Fog of war

Chapter 8x of Thracia 776, with fog of war in effect. In Thracia, fog of war renders the rest of the map completely unviewable, adding a further element of uncertainty to navigating the map.

“	This is no good. If the fog thickens, we'll be blind in battle. It will be difficult to fight what we cannot see.	”	— Kent

Fog of war (索敵マップ enemy search map) is a weather condition first implemented in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 and the most frequently recurring weather, present in all games except Path of Radiance and Awakening. Designed to add a level of tactical uncertainty and caution to gameplay (and named for a less literal military concept concerning the same), a map where fog of war is in effect limits the player's ability to see the map and its contents to a smaller field. Fog of war is normally portrayed as fighting in the midst of literal fog, rainfall, darkness, or on one occasion as fighting in a sandstorm.

In fog of war conditions, only a small area of vision surrounding each individual player or neutral unit can be seen properly. Enemies which do not fall into this field of vision cannot be seen at all, and as such cannot be attacked. As enemies cannot be seen, when moving allied units it is possible to accidentally run into them; if this happens, the moving unit automatically waits at the spot just before the enemy they collided with, and cannot attack. The enemy AI does not play by the same rules, however, as enemies will act as if fog of war is not in effect and will attack even player units which would not fall into their field of vision.

In most appearances of fog of war, the fog will merely dim and/or darken the rest of the map; the layout can still be easily seen and terrain data is still actively available. This is not the case in Thracia 776, where the shrouded parts of the map are instead blacked out entirely, adding a trial-and-error element to navigating the area.

Visibility

style="Template:Roundtl; border:none" width="100%" colspan="2"|Units' vision in fog of war by game
style="Template:Roundtl; border:none; background-color:#222222; color:#fff"|Game Normal units style="Template:Roundtr; border:none; background-color:#222222; color:#fff"|Thief units Thracia 776 3 3 The Binding Blade 5 10 Blazing Sword 3 8 The Sacred Stones 3 8 Radiant Dawn 2 4 Shadow Dragon 2 3 New Mystery of the Emblem 2 3

From The Binding Blade onward, a handful of classes - Thieves, Assassins, Rogues and Whispers - possess an innate greater field of vision in fog of war. A thief unit will typically possess double the vision range of a normal unit; the exact degree of increased vision varies depending on the game and depending on the base vision field. Most games will readily point this out and emphasise the value of bringing a thief unit to a fog of war map.

Beyond the use of a thief unit, there are two items with the ability to temporarily increase visibility on a fog of war map: the torch item and the Torch staff. When used, they provide an increase to the unit's field of vision, slowly decreasing back to normal at a rate of one tile per turn. In some games, the Torch staff instead casts a vision increase at a fixed spot within a certain casting range, independent of the casting unit.

On rare occasions, environmental obstacles can allow for increased vision. In Radiant Dawn, obstacles called watch fires are placed at intervals around some fog of war maps. When lit by a unit, a watch fire casts a wider field of vision at a fixed space until extinguished by a unit; both allied and enemy units are capable of lighting or extinguishing them.

Fog of war maps by game

Thracia 776

• Chapter 2x: The Pirate Isles
• Chapter 4x: The Hero of the Winds
• Chapter 8x: Dagdar's Mansion
• Chapter 12: The Thieves of Dakia
• Chapter 14x: Freedom

The Binding Blade

• Chapter 9: The Misty Isles
• Chapter 14: Arcadia
• Chapter 17A: The Bishop's Teachings
• Chapter 19B: Bitter Cold
• Chapter 20A: The Silver Wolf
• Chapter 21x: The Silencing Darkness
• Trial Map 2: Island of Heavy Rain

Blazing Sword

• Chapter 9: A Grim Reunion (partial)
• Chapter 13x: The Peddler Merlinus
• Chapter 18E/19H: The Dread Isle
• Chapter 19xxH: A Glimpse in Time
• Chapter 20E/21H: New Resolve
• Chapter 23E/24H: Four-Fanged Offense (Lloyd variant)
• Chapter 26E/28H: Battle Before Dawn

The Sacred Stones

• Chapter 6: Victims of War
• Chapter 11A: Creeping Darkness
• Chapter 11B: Phantom Ship
• Chapter 19: Last Hope

Additionally, any skirmish has a random chance of having fog of war in effect in any given visit.

Radiant Dawn

• Part 1 Chapter 9: One Survives
• Part 2 Chapter 2: Tides of Intrigue
• Part 3 Prologue: The Great Advance
• Part 3 Chapter 1: Laguz and Beorc
• Part 3 Chapter 6: A Reason to Fight
• Part 4 Chapter 1: Road to the Empire

Shadow Dragon

No chapter of the main story mode has fog of war. Fog of war only exists in the multiplayer battle mode, where it can be enabled or disabled for use in a round of multiplayer gameplay.

New Mystery of the Emblem

• Chapter 13x: Within the White Darkness
• Chapter 20x: Depths of the Abyss

Additionally, fog of war can be enabled or disabled for use in rounds of multiplayer gameplay.

Gallery

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  Fog of war in The Binding Blade.

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  Sain runs into an enemy hidden by fog of war in Blazing Sword.

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  Fog of war in Shadow Dragon's multiplayer.