At first you don't realize that the placement tab doesn't show the enemy. I was sitting there figuring out how to pin my forces against each other until I realized the enemy was hidden. if you are going to hide eatures that are important to the user then the user needs to be highly aware that this is happening. Instead of finding out by taking random actions.

arrecs wrote:
I was sitting there figuring out how to pin my forces against each other until I realized the enemy was hidden.

This is part of the battle mechanic. Each opponent has to/should take advantage of the terrain (heights, forest, river ...), hence according to terrain features on your battle area, you'd place your units closer or away (hidden at the start of the battle) from your opponents units.

AI's just doing the same on the battle area, taking advantage of terrain features.

I would agree that for someone not used to Amplitude previous games such as Endless Legends (that is my case), this mechanic is a bit odd at first. But once you get it, and you understand how important terrain features is for battles, you try everytime to choose the best battle area, taking those features into account.