User Guide

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special covert operation for you. The spy will
attempt to carry out the mission with the ut-
most discretion, but there is always the possi-
bility that he will be uncovered during the at-
tempt. A mission might succeed, even if your
involvement is revealed. Similarly, a mission
might fail but as long as your spy’s attempt is
not detected, the target might be none the wis-
er. The effects of being discovered depend on
the type of mission involved, as do the chances
of success.
Espionage Modifiers
Each spy mission has a specific degree of diffi-
culty, but there are several addition factors that
will modify the likelihood of success and detec-
tion. Some of these are “local” and apply only
to individual provinces that could be a target of
a mission; while others are “global” and apply
to all espionage activities within a country.
• Any province that is considered "overseas"
-- one that is not on the same continent
and directly linked to your capital by land
-- will receive a penalty to its ability to de-
fend against the actions of a spy.
• A province's tax income has a small effect
on its ability to defend against espionage.
A province is more likely to be able to de-
tect a spy and prevent his success if it has a
high tax income value.
• A province's current revolt risk contributes
to a spy's chances of success. If there is a
high risk of rebellion, a spy will be much
more likely to find people sympathetic to
his cause and will probably be able to carry
out his mission and remain undetected.
• The overall stability of a realm also affects
the ability of each province in the coun-
try to detect and thwart a spy's attempt. If
your country is very stable, enemy spies
are far less likely to succeed. Similarly, a
highly unstable realm will be far more sus-
ceptible to espionage.
• A ruler's diplomacy attribute plays an im
-
portant role in determining how adept the
country's spies are at infiltrating a target,
but does not contribute to the defence
against covert activities within the realm.
Spies sent by a ruler with very high diplo-
macy skill will find it much easier to carry
out their missions and remain undetected.
• The spies of the Holy Roman Emperor will
enjoy an additional advantage when carry-
ing out their missions.
• The "Enlightened Despotism" form of
government gives all of your provinces an
additional bonus in defending against en-
emy spies.
• A country with a domestic policy that
leans towards centralisation will tend to be
better at espionage than a country with a
decentralised policy.
• A country with a domestic policy that pro
-
motes free subjects over serfdom will have
a better ability to defend against enemy
spies.
Spy Actions
In this section, we will describe each of the pos-
sible missions that can be given to your spies.
When you click the “send spy” button, the Es-
pionage Interface will be displayed in place of
the Diplomacy Interface. Each currently avail-
able option will be highlighted in gold, while
unavailable missions will be greyed out. A mis-
sion will be unavailable if the province you
have selected is not suitable for the mission, or
if you lack the necessary funds in your treasury
to pay for the attempt.
Adjacent to each mission on the list, you
will see the cost that you must pay the spy from
your treasury to fund the mission, as well as
an estimate of the likelihood that the mission
will succeed. The cost of missions is affected by
your current inflation value, so the actual cost
displayed in the interface will be higher than
the base cost listed here unless you currently
have no inflation whatsoever. The chance of
succeeding depends on the difficulty of the
mission and on the modifiers listed above.
When you click on an option to select it,
you will be asked to confirm that you wish