Fear Mechanic

krpeters · #1 October 16th, 2012, 08:38 PM

I just had something odd happen to me in an SP game. Can anyone explain this?

I had a nicely kitted Devata flying around (boots) and he landed in a pack of winter wolves and ghosts. He had 125 cold resistance and MR of 22, so I figured he was safe. As expected, the cold aura didn't hurt him, neither did the life drain.

Then his Morale dropped to -9 and he fled. With no territories owned adjacent, he died. ???!!!

Yes, ghosts have a Fear +0. I thought this forced morale checks, I didn't think it caused morale to decrease! How does this actually work? Can a squad of ghosts force *any* non beserk/morale-50 unit to retreat???!!!

BTW, this is with CBM 1.94; did CBM do something with fear mechanics?

Stagger Lee · #2 October 16th, 2012, 09:09 PM

Try reading this: fear mechanics

This will likely not solve it for you, but at least you will know that you're not alone. The important things to note are that fear does reduce morale, and each ghost forces a check against morale in its AOE. I believe this means that if your rudra was completely surrounded by ghosts he could be forced to save 24 morale checks in 1 turn ((8 squares 1 square away) x (3 size 2 ghosts per square)), each check resulting in some possible loss of morale. CBM has nothing to do with this, and the devs had trouble explaining the exact mechanics.

krpeters · #3 October 16th, 2012, 09:50 PM

Actually, it's pretty helpful. There's nothing in the manual stating that fear reduces morale, which is a huge effect. Now I see why everyone gushes over fear. And I wonder how people build SCs to resist it. Is everyone mostly relying on the undead/inanimates, or are the trying to script berserk at the appropriate time, or what?

jimbojones1971 · #4 October 18th, 2012, 05:24 AM

Standard bearers increase their own morale - not sure if they do enough to offset a pack of ghosts though. Guess some testing would reveal all?

Fear stacking effects seem pretty awesome.

krpeters · #5 October 18th, 2012, 06:00 PM

Fear stacking is terrifying ;->

Fortunately there aren't too many ways to do it. Ghosts, False Horrors, and Demon Knights seem to be the only effective ways of massing them.

Demon Knights look so awsome... I wish there was a nation that could use them effectively. 2b2e (1e cbm) mages are not easy to come by.

BewareTheBarnacleGoose · #6 October 18th, 2012, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by krpeters

Demon Knights look so awsome... I wish there was a nation that could use them effectively. 2b2e (1e cbm) mages are not easy to come by.

Totally agree! Demon knights are far and above my favorite unit summon. They are pretty hard to mass until infernal crusade, though.

I've been having fun with them in SP as LA Marignon, with false horrors and blood rain to keep them company!

parone · #7 October 23rd, 2012, 08:05 PM

i once had an entire army flee from a bunch of demon knights. i think there were some blood mages casting scary stuff too. plus i was in heavy enemy dominon.

what the hell was i thinking?