The mystery of BtS

[MyOlde]

2 Questions:

I was just playing BtS and got the mysterious message "You cannot continue building a fighter in Memphis." I got the same messge for another city. But no explanation. What does it mean -- besides what it says?

I keep getting messages in red that "Something was destroyed by enemy infiltrators". I understand that one -- I assume it's a spy -- but how do I defend against it?

Thanks in advance.

[Fleme]

Enemy saboteurs destroyed your oilwell and you couldn't continue building your fighter. In order to counter enemy spies you should push the espionage slider up, build courthouses, jails, security bureaus and the like, and recruit spies which you can then fortify on your important resources and cities to counter enemy espionage.

None of these will completely stop the enemy espionage but they will make it harder and more expensive for them.

[MyOlde]

Good, thanks. I've built courthouses, jails, and security bureaus in all the cities but it didn't occur to me to post spies on all the resources. Geez, they're a pain, aren't they? (I must admit I've been using them to spread culture mostly, not that it appears to be doing anything except costing me money. No one's converted yet!

Is it possible to play the game without spies? Does anyone here do that?

[wodan11]

The passive spy defense is to build security bureaus everywhere, jails and intelligence agency everywhere you can convenently do so, 0% on the espionage slider, and in the espionage screen put +1 for all AIs on your continent with 0 for all AIs on other continents.

If you have just a single instance of a critical resource, such as your oil example, it's also a good idea to fortify a spy and a couple of military units on top of it.

Wodan

[Fleme]

I very rarely use spies myself. I occasionally build one for every vital city garrison especially when there's an AI who likes to poison water supplies and do other misdemeanors. Also, just like Wodan said; If I have only one Oil or comparable resource later on in the game, it's good to secure it with a spy. Also, if I happen to hold a really good choke point where I can build a fort, it's often worth it to have a spy or two there as well since the AI will actively seek to destroy any forts that are on chokes.

I personally don't like the espionage system and how it's implemented and am fairly sure that most others don't either.

[fani]

A more active way to defend against espionage from a specific civ is to perform counterespionage missions on them using your spies...it last for some turns..

[Addled Platypus]

and your so called AI allies will spy on you too !!

I builld spies just to see thier spies.....