Is there any point in spy missions other than Steal Blueprints?

[mursolini]

That said some operations could be balanced to be more universally useful I think and I'm open to feedback there

Please change the capture/resque mechanics. It is both unrealistic and unfun.
The idea that every spy captured would be individually resqued by a team is nuts.

Instead, make it so you could give new spies right after capture of your agent, and make experienced spies Worth resquing occasionally.

 

[DaleDVM]

Did you put any investment into encryption yourself? I don't know, because I haven't checked, but my base assumption would be that the relative encryption level between you and the target would be relevant to the difficulty of the decryption task.

I did the first 2. I did not do the last 3. I will try it and see what happens to the numbers. Thanks for the advice.

Update:

OK, I quickly did the final 3 Cryptology upgrades. It did not improve the times at all. I do note that my decryption value is being halved because I am at peace so perhaps it will improve to the point of usefulness once war breaks out?

I was wondering, is it a good idea to get to 95-99% decryption and stop until war breaks out so a country like the UK can't change cyphers before I ever get to use them? Has anyone done this?

 

[McMantis]

I did the first 2. I did not do the last 3. I will try it and see what happens to the numbers. Thanks for the advice.

Update:

OK, I quickly did the final 3 Cryptology upgrades. It did not improve the times at all. I do note that my decryption value is being halved because I am at peace so perhaps it will improve to the point of usefulness once war breaks out?

I was wondering, is it a good idea to get to 95-99% decryption and stop until war breaks out so a country like the UK can't change cyphers before I ever get to use them? Has anyone done this?

Cryptology upgrades make it take longer for others to crack your code (ENcryption), it does nothing for DEcryption. No, don't stop at 99%, you get nothing. As long as you don't "reveal Intel", you'll keep the passive bonus and they won't change their cypher.

 

[DaleDVM]

Well that isn't true... because I was 100% done with the UK and it dropped down to 50% at some point between mid 1937 and late 1938. That was while I was working on decrypting USSR. Of that I am sure so if they didn't change cyphers on me then what happened to my UK decryption? I know I didn't use the bonus. There was 50% left when I noticed it.

 

[guprad]

Well that isn't true... because I was 100% done with the UK and it dropped down to 50% at some point between mid 1937 and late 1938. That was while I was working on decrypting USSR. Of that I am sure so if they didn't change cyphers on me then what happened to my UK decryption? I know I didn't use the bonus. There was 50% left when I noticed it.

When they upgrade their cypher which should be the last three upgrades or so, then the time for decryption increases and you need to spend longer to decrypt them.

 

[McMantis]

Upgrading encryption is not the same as changing cyphers.

 

[DaleDVM]

So if I have a country 100% decrypted and then they increase their encryption levels you lose the 100% decryption? I thought once you were done, you were done, as long as you don't use it for the bonus.

 

[guprad]

So if I have a country 100% decrypted and then they increase their encryption levels you lose the 100% decryption? I thought once you were done, you were done, as long as you don't use it for the bonus.

That is correct, if they increase the encryption then you lose a few hundred days and have to decrypt it again.

 

[Beagá]

Suppose I want to put, say, Sweden into the axis or allies. I should do missions in which order?

 

[T Knight]

Am playing a campaign as Japan, am in 1948 now. Can't say I found a big difference with the espionage contributing to the game even though I have been using it to set up collaborations. I find the "factory" cost too high. Maybe there should be other points to spend. Maybe devoted espionage points (that could be influenced by focuses)

 

[Balesir]

Suppose I want to put, say, Sweden into the axis or allies. I should do missions in which order?

Well, forming a network (to start with) and then using "political pressure" will lower both their reluctance to join and the world tension requirement for them to join, but I suspect that they will also need some basic inclination to join in the first place. Diplomatic actions might help there - trade and increasing opinion. A guarantee might also help, as might a mission to increase the appropriate ideology. Of course, having some basic intel on their politics and civilian details might be a good start...

 

[Beagá]

Did someone managed to put Turkey or Sweden in their faction? Which one is easier?

Countries like Brazil and Mexico don't feel as useful.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

Well, forming a network (to start with) and then using "political pressure" will lower both their reluctance to join and the world tension requirement for them to join, but I suspect that they will also need some basic inclination to join in the first place. Diplomatic actions might help there - trade and increasing opinion. A guarantee might also help, as might a mission to increase the appropriate ideology. Of course, having some basic intel on their politics and civilian details might be a good start...

Does anyone know if doing this to Italy will get Italy to join before Fall Gelb?

 

[Secret Master]

Suppose I want to put, say, Sweden into the axis or allies. I should do missions in which order?

I think they need to flip ideologically unless something else is really off the rails.

Important safety tip for Sweden: Sweden has a national spirit that reduces ideological drift. I had a heck of a time flipping them Communist in time for the 1940 election two games as the Soviets.

And elections are not 100% guaranteed to flip democracies. Even with a 55% support for communists, they still lost the election one time. I had to push it past 60% to get them to flip in 1940 in a second game.

 

[Beagá]

Did you manage to put them in the Comintern? What about Turkey?

 

[safe-keeper]

Yeah I agree with the OP's sentiment. It's shared by many I think. The whole system is extremely underwhelming considering how much you have to invest to do the missions. How many resources, how much time, and how many spies. There's barely any payoff to doing the missions. You can easily just ignore the whole thing the whole game. And the fact that there are literally only 4 unique/historical missions makes it worse.

Which is intentional. They realized not everyone wanted a spy system, so they made it so that you could stick with only coumterintelligence if you so desired and leave the spy missions to those inteterested in them.

 

[sekelsenmat]

Did you manage to put them in the Comintern? What about Turkey?

I spent a whole game trying to get Turkey to join Comintern. As Soviets, I put spies to flip them ideologically. Commies lost the election despite having a tiny majority.

Restarted. Now I added commie ideology and did a coup on them. Sent volunteers and won the civil war. Guess what? Commie Turkey still wouldn't join commintern!!!

I tried everything possible. In the end decided to wait till world tension raised near 100%. Then commie turkey started doing neutrality focuses which killed any chance of them joining my faction.

Restarted. Now I'm pissed off. This time I'll just attack them at the same time I attack Finland in winter war. Finland is a war in the park, so I hope to have a real challenge for a change in Turkey and after the war I'll puppet them and make them join commintern. I am using the war goal from the focus tree for turkey. Let's see.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

What happens to the cipher if they upgrade it during your crack cipher effort?

 

[Balesir]

What happens to the cipher if they upgrade it during your crack cipher effort?

Then the amount of decryption you need to do has gone up, and it will take longer for you to crack the cipher. Codebreaking is a frustrating business, but sweet when you can read their codes and they have no idea...

 

[Secret Master]

Did you manage to put them in the Comintern? What about Turkey?

Odd situation with Sweden.

I got them in the COMINTERN the moment they flipped. But when Barbarossa started, the AI tooltips told me that Sweden would refuse the call to arms. This might have something to do with the 50 German divisions sitting on their borders with Denmark and Norway.

It turned out that I didn't want them in the war anyway, because I wanted a more focused front in Poland and the Balkans. I didn't pursue any diplomatic or espionage options to get them to join the war, as they were more useful as a friendly neutral.