Espionage - Is it worth it?

Ozborn · August 23, 2003, 20:30

Does anybody know any of the math behind espionage probabilites?

I am trying to win my first game on Deity, I am in 2nd place and generating ~600+ gold/turn but I don't have tanks yet to take enemy cities held by fortified infantry. I noticed that if you artillery the city down to size 1 with no or little improvements, they are somewhat affordable to try to buy. I have tried to take one size 1 Roman city (controlled by the Carthagian monarchy) twice by espionage and failed on "safely". Unfortunately I have lost 700 gold in these endeavours with no indication of what my chances are. Am I wasting my time?

vmxa1 · August 23, 2003, 21:32

I could not find anyting in the top thread either. I can tell you that it is a rough way to get anything.

David Murray · August 23, 2003, 21:51

Don't know about the exact mathematics, but bear in mind this is the same game that lets spearmen kill cavalry.

Even planting a spy is a dangerous, rarely successful and ultimately pointless activity in many cases. However, it is very useful for stealing technology when you have lots of money.

So what I do is just reload whenever an espionage mission goes wrong, and try later. Doesn't seem too much like cheating.

Kuciwalker · August 23, 2003, 21:52

No.

Ozborn · August 23, 2003, 22:03

Has anybody actually suceeded with propoganda? I assume you did skywalker?

How many successes per attempts? What was your spy experience?

justjake73 · August 24, 2003, 09:59

Last game I played I wanted to plant a spy in the Aztecs. I saved and retried six times before it worked. I just let the spy sit there and keep me up to date on their force levels and technology. It was interesting to find out that while I had thirty modern warships, they only had a frigate and two ironclads.

(Regent level)

Verto · August 24, 2003, 10:03

Espionage is something I rarely ever use in Civilization III. It just isn't worth it.

Theseus · August 25, 2003, 19:39

I plant spies, but rarely do anything but watch enemy troops decrease in number.

vmxa1 · August 25, 2003, 20:59

The last time I used them for more than that was about a year ago. It was a conquest game and someone got nukes. I wanted to find the location so I could attack that city. I had the money to run missions. I got the map for all troop locations and went after the nukes.

Rhothaerill · August 25, 2003, 21:18

Quote:

Originally posted by Theseus
I plant spies, but rarely do anything but watch enemy troops decrease in number.

I would like it if espionage was "worth it", at least a little bit more than it is now. But as is stands, my espionage tactics are about the same as Theseus's...plant spies for the military advisor to tell me how great my army is and actually be able to back it up with numbers.

Theseus · August 25, 2003, 21:30

I STILL wish we had dead enemy units counts, a la Civ2.

I would loooove to know how many friggin' Frigates (

) and Ironclads I've taken down in my replay of AU 208... feels like hundreds.

vmxa1 · August 25, 2003, 23:23

I had forgotten that, it was fun to check it out. I never seen any thing in CivII like CivIII for racking up body counts.

bongo · August 26, 2003, 05:11

I see two good uses of espionage. One is mentioned already(view number of enemy troops, higly useful) the other is the possibility to spy on cities when at war(also very useful)

Never really bothered with the other options as they are very expensive and fail too often.

I miss the body counts too