Best use for a Diplomat/Spy

[The Mad Monk]

I'll take a long, hard look at the other civ's cash on hand before I start stacking units--if there's no fortress handy (and if it's a siege you need lots more than one), your stacked units will be cannon fodder--literally.

[War4ever]

my suggestion for civ3 is that dips can bribe units but not cities and spys can bribe cities as an option like planting the nuke.... and with reprecussions as well.... it should be a hard thing to do

[Neon Deon]

MM:


Sherman occupied Atlanta in Sept. of 1864. The sole purpose of his mission was to lay waste to Georgia crushing its war economy in
the process. He even sent a letter to the Mayor of Atlanta stating his purpose to evacute the city of all its citizens. While not stating directly his intention to raze the city, it was self evident. After the citzens were evacuted in Sept. of 1864 Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground and began his infamous march to the sea.


[This message has been edited by Neon Deon (edited March 27, 2000).]

[Neon Deon]

[quote]Originally posted by Neon Deon on 03-27-2000 04:47 AM
MM:


Sherman occupied Atlanta in Sept. of 1864. The sole purpose of his mission was to lay waste to Georgia crushing its war economy in
the process. He even sent a letter to the Mayor of Atlanta stating his purpose to evacute the city of all its citizens. While not stating directly his intention to raze the city, it was self evident. After the citzens were evacuted in Sept. of 1864 Sherman burned Atlanta to the ground and began his infamous march to the sea.


"War is Hell" W.T. Sherman Sept. 1864

[Scouse Gits]

Inca - Caravans, Freight and Partisans are also units that ignore enemy zones of control.
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SG (2)

[Smash]

and explorers

[inca911]

Thanks for the info! I never risk caravans/freight in the war zones so I never really noticed that. I don't think I've ever made a partisan unit and I've made maybe one explorer just for kicks.

OK, in light of that new info, I change my answer for best use of a diplo/spy to: Establish Embassies.

The diplomatic benefits of an embassy are huge in v2.42 and are still decent in MGE. If allied, you can pursue an alternate tech than your ally is pursuing and work a trade. I also like knowing who is warring upon whom. There not much that is more enjoyable than paying others to fight your wars for you while you develop unmolested!

[inca911]

#1 on the list for the best use of dips/spies is to use them to ignore the enemy Zones of Control (ZOC). They are the only unit that has this feature. You can nuke conventionally. Howies, bombers, and naval assaults can get around the city walls issue. Capture a city and you can steal tech. Just think how radically different the game would be if you actually had to attack stacked and fortified troops on mountains next to a road to gain passage into the heart of an enemy civ. With a few dips you can show the troops your hall pass and walk your entire army right up to the front door of the enemy's capital building!!!

[Bohlen]

Well, I'd have to go with the ability for a dip/spy to destroy city improvements. Yes, bribing is very powerful, but destroying a coastal fortress while one of your vet battleships is sitting outside the city is invaluable. With enough spies and a nice network of roads or rail, any city is able to be conquered in only one turn. Boom! There goes the temple; Boom! There goes the factory; Boom! There go the city walls. Attack!

Is destroying improvements the most underrated ability of the dip/spy?

[Smash]

No.Not at all.The ability to sabotage is kinda ridiculous.There is no realistic way of stopping it.A transport of dips can pretty much destroy a city.It seems terribly unfair sometimes.One player can spend centuries building good strong cities and another can build nothing but dips and tear it all down in 1 or 2 turns.BRUTAL

but how else do you get those walls?The dip should have been limited to walls and maybe "minor" improvements such as temple,library and market.

[inca911]

Now there's a good idea! Dips limited to sabotage of certain improvements, spies limited to sabotage of some more improvements than dips. Perhaps vet status opens up some additional sabotage opportunites for each unit as well. Add that to the Civ3 List of Improvements and I'll use my remaining vote on it! Or how about 1 sabotage/turn at a standard difficulty, and the 2nd sabotage/turn is much more difficult and so forth. Then your 6 diplomats can't reduce a city to rubble, they might only blow up 2 things because of the increased sabotage difficulty factor. Maybe I'll just put that in a bottle and toss it into the sea, hoping some Civ3 designer goes sailing....

[rah]

Yeah, I was in a game with Bird where I had a city two squares from one of his major cities. Three vet spies a turn would go in and destroy 3 improvements, and successfully return to the city to destroy 3 more the next turn, etc etc. 90 shields on my part destroyed every improvement in the city. It just didn't seem fair. I like the concept of limiting the number of improvements that could be sabotaged in any one city.

RAH
And those wrascally ferrets.

[Sten Sture]

or increase the defensive thwarting ability of spies in the home city. If a vet spy at home reduced the chance of a successful sabotage...

[My Wife Hates CIV]

I like the diplo bomb tactic. Even just one diplomat can cause problems for someone. Even a diplo every 5 or 6 turns will keep that city rebuilding a barracks.

I do agree with Sten Sture! Diplos/spies can only defend against stealing techs. This is sorry. If they can defend against someone sneaking in to steal info than they should be able to defend against someone sneaking in with a bomb. The more diplos/spies defending the better also it should be.

[This message has been edited by My Wife Hates CIV (edited March 29, 2000).]

[The Mad Monk]

Dosen't a resident spy make a city harder to bribe?