How to plant Spies????

Patsfan20 · April 29, 2002, 17:27

Everytime I look at the Military Advisor, he says to plant spies to learn more about the other Civs, and I cant for the life of me figure out how. I know you can try to steal a Tech and stuff, is this considered sending spies or what? Any advice would be great!! Thanks

Lucilla · April 29, 2002, 17:42

First you need to build the Intelligence Agency. Then double click on the Pentagon symbol next to the city name and you will be asked whether you want to plant a spy.
Depending on the type of government of the other civ, this can be succesful or not.
Once you have a spy, you can see the enemie's units in your Military Advisor screen.
You can then also initiate specific spy actions when you click on the "E" next to the current units view in the bottom right corner of the map view.
Hope that helps

Patsfan20 · April 29, 2002, 17:45

ah ha! So thats how you do it. I was only clicking on the E and getting the only 2 options. And I was reading in the instructions manual that you can do like propaganda and stuff and could not figure out how to do that. Well thanks for the advice, ill give it a try when i get off work. Thanks

Jawa Jocky · April 29, 2002, 18:05

I never planted a spy until I lost a space race

To avoid this mistake in the future I tried to plant spies in my next game. They always get caught!

I have failed at least 20 times and never had success. What the hell am I doing wrong?

Jethro83 · April 29, 2002, 18:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky
I never planted a spy until I lost a space race

To avoid this mistake in the future I tried to plant spies in my next game. They always get caught!

I have failed at least 20 times and never had success. What the hell am I doing wrong?

Not your fault. The chances of successfully planting a spy are far too low. Once I had Babylon declare war on me when I failed to plant a spy on them. I'll only try planting a spy on a civ once each turn. I find that if you fail the first time in a turn, you should give up for that turn because it is simply throwing your money away (and annoying the hell out of the other civ).

Lucilla · April 29, 2002, 18:51

I guess that depends on the type of government of the other civ. If they have democracy or republic you are likely to fail (at least that's my experience, the manual doesn't say anything about this). If you are communist, it increases your chances (says the manual).
Anyway, using a spy for specific missions is incredibly expensive and IMO often not worth the effort. Personaly, I like the way spies worked in Civ2 much better.

player1 · April 29, 2002, 19:04

I think it more like 50%-50% chance.
But I sugest you if you fail, do NOT try to plant is same turn again, since that's 100% failure.
Try sevral (5+) turns later.

Grrr · April 30, 2002, 00:02

So I have been wasting ALL THAT MONEY!

nato · April 30, 2002, 00:10

How to plant spies?

... wait for it ... Very carefully!

Oh ho ho ho I just kill myself sometimes.

I should probably run now, but I'd like to say I think planting spies should be near automatic. Everyone has spies on everyone else, no problem. Its only when they take action that they really risk discovery, I think.

Coracle · April 30, 2002, 00:12

Wasn't Espionage a lot more FUN in Civ 2?? Sure was.

nato · April 30, 2002, 00:15

Yes it was a lot more fun and a lot more practical. However spies were also seriously broken and overpowered. Steal city was not cool.

nationalist · April 30, 2002, 00:20

Why bother?

Cyclotron · April 30, 2002, 17:47

Quote:

Originally posted by Coracle
Wasn't Espionage a lot more FUN in Civ 2?? Sure was.

Of course. I especially enjoyed the part where I could buy away 90% of an opponent's cities with spies for very little cash, steal all their techs with a nearly 100% sucess rate, and bribe all of their units so it was impossible to lose.

Was that your favorite part, too?

player1 · April 30, 2002, 19:22

Quote:

Originally posted by cyclotron7

Of course. I especially enjoyed the part where I could buy away 90% of an opponent's cities with spies for very little cash, steal all their techs with a nearly 100% sucess rate, and bribe all of their units so it was impossible to lose.

Was that your favorite part, too?

I lowered tech steal to 70% cost, and propaganda to 50% in my MOD and that made spy missions fun again.

Keeper of Hell · April 30, 2002, 19:32

Quote:

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky
I never planted a spy until I lost a space race

To avoid this mistake in the future I tried to plant spies in my next game. They always get caught!

I have failed at least 20 times and never had success. What the hell am I doing wrong?

If you fail to plant a spy in a particular civ once, wait a turn to try again. You cannot be successful if you fail once. I have tested this to what I feel is a reasonable extent: I saved my game and clicked on "Plant a Spy" about 50 times nonstop. Nothing. Reloaded and tried again- no effect. The first time tells all.

zulu9812 · April 30, 2002, 19:35

The more advanced the target civ is, the less likely any espionage will work (particularly incite propaganda). Thus, when you're going for space race, espionage is all but impotent.

nato · April 30, 2002, 19:49

Wow that is kind of backwards, if you ask me. I would think that the possibilities for espionage increase with technology. I think that in higher tech places one person can do more and have more of an effect than in low tech places.

I think a spy in a modern industrial states technocracy could do a lot more than in a medeival feudal barony. Certainly spies seem more prevelant in WWII and the Cold War than say the Hundred Years War.

AJ Corp. The FAIR · April 30, 2002, 19:49

Only spy when you're at war with the civ you're spying on.

Might take several attempts.

No diplomatic penalties.

AJ

player1 · April 30, 2002, 20:02

You know what.
Steal tech misison actally pays off in modern era (if only one or two civs have that tech), while being bad choice in medivial age.
It has to do someing with way how is it calculated.

asleepathewheel · April 30, 2002, 20:12

Once you have a spy in place you have to be careful though, if you are building for war and your spy fails in his mission, you will lose knowledge of his military, which has happened to me in crucial situations.

I'm glad that spies aren't what they were in civ2, buying a civ city by city, I thought was pretty crazy. I just wish there could have been some solution that would lessen their power but still make them fun to use.

ChaotikVisions · April 30, 2002, 21:10

Yeah, spys in civ2 were overpowered. I remember all the games I ended via mass nuclear war, spys were a cheap way to nuke since I was at war with everyone anyway. Pump out a bunch in one turn, toss em on transports, and boom, nuke half his citys at very little expense.

Grrr · May 1, 2002, 00:22

And the old fundamentalist with JS Bachs and Michelangelo's would be able to buy all the cities.