Covert Operations¶
Covert operations are secret missions run by your agents. You need at least one agent to run any of them, and a failed one costs you that agent.
What agents do NOT do is change your odds. The chance an operation lands is set by the operation itself: the simpler ones land just over half the time, the harder ones less often. Your agents make no difference to it, and neither do the target's. Two things do change it: a bribed agent inside the target doubles your chance against that realm, and a realm that has exposed your agent turns nine of your attempts in ten away.
Each operation also costs gold. The menu shows the price next to each one, and the footer shows how much gold and how many agents you have. You pay the gold when you send the operation. If you cannot pay, the operation does not run.
While your realm is under New Realm Protection, your agents may not move against another realm: every operation that has an effect on its target is refused, and the refusal costs nothing — no gold, no agent, no turn. Send Spy and Spy on Relations only gather information, so those two stay open to you for as long as the shield lasts.
Most operations do not happen on the spot. When you choose one, your agent sets out: the fee and the agent go at once, and the operation itself is carried out during the next daily maintenance. The result waits for you on your next turn's report — whether the agent got through, and what it did. So an operation cannot soften a realm you are about to attack in the same turn; plan it a day ahead. Send Spy and Spy on Relations are the exceptions, along with Expose Enemy Ops: those three answer you immediately.
If the realm you aimed at is gone by the time your agent arrives, the operation is abandoned and the fee is not returned.
You may run each covert operation once per turn. Running Stir Revolts blocks a second Stir Revolts until your next turn, but leaves every other operation open. Send Spy and Spy on Relations only gather information, so they have no limit at all, and Expose Enemy Ops has none either.
When an operation fails, your agent is caught and lost, and the target is warned — and a caught agent talks, so the target is told your realm's name. An operation that succeeds is reported to the target with no name attached. The only way anyone learns who is running operations against them is by catching an agent.
Each operation has its own topic. Some of the topics in this section cover InterPlanetary Special Operations instead, which are aimed at another planet and need Bombers to deliver their payloads; each says so.
The Covert Operations menu appears during your turn, after the Attack menu. If you do not see it, turn on "Visit Covert Menu" in the Preferences menu.