How am I supposed to deal with an army that just hides?

[e11]

I'm playing Empire, and I have a Skaven force loose in my territory. It strikes at unwalled settlements, razes them, then vanishes from sight. My army never gets a chance to strike back. I try ambling around, but they only seem interested in hitting settlements.

What's the strategy here?

[Aleera]

You have your own ambush stance, use it. Stand in the circle of influence of a town, go into ambush stance, you will reinforce the town if they attack, or even flatout ambush them.
Or use a "bait" army, a single lord that's disposable, but hide a army nearby.

Second option, heroes.
Know where the Skaven are hiding in ambush? walk around with a hero, each time the hero passes, it gets a chance to spot the hiding army. The Ai does this to players.
Or again, do it with a disposable lord. The Skaven will ambush the easy kill, killing of a useless lord. But they will be out of ambush stance, easy pickings for another army.

Edit: Third option, a bit late for your case but;
ALWAYS build walls in your settlements, no exception. Unless you're Norsca and cannot. The ai will rarely if ever attack a walled settlement and attack at the same turn, they useally waste turns building siege equipment.
The ai LOVES attacking settlements without walls and will beeline for them. Do not give them this option. Always build walls, no exception, not even if you have 3 provinces of territory around. Walls are manditory to stop the AI from pulling this stunt.

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

Can also use unwalled settlements as bait if the AI is always going for them, keep a stack in ambush around it with as many ambush chance buffs (and ambush defence buffs if fighting Skaven, Beastmen or Alith Anar) as possible and just massacre any AI army that falls for it.

[Mr Robert House]

Go into ambush stance near a settlement that you think they’re about to attack, or recruit a lord and some regiment of renown wherever they’re about to attack to defeat them

[Notoko]

1. Scouting, use heroes to scout ahead, many heroes have a scouting skill you can invest points into.

2. Build a cheap second army with a Lord and the cheapest units available with your main army behind in ambush mode. When the enemy tries to attack your first army, retreat near your hidden second army.

[Paradigmal]

I find using a bait army to be the best way to deal with this kind of nonsense

[The Warmongering Khan]

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

[VisciousFishes]

Get a Priest in your army and they can detect the "Ratways" that the Skaven use to get into the Undercity area.

[MrSoul]

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

Any armies garrisoned will "hide" as well unless scouted it. May be how eluding you so well.

[The Warmongering Khan]

Originally posted by Mr.Soul:

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

Any armies garrisoned will "hide" as well unless scouted it. May be how eluding you so well.

Thanks for clarifying. I kind of assumed that would go without saying, but now that I think of it, that could be missed by a new player.

[abyssalfury]

Yep, sounds like Skaven taking the settlements. They can't raze and go into Ambush on the same turn, so there's always at least one turn to hit them.

[Elitewrecker PT]

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

Would the settlement lost notification say it was razed if it was actually occupied?

[The Warmongering Khan]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

Would the settlement lost notification say it was razed if it was actually occupied?

I actually don't know. I've only lost a couple of settlements ever to skaven (one of which I didn't care about) and never really checked the message log.

[Jose_Biden]

Invade their asses, capture and burn all their settlements and force the hidden army to come back and defend

[Jäveln]

put your army in ambush then put a lone lord just next him and they come

[Father Ribs]

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

Originally posted by The Warmongering Khan:

They didn't raze the settlement. They occupied it. Skaven settlements look like ruins to non-skaven.

Would the settlement lost notification say it was razed if it was actually occupied?

Yes, it will tell you it's raised, not occupied. Otherwise, you'd know there was a skaven settlement there, and the first rule of believing in skavens is throw him in the dungeon; the second rule of believing in skavens is you never know where they are.