Spies...Dignitaries... useful or useless?

[Buzzkil88]

For me they seem useless... but i think that is only because it takes currency to use them. I seem to always have something way more important or useful to spend my money on every turn. Anyone have an opinion? maybe i am not using them for the right things. idk. but assassinating a AI general is pointless, ... poisoning an army does little to be worth the cost. Hindering progress seems useless too.. the most i have used was the dignitary, and that was only to manipulate a hero from another faction to join mine.

[Knox]

I find them some what useful just to keep enemy spies from killing my generals.

[Kayeka]

The best things in life are free. Have them travel with your army for some nifty benefits that you don't have to pay for.

Dignitaries lower the upkeep cost of the army they are traveling with, saving you quite a bit of money. They also help spread culture faster, which is quite a boon for your plans of conquest.

Spies increase the line of sight of your army, and decrease the odds of enemy agents trying to sabotage your army.

Champions train your troops, handing them free experience each turn.

After a while, your cashflow will increase to the point where you no longer have to worry about a few thousand talents, so you can start using their more active abilities. Until then, they'll make themselves useful either way.

[aaronmv]

Kind of pointless as they die so quickly (same issue with generals).

It kind of hurts the game in my eyes when you spend time developing agents and generals just to have them die to old age in 30-40 turns. Why spend influence points promoting generals when he's just going to die soon?

It sucks to get attached to high level agents and have them die to age...meh.

Otherwise, yes they are quite useful especially for their passive bonuses either in armies, or deployed in a region.

[billy]

them dying of old age so quickly is mental . You just end up not caring about them at all . Very strange CA did it this way. Mind you like most of this game i'm sure it wasnt tested at all.

[Buzzkil88]

yeah i use the spy for scouting/recon mostly. They can move far and see far. They only have passive abilities when they are upgraded to some degree right? A fresh dignitary with no experience has no passive effects? and thanks for the replies, i may be learning something here... lol.

[Dandy]

the dignitary can really benefit a newly captured province by converting the people to your way of life. Spy, i just use them as a scout/counter intel person. Hero guys are great for training the army

[Dandy]

Oh, if you put them into the army, they can increase the movment range of the army too, some by a lot