While conventional war climbs the public escalation ladder, hybrid war runs in parallel through spy networks. Spy actions are deniable until attribution sharpens. The full mechanic spec is player_interaction.md §6.
| Flavor |
Effect |
Counter |
| Sabotage |
Damages buildings, disrupts construction, destroys stockpiles. |
Counter-intel buildings, garrison vigilance. |
| Misinformation |
Inserts false data into the enemy's UI: wrong forecasts, falsified diplomatic responses, ghost armies. |
Knowledge-gauge buildings (Scribe Hut, Academy). |
| Cultivate-Spark Uprising |
Polarizes a target city, raises Fanatic emergence risk, may trigger revolt. |
Faith infrastructure, priest class. |
Spy attacks are not immediately attributed. Attribution moves through tiers:
| Tier |
Description |
Diplomatic actionability |
| Tier 0 — Unknown |
Damage occurred; cause unidentified. |
Cannot retaliate diplomatically. |
| Tier 1 — Suspected |
Investigation has narrowed to a region. |
Suspicions named; can be challenged. |
| Tier 2 — Identified |
A specific player or alliance is named. |
Diplomatic action permitted. |
| Tier 3 — Confirmed |
Hard evidence (caught spy, intercepted message). |
Reputation cascade; war justification. |
| Tier 4 — Witnessed (god) |
Inside an enemy god's attunement zone. |
Maximum diplomatic and divine consequence. |
A skilled saboteur leaves a trail that climbs slowly. A clumsy one outs themselves immediately.
Defensive spy infrastructure:
- Scribe Hut → House of Scribes → Academy — knowledge gauge counters Misinformation.
- Falcon Tower (Sun Dune) — anti-spy detection.
- Subterranean Watchman (Ironpeak) — anti-tunnel + anti-spy crossover.
- Investigator's Office (Phase 2) — sharpens attribution against incoming attacks.
- Counter-spy hero — a hero in Spy Master role can chain investigations.
The reputation cost of a spy attack is attribution-tiered. From metrics.md §spy networks:
SPY_REP_COST attribution-tiered:
Tier 0 — Unknown → minimal; deniable
Tier 1 — Suspected → low
Tier 2 — Identified → medium
Tier 3 — Confirmed → high
Tier 4 — Witnessed → very high; god-witnessing penalty stacks
The deeper the attribution, the more reputation you bleed.
To deploy spies:
- Build a Spy Network building in a friendly city. Each network has a max active mission count.
- Recruit Spy Master heroes (a hero archetype). They run the network.
- Choose target type: city, hero, alliance treasury, trade route, faith infrastructure.
- Choose flavor: Sabotage, Misinformation, Cultivate-Spark.
- Define duration: short (high attribution risk, high impact) vs long (low attribution risk, sustained drain).
- Building under construction — delay, cost increase, possible cancellation.
- Stockpile — destroy a percentage of stored resources.
- Wonder construction — high-value strategic target. Heavy attribution risk.
- Trade route — disrupt caravan flow, redirect to bandit camps.
- Hero retinue — wound the hero's escort, weaken their bonus.
- Weather forecast — feed false weather data; opponent moves armies into adverse weather.
- Enemy armies — show ghost armies to bait commitment.
- Diplomatic messages — spoof a rival alliance's offer to your enemy.
- Marketplace listings — falsify price signals.
The most dangerous and the most morally fraught:
- Inject religious polarization into a target city.
- Boost Fanatic emergence rate.
- If polarization crosses threshold, the city's Fanatics rise — possibly defecting, possibly revolting.
- The cultivator can choose to align the resulting rebel faction with their own god.
A successful Cultivate-Spark can take a city without an army. A failed one is high-tier attribution.
- Phase 1 ships basic Sabotage with attribution tiers 0–2.
- Phase 2 ships Misinformation, full attribution model (tiers 0–4), counter-intel investigation, hybrid-war diplomatic catalog.
- Phase 3 adds Cultivate-Spark Uprising at full polarization risk.
- Don't over-spy on a single target. The longer you run a network against one player, the higher the attribution risk.
- Misinformation > Sabotage in long campaigns. Sabotage is quick damage; misinformation poisons a relationship.
- Counter-intel is cheaper than retaliation. Spend on Falcon Towers / Scribe Huts before spending on counter-spy networks.
- Don't run spies against an attunement zone unless you're ready for divine consequences. Tier 4 escalation is brutal.
Sources: player_interaction.md §6, metrics.md §6 Spy networks (SPY_REP_COST attribution-tiered), player_interaction.md §14 (full SPY_REP_COST dict).