Can someone explain beast paths?

[tripleAron]

Ive been playing this game for over 300 hours but i can't get my head around how beastpaths/underway stance works. Where can i see the % chance of enemies spotting me? I just lost the beastmen mini campaign on legendary because i used beastpath to get out of a tight situation, next thing i know they just walk towards my beastpathed army and i cant retreat and lose the game. Are they supposed to see me?

On a side note being a totalwar fan for a long time (since rome 1) i think Horde factions like beastmen and chaos totally dont feel right. Am i playing a totalwar game or a game of: let me backstab your provinces and hide in the forests, it just feels wrong and dirty.

[Agrorix]

as long as an enemy is in the area between you and your way out they have a chance to intercept you, you can't flee : it's win or die.

in tight situations i suggest to keep it along the shore for an escape by boat as often as possible : ai can't do ♥♥♥♥ about that and barely follow. Beast path is more suited to cross a mountain, a river or a thick forest... or in the bad lands.

[Congo_Jack]

Beastpaths and Underway do not make you invisible.

[Aluminum Elite Master]

Beastpaths and Underway incur a immediate and random chance of interception when you use it... some items/skills reduce the chance of you getting caught.

So, say I take the Beastpath stance on my turn and move that army. During my own turn, in that instant where I move my army, the CPU has a %-based chance to immediately initiate or decline a battle with that army *during MY own turn* (assuming they have an army in the area where I could be intercepted).

Next, let's say I don't get intercepted during *my* turn. I then pop out where I clicked, and am okay for the moment.

But then I click 'End Turn', and the CPU, during *its own turn* is able to catch-up to my army and initiate battle. In this case, I wasn't intercepted during MY turn, but the CPU caught me out while I was still in the Beastpath stance at my destination. In this case, a Beastpath battle results not from interception but because I ended my turn in the stance while in range of the CPU.




To sum up:

A Beastpath/Underway battle can occur in TWO ways:

1) Get intercepted on your own turn immediately
2) An enemy army reaches your Beastpath-stanced army during the CPU turn




It's convoluted, but the gist is that the actual interception is just 50% of the equation... if you successfully use Beastpath without getting intercepted, you can still get locked into a Beastpath battle (which there is no retreat from, in any circumstances) should the CPU catch up during its turn while you are still in the Beastpath stance at your destination.



As an aside:

Hordes are actually a lot of fun IMO and make a lot more sense than the R2 'nomadic' tribes that were completely settled and acted like any other faction. The difficulty is getting used to Horde mechanics after having played so many TW games. But hordes themselves are a lot of fun, with the only issue being that the CPU is absolutely brain-dead when it's the one in control of a horde.

[Cross{x}Hair]

I assumed Beastpath was only really used for mocing across mountains and forest ur otherwise take 2-3 turns to bypass? It's also increbily easy to get smashed in the stance.