Preventing bribes

[Oaty]

you will prevent it by having a spy in the city, same goes with your armys always try to have spys with them.

A spy wo'nt prevent a bribe but maybe it does reduce tha chances and possibly ups the price

[Red Harvest]

Having a diplomat or spy attached to a city/army almost always prevents bribes in my experience (on very hard/very hard.) The AI will bribe almost any army garrison without a family member, a spy, or a diplomat. The AI will even bribe some family members (so I keep diplomats with them as well.)

Diplomats move faster/farther than spies so I find them more useful with armies on the march. Spies are useful for keeping enemy spies out of cities and spotting "hidden" AI armies.

[therother]

Spies are useful for keeping enemy spies out of cities and spotting "hidden" AI armies.

And for spotting other "hidden" agents. BTW, is it possible to assassinate other assassins? I remember trying for some time, but failing miserably.

[Oaty]

I've asssasinated plenty of assassins. Egypt seems to train them when they suspect sabotor against them.

The trick is to have an assassin survive a few misions once he has then you have a deadly weapon on your hands. I've had an asassin complete more missions than about 10 others that I had trained.

This one asassin in his lifetime killed 6 Egyptian family members, killed 5 assasins and damaged maybe about 30 Egyptian buildings throwing many of the cities into revolt and yet the Egyptians still managed to survive.

Another nice little tip (have'nt done it yet) but when asassins/spies are far away you can throw them on a ship to transfer retinues