Three out of four AI's are spending *all* their Espionage on me. None on each other.

[rah]

I have never bumped my espionage slider.

[wodan11]

About the only time I do so is when I play a so-called "espionage economy".

[Blaupanzer]

Never bumped mine either, but a couple of folks have noted that that has a negative effect on your opponent's espionage costs and risks. Catching more and making them wait to strike lessens the pressure on us.

[rah]

I don't think it's the percentage of the slider that does that but more a result of generating more espionage points.

[Blaupanzer]

Agree.

[rah]

I usually use the oracle for Code, so I get a head start on Courthouses so except for the ai that builds the great wall, I usually get a good head start on espionage points so unless someone is specifically targeting me, I will usually have a positive ratio with all the ai's till real late in the game when the AI's go slider crazy.

[Blaupanzer]

Early CoL also confers a religion. So that's where I take the Oracle too, unless I have a spiritual civ w/Mysticism. Then I use Oracle for Metalworking. If metalworking, then self-initiated war is close. Early courthouses help immensely in staying up with the AI on espionage.

[rah]

I too will sometimes go the metalworking route.
I wasn't paying attention the last time and didn't have pottery yet. Ouch.

If i'm playing at monarch or below and have the NAs, I'll try to use it for feud.

[Theben]

Late game I usually bump to 10% esp, unless in a close tech race.

I don't find the AIs spy attacks very annoying until they start blowing up my spaceship parts. Then I get pissed.

[Ming]

I never use the esp slider... a true waste of resources. By the late game, I usually have a strong advantage of esp against everybody, because I don't use my points, and they do. An occassional lost building, lost resource, a little poisened water... it doesn't really matter in the long run. And if it's really that close on the space race with a civ that a spaceship part will make the difference, I would have already launched an all out assult on the civ that was close. (and I would have done the same to a civ that was getting close to a culture victiory)

[Cort Haus]

I haven't played much this week, but the counter-espionage mission seemed to help reducing their attacks. Despite me having more cities, a lot of esp buildings in each and 10%, they are piling up the points. They're all on good terms with each other, so war could get quite extensive in terms of opponents - and it's a highland map so everyone has a lot of land to conquer.

[Blaupanzer]

Responding to spy-mission destruction is a question in main of when not if. To know what mis broken requires a walkthrough of all cities. I have always ndone this regularly. Frequency is related to the expected rate of change since the last inspection.

I learned to do this in Railroad Tycoon, Sid's railroad game, Micropose. I felt I had to visually walk the area around the track and open the stations to be sure of maximum return. At all levels of Civ, I have always done the same with the cities to assure effective production, growth, and specialists and to identify and plan the fixes for buildings or tiles trashed by anything from barbs through those AI spies. Early in the game, when lots of short-term choices matter and later in the game with those pesky spies and planes, the frequency of walkthroughs is much higher. Sometimes I do it every turn if I hear more than one or two "crunches" indicating spies hitting tiles. I also read the red messages (top left list) to identify which city's buildings got hit. But "a farm, "a mine," or "a plantation" doesn't tell me much.

[rah]

I really don't want to have to do that frequently so I don't. Especially in MP games when you get into wars and you just accept that you're not maximizing. I'll even (oh the horror) automate a few workers just because I don't have time to deal with them.
I'll usually hit the end turn button before I even do city maint. to be nice to other players. Of course if I know something is happening that I need to address I will.

Since I play so much mp, I have a tendency to do the same in SP just out of habit when I don't really need to. So what if i lose a few battles due to not attacking one unit at a time. I can live with that and it actually allows me to play more games since each one takes considerably shorter.