in the editor i changed it so i can get Tanks and Mech infantry in the same tech (mobile transportation), i like to see the mech infantry as an anti tank destroyer, and the tank as a tank, lol.... in ww2 u had tanks and anti tanks destroyers, so why not here?...

Well the point of this post is that u can use propaganda mission in this way.

 

[Zouave]

Just be glad the other guy is Communist. On those RARE occasions when I tried it the other civ turned out to be "immune".

I have seen about ten tries against a civ of mine (non-Democracies), and they all failed.

Even at an Edited lower cost, Propaganda Espionage, like all Espionage, is usually not cost-effective. I suppose it has a chance of working IF the other guy is a Commie and IF he has some cities in a really isolated place, as on your map.

 

[Citizen_K]

Zouave, here's a tip: you can check the other guy's gov't through the Military Advisor (F3)

 

[Zouave]

Yes indeed. My point was it is an extremely unusual time when any aspect of Espionage is of any use at all. Espionage is usually best just at getting someone to declare war on you.

 

[Strider]

Alot of arrows on this map....Good idea through

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Propaganda should be used exaclty like JoseM showed: directly after a big war, because only then will the other civ be in Commie! Also, the freshly taken towns will contain no culture for the other guy, will have unhappy people, maybe even resistors and will have foreign (unstable) nationals.

Good one, Jose!

 

[Dutchman]

Thanx Citizen_K, for the Gov tip, always wondered how you could do that

 

[MrBiggBoy]

PROPOGANDA CHECKLIST!!

1. Make sure their capital is far away.
2. Make sure their garrison is small.
3. Make sure I have enough $$.
4. MOST IMPORTANT:: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE !!!LOTS!!! of culture in your cities beside.

 

[Overlag]

well one problem here

how the hell you get so much money to do this????

well you have 30k in the last shot, the max GPT ive had is 900, so thats over 30 turns.......hmm

 

[JoseM]

get ahead in tech, and then sell the tech for expensive price, also sell ur resources for expensive prices too, and dont make wars with all the civs, try to be polite with them and u will be able to make trade and stuff with all the civs and get the highest amount of gold per turn. Also get all the economic wonders and miniwonders and u gotta have all ur cities developed.

 

[RegentBob]

obviously i'm still doing something wrong. even on the few occassions when i do get a slight tech lead, the ai civs are all mostly broke. i was recently listed as the "wealthiest civ" with ~$130. i could go around selling my techs to everyone else, but it still won't get me that much money!

it must be time for me to start modding my game or something.

 

[sabo]

Originally posted by Zouave
Just be glad the other guy is Communist. On those RARE occasions when I tried it the other civ turned out to be "immune".

I have seen about ten tries against a civ of mine (non-Democracies), and they all failed.

Even at an Edited lower cost, Propaganda Espionage, like all Espionage, is usually not cost-effective. I suppose it has a chance of working IF the other guy is a Commie and IF he has some cities in a really isolated place, as on your map.

Zouave, welcome back!!!

 

[Overlag]

Originally posted by RegentBob
obviously i'm still doing something wrong. even on the few occassions when i do get a slight tech lead, the ai civs are all mostly broke. i was recently listed as the "wealthiest civ" with ~$130. i could go around selling my techs to everyone else, but it still won't get me that much money!

it must be time for me to start modding my game or something.

well same here, when i DO get ahead in tech race's They have no money.......

no one does GPT deals with me ever (untill very late in the game they may start) only Egypt does GPT deals with me?

 

[Evincar]

JoseM are you aware that making Mech Infantry coming along with tanks almost deprives tanks from all usefulness? WTF are you going to do with them if by the time you have 50 tanks the enemy may happily have 100 mechs??

 

[The Yankee]

Hmm...well, I did use propaganda very successfully against a small Chinese civ. Mao had been furious with me for most of the game, but he was locked in by three other civs and really had nowhere to go. I quickly built the Intelligence Agency and got a spy into China. They had all of one luxury and their culture didn't measure up to the civs around them. So, being the cultural powerhouse I was, I used propaganda and systematically managed to capture every Chinese city except the capital. No, I did not border them but my expansion brought me within striking distance of their outermost cities.

Of course, I quickly rushed temples and libraries and I controlled the Chinese empire. About seven turns later, my forces surrounded the Chinese capital. One of Mao's troops violated my territory, so I declared war and brought his rule to an end. The Chinese have never been happier.

 

[JoseM]

Originally posted by Evincar
JoseM are you aware that making Mech Infantry coming along with tanks almost deprives tanks from all usefulness? WTF are you going to do with them if by the time you have 50 tanks the enemy may happily have 100 mechs??

well..in this game using China u wanted to put tanks and mech infantry to come at the same time because i wanted mech infantry to be something like an "anti tank destroyer" vehicle..... but then i realize that it sucks and started another game which was the roman game im playing, u know the SS i posted in the "the best city ever" and i put that mech infantry are not allowed in the whole game, thats why u can only see infantry units in the cities even in the modern age....... all is allowed except mech infantry in the roman game.

 

[Gen]

Originally posted by Lt. 'Killer' M.
Propaganda should be used exaclty like JoseM showed: directly after a big war, because only then will the other civ be in Commie! Also, the freshly taken towns will contain no culture for the other guy, will have unhappy people, maybe even resistors and will have foreign (unstable) nationals.

Good one, Jose!

There is also one more tip for increasing chances of propaganda. If possible, wait a couple more turns and do it when mentioned Commie begins revolution. When in anarchy, his cities are much more vulnerable to propaganda campaigns. You can do it also when war begins and enemy civ democracies collapse due to war weariness. You can't do it, hovewer, to a religious civ. Also, on higher difficulties AI will have shorter anarchy. You must check every turn (F3) and have some gold reserves just in case.

 

[Bamspeedy]

Zouave, welcome back!!!

That was a reply from back in April, so he isn't back yet.

I've done propaganda quite successfully. But I had a ton of money and tons of culture (out-cultured everyone by at least a 4:1 ratio). The Iroquois declared war on my friends the Aztecs, so I spent alot of my money and 'flipped' all of his cities (about 10 of them) to me in one turn. Left him with just his capital.

 

[Sim_One]

I have found a good strategy, although it will only apply in very rare circumstances. Give democracy to a backward neightbor non-religious AI who hasn't got it by the time you reach espionage. The AI will go into a revolution on that exact turn and for the next 3-6 turns, and propaganda against an anarchy is much more effective. I think it will also work against a religous civ too because they still have one-turn anarchies.