Espionage methods

[Pyrodrew]

Market Price

Oh, yes. If you want a brutal game lower the price across the board to about 1/10 the current price. The only reason you don't see the AI using this stuff right now is the same reason you don't. It's too expensive to be cost effective. Lower the price and the AI will do it.

Surely there must be a happy medium where the AI *will* use IA tactics, but rarely... not be doing it 24hrs a day with all its money. Maybe 4/5ths the original price???

[MalcolmX]

Originally posted by fittstim

Trying to use propaganda to 'steal' cities is a joke. Total waste of money and you'll never succeed - even if your culture is 100 times greater than the other civ and the city you're trying to bribe is size 1. Worthless...

I tried that option maybe 4 or 5 times in my games and managed to 'steal' city twice. Both games were on Monarch level because right now it is the best level I am able to win The first city I captured that way I remember very well. I was playing Germans on large continent. Iroquesi who were my neighbourghs plant the city on the desert pennisula deep within my territory. I was playing builder style game so I didn't bother them. After a series of wars this was the last Iroquesi city. Thanks to my RoP with England it soon became English city. It stayed that way for about 40 turns and then I was about to begin the war with England. I wanted to try something new, so as my opening move I 'initiated propaganda' in their city. To my surprise the city flipped to my empire. It had no buildings (as far as I know it never had), population was 3 (1 Iroquesi and 2 Englishman). The cost was surprisingly low - that's why I tried that option (about 500-600 gold). I repeated this manouver several times in that game but with no success. My culture was strong (compared to England) and I was 1st in all the categories so maybe it helped. Anyway, 'initiating propaganda' is not the most effective way of expanding your empire , but it has some value and in my opinion adds interesting twist to the game.

[Alex]

Aha! So the AI knows how to use espionage... provided the cost is manageable... Interesting info.

*Alex starts fiddling with the editor*

[Catt]

I'm not sure what factors induce the AI to use the espionage function, but it definitely does not require lowered costs. The compilation of pop-ups below was taken from a game called Banana Island that played on a custom map but with unmodded rules (espionage costs not lowered). The spoilers to that game are located here.

Catt

[Jaholt]

I never use the spy, for reasons discussed here. In Civ2 the spy was my favourite unit. This is one of the biggest failings of Civ3. Bring back the spy unit!!!

[vmxa1]

Please do not bring it back, it was way too powerful. I do not miss the diplomat either.

[Alex]

Me neither. I don't miss the spy or the diplomat units. Sure, it was fun to infiltrate a spy manually into the enemy territory, but the spy was an overpowered unit, as mentioned before.

What I really wanted in Civ3 was a better interface for espionage actions, and this is what PTW will bring to us. Hooray!