Spy (Age of Empires III)

The Spy is a special infantry unit trained from the Church, first introduced in Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs.

Overview
The Spy moves very quickly, and has the stealth ability, although it can be seen at all time by the enemies Explorers, Town Centers, Outposts, and Forts, and some other units. When in stealth mode, spies move considerably slower than normal.

The Spy is very good at scouting the enemy without them knowing, giving advanced notice on what they are building and when they will attack. The Spy has a very low base damage, but huge multipliers against Explorers and Mercenaries. The Spy can easily change the tide of a battle by coming in stealthed, and unstealthing and taking out enemy Mercenaries (including Li'l Bombards).

Upgrades
Spies are automatically upgraded in every Age.
 * ages industrial.jpg +25% hit points
 * ages imperial.jpg +50% hit points

History
"For as long as there have been presidents and kings, governments have enlisted the aid of individuals for espionage. During the turbulent seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, spies were used by various governments to uncover secrets and identify opportunities for attack. Spies were known to use a variety of tools and technologies, such as invisible ink and secret codes. The fledgling government of the United States of America found itself embroiled in multiple assaults by loyalist spies - including secret messages sent to agents of the crown by William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's own son!"

Trivia

 * The Spy is something of a favorite of the Ottoman AI in Random Map games.
 * Even though the Spy's icon shows a revolver, he always uses a dagger instead.
 * The Pistol is fully modeled and animated in the game files, and can be enabled via modding. The reason for making the Spy a melee unit is unknown.
 * The Explorer's Crackshot Ability does only 1% of normal damage against a Spy.
 * The Iroquois' Warchief Crackshot Ability does only 25% of normal damage to a Spy.
 * The Explorer's Swashbuckler and the Chinese Monk's Roundhouse Abilities do 25% of normal damage to a Spy.
 * The Sioux's and Aztec's Swashbuckler Abilities do 10% of normal damage to a Spy.