Many strategy games hide the enemy until you look: the fog of war. Take it away and the game changes. You can no longer be surprised by what you did not see; you can only be surprised by what you did not read. Playing well becomes a matter of noticing.
What fog of war does, and what its absence does
Fog rewards scouting and punishes the unprepared: a hidden army can strike from nowhere. Without it:
- Surprise comes from timing, not secrecy. Your rival sees your army; what he does not know is when you will move, or where.
- Planning is easier for both sides. You can always see the threat, so the question becomes whether you react in time.
- Reading wins. The player who notices a shift first acts first.
Five things to read
1. Where the armies are, and how big. The biggest group on the map is the one that can hurt you. Know where it is and which way it is heading.
2. What the armies are made of. A group's mix tells you what it beats and what beats it. Answer the mix, not just the count.
3. Thin spots. Territory that reaches out thinly, positions far from support, defenders that have wandered off. These are where attacks land.
4. Timers. Many games show clocks: when a power spike arrives, when a phase changes. A rival about to get stronger should be hit before, not after.
5. Intent. An army gathering at a border, a group walking along a line: units move for reasons. Ask what the move is for.
Predicting a rival
Read a rival's habits and you can guess his next step. Does he attack early or wait? Does he spread out or stay compact? Does he chase or hold? Two or three observations are usually enough to tell.
Hiding intent in plain sight
Without fog, you cannot hide your army, but you can hide your plan:
- Stand somewhere that threatens two things. He has to guard both.
- Move late. A group that waits and then strikes gives less warning than one that marches early.
- Build the wall while he watches the fight. A quiet group doing something useful elsewhere is easy to overlook.
In Dot Conquest
There is no fog of war: the whole map and every dot is visible to everyone, always. Everything on the list above is on screen:
- Armies and their mix: zoom in on any group to see its kinds of dot. See the counter chart.
- Thin land: long arms of land are easy to wall in, and faded land is cut off from supply. See flipping land by enclosure.
- Timers: every side's council countdown is in the top bar, and the battle's clock tells you when the siege phase comes. See ruins, mines and the council countdown.
- Rules that changed: a level card lists every rule a level bends, before you start.
- Habits: each general has a style you can learn. See every general and how to beat them.
Where to go next
- The generals' habits: every general and how to beat them.
- A reading skill that wins land: walling in.