20-01-2003 01:57									#1
	help with spies Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

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?

	20-01-2003 02:22									#2
	Get a bigger avatar today!

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

	20-01-2003 03:28									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

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.

	20-01-2003 04:25									#4
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

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.

	25-01-2003 01:00									#5
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Espionage missions are quite useless btw- don't waste your money in that

	25-01-2003 01:12									#6
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DF:

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

	25-01-2003 01:50									#7
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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.

	25-01-2003 14:04									#8
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

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.

	26-01-2003 00:13									#9
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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.

	26-01-2003 01:27									#10
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

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!

	26-01-2003 02:18									#11
	Got spare money?

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).

	26-01-2003 02:28									#12
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double post,
DIE!

	26-01-2003 04:56									#13
	Full PM-box? Change here!

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

	26-01-2003 05:36									#14
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Nothing desperate there.

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

	27-01-2003 15:43									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

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.

	29-01-2003 04:54									#16
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I agree, investigation is the only useful function of spies. Propaganda is way to expensive and usually unsuccessful (which it should be IMHO).

	29-01-2003 16:29									#17
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

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.

	29-01-2003 21:58									#18
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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.

	30-01-2003 04:40									#19
	Sabotage and Space Race Full PM-box? Change here!

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