Using Your Spies

[brewgod]

Hello Fellow Die Hard Civ V Fans;

If you are the tech leader in the game and you have 1-4 spies but there is no new tech to steal then what purpose can you use your spies. Is the only main use then to rig city state elections?

Playing Gods and Kings.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Brew God

 

[redwings1340]

If other civs are stealing from you, you can put your spies in your own cities and get level ups when they catch the enemy spies. This will make them more efficient in the future. Otherwise, yeah, they are best used on city states in this case, but that's not a terrible thing. City states are pretty amazing, and rigging them and planting coups can definitely work in your favor.

 

[Browd]

Defensive spy in your cpaital -- when that spy gets leveled up, shift them to a CS to rig elections. Rinse and repeat.

 

[HeraldtheGreat]

What they said.

 

[sendos]

As well as garrison your spies into your cities with the highest science potential (look for a 4-5 star rating or the highest number of stars amongst all your bases), build some constabularies and police stations. Your spies might not always capture enemy spies but at least you would slow them down.

If you have a huge tech lead and you have police stations in every tall city, you could consider moving all spies to CS' as Browd previously mentioned. Even if some civs steal some techs from you, they'll still be behind you in tech. Secure the nearby CS' first.

 

[Talcove]

Using them as diplomats also helps, when you need to buy votes.

 

[redwings1340]

As well as garrison your spies into your cities with the highest science potential (look for a 4-5 star rating or the highest number of stars amongst all your bases), build some constabularies and police stations. Your spies might not always capture enemy spies but at least you would slow them down.

If you have a huge tech lead and you have police stations in every tall city, you could consider moving all spies to CS' as Browd previously mentioned. Even if some civs steal some techs from you, they'll still be behind you in tech. Secure the nearby CS' first.

I personally disagree with this tactic unless I'm going for the National Intelligence Agency. I think it's more beneficial to get the level ups that come from capturing enemy spies than to slow down enemy tech stealing (after all, they are still behind you in tech, and while they steal a tech, you're working on the next one!), especially when I can be building other things like military, production, food, or gold buildings. The constabulary and police station make it more difficult for your spies to level up, take a long time to produce and a lot of gold to buy, and I really don't see a point to building them unless you have a chance to get the extra spy and free level ups from the national wonder.

 

[Cpt Oblivious]

As said, either defense or rigging would be the primary uses.

However, I also find them useful to rotate through the other civs- I get to take a look into their cities (yay for planning my dominations!), collect intrigue (late game diplomacy when tensions are high never hurts), and occasionally even as tech leader I'll find a tech to steal; often from someone who rushed into the sailing line or warfare techs while I've been doing pure science. Because in the end that's one less tech I have to "waste time with"

 

[jogi]

I like to have a spy in the capital of the resident wonder hog as well, for obvious reasons.

 

[Barghaest]

In my last two BNW games... I've not seen any AI stealing tech. I kept a spy in my capital but never get any messages (even failed to stop a spy). I was the dominate tech leader in both games. After a while I just moved all my spies out to CS or as diplomats to barter for votes. I never saw any messages about CS elections being rigged (except by me) and never could offer my votes in trade, so I'm guessing none of them put diplomats in my capital either.

I was beginning to think they broke espionage with BNW (or maybe just broke the AI since they don't try to convert my cities anymore, I remember when G&K first came out I had to station an Inquisitor at every city of pop 10 or higher to avoid missionary spam, now the AI seems content to use them on CS or their own cities to combat pressure).

 

[Walter R]

Using them as diplomats also helps, when you need to buy votes.

The OP is G&K

 

[njmfff]

Use them for coups. Sure, you'll still have to spend some cash to get 85% chance, but if you succeed it will hit AI's influence over CS really hard. Very useful to do it one turn before WC votes, so AI can't buy back that CS.

 

[phillipwyllie]

...so AI can't buy back that CS.

The AI always goes after the human player so it is possible for the AI to ally your newly allied CS's beating you to the vote count.

To answer to OP I usually steal techs until my first spy is level3 then he goes onto rigging elections. Depending on your influence over the ally of that CS you can nearly insta-coup each CS with a level3 spy. Subsequent spies are used for rigging elections as I find it too risky to steal techs with a level 1 spy in the medieval era onwards.

 

[njmfff]

The AI always goes after the human player so it is possible for the AI to ally your newly allied CS's beating you to the vote count.

True, but this might be bug\exploit. If you click on buy influence option between turns, you can give cash to CS right as your turn start\before AI turn ends. You become their ally and you still get the votes, since technically, you were ally on the turn WC votes started and "turn before".

Yeah, it's not fair, but it's not fair either that AI can steal\coup with 10-15% chance and I fail with 85%.

 

[redwings1340]

The AI always goes after the human player so it is possible for the AI to ally your newly allied CS's beating you to the vote count.

To answer to OP I usually steal techs until my first spy is level3 then he goes onto rigging elections. Depending on your influence over the ally of that CS you can nearly insta-coup each CS with a level3 spy. Subsequent spies are used for rigging elections as I find it too risky to steal techs with a level 1 spy in the medieval era onwards.

Technically the safest way to get a diplo victory is to declare war on every single civ 1 turn before the vote if you have enough city states to win it (and show the true power of diplomacy and what it means to be a leader in the process ). You'll still need to be careful about your city states getting conquered in that one turn, but the AI can't re-ally them!

 

[Quineloe]

last game I had a spy and a constabulary in my capitol. I think I had 5 or 6 techs stolen from there and the spy not doing anything.

 

[gingerbill]

I usually have 1-2 defensive and the rest getting city states favour to save money bribing them and to stop the AI becoming there ally instead.

 

[joncnunn]

My normal use of spies:

1 in my capital

The others in city states that I most want to stay as allies for both coups & rigging elections.