Council of Esus "Mask" ability

[Mantegan]

Hi all, I started a game as Sidar and as soon as possible I researched Deception to found CoE state religion in order to get the Mask ability on my recon units.
I had 4/5 cities and I could spread it fast, the problem is that no one of my old and new (builded after the conversion) recon units could use "Mask"...

In the Civpedia for "Mask" I read:
-Caster must have the Council of Esus religion
-Requires the Deception technology
-Can only be used by Recon units
-Add the hidden nationality promotion to the caster

I have the 2,3 and 4 but I don't understand the first one; what does it mean "Caster must have the Council of Esus religion"?
I have some units that can spread CoE... (with Spread CoE religion ability).

I looked in some threads aboud CoE but didn't find the answer...
Thanks and sorry for my english, it's not my native language...

 

[MrPopov]

When a unit is built in a city with any religion, there is a chance that unit will follow one of those religions. For all of the other religions this won't make much difference as far as I am aware. For council of esus it is critical since only units which follow CoE can use the mask ability.

To answer your question, hover your mouse over newly created recon units and you should see something like "Religion: Council of Esus" if they are adherents of that faith. Unfortunately there is not much you can do to influence the chance. Now nightwatch units are always CoE followers and they also can upgrade to assasins for 5 gold so you can try that to guarentee your odds...

 

[Skyre Noktis]

When a unit is built in a city with any religion, there is a chance that unit will follow one of those religions. For all of the other religions this won't make much difference as far as I am aware.

AFAIK, the only other thing it affects is whether the unit goes to the Mercurians or Infernals when it dies, depending on whether it's a 'good' (Order, Empy, RoK) or 'evil' (AV, CoE, OO) religion.

 

[Mantegan]

This is strange because if I remember well "mask" ability can be used only by recon units and Nightwatches are Archer Units that start with "hidden nationality" promotion like the privateer one...also the nightwatch I obtained from the deception technology doesn't have the "mask" ability, and if I chose to reveal nationality I can't swith back.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

It also effects what divine spells a unit can cast. If a Confessor was somehow converted to Fol (which is pretty easy to do in python) then its spells would change to be like those of a Priest of the Leaves.

 

[Emptiness]

Nightwatch can't use Mask, because they aren't recon units. They do automatically start following the Council of Esus religion, however, and they can be upgraded to Assassins. Since Assassins are recon units, they will always be able to use Mask if you build them as Nightwatch and then upgrade to Assassin. If you build the Assassin directly then only some of the Assassins will follow Esus (about 1 in 5), the rest will not and so will not be able to use Mask.

Also note that the city that produces a unit must have Council of Esus present in the city in order for there to be a chance of producing a unit that follows Esus. If Esus is not present in the city then no units built there will follow Esus, even if it is your state religion. Furthermore, if there is also another religion present then some of the units built in that city will follow the other religion(s) instead of Esus.

 

[JFSebastian]

Shadows also automatically start as followers of CoE, so your highest level Scouts/Hunters/Assassins are good candidates to promote into Shadows in order to gain CoE and therefore Mask.

Building Nightwatch and upgrading to Assassins is a guaranteed way to get Mask capable units. Unfortunately Bowyers is an expensive tech and is often not a priority. As an alternative to building lots of Assassins to get 1/5 of them with CoE, you can build lots of cheap Scouts and only upgrade the ones with Mask. Unfortunately this will leave you with lots of extra scouts.

 

[Emptiness]

We call those "Shock Troops".

 

[loffenx]

Also CoE has the least chance of beeing granted to a unit if there is more religions in the city. A big drawback for CoE, and kinda weird since it is the religion that depends mostly on units having it (I think?).

Personally I complement the Mask spell with a copy that requires CoE as state religion instead of unit religion.

 

[JFSebastian]

Personally I complement the Mask spell with a copy that requires CoE as state religion instead of unit religion.

It would probably be a nice way to streamline the game and get rid of some of this micromanagement to do it that way. Allow all recon units to use mask while CoE is the state religion. It would certainly make CoE a more attractive state religion, especially for the civs with recon heroes. Its annoying that your heroes end up being hamstrung by not having CoE as their unit religion, especially Alazkan who has to give up his HN if you want to stick him on a boat.

 

[loffenx]

Exactly, I have never understood why CoE, with all its other drawbacks, has had one of its major features lore- and gamewise be dependent on such a random (and with a slim chance) mechanic as unit religion :/