Civilization 5 Gods and Kings Walkthrough

Espionage

Espionage is the second new system within the Gods and Kings expansion. When any Civ in the game enters the Renaissance era, all nations will gain a single spy (England also gets an extra spy). As a nation enters new technology eras they will gain more spies. A spy will also be awarded to the Civ that builds the National Intelligence Agency Wonder.

A spy can be moved to other nations to steal technology and gather intrigue. You are more likely to gain technology and intrigue in cities with higher populations. Stealing technology will only work if the current Civ you've targeted is more advanced along the technology tree. Intrigue on the other hand can give you information about who that Civ is about to go to declare war on or who they are plotting against. You can then share this knowledge with the third party and advance diplomatic relations.

There is also counter intelligence: by placing spies in your own cities they can defend against theft, identify who is spying on your or even kill of enemy spies. Dead spies will be replaced by fresh new spies after a set amount of turns. Discovering spies in your cities (or being caught by an enemy) can lead to national incidents, such as weakened relations or outright war. You can however choose to forgive the nation that wronged you, or request nations stop their operations within your territory. Some Civs will adhere to your wishes, while others may become hostile.

Spies can also occupy City States and will attempt to rig elections. After every 15 turns your spy will attempt to increase your influence with the City State, though rival Spies in the City State will often prevent this. You can also actively stage a coup to completely overthrow the City State's current alliance. However, if you fail this coup option your spy will be killed. If you are a third party spy who witnesses another spies' failed coup you may also gain that information.

As a spy completes any of these above missions they will be awarded experience and possible level ups. A higher rank spy will be able to complete missions faster and at a greater success rate. For the most part send high level spies to complete dangerous tasks such as coups and let newbie spies gather intrigue on lesser Civs.