Empires in Ruins is not about shiny heroes and well trained armies, that we already made it clear.
It's more about a motley underdog armee captained by a grumpy alcoholic sergeant with serious social issues.
That said, it should be easy to understand why Morale can be a determining factor for the success of your military campaign. Tilting the delicate balance of your men's mood is going to be extremely easy, and it can either have positive or disastrous effects. Let us then take a look at Morale, a statistics shared by your towers and by your soldiers
Morale (Min 0%, Max 100%)
In game effects :
- For each point above 50% there is a 0.5% chance of causing double damage
- For each point below 50% there is a 0.5% chance of causing half damage
- Morale is also used to try and resist morale-based powers like the Provoker's ones. A percentage check is run against the tower morale, and if failed, the power succeeds to hit the tower.
Default values :
- Value for base towers: 50/100
- Value for intermediate towers: 60/100
- Value for advanced towers: 70/100
- Value for soldiers: 40/100
Modifiers :
- Damaged tower -25%
- Tower in ruins in sight -15%
- Witch Aura of Despair -20%
- Battle modifiers -15% to +15%
- Heimer's Leadership value 0% to +25% (Only if Heimer is in the attacking province)
- Officers 0% to +15%
- Temple Aura +10% to +25%
Specials :
- The tower ability "Iron Discipline" makes the tower immune to negative Morale modifiers and to Morale based powers.
- The Temple power "Thou Shalt No!"t makes the allies in the area immune to Morale based powers.
Why did we design it so in terms of mechanics? Well, easily said. We want something that has quite a strong influence in the game, that adds a very minor touch of randomness without requiring micromanagement, but still controllable by the player. How controllable? Well, you see the modifiers, plan a battle well ahead, and you will receive positive modifiers. Meaning that the randomness will, in the worst case do nothing, and best case give you an advantage. Plan it badly and you will have to expect potential issues due to low morale. Simple as that! See you soon,
Cheers,
Emiliano, H&R
