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, and Espionage research on either side tilts the contest. The Expansionist spies for less.

What a report reveals

The more spies survive, the deeper the report:

  1. 0RepelledNothing. Too few spies came back to report.
  2. 1GlimpseThe wall and its level, and every building with its level.
  3. 2Scout reportEverything above, plus how many emplacements stand there.
  4. 3SurveyEverything above, plus exactly which emplacements they are.
  5. 4Deep reportEverything above, plus the defending army by weight class and the size of the counter-spy force.

Spying a Holding shows its building and any army standing on it. No report ever shows a rival's stockpile or research.

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. Catching spies costs them nothing: they are lost only when a siege breaks the Colony's defence, 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. 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 keeps watch over the landmarks you hold.

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.