Spies don't like us

I recently played a One City Game in which the Spanish occupied my continent, and I was on a little peninsula which I promptly blocked off with four units (two stacks). I grew, and grew, and eventually sent out my engineers to create a railroad to the Spanish (to make Trade easier). Lo and behold, as the game progressed, they became more and more hostile, and eventually started stacking up diplomats right outside my forts. I eventually got tired of it, so I built 10 spies and let them in.

The stack was a bit larger than it looked during their turn.... They came cascading in like a river of piss (yellow, Spanish) and began hitting Rome. My spies foiled attempt after attempt after attempt, but eventually, after like 20 tries, they stole Sanitation, and I had the option to declare war. I didn't, and the rest went home. So, just for kicks, I sent one of these spies to their capital and planted a nuclear device there. I was, of course, detected, and on their turn, here come the diplomats again...

Wham, foiled! Wham, foiled! After about only 15 tries this time, they started getting through, destroying my library, granary, on and on. The spies still thwarted about 3 out of 4, but MAN, it's like Isabella had NOTHING better to do with her time but build diplomats for thousands of years. In the end, the little bastards destroyed every last building (which, believe me, was every last building in the game) and my poor nuclear missile which had been in production. Then the rest went home, and the Spanish made peace! Go figure. I guess they had their own version of a nuke after all.

By Orcus