Spies

From EU3 Wiki

Spies are used for sabotage in the game. They can make an opponent's troops desert, his provinces to rebel, put pirates on his shores, etc.

• The number of spies you get each year depends on your Mercantalism - Free Trade domestic policy. The more towards Mercantilism, the more spies you get. Each move towards Mercantilism gives one more spy per year. Also you get an additional spy for being more Plutocracatic. The Espionage National Idea also gives more spies.
• The success rate of spies depends on:
  • Your Centralisation domestic policy slider. Each move gives them an additional 5% efficiency.
  • In Nomine adds Spy Defense and Efficiency advisors.
  • You and your target's prestige
• Countries that promote Free Subjects over Serfdom defend against spy infiltration better, by 5% for each slider move.

Every spy mission ends in success or failure. The likelihood of success always depends on the target's spy defense and stability (at least; other things like Spy Ring Infiltration can also affect it). If your spy is discovered, it lowers the prestige of the country who sent him and provides a Casus Belli to the target.

As of v. 1.3, the domestic policy slider setting that improves spy recruitment (Mercantilism) also decreases trading ability (Free Trade), forcing one to choose between spying or trading. With the Mercantilism/Free Trade slider pegged to the left (Mercantilism), you get 1 spy/year. But at the middle position all the way to the right (Free Trade), you get no spies at all. The only other way to have spies is through the National Idea of Espionage, which supplies 1 spy/year.

Other sliders that affect spying are:

• Centralization/Decentralization:
  • +5% to 0 (middle) National Spy Defense
  • -5% to +5% Spy Efficiency
• Innovative/Narrowminded:
  • 0 (middle) to +10% National Spy Defense
• Serfdom/Free Subjects:
  • -5% to +5% National Spy Defense

Spy actions

• Fabricate claims
• Support revolt
• Infiltrate spy ring
• Sow discontent
• Infiltrate Administration (capitol only, IN) - lifts fog of war
• Fund Patriots/Nationalists/Pretenders (IN) - instantly generates a stack of rebels based on the tax value of the province. These rebels are friendly to the nation that paid for them. The action conditional on the province being able to support that type of rebel.
• Assassinate Advisor