Question about Standard ability...
 

The rulebook says that "morale boosted by standards will be lowered by 1 per round". I'm confused by this... does this mean that it will be lowered by 1 per round if the standard-bearer is no longer within range, or does it mean that it goes down by 1 per round no matter what, and is therefore only useful right at the beginning of the battle?

Just curious because I'm getting ready to have my first elephant battle, and I'd like to keep them from routing if possible.

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

I never had ingame situation when I needed to build my tactic around standard-bearers, so I'm not 100% sure, but logic tells me morale starts to fade when units leave area of effect of standard.

I can give you some other advices to keep your elephants on the battlefield longer:
- if you have priests lvl 2 make them cast Sermon of courage on elephants;
- larger the squad - harder to make it rout. Dont send your elephants on the battlefield by squads of 1 - gather them in big group(s);
- cast low level protective spells on elephants: body ethereal, luck, mossbody, protection, etc.

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

Slightly more complicated than that. Morale boosted by standards drops by 1 every round. But standards have their affect every round, so if the unit is still in the area they'll be boosted back up again. Which means effectively they start losing morale when they're out of range.

The nice thing about the way this works is they keep raising morale if it's lowered by another source. Some form of fear usually.

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

Thanks!

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

If you get a hero that gets the heroic standard ability (what ever it was called again), then you can get some interesting results. The heroic ability grows steadily, and if you slap on items that gives standard ability too, you can have half the battlefield covered with that massive standard effect.

I once had in a MP game (played on this forum) a special hero with standard ability get a heroic standard ability, gave him a horn of valour and herald lance -> he had IIRC standard ability 80+ before he finally croaked. The troops fighting under his command seemed pretty much unbreakable :)

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

Also higher morale helps against awe. Which also is a morale check. So having standards with your elephants helps double, it prevents routs and helps against animal awe/awe counters.

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

I read that the rating of morale effect of standards (and the hero ability valor, and other items) refers to the number of squares that are affected, not the radius of effect. So a rating of 80 would cover about a 9x9 area.

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

Correct. The rating is the number of squares. The bonus goes up one for every 10 points.

But, according to the manual, "Morale boosted by standards ... can never exceed +5."

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

I can verify that, it is true. Still, +5 morale is pretty awesome :) One can cast a sermon of courage on top of that, if still feeling shaky :)

True. However, the 80 squares, as far as I know, are not evenly spread to a 9x9 grid, but I have used to think of the area as SQRT(X), where X is the standard ability, to figure out how far the standard affects; it is not the correct formula (dunno what the correct formula is), but I believe it is in the correct ballpark :)

So if you place somebody with lets say a standard effect of 50 behind two blocks of 20 infantry standing next to each other and behind them 40 various archers and slingers, you *should* be fairly sure that each get the +5 morale effect (as the squares furthest away from the standard will be 5 squares away, and you should be free to assume the effect takes place 7 squares from the standard).

Re: Question about Standard ability...
 

It's actually probably better that it's not a grid. Since it takes effect every turn, you'll be boosting a different overlapping set of troops each time. Since it wears off slowly you'll have a higher average boost than if it was hitting the same ones every round. Assuming you have more than a 9x9 block of troops and that they roughly stay with the standard. If you want a round 1 boost before they charge and the commander stays back, you're out of luck.

Something seems out of whack with your example though. A standard 50 would be 50 squares or roughly 7x7. That's not 7 squares from the standard, it's centered on the standard. So roughly 3 squares from the standard.