Hidden Units

[HighLord z0b]

In a battle I fought recently, I placed several units in some sparce trees on top of a hill, I needed to protect the hill and didn't intended to use the trees as cover but the little tree symbol that indicates they were hidden came up. Anyway when I moved the camera, it would have been very easy to see the troops from the enemies perspective as there were only a few trees. However as their army approached the hill and I told my units to attack, the enemy was taken completely by suprise like they couldn't see them.

Does this mean that when the tree symbol is there they are completely invisible to the enemy or just that the AI ignores them? If this happened in MP would the other player be able to see something there or would they not show up at all until they moved? Also if a unit is behind a hill and out of view but not properly "hidden" do they show up on the mini map?

thanks

[ajaxfetish]

If the tree symbol shows up they are completely invisible to the enemy (including minimap) even though you can see them. You can see it happen to enemy troops, too. Sometimes I've started a battle and had no clue where the enemy was until I sent scouts running about all the wooded areas poking around to get their attention (lost that unit to an ambush, dang it).

Recently I had a unit of enemy Polish Retainers hiding in a wood near some of their mounted crossbows. I was firing on the crossbows, but often hit the retainers with wide shots. I'd see a couple horsemen appear out of nowhere and fall down dead, then a couple more would move over their bodies and then disappear again.

Ajax

[Martok]

Yep, if a unit has that little tree symbol on its card, it means it's invisible to the enemy. And yes, you can fall victim to this too--against both the AI and humans players online--so beware! When you have battlemaps that has woods, it's not a bad idea to use light cavarly (if you have some) to scout the larger groups of trees to make sure the enemy doesn't have some nasty surprises waiting for you.

[HighLord z0b]

thanks,
as it happened the hidden units completely distrupted the enemies formation and lead to a swift victory. I'll try and use this more often if possible. They get a bonus to attack if they are concealed IIRC.

[Knight Templar]

thanks,
as it happened the hidden units completely distrupted the enemies formation and lead to a swift victory. I'll try and use this more often if possible. They get a bonus to attack if they are concealed IIRC.

, and enemy gets large morale penalty when attacked by hidden unit

[Weebeast]

Does a unit have to be hidden as it's charging to get the bonus or it doesn't matter as long as a unit's hidden once?

I always hide my toops the best I can but I never understand to put this morale bonus into effect or whatever.

[Vladimir]

Hiding units is neat but I've had more success leading them into an ambush in the open. Take some mounted units with good defense/armor and encourage the enemy to contract his line allowing your forces to flank their units.

[Ludens]

Does a unit have to be hidden as it's charging to get the bonus or it doesn't matter as long as a unit's hidden once?

If you order a hidden unit to charge an enemy unit, that unit will suffer a morale penalty, even if your unit has to jog over half to map to reach their target. Take care though that your units will be revealed if the enemy comes close, and at higher difficulty levels the A.I. notices the missing units and will search for them.