ave to all.
building spies and assassins is cheaper than building emissaries. so i don't have that many diplomats afield. however, i lose a lot of spies and assassins during their sorties, so i don't have many of them either. but, as Seamus Fermanagh said, sending spies and killers is like sending your combat batallions--you suffer casualties when they hit the enemy. that's war. anyway, the great challenge here is how you try to outwit the enemy--no tactic works 100% of the time. sometimes you lose; sometimes you win a Phyrric victory (as in my tarentum of late); sometimes you win with the computer shouting at you, "GLORIOUS VICTORY!!!" in all, the enjoyment a player gets is how s/he uses his/her brain in this game (these games, actually, for i also play MTW and M2TW).
hail puklo, for joining our train.
hawooh.