What determines if a unit gets to be a CoE unit or not?

It is mostly handled in the SDK. Some units (those that require a certain religion in order to build) have their religion set in their XML defines. When a unit iis built it goes tha game goes though the list of religions (in the order found in CIV4ReligionInfos.xml) and if the city has the religion and the unit has no religion then there is a 20% chance that the unit will be assigned that religion. The Council of Esus is the last religion on the list, so it is less likely to be assigned than the others. You could chance the order, but if you don't also edit the gamefont they won't have the right icons. (My first attempt to edit the gamefont though resulted in even stranger religious icons, like iron and bananas)

It occurs to me that since CoE is the only religion that it really, really matters whether units worship that religion or not, it would be very nice to have a way to convert units to the CoE; especially for recon units this would save the nuisance of having to build the same unit over and over again until you are lucky and it worships CoE.

It occurs to me that since CoE is the only religion that it really, really matters whether units worship that religion or not, it would be very nice to have a way to convert units to the CoE; especially for recon units this would save the nuisance of having to build the same unit over and over again until you are lucky and it worships CoE.

Exactly my thought. I've had Esus for a long time now and still none of units worships it. It's a bit oring since one of the main aspects of Esus seems to be it's sneakiness, so to speak, and the "Mask" ability, but the pre-requisite for it is so random you can't really plan with it. :/

guess I'll go and have a few peaks on thoose thing you mentioned Cultuum, thank you :)

The Council of Esus is the last religion on the list, so it is less likely to be assigned than the others.

That is if the city has more thna one religions, correct?

Correct. Once a unit is assigned one religion (be it intrinsically or in an earlier iteration of the loop) it cannot get another. The only religion you have the full 20% chance of getting is FoL.

Alright, now I'm even more confused. Now I finally have my CoE recon unit, a Ranger, no birds or anything on him, the mask button is visible but not clickable? What am I missing?

Not grouped with any other units are you (as in, if you give a move order, ONLY the scout will move)? Isn't already HN is he?

Do you actually know the Tech Deception, or did you conquer a city with Esus or have it natually spread to you?

I founded CoE, the unit is alone, he does not have hidden nationality. I'm playing Svartalfar. *confused*

has the unit already casted a spell? (picked up a piece of equipment for example?)

has the unit already casted a spell? (picked up a piece of equipment for example?)

Nope, nothing like that.

That's odd. Most of the possibilities that ur unit cannot cast Mask has been mentioned. Would u try to end ur turn and see if u can cast it next turn?

I've moved him here and there terrain- and borderwise, let turns pass, grouped, ungrouped, alone, in cities, on different tiles, nothing. Seems to be some bug, so I guess I'll try and write up a more informative post about it in the bug-thread or something.

I seem to remember having read something about Svartalfar, mask, their world spell and bugs but havent found it again and don't remember exactly what it was, maybe it's somehow related.

Anyhow, thanks for the help :)

Nope had the same issue in my current game. Ungoup them first, then send them to a city or Tile alone (with Esus?). Then it will go active. Odd but works. :) (Otherwise you might have really encountered a bug. but perhaps wait a turn or 2. Seems a bit messy...)

A lot of micromanagement though for 10 Scouts... (but i guess that block was necessary to fix the HN-grouping-loop.
So maybe not a bug but a sad necessity.)

The issue with me was that the unit though selected alone was still on the tile with the rest of its former Group and seemed to still have been flagged as grouped, also at first I missed the Deception-tech-requirement. Taken together it was some kind of confusion... but beeing able to mask a shadow somewhere in the countryside made me pause and investigate.

The safest way to get Esus-Recons though is to build or enlist Nightwatches and upgrade them to Assassins/UU or Upgrade any Recons to Shadows.

Another reason might be: They are allread HN? Then you also can't mask. :p

You had them grouped, ungrouped them, then sent them into a city (with CoE) where they were alone, and then Mask worked?

They needn't be alone in the city. Just make sure they are not grouped at all. (and it doesnt just activate if you ungroup them. There seems to be a check either on move or when Movement is finished for a unit.)

Perhaps if you have a stack, move them one by one into different directions and try a turn later. If it doesnt work then and you have deception it really might be a bug.

Tried that :/

More CoE recon-units, same result. Another game, same result. Gues sI'll wait till next patch and see what happens

last time, ich used this religion, I visited my neighbours with my Nightwtch unit and blessed them with this nice religion. But when I changed my religion the religion outside of my kingdom was gone. After changing back CoE the religion was back. ( And I watched the citys with my gipsywagons...).
Bye the way... in CoE belivers buy wonders... I wonder when this will be iadded...

CoE is really secretive and money-focused. If you dont revere them oficially and pay they don't show their heads so this is working exactly as intended. (And they are still not secretive enough. The teams aim is to make it completely untrackable who is CoE for non-Esus-Followers so also Undercouncil things are not publicly anounced. Perhaps one day we really will see fake-religions. :p)

Also CoE buing Wonders is already implemeted via Undercouncil. (Its the slave-Trade resolution.)