See before you strike

A rival's walls, emplacements and armies never show on the map by themselves. Spies read them before you commit to an attack, and a Watchtower reads the armies coming for you.

Spying

Spying needs the first level of Espionage research, which is taught only in a deep Academy. Until you hold it, the spy order stays closed and names what is missing.

Pick a rival tile, choose how many spies to send and pay for them in gold from your capital. The report comes back at once, from any distance. A landmark someone holds can be spied as well.

How much you learn depends on how many of your spies make it through. More spies help, the target's counter-spies push back, Espionage research on either side tilts the contest, and every attempt carries a little luck. The Expansionist spies for less.

Only the balance counts, not the size: a thousand spies against a thousand counter-spies learn what a hundred against a hundred do. Between equals in research, sending about … as many spies as the target has counter-spies earns a Scout report, and about … a Deep report. The same force can land a tier higher or lower from one attempt to the next, and trying again draws anew, at full price.

What a report reveals

The share of your spies that survive decides how deep the report goes:

  1. 0RepelledFewer than … of your spies survive.Nothing. Too few spies came back to report.
  2. 1Glimpse… or more of your spies survive.The wall and its level. On a Holding, its producer and its level.
  3. 2Scout report… or more of your spies survive.Everything above, plus how many emplacements stand there.
  4. 3Survey… or more of your spies survive.Everything above, plus exactly which emplacements they are.
  5. 4Deep report… or more of your spies survive.Everything above, plus the Citadel and its level, the defending army by weight class, and the size of the counter-spy force.

Spying a Holding shows its producer, and at a Deep report the army standing on it and the Colony's counter-spies. It never shows emplacements, because none stand there. No report ever shows a rival's stockpile, research or Integrity: a Core's Integrity shows only in the record of a siege you fought there.

Counter-spies

Each Colony can hire counter-spies with gold, straight away. Its Spy Ring sets how many it can take on each turn, not how many it can keep. They guard the whole Colony: spying one of its Holdings meets the same counter-spies as spying its Core.

Catching spies costs them nothing. They are lost only when a siege breaks the Colony's defence, which costs … of them, and a captured Colony's counter-spies are gone.

A Colony with none is read in silence.

Knowing you were watched

You are warned only when an attempt cost the spy at least one agent. The alert names who tried, where and when, and how many of their spies died. It never tells you what they learned, or how many they sent.

The Watchtower

A Watchtower at a Core warns you of hostile armies marching on that Colony, its Holdings, or a landmark you hold. It reports each one twice: as it crosses the outer ring of the tower's watch, which widens with every level, and again as it crosses the inner ring close to home. An army that sets out from inside a ring is reported as it leaves. Armies passing by or heading home are never reported. Without a tower, you learn of an attack when it lands.

Every report names the attacker, where they marched from, what they are aiming at and when they arrive. How much more it tells you depends on your Espionage research, below. Your capital's tower also keeps watch over the landmarks you hold, with the same rings drawn around each landmark.

Espionage research

Espionage is one line of research that sharpens everything above, and it always counts against the other player's level rather than on its own.

  • Your spies. Each spy you send counts for more the further your level stands above the target's, and for less when theirs is higher. A player well ahead of you needs far fewer spies to read you than you need to read them.
  • Their spies. Your own level weakens every spy sent at you, so it works alongside your counter-spies: research and a garrison together make a Colony hard to read.
  • Your Watchtowers. Match the attacker's level and a report adds the army's mission and size. Get well ahead and it lists the army unit by unit, with the Colony each part comes from. At the top of the line, you read every army that comes for you.

It opens once an Academy has grown, and it runs for many levels.