Farming: This is going to form the majority of your spying work and will quickly become the largest portion of your in-game time expenditure. Always spy out your farms before you send a raid, you never know if it has been farmed recently or if reinforcements have been sent there for some other purpose.
Settlements: Usually a good idea to send one or two to any settlements you might be wanting to capture. Although be aware that the resource cost of losing a Silent One adds to the time needed to recoup any losses you might incur owning a settlement. This is also why it's a good idea to have your settlements defended by Silent Ones, the loss of a spy is often a good deterrent.
PvP-Castles: During tournaments or league quests there isn't a lot of point spying your targets first as typically you will want to hit them before they have a chance to hide their forces if that is their planned method of defence, additionally you shouldn't be too concerned about how many losses you will suffer as your own losses comprise approximately half of the points you will earn from the combat. Outside of tournaments and league quests spying out the enemy can work as a warning to them that they are being watched and when in sufficient numbers to overcome their spy defence can allow you to make an accurate (in the short term) prediction of the size of the force you or your league will need to successfully raid them.
PvP-Beacons: Occasional beacon scouting should be an important facet of your League's territory management. Keeping tabs on how well defended your neighbours are will keep them on their toes in keeping sufficient defence at each beacon they own and will let you know when there are any opportunities for easy acquisition. Obviously in defence you will want to keep a good reserve of Silent Ones at your beacons to counter these tactics, or at the least keep them busy replacing lost spies.
Unit Types:
| Spies | Gold | Iron | Food | Adjusted Cost per Hour | Upkeep | Spying | Speed | Carry | Build Time |
| Silent Ones | 450 | 450 | 600 | 1080.00 | 4 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 25 |
| Succubus | 850 | 850 | 0 | 971.43 | 4 | 43 | 8 | 0 | 35 |
| Assassin | 1350 | 1350 | 0 | 900.00 | 4 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 60 |
Silent Ones - your basic espionage unit. At first you'll build these because you have no other options for spying, and you'll have no other options in your bestiary queue, they also become a useful way of cutting down your food stores if you're in danger of being raided, especially in those early weeks.
Later on you'll still be using them, as your primary defence against spying, and as your disposable units for scouting anything that has a possible defence against spying.
As they are relatively cheap to build, are your best defence against spying, and have a respectable defence value I would also make use of them in your castle's defence, and one or two on a settlement makes a great deterrent.
Succubus - Your succubi will change your life. A speed of 8 km/h halves the time spent waiting on the scouting out of farms and that's going to be their primary role. Although they only cost 850 Maranian Amulets that is still over an hour and a half of conversion time and the opportunity tax on Amulets means you will probably prefer your limited stock on combat units. Do however keep using them for your farms and consider using them as part of your beacon spying force as their higher espionage value can make a sizable difference, especially when combined with a Legendary unit. I keep mine hidden in my catacombs when not in use.
Assassin - These units are expensive and have near identical statistics with your Silent Ones, so why on earth would you build them? Well I use mine solely for spying out beacons. Their ability to kill defensive espionage units means that even if you aren't successful subsequent spies will have a lower target number to reach. Outside of their self-sacrificial role with beacons I find them too expensive to justify their use elsewhere. However, you may be able to protect them somewhat by placing them within a large group of Silent Ones. As losses are spread out evenly you would need to lose many normal Silent Ones before the Assassin becomes at risk.
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