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[Shadowgandor]

I've suddenly gotten a craving for a strategy game that allows me to win, or at least, severely smoothen a victory through subterfuge. The only game that I know off that does this really well is Seven Kingdoms 2.
 Seven Kingdoms 2 allowed you to train spies and have them take on the color of any team. You could have them listen to AI orders or control them yourself. A player could store your spy in a barrack, where the spy could bribe other soldiers which made them rather weak spies but yours nonetheless, or the spy could even bribe the general who in return could capture an entire fort (and maybe the town too, can't remember). Your spy could also get promoted by the enemy if say...the enemy king got assassinated and your spy is a high-level combatant and leader. This immediately had you take control over the enemy player.

Now I'm searching for more games that give you those kind of options, preferably modern'ish. Can anyone recommend me something like this?

[LoSboccacc]

R.U.S.E has a set of subterfuge cards, from spying to fake units, concelment etc.

Works quite well in skirmush and multiplayer

[Stworca]

Europa 1400 : The Guild, and to lesser extend it's sequel : Guild 2.
Could be what you seek.. Not exactly 100% strategy games, but it's difficult to call any genre's with these two.

[Shadowgandor]

@LoSboccacc     
R.U.S.E. sounds like it might be fun. Have you played the game yourself? Is the multiplayer scene still alive? Could you temporarily disguise your own troops as his own?

@Stworca
I've really enjoyed both games, but I don't recall if it was possible to infiltrate another family. The bribery and blackmailing parts of the game were fun though

[Shadowlord]

CK2, depending on what your goal is?

[Moron]

In Civilization IV, it's possible to run your civilization as an "espionage economy"  - ie a major source of technological advances is from using spies to steal them from other civs.

It actually works better on the harder difficulties as the other civs have to be more advanced than you for there to be anything worth stealing.

[Sonlirain]

Umm... Empire Earth 2 had spies who could do various destructive activeties but none of them could directly win the game.

In Master of Orion you could frame other races for your espionage (possibly starting wars).

In call to power 1-2 some (not spy per say) special non combat units can have a bigger impact on the enemy than a nuclear strike (eco-terrorists are lulzy).

[LoSboccacc]

I played it myself, enjeyed the campaign even if tou don't need much subterfuge there and trolled immensely in the multiplayer.

You cannot disguise unit as enemy but you can conceal or switch the type between infantry and tanks.

Combat is deadly and fight between units resolved in second according to who has the upper hand. Matches are brutal and fast.

[Gamerboy4life]

Is the multiplayer scene still alive?

Last time I checked, it's deader than Elvis. The two Wargames however, still probably have multiplayer. I haven't played them.

But even when multiplayer was somewhat active on RUSE, people were constantly kicked for being 'underleveled' anyway, so it's not exactly fun waiting for an hour when you find a match that won't immediately boot you.

[GlyphGryph]

Oh man, I loved the 7 Kingdoms games. The subterfuge mechanics really were top notch. I don't think I've ever seen another game handle it as well. You could also infiltrate enemy towns to decrease their loyalty to the enemy, so that when you wanted them to you could trigger a peasant rebellion. It was really cool.

None of the things listed here are really very spy-like, especially in regards to the Civilization games, where's it's really closer to special forces military units than anything else. If the only use of spies is to steal things and attack the enemy... well, that's not really subterfuge.

[Aoi]

Seven Kingdoms 2 allowed you to train spies and have them take on the color of any team. You could have them listen to AI orders or control them yourself. A player could store your spy in a barrack, where the spy could bribe other soldiers which made them rather weak spies but yours nonetheless, or the spy could even bribe the general who in return could capture an entire fort (and maybe the town too, can't remember). Your spy could also get promoted by the enemy if say...the enemy king got assassinated and your spy is a high-level combatant and leader. This immediately had you take control over the enemy player.

Wait... so... could you have a spy infiltrate an enemy, who would have it trained as a spy, who would then be sent to spy on you...

[Cicero]

RUSE is currently on sale for $2.50. With a Steam code I might add. http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-RUSE/ruse-the-art-of-deception

[Sharp]

Seven Kingdoms 2 allowed you to train spies and have them take on the color of any team. You could have them listen to AI orders or control them yourself. A player could store your spy in a barrack, where the spy could bribe other soldiers which made them rather weak spies but yours nonetheless, or the spy could even bribe the general who in return could capture an entire fort (and maybe the town too, can't remember). Your spy could also get promoted by the enemy if say...the enemy king got assassinated and your spy is a high-level combatant and leader. This immediately had you take control over the enemy player.

Wait... so... could you have a spy infiltrate an enemy, who would have it trained as a spy, who would then be sent to spy on you...

If any game did that it would be the greatest spying game ever, especially if you could then send the spy that you sent to them that they sent to you back to them and then it's all about paranoia whether your spy is a spy or a double-agent/triple-agent etc.... and then someone executes the spy with all the mis-trust.

[GlyphGryph]

Yes, I am pretty sure you could. It was great.

I don't remember if you could use them to feed the enemy false intelligence.

At the very least, you'd often want to scatter your own spies amongst your own holdings, since they'd be able to engage in counter-espionage and you'd be informed if an enemy spy tried to bribe them.

You could also execute your own soldiers, usually because you thought they were spies. Sometimes you are even right!

But executing your high commander because he's about to become King and you've suddenly realized he might be a spy is hilariously fun, especially when the guy who replaces him.... is a spy.

Promotion always had to be a done with a look to three considerations - leadership skill, loyalty (whether they might rebel on their own or be susceptible to bribes), and whether or not the unit could have been placed by an enemy from the beginning. You'd often want to promote worse units that you KNEW weren't compromised than take a risk - if you uncover a spy at a fort, you might write everyone off their a potential security problem, and send them off to guard some remote outpost where even if it gets taken over you won't lose too much.

[Sinlessmoon]

PTW.