Quote Originally Posted by ToranagaSama
Doesn't the Spy die or something if he fails; or, the attack fails?? I have some vague recollection....
The spy has a chance to be spotted any turn he is in the town. If spotted he can die but a lot of times he just gets kicked out of the settlement. You can just move him back in on your turn. I don't think he can die trying to open the gate. None of my spies have so far. When they failed they just failed. I used siege to get in and take the city. The spy was still there afterwords.

Quote Originally Posted by ToranagaSama
Oooohhh, bad Kauser, bad Kauser!

Just joking, once your more confident (perhaps you already are), you may enjoy a bit of *roleplaying*. That is makeup a set of rules to play by that add to the challenge. One might be to refrain from using Spies to ascertain the makeup of enemy AI stacks.

This way your Generalship should get better as you'll learn to bring a balanced army, and to WIN with a balanced army no matter what the AI brings (or anyone else for that matter).

Me, I always like being surprised; never know what the AI makeup is until the battlescreen.
I didn't use spies on my first campaign so I think it's okay to use them this time. I don't think spies make it too easy because I usually have a balanced army anyways. I might want to change it a little if I notice they have a lot of elephants. If it's just a bunch of town watch and peasants then I can reduce the size of the army and send the other half to take another settlement.