Stealth
Stealthy units can move without being seen on the strategic map. This allows them to try to infiltrate hostile territories. Patrolling units and the inherent patrol effect from province defense can however discover them. This happens after movement in the Turn Order Sequence, so a hidden commander cannot be caught by patrols in a province they are leaving, but could be caught by patrols in the province they are moving to. If they are caught by patrollers in the province they are moving into, a battle ensues immediately.
This means, in practice, that stealthy units moving around in friendly territory, in battle zones, or on top of sieged forts are safe.
The Hotkey for moving stealthy commanders without sneaking is ctrl + click on a province.
Detection
Patrol/stealth calculations
Uses of Stealth
A stealthy commander has a number of interesting uses:
Scouting and witnessing battles their nation isn't involved in.
Spies can reveal additional information, cause unrest or infiltrate capitals.
Ferrying and carrying
gems and
items for an army. Keeps spare gems safe for later. This is generally cheaper than moving items/gems with magical rituals.
Avoiding fights.
A commander set to perform a stealthy order does so before other orders such as rituals or assassinations, which can make them very difficult to catch, and rather effective at
raiding. Using
rituals such as
Teleport or
Cloud Trapeze will not prevent an enemy raider from hiding or sneaking away.
Starting fights.
They can attack provinces the enemy thought were safe. When done on a massive scale, this is the infamous "elfing".
This can be done by sneaking even through friendly lands so that enemy scouts do not see their approach.
Using
rituals such as
Teleport or
Cloud Trapeze on top of a friendly stealthy unit that has switched orders to attack their current province (without moving) will have the stealthy unit join the fight in the
Magic Phase.
-
Priests, if stealthy, can hide and
preach in an enemy province.
Stealth Interactions
Commanders set on stealthy orders (hide or sneak) are unaffected by:
Commanders set on stealthy orders are still affected by:
-
Vengeful Water
Vengeance of the Dead
Murdering Winter