enemy army stakes showing during deployment phase

[Joch1955]

playing French vs English AI, custom battle. Stakes of the English army show up during the deployment phase so I know exactly where the enemy line is. Is it supposed to be this way?
before:

before.jpg (665.58 KiB) Viewed 1556 times

after I end deployment phase:

after.jpg (703.72 KiB) Viewed 1550 times

[Athos1660]

In such open battles where both armies take time to deploy and face each other, it may be argued that your scouts can give you information about the location of the stakes.

Besides you don't have to look at the upper half of the map when you select/deploy your army.

And you can even use autofill/autodeploy.

[Joch1955]

re: realism. certainly, any competent leader would recon the enemy disposition before a battle and you can already see field fortifications during the deployment phase, but only 1415+ longbow archers carry the stakes so showing the stakes give the player valuable info about the composition of the enemy force before you complete your deployment. I am only wondering if this is intended or a limitation of the current programming.

[rbodleyscott]

re: realism. certainly, any competent leader would recon the enemy disposition before a battle and you can already see field fortifications during the deployment phase, but only 1415+ longbow archers carry the stakes so showing the stakes give the player valuable info about the composition of the enemy force before you complete your deployment. I am only wondering if this is intended or a limitation of the current programming.

A bit of both. The engine shows terrain objects during the setup phase, and stakes are (technically) terrain objects.

We have not felt strongly enough about it to try to work round that limitation.

It isn't as if it is hard to shuffle units about after deployment to get optimal matchups, even if the stakes weren't visible, as the enemy will be static.

[tyronec]

Am not sure if I have this right, but in an HvH game I think the person who creates the challenge deploys first - so if they deploy their stakes then they will be visible while the person who accepts the challenge can deploy their stakes and not be seen during deployment ?

[rbodleyscott]

Am not sure if I have this right, but in an HvH game I think the person who creates the challenge deploys first - so if they deploy their stakes then they will be visible while the person who accepts the challenge can deploy their stakes and not be seen during deployment ?

This isn't an issue:

o A unit with stakes can emplace them to cover the front of the unit on any turn after the Deployment phase. (The latter restriction is to prevent stakes from being emplaced and then the longbowmen unit behind them being replaced by another unit type. Because the AI does not redeploy units after its initial autodeployment, this restriction does not apply to the AI).