New to BTS, and boy do I hate espionage

[trev]

Each spy activity you do yourself reduces the accumulated espionage points you have against an opponent, and therefore worsens the ratio against that opponent making it easier for then to be successful in their actions. Prioritize your allocation of espionage points to opponents of particular concern, set to zero accumulation of points to your vassals and very weak AI's, so the stronger AI's are preferenced. Apart from that just build the courthouses jails etc and fix up damage as it occurs, keep plenty of workers on hand and get 2 or 3 sources of critical resources like oil.

[rah]

In SP, the only spy activity i usually use is the counter mission. Otherwise, like Trev mentioned I want to keep a higher ratio, so don't want to use the points for other things. I do wish spys had auto search but I also wish workers had an auto repair spy damage option. I know if it's a resource pillaged the auto trade network option will handle it, but that doesn't take care of all types of damage.

[Ming]

I think he meant the generic AI governor.

Yep... I always watch my key cities, but after you have gotten on a roll, I tend to not micro manage all the non important cities. The generic AI governor has a love affair with spy specialists

[Boracks]

Actually, it seems to me, based on observations, that when the generic governor assigns specialists, they just start at the top (spies, if available) and work down as a type gets filled.

[Willem]

Actually, it seems to me, based on observations, that when the generic governor assigns specialists, they just start at the top (spies, if available) and work down as a type gets filled.

No, there's a method to it's madness somewhere. Before espionage was in the game,the Governor always picked either Priests or Engineers, which definitely aren't at the top of the list.

As for the OP's dilemna, it sounds to me that you aren't spending enough on your espionage. As soon as I encounter the first 5 civs I put my slider at 10% then just leave it there for the rest of the game. There's the odd time an enemy spy will do some damage but most of the time they're intercepted. Mind you I don't conduct any missions myself so my points never get diminished in any way.

[rah]

I think 10% is a waste of what could be science beakers. As long as I build Court houses quick enough, I stay pretty even with the ai in terms of points, (except for a civ that gets a Great spy and thinks I should be monitored. Especially since the AI uses it's points and most human players don't. (not including a few counter espionage missions)

[Boracks]

Another use for spies is to use them to put a city in revolt the turn you attack it. In my current game (barely into maceman) I managed to get a Great Spy, settled him on my neighbour, and when I attacked, I took three of his cities with no or one catapult simply by causing a revolt so its culture defense was zero for the turn.

And I'd only built the one spy for counter-espionage purposes so no extra resources used.

[rah]

Yep, that's one of the few good things about it. It gives the AI fewer turns to reinforce and whip.
But, since I usually use the seige units to nick the defenders to raise the survivability of my attackers, it's not that big a thing.

Has anyone ever seen the AI use this tactic. I never have and it doesn't seem it would have been too hard to program it.

[Theben]

The AI still sucks at attacking, period. One time they sent a SoD at a poorly defended city of mine that had high defense. Instead of bombarding 1 turn and rushing the troops, it instead took several turns to lower the defense to 0% by which time I had enough soldiers to fight him off.

[Ming]

That's pretty typical for the AI... as long as the city has defenses left, they will wait and not attack till it's down to 0%... giving you time to get your collaterial damage units in place

[rah]

except for those SODs that are so large the 27 tribs take the defenses down in one turn.