Covert Ops/Espionage + other Stratagem feedback

[ShadowEmpireHost]

Hello!

I've been at this since Oceania and have been hosting PBEM games for just over a year. We are about to give a 6 player game a shot. I've had several thoughts on the subject of Covert Ops especially as we approach Round 100 in our ongoing 4 player game. We are all very excited about Republica, and I think any sort of Covert Ops revisions/expansions should wait until Republica is shaken down, so to speak.

1. Spies are very powerful but my players don't seem to use them beyond initial map scouting or in the lead up for minor annexation. I got into a war with another player over some metals deposits, I more or less achieved my objectives with very little fighting by telling him to stop and think about what he was doing as he had no spies in my territory and I had been watching his GR equipment and a significant portion of his regular forces corralling powerful fauna for several rounds, and that those forces would take a big readiness hit redeploying to form a front with me. In fact, I sent him a screenshot of what his own lines looked like. He took the advice and we negotiated a border. This was without Echo Spy Tracer Kit, which is a weak and expensive tech for what it does, as the PP cost of deploying and maintaining spies is not that high to begin with. I do not claim to know or understand the magic behind the Secret Service Council counterintelligence slider, though I tend to keep mine around 40%.

2. Spies occasionally grant you a prompt to support one of the opponent factions. Usually I spam whichever faction has the most hostile profiles to what my opponent is running, or in the case that I deployed spies to watch an ally's war, support whichever faction best reflects the profiles they are trying to maintain. This is great, this is how covert ops should function, but this is where flexibility and nuance end with Covert Ops.

3. You cannot play hostile Covert Ops stratagems (which are limited to expensive Call to 'X' rebellions) on players with whom you have Non-Aggression or Friendship treaties. IMO, this cuts the legs out of all other potential interesting Covert Ops dynamics and interactions in the current version. I suggest that only Victory Pact should lock players out from performing these. Players having to determine who is behind successful actions adds depth.

4. Support Faction stratagem only works on AI majors (as does Major Diplomacy Ask For Help). These cards should be reworked to function with players. Currently they are free scrap points in multiplayer, I am sure this is not an original thought and one you are aware of.

5. Additional Covert Ops stratagems should be added. Ideas for cards off the top of my head: Assassinate Foreign Leader. Corrupt Foreign Leader (temporary penalty to leader rolls?). Production Sabotage. Logistics Sabotage. Morale/Readiness Sabotage. Stockpile Sabotage. Zone Danger/Fear/Unrest Increase. Incitement of negative zone events (raider attacks, mutants, angry AI sentinels, triggering ancient weapon) etc. These should be expensive, difficulties heavily modified by profiles (opportunity for another Enforcement buff and perhaps even Heart), leader skills, counterintelligence budget etc.

6. Introducing the above as a module as I am sure this will be unpopular with some players (I have a player whose least favorite part of Shadow Empire is the events, especially cults).

7. Rocket engines as a path to late tech spy satellites (other satellites? cloud seeding my desert into open farming?) instead of a waste of research on non-vacuum worlds. I would like to see this somehow tied into ICBM effectiveness. Hard to believe you can make them while completely ignoring rocket tech.

That's about all I have for Covert Ops. Stray thoughts:

8. Industrial Optimization as analogous to Logistics/Mining/Oil Extraction/Energy Storage optimization.

9. "Moral(e?) Highstanding" should be "Moral Grandstanding."

Keep up the great work on the best 4x ever made!

[eddieballgame]

I, too, would like to see more options to using spies. I use them for what they can do; but being able to attempt more 'shenanigans' would add another layer to an, already, excellent (maybe the best, ever) 4x.
Forcing folks to be more cognizant of security issues vs their opponents, with the appropriate penalties applied for failures on both sides would be...most challenging & fun, imho.