help with spies

vee4473 · January 19, 2003, 16:57

Can someone tell me how spies work?

I got thde intel agency adn put a spy into persia, but I never got the option of an espionage mission.

Also, my military advisor tells me we need a spy in persia to view their troop locations.

Then, I tried to plant another spy, but the option for persia wasn't there.

How do you control spies?

What's going on?

Nor Me · January 19, 2003, 17:22

Do you see that E button on the right of the box in the bottom right?

Jaybe · January 19, 2003, 18:28

You plant just one spy in each of the civs at a time. Their planting may fail, or (rarely) they may be caught. Use the 'E' button on the info box in lower right or 'Shift-E' for the espionage screen (espionage screens are different in Civ3 and PTW). The existence of a spy in a civ lets you see their forces in the F3 screen.

When your F3 told you you need a spy to view troop locations, he was speaking in general. If you already have a spy, the troop locations is a special (Espionage Screen) mission and its effects only last one turn.

vmxa1 · January 19, 2003, 19:25

You get to know how many and what types of units the civ has once you plant a spy. If you want to know exactly which ones are where, you need to run a mission to gather that info. If you have lots of cash, this can be fun and useful.

Datajack Franit · January 24, 2003, 16:00

Espionage missions are quite useless btw- don't waste your money in that

Brizey · January 24, 2003, 16:12

DF:

Stealing plans can be useful at times, but otherwise, I agree.

joncnunn · January 24, 2003, 16:50

I've heard of the following primarly uses of Spies:

1. # of their armed forces in all types. (F3 military)

2. Status of their space ship.

3. Occansionly investiagting a city during war.

4. Planting spies and/or attempting action in hopes that the AI will declare war on your Democracy and give you a happiness bounce.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to know the AIs entire troop locations at once, the AI doesn't use their forces efficently enough for this to be useful.

Emma · January 25, 2003, 05:04

the problem i have with spies is that i can't plant them where i want to. i've got spies in all the small weak civs, but they don't really help there too much. i would prefer them in the large ones. i'm the most powerful civ in the game but everytime i try to plant a spy in Russia or France for example they always get caught.

Jaybe · January 25, 2003, 15:13

Emma,
Having lots more culture helps but is definitely no guarantee. Also, in PTW you want to wait 2-3 (3-4??) turns between plant spy attempts because they have tweaked it so that if you don't wait, it will just fail again.

Datajack Franit · January 25, 2003, 16:27

I can think about only ONE useful way of spies (plan stealing) but they are automatically deleted after a cpl turns- forget about spies! Burn and cover their land with salt!

player1 · January 25, 2003, 17:18

Quote:

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
Espionage missions are quite useless btw- don't waste your money in that

Actualy steal tech missions are quite good in modern age (and maybe industrial).

You can steal tech for 2500gp (safe option), while otherwise you would need about 15,000gp to buy it from AI.

Of course in ancient and medivial age steal tech is just BAAAD (way to expensive).

player1 · January 25, 2003, 17:28

double post,
DIE!

Datajack Franit · January 25, 2003, 19:56

If you can't afford to pay all that money, you can always use the gpt option- btw if you NEED to desperately steal techs, you're playing wayyyy bad

player1 · January 25, 2003, 20:36

Nothing desperate there.

It's just much easier way to become first in tech (compared to legal buy).

CerberusIV · January 27, 2003, 06:43

I reduced the cost of planting spies and investigating cities as I do both of those (but no other espionage options). I find the most useful thing about spies is knowing what forces the AI has from the F3 screen (if you have the patience to scroll through). Where they are is not very significant.

I always wait five turns before trying to plant a spy after an attempt fails. It can fail again so you just have to be persistent, and be prepared to risk provoking a war with strong AI's.

CiverDan · January 28, 2003, 19:54

I agree, investigation is the only useful function of spies. Propaganda is way to expensive and usually unsuccessful (which it should be IMHO).

MoonWolf · January 29, 2003, 07:29

If you have problems to plant a spy with a bigger civ, try when the AI is between governments (anarchy) or has a less advanced gov. I also have a feeling it's easier when you have road connection to it/ and or explored maps with trade possibilty between you.

I'm using my spies to have the important track of how many and what sort of units the others have. It's also extremely useful to investigate enemy cities during wartime. Sometimes I use the propaganda if the situation says I should really have that city.

minke19104 · January 29, 2003, 12:58

sabotage is actually pretty good if you have the cash. Say you're aiming for a critical wonder but found out that the other civ will most likely finish it before you do. The best thing to do is sabotage it. You risk war if they found out who did it. But it's better than declaring open war beforehand.

ManicStarSeed · January 29, 2003, 19:40

There have been times where I have been denying myself a spaceship win because I wanted to win by domination. Those spies are really handy for sabotaging SS parts untill you can launch a full scale assault and raze their capitol.

Also the military advisor data is much more usefull once you plant the spy (F3)
Mss