Hide and Seek - Tips and Tricks

So Thunderbrd has made some amazing combat settings. This bring a whole new way to play. I wondered if anyone had tips or tricks when using the Hide and Seek setting in your game.

 

Wow... there are actually a lot. I'll have to think on this for what I've discovered so far.

One I can say is to not overlook visibility promos for your hunters... especially your sea explorers who are probably passing over a LOT of small submerged animals without noticing.

And for early criminals, invest as much as possible into camo invisibility. Till the dogs come out, this will make them nearly impossible to find - especially if you stick to the forests as you go. Lots of disguise is good too, especially once you're IN the city or if there are 'towns' you can land on during your approach into the city.

 

Yeah I found my hunters last a lot longer if they are more stealthy since barbarians leave them alone while they hunt animals.

 

Yep. Not only that, but when you then increase the amount of stealth strikes and stealth combat modifiers, they can begin to be a true force to be reckoned with, even growing capable of tearing apart barb cities as long as you are careful and keep them from being spotted.

 

A BIG tip here... REMEMBER to switch your hunters/ambushers or whatever it is that you have escorting your prisoners back to your cities, over to the Standout Status so that they will be visible and able to protect your helpless units.

THEN remember to take them OFF the Standout Status afterwards!

While many animals may choose to run from a Hunter, they won't run from what they can't see.

Note: I'm strongly considering giving Hunters and Strike Teams and Felines an even bigger penalty to attacking cities... once they have the stealth strikes and stealth combat modifiers up, it's a little too easy for them, unless they are visible to the enemy.

 

So when is it good to use the stand out promotion line?

 

When you want to escort. An attacker might overlook the hunter and take out the escorted unit directly.

 

And when you are defending a plot as well.

 

The "Stealth Defend" status promotion (can't remember exact name) and the similar "Lie in Wait" buildup, which grants the same effect, are both powerful and dangerous.

With "Lie in Wait", a unit can gain even more overwhelming stealth bonuses. If you only have ~2 normal promotions put into stealth combat, your unit can easily double its natural stealth bonus using the buildup. The buildup doesn't go away if it attacks, only if it moves from the tile, so it's great for taking out a reliable stack such as a city. (Except you need to remember to give it orders each turn without literally "waking" it). I find my promoted Ambushers have only ~70% odds at best against Stone melee units without the buildup, but a confident success rate after a few ranks.

However, according to the tool tip, after one defense the unit is revealed for the rest of the turn. And when you're defending, it's the enemy who gets to choose what to send and how many. So you better be sure that whatever forest your unit is parked in has a hefty defensive bonus. AI doesn't seem to know this yet, and so far I've been safe. But I can see a situation where this buildup quickly turns disastrous. The other player may choose to send wave after wave of sacrificed units, or a super-merged unit. As soon as you end your turn, you lease away all control: it's a shocking difference to step from maneuvering wherever you will to hoping there isn't a SoD down the road.

Does anybody else invest in some Back Down promotions?

 

That could indicate that there is an interesting multi-combat mod strategy that could be put to use...

Send the halforc first.

Take a cheap unit, perhaps one with good withdrawal like a throwing unit, split it down as far as you can, and keep these little fodder guys with your stack but make them, alone, take each step ahead of the stack. This would make them trigger any ambush lying in wait, causing them to waste the surprise so you can immediately follow up with a heavy hitter to wipe out the ambusher.

 

I've also considered using smaller groups with withdrawal abilities. The withdrawal chance stays the same, the only drawback is having fewer rounds to attempt withdrawal because lower means the enemy needs fewer hits to eliminate you. They do more damage on average than the merged unit, which was noted somewhere else on the Combat Mods topic (3*66%>100%), and those that survive will gain more XP. After a few turns of such combat, you could round up all the survivors, see if they've gained any good promotions, and merge them together to form an experienced standard-sized unit well suited to survive future combat and thus to become an elite down the road.

Although that's off-topic, sorry.

 

Not off topic at all. The withdrawal is just a longshot to give them a chance to get out. The stealth strikes can deny withdrawal too because a unit cannot make a withdrawal check during a firststrike round. But if they get lucky enough it can maybe help. The idea is more that you wouldnt be losing a unit of much value to flush the ambush.