Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Official Word: Morale
The latest post on the official DoW blog talks about morale.
Troops are considered to be at a Normal level of morale by default, which means they retreat one hex towards their side of the board for each Retreat flag rolled against them.
As in the other C&C games, if a path of retreat is blocked, the unit loses one figure for each hex it cannot retreat.
This behaviour can be changed by the morale level of the troops however. If the troop is Bold, it can ignore one or more flags.
If a Bold unit is engaged in melee from an adjacent hex, and it survives the attack and did not retreat, it may also Battle Back against the attacker (unlike C&C: Ancients, in which all units can battle back).
Interestingly, you can boost a unit’s morale to Bold by supporting it with at least two friendly adjacent units. This has important ramifications, rewarding players if they keep their units in formation. It’s also pointed out that self-supporting triangular formations, as shown on the right, are particularly effective.
Units can be Bold, but they can also be Frightened, in which case instead of the standard one, they must retreat two or more hexes for each Retreat flag.
They must also make a Panic Loss check; for each hex of retreat ground covered during a retreat move, the unit must roll one battle die, and any helmet rolled that matches their banner color forces the removal of a figure. All other dice results are ignored.
The morale states Bold, Normal and Frightened are summarised in the table above.
By default, Landmarks, such as this Camp, boost a unit’s morale to Bold when they are occupied.
Morale is also affected by racial attributes—it seems that Dwarves are permanently Bold and Goblins permanently Frightened.
Following the above rules, a unit of Goblins may be naturally Frightened on their own, but when backed up by their fellows they become Bold and may ignore a retreat flag and battle back. More than one retreat flag however, and their nerve would break, forcing them to retreat two hexes per flag and make a Panic Loss roll.
Magic and Lore cards also modifer morale in as yet unexplained ways.