If you had to play without....

[LuckyPistol]

Basically my question is that if you had to play without a Diplomat or Spy, which would you prefer? In other words, what do you believe would be harder to play without?

On one hand with no diplomat means its up to the AI to initiate trade rights and peace treaties/alliances. On the other, you lose a competitive advantage against your enemies without a spy to infiltrate and expose enemy armies and settlements, as well as find a clear path ahead

[jinjo]

i always use diplomat, so my answer is spy.

[Funeh]

I could play without spy too, although I use them a lot... Also I missclicked in poll and selected diplomat xD

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Oh that's easy. Diplomat can double as a spy anyway. Not a good one, mind you, but good enough.

[SupplyWagon]

I have actually played one campaign without diplomats (not TATW, but Viking campaign in Kigdoms) and it went smoothly. Spies on the other hand... I always have a whole bunch of them spread over enemy territory like mobile watchtowers. Thanks to them I always know where the enemy are, how many they are, and - very important - how far they can go in next turn. This lets me keep the initiative all the time.

[Finlander]

I would be struggling much harder if I had no Spies avaiable to my command. I rarely have a need for a diplomat in most of games anyway and I feel that I could do just fine without having them in a TATW campaign.

However, I do use spies a lot and I seldom move my armies blindy into enemy territories without first scouting the area with my spies. I do try to cover a large area of the enemy lands with my spies so that I know where their armies are located at or where they are heading to. I want to know what I am facing.

[VektorT]

Man, most of my plans both for attack and for defense is heavily dependent of spy to identify enemies garrisons numbers, what they are conquering, follow their armys and find out when and where they are going to attack me. Playing without spies would be like running with closed eyes.

[Flinn]

as a turtler, I cannot renounce to diplomats, although both agents are useful but not mandatory in TATW

[DrDragun]

Probably Diplomat for most factions. I need spies. For some factions the diplomat only exists to get trade rights with everybody. For other campaigns like Isengard or Dwarves they are pretty necessary though.

[Withwnar]

Spy. Without princesses diplomats are the only ones who can perform diplomat actions. If you need such an action then you're stuck if no diplomats. Whereas everybody can see - not as well as a spy but still. There is the "open the gates" thing that only spies can do but that always felt like cheating to me anyway, or at least too easy.

[paradamed]

i always use diplomat, so my answer is spy.

Me too. There are no replacements for diplomat. I can always use towers or cavalry units to scout.

[Steward Denethor II]

I would have to go with no diplomats. The other factions will usually send theirs to me eventually and if I want an alliance I get it when they talk to me. After that there isn't really much to talk about with them. Besides, no one wants to ally with me anyways because I kill all the prisoners I get unless there is a good ransom offer. Not because I am a sadist but because dread is more useful than chivalry.

Spies on the other hand are very helpful for scouting, opening gates, and causing riots (though they rarely cause rebellions in TATW because the irritating AI bonuses to public order.)

[Davek]

Although I use spies way more than diplomats, I did choose spies as ones to play without. Why? Watch towers, other agents can do the scouting roles of spies. I rarely let spies infiltrate an army or settlement. I prefer some information above full information with the risk of replacing the spy.

While diplomats are not used often and more often than not in combination with forced diplomatic actions, they are used to steer the greater flow of the game. Having good vs evil fights no faction dyeing to early, returning settlements to allies etc.

To be honest neither are often used I prefer gunboat (or bow and sword) diplomacy and build troops instead of agents. Agents remain an afterthought for me.

[❋ Flavius Belisarius ❋]

Diplomate is waaaaay more importante that a spy, if you want to know the garrison of a city then send an other diplomat near it

But anyway, because I exclusively play with the High Elves and it's constist in turtling most of the time, the use a diplomate is verry important.
(and if I would wait for other faction to ask me for an alliance then I would have only one or two allies by the end of the end and the rest being my enemies )