Spy
From Warbirth Wiki
"Then Tjeti, son of Henet, followed this god, without letting his heart put blame on him, in order to observe every one of his (i.e. the king's) deeds."
—Tale of King Neferkare and General Sasenet
Once considered fairly useless in vanilla Rise of Nations, Spies now have a terrifying new dimension in the information war that goes on in Warbirth. Their stats have not changed much, but the decreased LOS and lowered ability of buildings to oversee settlements and territory proffer many blind spots which a well-placed spy can infiltrate, be it for intel gathering, surveillance, or plain outright subversion.
The first way forward is to train Spies of your own. Spies can perform Counterintelligence against enemy units — so keep them running around to insta-kill enemy agents that emerge in your settlements. Equally, you can build Sentry Posts of your own at strategic points. Because Sentry Posts can still detect units (but don't have growing LOS), you can position them at important choke points to prevent Spies from operating around them. Build them around your military colonies so that you can keep Spies from infiltrating and then stealing your units. The best building, however, with regards to countering enemy Spies, is the Palace wonder. As it is one of the only buildings whose LOS grows with Scientific research, and it like the Sentry Post can detect hidden units, the Palace is possibly one of the best buildings you can build to detect enemy units.
Another unit that can be trained to counter Spies are Shamans, but Shamans can only be recruited by certain factions. Shamans don't have good LOS, but they are capable of detecting any invisible units that approach them. It is often a wise choie to spread these units around your army to prevent subversion by Spies, if not boost their offensive power. Shamans still need escorts, though — they can't really deal damage to other units.
Unit summary[edit | edit source]
- Eternal Vigilance — Build Sentry Posts and Palaces to spot Spies and other invisible units. Place these buildings near strategic choke points to reduce the chances of Spies infiltrating your nation.