My trick: I get rid of spies right away

[maladominus]

OK, I use a trick to counter enemy spies from infiltrating my Royal Court. I have used this trick several games now. And it works. No more spies in my court. :hello:


THE FOLLOWING STEPS NEED TO BE DONE IN 2 SECONDS, BEFORE THE AI HAS A CHANCE TO REACT AND HIRE ANY MORE SPIES.

1) I need tons of money, e.g. 15,000 gold+ (I can only do this when rich)

2) I Pause the game.

2) I then Hire a new knight.... lets call him Graf Bero. I let Graf Bero sit in Slot 6 in my court.

3) I then Hire another new knight... lets call him Graf Steven. I let Graf Steven sit in Slot 7 in my court.

4) I then Hire a third knight right away. Lets call him Graf Michael. I let Graf Michael sit in Slot 8 in my court.

5) Logic says that at least THE FIRST ONE OR TWO KNIGHTS I JUST HIRED are probably spies.

6) I instantly KILL ( I exile them) Graf Berto and Graf Steven. Bye bye! See you in hell you potential spies! I send them away, never to come back again.

7) And then I assume that the last guy I hired (Graf Michael) is not a spy. What are the chances that THREE spies in a row are waiting for me at the same time? Very slim chance statistically.

8) I use this trick a lot any time I hire new Knights. Nowadays, no more enemy spies infiltrate my courts..... BECAUSE I DUMP THEIR SPIES right away. :eek:

9) This trick is simple statistics. Because the way the game works, the "knights that is waiting in line to be recruited" is most likely to be the spy. So you kill them right away. You purge them right away before they will become trouble.

10) Yeah, this trick wastes a LOT of gold. But who cares. This game is very easy to obtain gold anyways.

[Angryminer]

When you exile a knight he will not die. He will get back to the AI's court and come back as soon as possible.

Angryminer

[maladominus]

When you exile a knight he will not die. He will get back to the AI's court and come back as soon as possible.

Angryminer


My trick is to never give the AI any time to rehire again and re-send the same spy to my court. Thats why I hire several knights at same time. If there is to be a Spy, the Spies will likely be first in line.... because the enemy kingdoms already sent them long ago.

Of course, I can only do this early in the game when I have plenty of slots to spare...

[Jens Holgersen Ulfstand]

My trick is to never give the AI any time to rehire again and re-send the same spy to my court. Thats why I hire several knights at same time. If there is to be a Spy, the Spies will likely be first in line.... because the enemy kingdoms already sent them long ago.

Of course, I can only do this early in the game when I have plenty of slots to spare...

But the spies that are waiting only have a chance of infiltrating your court every time you hire a new knight, at least that's my impression, so there is no guarantee the first two aren't honest knights and the third one a spy, is there?

[Xuca]

My trick not to get spies is to rearly hire knights. I mostly use my ex-princes.

[Tricon]

But ex-princes CAN be spies....

[Kris_stz]

I have a trick about the spies that I use a lot.When I hire a spy in my court and he is actually another spy from another and I send him to infiltrate another kingdoms court.If he's hired as a marshal I always try to locate him.When I do if I can see him and all thats around him-hes not an enemy spy.But if I don't and everything is dark I understand that hes a spy and send him away.If I hire an enemy spy as a spy in my own court and I send him on a mission the little numbers that appear under him for the chanses of sucseeding and failing.If they are mixed up like this:45/55 i know that hes a spy.Or another great trick that i use a lot.I hire my own king for a spy and I educate him so that he'll reach lvl.3(3 stars)And theres no way of any spy infiltrating my court.Or I send my king spy onto a mission.He gets it done and gets educated himself!

[maladominus]

But ex-princes CAN be spies....

Hmmm. How is it possible?

I understand that there are only 2 ways for Spies to enter your court:

#1) you hire a new Knight, then he has a chance to be a Spy

and

#2) you have a Knight who is a Spy, you send him to spy on enemy court, and when he is at enemy court, the enemy CAN bribe him to defect. Then when you recall him back to your court, he is no longer loyal to you

[Kris_stz]

Yes its true.Then I suppose that I have an instinct about spies.

[Angryminer]

The AI can bribe any of your knights.
This feature is supposed to make absolute security impossible, which is quite nice :go: .

Angryminer

[Kris_stz]

Yeah I suppose so.

[Xazax]

Bribing I never heard any thing of the sort in KOH they can "steal" your knights and if so how can the AI? they are usally broke as hell.

[Kris_stz]

Those spies never survive the torcher!And all it does is decresing my kingdom power and destroying my relations with the kingdoms and decreses the happines!

[Tricon]

The AI cheats with bribing and with ransoms.
Example that happened to me (and there is an almost similar example Angryminer experienced around here somewhere): Capture a spy(and find out his allegiance if possible) Check their economy. Ask for ransom. The offer is turned down. 10 seconds later the AI offered about 170% of the ransom I asked. Accept. Check their economy: no change.

As for former heirs: In my first game, one of the former kings sons was a builder. After about 5 hours of playing time after the Kings death, a marshal and said son become disloyal within 10 second of each other.

[junobeach]

Those spies never survive the torcher!And all it does is decresing my kingdom power and destroying my relations with the kingdoms and decreses the happines!
You need to hire a more skilled torturer.

[Diablo_]

My trick is to have very skillfull spy that will caught enemy spies and then ask for ransom for around 5000+ gold.I think thats better!?

[Doux]

Hmm. I always make my King counterspy with 5 stars. Princes become new Knights. 99% safe.

"But ex-princes CAN be spies...."
Ex-princes cannot be spies. They're your own kin and absolutely safe to use.*
Edit: I read about them being bribed..that never happened to me. Bah.

"As for former heirs: In my first game, one of the former kings sons was a builder. After about 5 hours of playing time after the Kings death, a marshal and said son become disloyal within 10 second of each other."
Of course, that is possible. But that's not from spy activity but loyalty to the new King. If a King dies without son the strongest Knight becomes King - if there are more, they might divide the empire or rebel.

[Da Bomb]

Hmm. I always make my King counterspy with 5 stars. Princes become new Knights. 99% safe.

"But ex-princes CAN be spies...."
Ex-princes cannot be spies. They're your own kin and absolutely safe to use.*
Edit: I read about them being bribed..that never happened to me. Bah.

"As for former heirs: In my first game, one of the former kings sons was a builder. After about 5 hours of playing time after the Kings death, a marshal and said son become disloyal within 10 second of each other."
Of course, that is possible. But that's not from spy activity but loyalty to the new King. If a King dies without son the strongest Knight becomes King - if there are more, they might divide the empire or rebel.

Any knights up on your royal court can be an enemy spy unless he has a crown. If he was a prince, it doesn't matter. He's not anymore, he's a regular knight. There is always a chance the knight can be bribed.

[Angryminer]

Of course, that is possible. But that's not from spy activity but loyalty to the new King. If a King dies without son the strongest Knight becomes King - if there are more, they might divide the empire or rebel.The loyalty-feature was removed from KoH in December 2003.
Yes, the AI can bribe former family-members to become a spy at it's court.

Angryminer

[Doux]

Was it in the patch, Angryminer? I missed that completely. Great, so that's not a possible problem anymore.