Dammit

[Ironhawk]

The Panther said:
When a commander becomes fatigued and gets hit, he should rout. Period.

This would seriously conflict with the current spell casting system.

As for the morale and routing system. While it is not the best, its also not as bad as you are making it out to be. Once you get the knack of it I think it performs rather adequately.

[magnate]

No, he said fatigued *and* gets hit - most combat spellcasters go to some lengths to avoid being hit, so it would be consistent.

His other point was very good too - a high morale, non-berserk SC should not be any more likely to rout if his/her/its troops do, than if it has no troops.

IMHO this needs patching quite urgently - a shrewd Bane Lord or Ice Devil absolutely depends on taking a load of chaff into combat with him, knowing full well that they will all die. It's an essential part of his victory plan and should be allowed ..... ;-)

CC

[Kel]

SC's can hardly avoid being hit. If this were not true, life draining would not be as paramount as it is now. Good or bad, you are going to have a hard time keeping your SC from getting fatigue and being hit.

On the topic of a lone SC being more brave than an SC who brought along some friends, it also makes *some* sense in that morale would be affected, to some degree, by seeing your fellow commanders fall in battle.

Otoh, I also find it somewhat frustrating that sending in a minor support squad with an SC is often more dangerous than sending him alone. Plus, it makes mage hit squads more tenuous as 30 mages can be routed by one incinerate/arrow/frozen heart/whatever.

Still, I wonder if it was intentional since it would have a good bit of affect on game balance. It would make mage hit squads much more powerful and reliable, thus helping certain nations a good bit (especially caelum but any mages who make use of cloud trap/teleport type spells).

- Kel

[The_Tauren13]

the main point here is that it does not make RP sense for a commander to rout in the second round of battle because the one troop with him died, when, if he had gone in alone, he would still be fighting

[magnate]

Doh! I can't believe I've been so stupid - there's an easy solution to the chaff problem: take the SCs in *pairs*! Take a 3rd commander with the chaff - all the chaff dies, 3rd commander routs or dies also, and the two SCs continue merrily on until one of them routs.

I think that works, doesn't it? It's not one rout, all rout, it's that the Last commander alone will rout if everyone else has. Must try it .... admittedly using SCs in pairs is a lot less strategically efficient than using them singly, but what the heck ....

Kel - I wasn't talking about melee SCs (who do indeed get hit a lot, you're right), I was talking about the guys who stand at the back and lob spells - not SCs in my book. They're the ones which you try to avoid getting hit - surrounding them with bodyguards etc. Hence them routing when fatigued + hit but not when only fatigued is ok.

CC