Our spy in Tenochtitlan has been captured!

[Master Marcus]

...I don't recall the AI was able to do that in Civ III, I mean various kind of late-game spying missions other than "planting a spy"....the first time the AI has exposed my spy. Anyone else has witnessed an unusual spying mission by the AI?

[Zero]

AIs are often too good at exposing spies...

[alva]

I've seen a few failed propaganda attemps by AI.

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by alva848
I've seen a few failed propaganda attemps by AI.

yes, and sabotaging production also. But exposing my human spy, that is the first time. And you can have only one spy per rival.....it's NOT like MoO2.........

[Swissy]

Had it happen once. The turn after I declared war on the Persians, I was honoring a MPP with the Chinese, I got the "Xerxes has captured our spy" or something like that. I was quite surprised as I had forgotten I even had one there.

[vmxa1]

I do not recall it, but it probably has happened to me. I do not do much with them, I did use the steal plans last night to find the nukes and target them. It was cool to see all the units.

[Catt]

A collection of pop-ups from an earlier AU game - this under 1.29f, pre-PTW.

Catt

[alva]

hmm, Catt, please don't tell me , you've got this poster hanging over you bed???

serious, did you guys give the AI more gold or something? 'Cause that's alot of spy activity for one game

[Billster2k3]

Re: Our spy in Tenochtitlan has been captured!

Originally posted by Master Marcus
...I don't recall the AI was able to do that in Civ III, I mean various kind of late-game spying missions other than "planting a spy"....the first time the AI has exposed my spy. Anyone else has witnessed an unusual spying mission by the AI?

Happened to me too for the first time ever in one of my first PTW games. It also seemed that I had a great deal more difficulty planting spies. In the past I was successful in about 8 of 12 attempts but now it's more like 4 of 12. Maybe it's just random chance or maybe they beefed up the difficulty level for espionage in PTW.

[Alex]

I was about to post that Catt had a nice collection of pop-ups from a very intense espionage game, but I see that I do not need to do it.

Pity that I rarely use espionage in my games. Too expensive and too ineffective. How is it in PtW?

[vmxa1]

I used the steal plans late in the game when at war as you can use the cheap mode. It is nice to see where their troops are and any nuke subs.

[Master Marcus]

Once I have planted the spies I can ( half to 2/3 of my rivals), I use them occasionally for steal plans/ (investigate city when at war). From time to time, not every game, I try a propaganda and had a few weak cities with this. The AI city must be weak, very low-pop( 1-2 ), and far away the capitol: very low cost, so interesting......don't try a 3000 gold cost for a big city: it's a waste, and like alexnm said, too expensive and ineffective like steal tech for example.

[vmxa1]

By the time you are able to spy, you are probably in the lead with tech and do not need to steal it.

[Master Marcus]

Originally posted by vmxa1
By the time you are able to spy, you are probably in the lead with tech and do not need to steal it.

A medieval spy should be quite useful then.....In modern times when I can take the tech lead, I actually do not keep it since- like most players- I trade for gold most of the spare techs I have , so I don't care to have tech parity immediately after the trades, and 5-6 turns later 1 tech lead. The AIs are giving most of their lump sums and x/turn , reducing their economy to almost zero growth.

[metalhead]

Originally posted by vmxa1
By the time you are able to spy, you are probably in the lead with tech and do not need to steal it.

Not always true, especially if you are trying a OCC, or are focusing completely on one branch of the tech tree and decide not to trade for the rest of the techs. You can be in a tech lead, but still have the AI owning techs that you don't have. 3 or 4 thousand gold for a tech in the modern age is actually very cheap. Modern techs can cost several times that amount, if purchased directly from the AI.