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The one unit that i never really see the need for is the spy. Province loyalty can easily be maintained by a small garrison of peasents, with nice buildings like churchs to keep every one happy.
In my experience, with the ease of building a guard tower, sending a spy abroad is just cruel to his family. It would be neat to be able to ferret out secrets, or incite a rebellion, but they just die.
I know that some people swear by spies, so i ask for any tips or suggestions to their use.
I only use spies when I can see that my nieghbors have neglected to put up guard towers. Then I get to work trying to discover secret vices of people, which doesn't usually work, I did get to reveal to the world that the King of Italy likes little boys one time though. Spies only work if you only send them to places you know they can get in. A few times they also warned me about impending invasions which was pretty useful, but their reports aren't always true.
My primary use of spies is defensive. Border forts are a good start, but I find that when I eventually have the spare production to be able to afford to put a spy in all of my own provinces I start catching a LOT of enemy assasins and spies. Especially in central "transit" provinces (Moldavia, Constantinople, etc) I catch so many enemies that my spies wind up with 4 or 5 valor. In terms of cost-effectiveness I think this is their most efficient use - any time you wind up costing the enemy more in their replacement cost than you do in your own initial deployment the end result has got to be in your favor.
put about 7 or 8 spies in a province and most provinces will start having a rebellion almost immediatly and they cant kill the spies fast enough so the guard towers end up getting destroyed during the rebellion. I use them all the time to knock down factions that i think are getting to powerful espically the almohads. Just use them in numbers.
One spy can break into a castle and deliver it wholesale. You may have to wait until the place is ready to fall but it works. No casualties and no castle down grade.
Thanks
This is just the sort of tips i was looking for.
Spies are good for keeping an eye out for enemy assassins.
Also, using the "spy rush", you can incite a rebellion in another factions province.
This is considered a "cheesey" tactic by many.
Spy rush- 10 or more spys.
Spies kill a lot of enemy assassins. A tactic I use is valor farming. I basically put no valor spies in a province of mine that the enemy AI sends a lot of assassins or spies into. Once they get good valor, I send them in to uncover vices or just plain spying. High valor spies aren't caught that easily.