What is the drawback of this option??
If we can see freely the ennemy units, the Search value of units is useless.

It's just a way to make the game (a lot) easier, you aren't "supposed" to play with it. I guess you can use it to hunt down stragglers if doing so gets really annoying.

Similarly you can get a massive pseudo-sight radius by moving a unit one hex at a time and then cancelling the move since you spot adjacent enemies right after you move.

I find it cheesy and cheaty but hey, whatever floats your boat.

Exactly. I like to play with spotting hidden units activated, since the exploit is far too inviting in a hard battle. Also, I think melee battle are not about reconnaisance, as is Panzer General for example.

Recon was always needed, long before Panzer General and the battles of WW2 it simulates.

There is a reason that light Cavalry has a large spotting range and some units (Juns) have a special ability that allows them to see even larger parts of the map.

When you play with enemy units hidden in the fog of war, then spotting them is essential to use your own troops to avoid running into an ambush (if you move a unit into the fog of war and there is an enemy between your starting point and your target point then the enemy will ambush you and receive a bonus in that fight).

Or when you advance too far into the fog of war and notice only then that there are several enemy units that can attack you in the next turn while your other units are still lagging behind... Recon can prevent that.

A historic example where a roman general was too lazy to do proper recon was this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Trasimene

While switching "spot hidden units" on allows the enemy to spot you too, it does not memorize that. So for an easy game you can switch it on, see the enemy units and plan accordingly, then switch it off and the AI makes it’s move without knowing your positions.

I finally returned to this game again. FG 2 ist not as nice... they should remake this one.

Is'nt it also easier for the AI to play with "spotting hidden units ON"? I am just thinking if this option really makes the game easier, since I am ABLE to spot well, avoid ambushes. The AI might not be. Also I like the AI to mass up its forces against mine in a massive land battle rather than point defend every stronghold with a hand full of units, not exactly knowing what is to come. With spot hidden ON , the AI behaves massing troops up. How is your experience with spotting OFF ?

Well, as soon as you have Juns, Eagle Eye spell gives 10 spot range !! Isnt spotting pointless, just a disturbance from that point on? I never played a campaign with spotting OFF.

Btw, who completed the Minicampaign on HARD , with spotting hidden units ON ? I did! :DDD Lord Marcas.
It is very fun and you are afraid to loose all the time. Not just because of round limit, sometimes they are coming to overrun you.

Funny that I ran across this thread. I just started playing FG1, just out of idle curiosity...had been meaning to for many years and never got around to it. And one of the first things I noted now (in a bad way) in the tutorial mission in the manual was exactly this "feature"...seeing enemies that are out of sight/range. I thought I must be misunderstanding it or something. Then when I found that I wasn't, I was shocked (and to be more direct, disgusted). For a game and series that has such huge praise for so long, in particular because of its strategic play, to have a "feature" like this is baffling to me. I don't care about excuses as to why, they are all absurd...it is a cheat through and through. Something we would expect from a "trainer" hack or such (which I *never* use or come near). But of course we can already hear the fanboy excuses coming through loud and clear..."oh well just don't click the button". :)

Anyway I can't believe this is the case so early in my experience with this game but this "see hidden units" is really bad...a genuinely stupid, ridiculous design decision, and a big black mark on the game. It seems already that like so many other games, the game doesn't come close to meeting the endless hype. Disappointing. I hope other SSI strategy games are not like this.