do multiple spies provide more protection?

[grumble]

if I have a spy in my spaceport and a spy in a neighbouring hex do I get twice the protection?

In my current game my spaceport has been disabled twice so it is being singled out in a way I have never seen before

[jmerry82]

Hard to tell; the mechanics are opaque, and I'm not sure it's ever been properly tested. At the very least, multiple counterspies means that you have multiple layers of protection; if one catches a spy, they stop their mission so you can promote them.

Each spy mission (with a chance of failure) has parameters "Base Probability", "Level Probability Change", "Enemy Probability Change" and "Enemy Level Probability Change". The first parameter varies with the mission; it's a threshold value you have to beat on what I think is a 3d6 roll. The second is standard at 1; +1 on the roll for each level of the offensive spy. The third is standard at 3, which I think means that it's -3 on the roll for a counterspy. And the fourth is standard at 1, which should mean that it's an additional -1 for each level of the counterspy.
So the question here is whether those penalties stack for multiple counterspies or it just takes the best one. And that, I don't know. One counterspy is usually strong enough.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't add, but maybe if you have overlapping spy checks it has to pass both of them?

But we have no way of knowing that unless someone has de-compiled the game and looked into it. Which I'm not aware if they have.

[Komodo Bebop]

Where-ever you have your spy it protects not only the tile that its on but also the adjacent tiles as well. For example, if you have a spy at a spaceport and there's a neighbourhood adjacent to the spaceport the neighbourhood will also be protected. Think of it as a centred circle wherever you put the spy

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Originally posted by Komodo Bebop:

Where-ever you have your spy it protects not only the tile that its on but also the adjacent tiles as well. For example, if you have a spy at a spaceport and there's a neighbourhood adjacent to the spaceport the neighbourhood will also be protected. Think of it as a centred circle wherever you put the spy

Correct, but what we don't know is how the game calculates when there are two spies able to defend..

Does it only check against the stronger spy?
Does it make a check against both spies, one at a time?

Sure would be great if we did know, but I doubt we'll ever see confirmation either way.

[jmerry82]

Originally posted by BlackSmokeDMax:

Does it make a check against both spies, one at a time?

Most likely not, because from what I can see it's not an "opposed roll" mechanic, but rather "roll with modifiers". The counterspy applies a penalty to the offensive spy's roll, and that only leaves two reasonable ways to set the rules: either the counterspy modifiers add, or the best counterspy applies.
(And the counterspy gets credit for catching the offensive spy even if they would have gotten caught anyway)

... Actually, point. A counterspy success is credited to a specific agent. Which strongly indicates that only one (the best) counterspy affects any given mission.

[plaguepenguin]

It's not clear that stacking spies will help espionage defense, in fact, as per the discussions above, it seems unlikely. Well, we do know what works.

Getting your spies promoted works. Getting your defensive spies promoted before your competitors get their offensive spies promoted is the actual factor at play, because it's the difference in levels that grants the advantage.

Partly this seems to be experience level, no matter what the particular promotion. Being a higher level than the opponent spy makes your spy more likely to succeed. But there are also the effects of the specific promotions. Most of these promotions are offensive, in that they let a spy count as having 2 higher levels when engaged in the particular offensive mission specified, in addition to counting as one level higher for having any promotion.

There are however defensive promotions, which help espionage defense succeed by granting more levels to the defense, or subtracting levels from the offense, rather than by stacking. Two of these (Quartermaster and Polygraph) affect your whole empire, while Surveillance only affects the one city the spy is defending, and Seduction just gives +2 levels to the spy itself.

Of course, this doesn't help you right now, because it will take plenty of turns for you to get spies promoted by sending them out to succeed at offensive missions. Good luck getting promotions at defensive missions at this point, because if your spaceport has been disrupted twice, this means that the bad guys have a heavily promoted spy on offense, probably one with the Rocket Scientist promotion -- and now you've given that spy two more promotions, so now you face a 4-level deficit. Your Recruit level spies don't stand a chance, and next time out, the Rocket Scientist is going to get another promotion, unless he's already maxed out.

Well, your Recruits don't stand a chance unless you bring in a card, Cryptography, which will make the Rocket Scientist operate at 2 levels lower, and Amani with the Local Informants title, which kicks in another -3.

Prevention is much better than cure for dealing with enemy spies. Intelligence Agency is my default second-tier govt building, because while the espionage game rarely becomes very important, and the other two choices for that building can grant an often decisive conquest or two or three, they only do so under specific conditions, while the Agency is always useful. It gives you a head start on getting spies promoted, and the early start snowballs.