Newbish question

[MaxWilson]

JimMorrison said:
Well with a D10 PoD, the turn after he attacks the enemy, they are still at full morale. The turn after that, some are 4 down, some are 6 down, some are 8 down, and some units were alread at -2 or -3 morale.

I can definately assure you that morale erodes over the course of a battle. Every round, more and more units are showing lower scores, which I must attribute to their losses/damage, and the routing of nearby squads.

You should check a normal battle. IME, unless a unit with Fear is involved, the shattered remnants of the army that finally flee have the same Morale that they had at the beginning. When you smash a barbarian horde or a bunch of indies, they still say "Morale: 8" or "Morale: 10". I think a Fear aura is like Soul Vortex or a Chill aura, it kicks in at the beginning of your turn. Only, Fear auras aren't visible.

Turn 1a: Enemies do their thing.
Turn 1b: <Fear>, PoD flies to attack. The Fear doesn't affect the enemies because it comes before they're in range.
Turn 2a: Enemies do their thing.
Turn 2b: <Fear>, PoD attacks. Enemies are down lots of Morale because this time the Fear aura covers them.
Turn 3a: Enemies do their thing or rout.
Turn 3b: <Fear>, PoD attacks.

Etc.

-Max

P.S. If Fear really is like Soul Vortex, you should also note that Quickness makes Soul Vortex happen twice per combat round too.

[thejeff]

Standards seem to counter the cumulative Fear effect very well. They don't seem to have much effect normally, a slight morale boost (probably capped?), but against Fear that boost seems to be added every turn, bringing morale back up toward normal.

[llamabeast]

Standards add one point of morale to every unit in an X square area every turn. If that would result in the unit reaching morale more than 5 points higher than they started with, the standard doesn't work.

So yes, in a combat with a fear-causing creature, the standard would probably continue to give a morale point a round for the whole battle.