In EU4 there has always been something that I felt was missing, Espionage.
It is an area that is briefly touched on from an unlockable ideas point of view and also in the background for things such as basic covert operations.
I think the merit behind the above areas is good but it has so much potential to be great. Here is how I would improve it:
1) Espionage should be available straight away.
2) Spies should be acquired passively and the number of spies available is proportionate to the level of development in your country
3) The actions that your spy takes costs ducats. If an action is instant, then there is an upfront cost of ducats. If the action is over a period of time (such as supporting rebels) then it will have a monthly cost. The amount of ducats is proportionate to the difficulty of the action and the level of skill of your spy.
4) Your spies can be used offensively or defensively
5) Actions against rivals carry a 20% discount (as per EU4)
6) The Actions, both offensive and defensive should have a series of event chains where you can decide how to proceed. For example, “Should we send those rebels arms and men in order to decrease the time to rebellion and improve the forces? If yes then there is a higher chance of being caught and suffering penalties.”
Here is an example of what it could look like.[1]
Real Life Examples
A prominent figure in the pre-industrial world of espionage was a guy known as Francis Walsingham. To briefly summarize wikipedia,
Walsingham rose from relative obscurity to become one of the small coterie who directed the Elizabethan state, overseeing foreign, domestic and religious policy. He served as English ambassador to France in the early 1570s and witnessed the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. As principal secretary, he supported exploration, colonization, the use of England's maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He worked to bring Scotland and England together. Overall, his foreign policy demonstrated a new understanding of the role of England as a maritime, Protestant power in an increasingly global economy. He oversaw operations that penetrated Spanish military preparation, gathered intelligence from across Europe, disrupted a range of plots against Elizabeth and secured the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Life of the Spy
The spies that you receive are quite precious. You do get them passively but not on a regular basis. If your spy is caught there is a chance that they will be executed and there will be a moderately long time before you receive a new one.
Your Spy can earn experience from successful actions, which reduces the cost of future actions by that spy and increases the chance of success.
Loyalty to your country is a modifier that effects your Spy’s actions. Various things can influence their loyalty. For example if you are highly overextended or have just switched religions, that can influence how loyal they are. If they become disloyal, there is a chance that they will approach other foreign powers for help against your tyrannical rule.
However if they are loyal to you and for example are caught performing an action, there is a chance that they will not reveal details about their employer or the plot, which saves your country from being penalized.
Offensive Covert Actions:
Many of these actions were seen in EU3 and some are available in EU4 but I want to take this to the next level.
1) Infiltrate Administration. (Access to your enemies’ details about manpower, income, force limit etc.)
This information is currently presented in the ledger but I think that is too easy. Governments of the eras in EU4 surely did not have access to that level of data about every known country on Earth.
What I would propose is to have a spy infiltrate that administration and report back those details. The amount of information would be proportionate to the skill of your spy.
It would range from basic information that you see in the ledger, to enemy merchant placements and troop & naval movements.
2) Fabrication of Claims should be as standard in EU4 albeit with a small monthly ducat cost as per other covert actions however the cost would be in proportion to the size of the country that you are fabricating against. Smaller countries would be cheaper in comparison to the larger ones.
3) Sabotage Production would cause a province to increase the amount of time it takes to build a unit or building by 50%
4) Sabotage Supply would cause a target province to decrease the supply limit by 50%. Also can be used on own provinces if being sieged.
5) Sabotage Trade would cause a country to lose a % of trade power in a targeted node
6) Support Rebels would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat.
To improve this further, I would advise that you see the status of the rebellion pre revolt and be sent an event chain with pop ups such as, “the choice of speeding up the rebellion by sending weapons”.
7) Sow Discontent would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat (+3 unrest, -1 legitimacy or -1 republican tradition)
8) Assassination of Advisor as per EU3. This would also prevent the targeted country from hiring a new advisor for 6 months.
9) Sabotage Reputation would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat.
(Choice of -50 relations penalty or -1 diplomatic reputation)
10) Assassination of Heir would be an incredibly difficult assignment. But I think it is worth putting in for historical significance. The penalties for discovery would be massive hits to aggressive expansion, diplomatic relations and reputation.
Defensive Covert Actions:
1) Counter Espionage. A passive action that has one or more of your spies attempt to prevent covert actions in your country. The chance of success is linked to the level of skill of your spy. This action would cost the least amount of ducats but would increase as you add more spies.
2) Infiltration of Foreign Spy Agency. Puts one of your spies into a targeted country’s agency. This allows you to receive notifications when the country performs covert actions. If the action takes place in your country, there is a much higher chance of apprehending the foreign spy.
3) Turn a Spy. This converts a Foreign Spy to work for you against their home country. There are 3 possible scenarios where this could happen.
a) When you discover a Foreign Spy attempting to perform an action against your country, there is a chance that the Spy will be caught and you can attempt to convert the Spy to your cause.
b) After infiltrating the Foreign Agency there is a chance that you can attempt to convert one of their spies to your cause.
c) If a country has poor modifiers such as high aggressive expansion, >100% Overextension or is going through a disaster, foreign spies may approach you for help against their poor ruler in exchange for information, offensive actions or ducats.
4) Spread False Information. With this you can try to cause confusion to the target country about your actions. For example you could spread false information about a country about to be attacked or provinces that your troops will move to next.
5) Reveal Enemy Actions to Allies. If you receive information about your enemy taking an action against an Ally you could choose to reveal that information to them and expose your enemy.
It is an area that is briefly touched on from an unlockable ideas point of view and also in the background for things such as basic covert operations.
I think the merit behind the above areas is good but it has so much potential to be great. Here is how I would improve it:
1) Espionage should be available straight away.
2) Spies should be acquired passively and the number of spies available is proportionate to the level of development in your country
3) The actions that your spy takes costs ducats. If an action is instant, then there is an upfront cost of ducats. If the action is over a period of time (such as supporting rebels) then it will have a monthly cost. The amount of ducats is proportionate to the difficulty of the action and the level of skill of your spy.
4) Your spies can be used offensively or defensively
5) Actions against rivals carry a 20% discount (as per EU4)
6) The Actions, both offensive and defensive should have a series of event chains where you can decide how to proceed. For example, “Should we send those rebels arms and men in order to decrease the time to rebellion and improve the forces? If yes then there is a higher chance of being caught and suffering penalties.”
Here is an example of what it could look like.[1]
Real Life Examples
A prominent figure in the pre-industrial world of espionage was a guy known as Francis Walsingham. To briefly summarize wikipedia,
Walsingham rose from relative obscurity to become one of the small coterie who directed the Elizabethan state, overseeing foreign, domestic and religious policy. He served as English ambassador to France in the early 1570s and witnessed the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. As principal secretary, he supported exploration, colonization, the use of England's maritime strength and the plantation of Ireland. He worked to bring Scotland and England together. Overall, his foreign policy demonstrated a new understanding of the role of England as a maritime, Protestant power in an increasingly global economy. He oversaw operations that penetrated Spanish military preparation, gathered intelligence from across Europe, disrupted a range of plots against Elizabeth and secured the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
The Life of the Spy
The spies that you receive are quite precious. You do get them passively but not on a regular basis. If your spy is caught there is a chance that they will be executed and there will be a moderately long time before you receive a new one.
Your Spy can earn experience from successful actions, which reduces the cost of future actions by that spy and increases the chance of success.
Loyalty to your country is a modifier that effects your Spy’s actions. Various things can influence their loyalty. For example if you are highly overextended or have just switched religions, that can influence how loyal they are. If they become disloyal, there is a chance that they will approach other foreign powers for help against your tyrannical rule.
However if they are loyal to you and for example are caught performing an action, there is a chance that they will not reveal details about their employer or the plot, which saves your country from being penalized.
Offensive Covert Actions:
Many of these actions were seen in EU3 and some are available in EU4 but I want to take this to the next level.
1) Infiltrate Administration. (Access to your enemies’ details about manpower, income, force limit etc.)
This information is currently presented in the ledger but I think that is too easy. Governments of the eras in EU4 surely did not have access to that level of data about every known country on Earth.
What I would propose is to have a spy infiltrate that administration and report back those details. The amount of information would be proportionate to the skill of your spy.
It would range from basic information that you see in the ledger, to enemy merchant placements and troop & naval movements.
2) Fabrication of Claims should be as standard in EU4 albeit with a small monthly ducat cost as per other covert actions however the cost would be in proportion to the size of the country that you are fabricating against. Smaller countries would be cheaper in comparison to the larger ones.
3) Sabotage Production would cause a province to increase the amount of time it takes to build a unit or building by 50%
4) Sabotage Supply would cause a target province to decrease the supply limit by 50%. Also can be used on own provinces if being sieged.
5) Sabotage Trade would cause a country to lose a % of trade power in a targeted node
6) Support Rebels would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat.
To improve this further, I would advise that you see the status of the rebellion pre revolt and be sent an event chain with pop ups such as, “the choice of speeding up the rebellion by sending weapons”.
7) Sow Discontent would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat (+3 unrest, -1 legitimacy or -1 republican tradition)
8) Assassination of Advisor as per EU3. This would also prevent the targeted country from hiring a new advisor for 6 months.
9) Sabotage Reputation would be as per EU4 except they would not be actioned by a diplomat.
(Choice of -50 relations penalty or -1 diplomatic reputation)
10) Assassination of Heir would be an incredibly difficult assignment. But I think it is worth putting in for historical significance. The penalties for discovery would be massive hits to aggressive expansion, diplomatic relations and reputation.
Defensive Covert Actions:
1) Counter Espionage. A passive action that has one or more of your spies attempt to prevent covert actions in your country. The chance of success is linked to the level of skill of your spy. This action would cost the least amount of ducats but would increase as you add more spies.
2) Infiltration of Foreign Spy Agency. Puts one of your spies into a targeted country’s agency. This allows you to receive notifications when the country performs covert actions. If the action takes place in your country, there is a much higher chance of apprehending the foreign spy.
3) Turn a Spy. This converts a Foreign Spy to work for you against their home country. There are 3 possible scenarios where this could happen.
a) When you discover a Foreign Spy attempting to perform an action against your country, there is a chance that the Spy will be caught and you can attempt to convert the Spy to your cause.
b) After infiltrating the Foreign Agency there is a chance that you can attempt to convert one of their spies to your cause.
c) If a country has poor modifiers such as high aggressive expansion, >100% Overextension or is going through a disaster, foreign spies may approach you for help against their poor ruler in exchange for information, offensive actions or ducats.
4) Spread False Information. With this you can try to cause confusion to the target country about your actions. For example you could spread false information about a country about to be attacked or provinces that your troops will move to next.
5) Reveal Enemy Actions to Allies. If you receive information about your enemy taking an action against an Ally you could choose to reveal that information to them and expose your enemy.
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