The answer to the subject of this article... Should not even exist. It's self explanatory that the spy is VERY effective if used appropriately and successfully. Such as...
You are low on metal income. Boo hoo
Enemy conquered you with 100 armor infantry. (first like 50 ticks)
So, you send your spy over, and with your 20 Damage infantry. Or even
10 armor concussive
10 damage concussive
10 range
vs
100 armor.
You'll lose.
BUT, if you use your spy correctly, you'll be able to turn that, into a 0 loss victory.
You see, what i'm trying to get at is, Infantry are very vulnerable to damage. They have the least amount of health, but in big numbers they can be effective. A lot of alliances use these because they manufacture in small costs. However, they are worthless without a group. So, if you are going up against an alliance that uses an Infantry setup, think of your spy friend. He just might (and probably will) save your life!
Currently, as of 9/7/2012 I am playing Solo Earth World 5, and I'm rank 80. I only have about 30 tanks built, and will soon have three crystals. Why am I doing so good?
I have the spy recruited. And I've been putting the spy to GREAT use.
Attack the enemy with 10 armor, damage, range concussive tanks.
They normally have over 100 troops. BUT, I use the spy. I spread the virus, all health goes to zero, and bam. I maybe take 2-3 armor losses if they have anti tank infantry. If not, mostly no losses at all.
If you are fighting a very big colony that gets a lot of income, and you're not quite ready to fight him, maybe you should soften him up with a "Poison Water Supply" spy attack. Gets rid of 10% of colonies workers.. If that player boosts, or just happens to have 1,000 workers in it, you just killed 100 potential infantry, and a buttload of resource income. He's probably mad and putting up his spy protection. Unless he hasn't learned his lesson. Do it again
If you KNOW you are going to go to a war with another alliance, start planting spies in there ASAP. Cause you're going to want them. This happened just a day ago while fighting CRYX. (All respect to the alliance CRYX for fighting, it was an honorable fight and I respect how much devotion they had to winning)
400 troops in one colony. WOW. My alliance ended up pulling back cause we didn't have a spy in there! We couldn't win that! Not with our 150 vehicles! So.. We pulled back, and planted a spy. Later, we ended up using the spy for something else, but the point is, if we had a spy, we could've taken out all of the infantry in one touch. Easily.
If they have a bunch of tanks, and you're thinking, "That's stupid how it only does 50% of health." Well think again.
Armor tanks usually have about 24 hp. So getting rid of Half of that, is EXTREMELY effective. Unless you have a missile silo. Than use your spy to lockdown the enemy, and let the missile send them sky high.
For one, the spy can either damage their stuff, or prepare a nuke to hit. Very simple, very easy.
Same goes with the 50% Vehicle damage. Lots of HP, in half. Poof, easy kill. (easier)
Boo... this is for like using on an ally just to screw with them, however i don't think ANYONE uses them because if you have a spy in the #1 alliance, and you are #10 alliance and they see you have spies planted, they miiight not approve of that... At all. In fact, they might launch a counter-attack on you. So be very careful when doing this.
Ignite thrusters is just an easy way of getting across the map in case you have an immediate danger on your doorstep. Usually, you wouldn't ever need this, unless you do cross country spying. Then, this is very VERY useful.
EMP overload... Recipe for disaster. This is a very very good tactic in case your opponent likes using gates, or nukes or covert tactics. Not only are you harming his/her energy reserve. But you are also damaging their oil (if they convert) and their Tokens (if they're desperate). It's also very effective if they are the ones pulling all the weight in the alliance, cause then you just killed off most of their data income. They'll be throwing rocks in the dark.
Burn Oil reserves can be just as effective as EMP overload. In fact, this can make the enemy paralyzed for more than just a few ticks. Maybe even more than a day! Oil is precious, and so understated. No one gives oil the respect it deserves. Without it, you can't move your army, convert to energy, relocate, or even build your units that you love so much!
Reply to this if this was in any way helpful
And if you have any questions, please let me know. I'd be so very happy to help with you ^-^